Think of Henry VIII and you will probably visualize the portly, bearded middle-aged man so often depicted in portraits. But The Tudors--a 10-episode, multimillion-dollar production starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Elvis) as Henry--is about to change that. Also starring newcomer Natalie Dormer as Anne Boleyn, The Tudors focuses on the life and loves of the young king, who was lithe, attractive and good at jousting. "Henry had an injury in his 30s, which left him sedentary and fat, and he drank too much," says exec producer Morgan O'Sullivan. "But in his day, he had a sort of Brat Pack around him. They were out to drink, chase women, and have fun--and we are showing all of that."

"The Tudors" will be shown on Showtime, Sunday, 1st April

Transcript preview of The Tudors from the US TV Guide January 8 2007. (Thanks to Heidi for this)

Creator Michael Hirst (Elizabeth) hopes to work history buffs into a lather with a soapy take on King Henry VIII.
The much married monarch is played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who had some practice in the 1999 film Titus.
This intricate portrait of his politics and passions covers Henry's split with the Catholic Church, Entourage-like antics with buddies, and that romance with Anne Boleyn (Natalie Dormer, who had some practice in the 2005 film Casanova). Says Hirst: "You'll care desperately for just about every character, especially Henry. He's a rock star." - Tanner Stransky

With thanks to Yaz on the JRM msg board, from the January 12th Issue of Entertainment Weekly

The Eyes. The Cheekbones. The Lips. The accent. Good Lord, Jonathan Rhys Meyers is sexy.
The guy who first grabbed our attention as Keira Knightley's coach in Bend It Like Beckham is the stuff naughty fantasies are made of. And I am sitting on the sofa waiting to meet him.

Reputed to be a bit of a flirt, and having recently split up from long-term girlfriend Reena Hammer (daughter of make-up artist Ruby Hammer, or Ruby & Millie fame), this situation is definitely the stuff my fantasies are made of (me + Jonathan =love)... But I'm worried. He's so beautiful -what happens if I suddenly develop a huge schoolgirl crush and stammer uncontrollably? Yes, I'm 32, but these things happen. So when he walks over to me, and delicately plants a kiss on each of my cheeks, I'm close to dissolving into a giggling, blushing mess. But his friendliness (“don't sit over there, come and sit right next to me”) and huge smile immediately takes the I'm-in-the-presence-of-beauty fear away. He's trying really hard to put me at ease and it works. I reckon Jonathan's done this before -clearly, I'm not the first girl to be thrown by his good looks.

Most recently on our screens last summer in Mission Impossible 3, along side Tom Cruise.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers has an impressive back catalogue. He's worked with most of Hollywood's big players: Oliver Stone, Woody Allen, Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie and Scarlett Johansson, to name but a few, in fact, he's made 32 films in ten years, not bad for a country boy who grew up on a farm in Cork. As if all that A-list acting wasn't enough to make a CV, he's just taken a spot of modeling work too, having been signed by Hugo Boss as the new face of Hugo fragrances.

It doesn't take a genius to work out why the ad-men chose him to be the poster boy. Snappily dressed in a black velvet blazer, white shirt, jeans and flying boots, Jonathan smells of Hugo (naturally), with a sexy base notes of cigarettes (he's a big smoker) but his amazing Paul Newman-esque blue eyes that captivate you. And, despite a bevy of publicists hanging around, Jonathan, lounging back in his armchair, makes me feel as if I'm the only person on God's earth, If he does have a Hollywood-sized ego, he hides it very well. In face, he's a real sweetie...

So, did all your relatives get Hugo eau de toilette for Christmas, then?
Absolutely not! They can go out and buy it like everyone else! [laughs] I think they'd be a bit suspicious that I'd got it for free. In fact, I'd actively have to avoid giving then anything from Hugo, as they'd totally suss me!

You told Company last summer that the first thing people notice about you is your scruffiness. Have you had to smarten up now you're a 'face of'?
I can be scruffy! But I haven't had to smarten up. The Hugo fragrance is about being independent and wearing what you want.
Having you own style is very important.

True...and what's your style?
It's always changing. I like being comfortable, so you wouldn't see me in a pinstripe suit out of choice. I prefer something more relaxed.
If I can't climb a tree in it, I don't want to wear it.

Who's style do you admire?
David Beckham's. He's very brave when it comes to clothes. And whatever he's wearing, he looks good in. The fact he's very handsome with an athletic frame obviously helps! And George Clooney, of course -he's probably the most stylish man in the film industry. There's an elegance and confidence about George.

