He’s a chameleon that’s for sure - how else can you explain Jonathan Rhys Meyers eclectic range of roles? From a David Bowie inspired glam-rock star in Velvet Goldmine, to a dedicated football coach in Bend it Like Beckham, to his startling performance as Elvis, a 4-hour mini-series that earned him an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe win. But he’s also played everything from King Henry VIII in the award winning Tudors to a tennis instructor who is not quite what he seems in Woody Allen’s Match Point. It’s hard to imagine that it’s the same man in each and every one of those roles. His latest film is no less challenging. In August Rush, the New York set fable about a musical prodigy (Freddie Highmore) searching for his parents (Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers) he had to play guitar and sing his own songs. Gaynor Flynn caught up with the Irish actor at the recent Rome International Film Festival.

How difficult was it to play and sing in the film?

Not that difficult really. I would play as much aspossible in my free time and I’d hang out with thereal musicians as much as I could and play music withthem. But the goal was never to become as masterguitar player. Louis, my character is asinger-songwriter.


I understand you’re real brother is in the film andthat you sing your own songs. Is that true?

Yeah it is. When we were about to make the film, wehad a drummer who was meant to play the Irish drummerwho backed out of the movie so at the last minute theywere like we can’t get somebody, so I paid for mybrother to fly in to be in the movie. Then the guitarI didn’t play the guitar very well so I had to learnthat and I sing my own songs.


What did your brother say about it?

He was just like yeah, yeah, yeah. I get to go to NewYork, you pay ha, ha.


Was it his first movie?

Yes.


You started his career then.

Yeah sure and I remember being on set and JimSheridan, Kerstin’s father came on set and Jim lovedmy brother, he thought he was extraordinary and Jim islooking at the monitor at a scene that we’ve done onstage and I’m sitting there and Jim’s like, oh yourbrothers fantastic, and I’m like what about me? I’mmeant to be fantastic but no he was great and a lot offun and I wanted the Irish person to be an Irishperson. Alex O’Loughlin plays my brother in the filmand he’s an Aussie but I wanted to get an actuallyauthentic Irish person in to play the drummer becausethere’s an energy there that doesn’t exist if it wasan American playing an Irish person, it would beslightly different, the energy would be differentyou’d be able to spot an American anywhere you know. They’re a little bit too ruddy, their teeth are alittle bit too white.


Did you have a bit of input then?

The input of my character, but not in how theproduction went. Certainly in the music because I hadto record my own songs before we even started theproduction so I definitely had a hand in that. And inhow we record them and how we would arrange them buteverything else was up to the production team.


What is your taste in music?

My taste in music is different to the taste of LewisConnolly, because he’s playing a singer/songwriter.He’s not Eric Clapton he’s never going to be. He’svery much an average singer/songwriter in New York.


And you?

Below average.


What’s your favourite band?

They change but I like Broken Social Scene, Kings ofLeon, Black Rabble Motorcycle Club.


Would you agree Match Point changed everything foryou?

Yeah it certainly changed. When Match Point came outeverybody sort of thought that Woody’s best films hadgone and then we made match Point and suddenly hemakes this great movie and I get to be the lead rolein it. It was a difficult part to play because I’mplaying somebody who’s weak. It’s very hard to watchsomebody’s who’s playing weak, he’s not strong acharacter, he’s never meant to be strong, he was nevermeant to be a psychopath. Instead of psycho he’s morepathetic and Woody kept saying this because I couldhave made him much stronger and much darker but Woodydidn’t want this. He’s not a bad person, he justdoes bad things, so he’s a weak person and then MatchPoint came out and it was so much more financiallysuccessful and critically successful than people hadimagined it would be but then when Match Point was outI also won a Golden Globe two weeks later for playingElvis Presley and that suddenly went, suddenly I havethe lead in the best Woody Allen film in maybe tenyears and I’m also playing an American icon which Igot a Golden Globe for, so that changed things.


Does it change the way you approach life as well? Doyou get more recognised on the streets?

You do, but my life hasn’t change. Like I just work,that’s what I do. I don’t see myself as this big moviestar at all, I’m just an actor getting work.