Would you describe yourself laddish or metrosexual?
I'm a mixture of both -it depends of what day you get me! I'm in a different city every few weeks, so my perception changes all the time.

How long does it take you to get ready for a big night out?
Ten minutes from shower to front door. I do very little male grooming! If you really want to look good, you eat well, sleep well, drink water and go to the gym. Simply putting cream on your face isn't going to work. Beauty is internal -if you feel good, you look good.

What's your perfect Saturday night out?
Having a good dinner, because I don't drink.

How come?
I just don't

Don't you enjoy it?
I did for a little while, and then I got to about 27 and couldn't be arsed any more.

That's not very Irish of you!
I know! [laughs] It's so un-Irish! I just found other things to do instead. So most my Saturday nights are spent at home, unfortunately -I like having dinner, watching a movie and going to bed early.

Are you an X Factor fan?
Err... no. I like something more intellectual like... South Park! I do love trash TV. Saturdays are a great night to stay in, mainly because they're not the best night to go out -Thursday nights are better.

So what's your perfect Thursday night out?
Dinner with friends, then onto a bar.
Somewhere low-key -I don't like big clubs.

Do you prefer a local pub then?
Only if it's nice! I wouldn't spend too many evenings sitting in the local Dog and Duck, if you know what I mean. But, likewise I wouldn't be up for going to celeb haunts, like Lillies (in Dublin) or Pangaea (in London) -they're just not my thing. I've done it in the past, but not now.

And who do you go out with -are you still friends with past co-stars, like Tom Cruise, Keira Knightley or Ewan McGregor?
No.

Isn't that a bit weird after you spend so much time with them on set?
Well everybody is pretty much the same. It's nice to say goodbye, and I like moving on.
I last saw Keira at the Golden Globes nearly two years ago. And unfortunately for all the Irish kids who constantly ask me, I don't have her phone number! Can you imagine me replying “Of course I have Keira's number, here, let em give it to you!” If you think about it, just because you put two actors in a room, they may develop a very close intense relationship, but it's still a forced relationship they wouldn't have in everyday life.

Seeing first-hand the kind of press intrusion Tom Cruise gets, has it put you off being a huge superstar?
If I don't have the ambition to be at the top of my game, then I'm in the wrong game. Tom's fame is extraordinary, though. He taught me how to use it and deal with it. It's like you buy into the whole adventure of what you're doing, but you don't have to buy into the fact you're really that person. You're just an actor playing them, so when you go home in the evening, you switch off and realise you're just Johnny. That's why I still take the tube and bus. I try to be myself.

Yeah but Tom would be mobbed if he tried to get on a bus...
That's true. But it takes a long time to get to that level of fame where you can't do that. If I ever got to that level, I'm sure I'll go about it differently. I'm Irish, if my fame gets to the point where I can't walk down to the store, I'm still going to do it. And after three or four times, people will get bored.

Where do most your friends live?
Ireland.

Do you miss them?
Sometimes, yes, but they don't miss me! They're all construction blokes I've know since I was 14. They're up at 8:30am in the morning, building houses, rewiring places and stuff, so my life to them is funny.

Do they take the mickey out of you then?
Oh God, constantly! It's a steady stream of friendly abuse. It's nice; they're down-to-earth, real people. And the more successful I've become, the more they've been able to come to things, like premieres, with me. I was in Dublin recently, shooting, and I invited my friend Leon up. There he was, a construction worker from Cork, sitting down with Bono, shooting the shit and having a beer. It's an Irish thing -people tend to leave you alone.

So the burning question on every girl's lips: are you single at the moment?
Yes, I'm single. [looks awkward]

Do you enjoy being single?
Yes and no, I loved having a girlfriend, as well. But you know the only reason I'm single is that I don't have the time to put into a relationship. I'm just not around. It's difficult with this job.

Have you ever used your fame to chat up a girl?
No! God almighty. I'd never say, "Do you know who I am?" Just in case they turn round and say "No". I mean, what would you say to that?! The one question I hate when I'm talking to someone is, “You're an actor? So what have you done?” I always just want to reply, “I had breakfast this morning, I came out...” I can't go through my CV with someone in a bar. It's embarrassing.

You've said the best way to chat up a girl is playing hard to get....
No, no, no... I said the only way to chat up a girl is if you don't mind going home on your own. The one thing that's really unattractive is desperation.
If you don't have the confidence to say goodnight and walk away, then that's where you're going to have a problem. It helps when you don't drink too. You may think you're being confident and sexy, but you're not. You're being loud, extrovert and you smell of vodka Red Bull.

Not good! Have you ever been that person?
Would you mind? I'm 29 years old -of course I have! And I've been blown out...

Oh come on -who would blow you out?
Several people. I'm rubbish at chatting up girls -like most men. One girl blew me out and I hadn't even met her! It was over the phone.

Who was it?
None of your business [laughs]

What's the most romantic thing you've ever done?
I'm not romantic at all.

Seriously?
Well, not really... I buy flowers and surprise gifts, and stuff like that. I love buying shoes too.

My God -you're the perfect boyfriend!
What kind of shoes do you buy?
I like Louboutin, Jimmy Choo, Manolo Blahnik... But you're not meant to buy shoes for the person you're romantically involved with -apparently, it makes them walk out of your life. Shoes are a very unlucky gift.

That's so tragic...
I know -I've got to stop buying girls shoes....

Jonathan is the new face of HUGO fragrances, available nationwide (www.hugofragrances.com)
see him on screen in the new TV ad now

Thank you to Shaznic on the Jrmfansite msg board for the magaine pages.
Plese do not take this interview with out asking me first as I sat an typed out the whole interview

Let’s start from this movie, Mission Impossible III, how was it working with Tom Cruise?
From a human perspective where are two completely different human beings. From a professional point of view I can only hope to be like day one day, because he’s the most incredible and professional actor I’ve ever met.

In the past Neil Jordan has seen you as a young Tom Cruise. Were you pleased with this comparison?
I believe that then Neil Jordan used Cruise as the symbol of a young actor, very secure of himself who wants to achieve success at every cost. It was 10 years ago, and I was just like that. I was 18 and I was presumptuous and so sure of my talent I almost sounded brassy all the time. Now I’ve changed.

What made you change?
I’ve had successes but also failures that made me grow up and made me more disenchanted towards my job. I believe the similarities end here. I’ll say it again : as a human being I’m very different human being from Tom Cruise.

On the contrary you feel closer to Colin Farrell. It is true that you’re great friends with him?
We met many years ago,I was 17 and he was 19. He was a star already, he had this look and this attitude that made women go crazy. Colin is an extraordinary actor and a very beautiful man,a fantastic father. I admire him greatly.

And then both of you are Irish?
Yes, and we’ve been through similar experiences in our childhood, because we come from working class families and we fought to be were we are. The way we look at Hollywood is surely different from an american actor.

Sure the two of you together must be an explosive couple together
Well that’s true, in the past we had a lot of fun, but the funny thing is that we changed. None of us drink anymore, and when we see each other we sit down and drink tea, remembering the good old days. And I’m just 28, can you believe it? Isn’t this sad?

Jonathan you’ve got a girlfriend, is that true? Yes I got a girlfriend ( Reena Hammer, daughter of an english millionaire ) and the news is that she’s not an actress. She’s a student in London. I admit that when we first met, it didn’t sparkle any firework between the two of us, but we knew deep down that we were meant to be together. We met while I was filming Match Point and I though I was not in the condition of meeting someone, I was too much involved in such an egoistical and rude character. I didn't think someone could ever love me. And then she came and it happened.

Since your origins are you Catholic as well?
Sure. I’ve grown u and was educated as catholic and for a long time religion and the Church have played a big role in my life. Now it’s not like that anymore but I still believe there’s something greater than us than helps and guides us. Everyone ho has had success believes someone helped him out. That’s faith, if you believe in it, then it’s true for you. And that’s enough.

A BIG thank you to Silvia, for translating the article, typing up and scanning the pictures

Details Magazine, November 2007

"PUSSY!" Jonathan Rhys Meyers bellows. "I want pussy!" We are on a crowded street next to St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin, Ireland, dodging French and Italian tourists who might not understand what Rhys Meyers is shouting, but can surely sense the carnal tone. And certainly those of his countrymen also out strolling on this lovely autumn afternoon can comprehend exactly what he’s saying. The Irish actor is performing, of course. He’s doing his impersonation of a man trying to have a conversation in a crowded nightclub.

"I said, ‘Pussy! Pussy!’" he shouts. "P-u-s-s-y."

Rhys Meyers himself no longer goes to those sorts of mobbed, cacophonous venues. A notorious partier, he’s recently sworn off alcohol. "I didn’t drink until I was 25, and I never drank every day, but when I did, it was bad. It would be a couple of days that just wouldn’t work out for me, waking up with a hangover. Drink doesn’t fit into the groove of where my life is going."

Rhys Meyers, now 30, has been in rehab twice.

"I want to do really good things with my life," he says. "And drinking is not synonymous with that. The [Richard] Burton days, the [Peter] O’Toole days, they are gone."

By now we’re seated at a wooden table that’s resting unevenly on the cobblestone sidewalk outside a touristy café. Rhys Meyers orders a Coke and lights a Camel.

A foul odor envelops us.

"It’s me," he says. "I’m burning the fake hair off the sleeves of this jacket." He has been stealthily flicking a white plastic lighter in his left hand under the table since we sat down. The cuff of his distressed leather jacket used to hang over his wrists, he explains, but he’s been systematically singeing it away for the last few days.

Why?

He shrugs and looks down at the lighter, as if it were acting on its own. "Something to do," he says.

It’s hard to determine exactly why Rhys Meyers is as famous as he is. (Does he have the promise of a pre-Brokeback Jake Gyllenhaal? A pre-Walk the Line Joaquin Phoenix?) Why one of his trips to rehab made the headlines in Us Weekly, why his make-out sessions in bars are covered on "Page Six," why celebrity bloggers care enough to speculate about his sexuality -at this point these questions are part of his mystery. He’s a TV star, but Showtime’s The Tudors is not really a hit show (the season finale in June drew 465,000 viewers). He’s a movie star, but he’s never been the marquee name on a big one (this month’s mystical epic, August Rush, should change that). Since his breakout role as the heartthrob coach in 2002’s you-go-girl movie Bend It Like Beckham, his career has been a herky-jerky ride through a bewildering list of independent and Hollywood films. Ever seen The Tesseract? The Emperor’s Wife? Octane? Rhys Meyers has also shown up in big-budget action movies like Mission: Impossible III and Alexander. But along the way he’s to turned in enough compelling performances -the effeminate glam rocker in Velvet Goldmine, the homicidal social climber in Woody Allen’s Match Point -to establish himself as a provocatively talented, and potentially massive, star.

"I’m a better actor now than I was when I was 18," Rhys Meyers says, pulling at the parts of the fake shearling cuff he hasn’t yet burned away. He considers the most difficult aspect of his job having to act like he’s handsome even when he doesn’t think he looks so hot. "Let’s not kid ourselves "this business is about being good-looking. Look, Brad Pitt is an incredible actor, but do you think he’d be a famous movie star if he didn’t look like that? Come on! Some mornings, some days, you just don’t have that physical confidence. That’s a horrible feeling. A lot of my success is because of what I look like. I know that.”

It’s hard to imagine Rhys Meyers having days like that. His face is long and angular, and a goatee and a mustache accentuate his strongly defined chin. His eyes are blue in one light, silver in another, and green when it gets dark. A 20-year-old scar near his lip -from an injury sustained in a hurling accident -gives him a subtle ruggedness. He has a strange habit of looking over my shoulder into the eyes of almost everyone who walks past our table. Eventually, a family of four stop and ask if he is Jonathan Rhys Meyers. He happily confirms and stands up for a snapshot.

"Part of being a narcissist is being terribly insecure," he says, sitting back down. "If I wasn’t so insecure about myself I wouldn’t work as hard as I do. I am constantly seeking approval."

Rhys Meyers grew up Jonathan Michael Francis O’Keefe in Cork, in the south of Ireland, in a four-room flat he shared with his mother, Geraldine Meyers, a charity worker, and his younger brother Alan. When he was 3 years old, his father, John O’Keefe, left his wife, taking Rhys Meyers’ two other brothers to live with him at their grandmother’s house. Rhys Meyers and his dad wouldn’t become close until he was in his early twenties. He is dismissive of this biographical detail at first. “I’ve talked about all that,” he says. “Not interested in going into it again.” But then he admits that his marked insecurity is in part fed by the sense of failure he had as a boy: "I was just a kid and I didn’t have a dad. That’s hard, because when you’re a kid, you blame yourself for everything. And I blamed myself for him not being around, for my parents not being together."

Unable to sit still for even an hour, Rhys Meyers took to slipping out of class as a teenager. "I wanted to do anything but be in school, anything that [wasn’t] fuckin’ science, fuckin’ math, fuckin’ history." At 15, he was asked to leave school. "My mother had a go at me for that one," he recalls. "She was livid. We didn’t have any money, and she really believed education was important."

The next day, watching his friends walk to school, he says he thought to himself, "‘Now what do I do? I can’t just sit around the house and watch TV.’ My mom wouldn’t have it. So I had to go and look for a job."

Or at least get out of the house. He started hanging out at a local pool hall, where he eventually met a gentleman farmer, Christopher Croft, who offered to take him on as a hired hand at his 650-acre farm in Buttevant, County Cork. Rather than commute, Rhys Meyers, then 16, moved in with Croft and his three children. (Croft, who has said publicly in the past that he is gay, was arrested last July in Morocco for sexual abuse of a child. He and Rhys Meyers have both said since that their relationship was strictly father-son. And while he acknowledges that he was once very close to Croft, Rhys Meyers says he hasn’t spoken to him in three years.)

"As a kid, I never thought I wanted to be an actor,! Rhys Meyers says. "But I do remember sitting around and watching Johnny Depp on 21 Jump Street -my favorite show "and thinking, ‘How cool is that?’" Having been encouraged by a Dublin casting agent who came through the pool hall where he used to hang out, Rhys Meyers began going up to the city from Croft’s farm for auditions, landing his first major role, as an assassin in Neil Jordan’s Michael Collins, when he was 19. Since then, he has lived the peripatetic life of the working actor. He laments what that’s cost his personal life—or, more to the point, his romantic life. "Not many relationships can survive," he says, pulling his singed jacket around him. "A woman has got to have a lot of trust when you’re on a film set with a beautiful actress. There is a lot of jealousy."

The tabloids reported that Rhys Meyers and his girlfriend, cosmetics heir Reena Hammer, broke up last spring after three years together. According to him, it’s more like "taking a serious break." He lights another cigarette and pauses, reaching out to rest a hand on my shoulder. "It’s like, I’m 30. My life is a lot of hotel rooms, a lot of travel and being on the road, a lot of time alone. Someday I’ll have kids and all that. But right now I’m focused on [my] career."

If Rhys Meyers could trade places with any of his peers, it would be Leonardo DiCaprio -not, he makes a point of noting, because of his acting chops, but because of his status as a force in the industry. "Power is very seductive," he says. "He was successful very young, was a party boy, took two years off, and then became this major Hollywood player. Right now I can get a $5 million film green-lit, not a $100 million film." Rhys Meyers lives in a modest home in Nichols Canyon, Los Angeles, and owns a house in County Cork and an apartment in Spain, near Valencia. “I don’t care about the money. I’m not a money person. I’m not a car person." His Red Monkey watch, he points out, cost only $100. "I want to have enough to help my mom and my brothers, if they need it . . . But I do want to have the power to get movies made. I’m not going to sit here and say I want anonymity or that I don’t want to be famous. I do."

His current roles, as Henry VIII in The Tudors and as a man on a mission to find his lost true love -a woman with whom he had a one-night affair that produced a son he didn’t know he had -in August Rush, are the latest steps in a calculated journey. In January, Rhys Meyers begins filming Mandrake, a Chuck Russell -directed action movie about an escape artist who, working with the United States Treasury Service, uses his powers of illusion to fight crime. "[It’s] something I’ve been looking for," Rhys Meyers says. "Playing Henry [VIII] was about having people see me as a lean, mean, testosterone machine, as an alpha male. [Mandrake] is a real, muscular, testosterone, up-on-a-wire action hero."

Rhys Meyers had an alpha-male moment of his own when he was 18. It was a mid-December evening, and he’d just finished mucking out the barn and was relaxing on a sofa in Christopher Croft’s ruby-red-walled living room. He was watching Young Guns and thinking about his upcoming turn -his first leading role -in The Maker when he heard the violent groan of buckling wood and metal and then saw a shotgun barrel poke through the front door. Six thieves in balaclavas burst into the room and demanded that Rhys Meyers hand over all his money" "I didn’t have any," he says—and that he open the house safe. “They were there for about an hour, tearing the place apart, looking for money and valuables.” Did he consider keeping the combination of the safe secret? "Not for an instant. I opened it and they made off with a couple of thousand."

At the café, light breaks through the clouds, bathing the sidewalk and putting Rhys Meyers half in shadow, half in sun. He puts out a cigarette and begins burning his jacket again. There’s a zit on his right cheek, partially obscured by makeup from a photo shoot earlier in the day. That, his boyish eyes, and his slight build come together to make him look, for an instant, like an adolescent boy.

"You know why I stay out of the limelight?" he says. "I always think there will be that time that people will find out that I’m crap at what I do. I think they will figure out I’m crap. Doesn’t everybody have that feeling?”

Pictures were taken from Just Jared, and the article is from: Men style.com.