I saw the Tudor’s. It’s very good.

Yes its very sexy isn’t it.


I never thought his horrendous king would be like you.

He’s not. But they didn’t want to have an overweightageing actor play the role. It wouldn’t have beensexy.


You have played a really diverse range of men over theyears. Has it been difficult to convince people thatyou can pull some of these roles off?

Yes certainly. Match Point did what it did and Bend itLike Beckham did what it did from the commercial pointof view, being in Mission Impossible 3 was very good,winning the Golden Globe was very good and then I didthe Tudor’s which was a big hit in America and it’s abig hit in Europe now as well and that sort ofmasculated me away from sort of Velvet Goldmine whichwas very ambiguous and very androgenous and I was only19, Suddenly I’m 30 and I’m playing this incrediblysexual very masculine sort of alpha male, and so nowdirectors are looking at me for completely differentreasons again.


Like what?

Well now they’re looking at me not just as an actorbut as a leading man point of view because thatdefines it, because first of all if you want to becomesuccessful you’ve got to get, like Velvet Goldmine,you’ve got to get men interested, so you get sort ofthe gay audience interested in you right. But then youhave to get the female audience, and that’s youraudience because if you look at the shows that aresuccessful on television, 70% of the audience is afemale audience. The Tudor’s which get about 180,000to 200,000 viewers a week in Ireland, 150,000 of themare women, only 20% of the audience is male which iskind of extraordinary but it seems a female audiencewill follow a series more than a male audience. A maleaudience might follow it for one or two weeks but thenchampion league football will be on. Like three weeksago our lowest rating for the Tudor’s in Ireland wasthree weeks ago because the Champion League Footballwas on the same evening.


You live in LA right?

Right but I was brought up in Ireland.


Would they give you a hard time if you went back toIreland?

Well the Irish always give their successful people ahard time anyway. It’s a very Irish thing and it’snice to keep people on the ground. They give me a hardtime and they give Colin Farrell a hard time, theygive both of us a hard time.


It keeps you grounded right?

I think Irish people like to keep you level butthey’re actually very, very proud of myself and Colinand Cillian Murphy because what we’ve done the threeof us because what we’ve done as young actors is thatwe’ve opened up a whole industry to actors that wasn’tavailable. I mean until myself, Colin Farrell andCillian Murphy began making movies over the last eightyears, successful movies and sort of became big namesin Hollywood what happens is directors, producers andstudios are now looking at Ireland for talent whereasthey weren’t looking at Ireland ten years ago. Theyweren’t looking England either or Australia for thatmatter. If you look at a lot of the top actors inHollywood, you’ve got Cate Blanchette, Naomi Watts,Eric Bana, Heath Ledger, Alex O’Loughlin, David WenhamI mean these are a lot of the guys who are making bigfilms in Hollywood. Then you’ve got the Englishcontingent, you’ve got Daniel Craig, Clive Owen, JudeLaw, Rhys Ilffans, Charlie Cox, Ewan McGregor I meanyou’re taking up a vast portion of Hollywood’s leadingmen are not American’s now. They’re Europeans andAustralians.


How do you account for that?

I think you account for that with the globalisation ofthe universe or the globalisation of our world.


They must bring something to the industry thatAmerican’s don’t, do you agree?

I don’t think its so much that American’s aren’tbringing something because there are still a lot ofAmerican movie stars and there will always be a lot ofAmerican movie stars, I just think that a lot of thebig films that are happening these days are not beingshot in America. They’re being shot around the world,so if you look at films like Babel, Sryiana,Rendition, Notes on a Scandal, Elizabeth, Atonement,Silk, Match Point, first time Woody Allen everventured outside of New York, that’s because ofglobalisaton. Its not longer America and Europe, itsjust the world and for an actor to be successful inthe industry, doesn’t’ have to do the traditionalroute of living in Hollywood, he doesn’t have to.


Were you ever worried about being the face of HugoBoss, in the sense that it could harm your reputationas a character actor?

No because I don’t think they ever saw me as acharacter actor. When I first made films they saw meas the opposite, a pretty boy. When I did VelvetGoldmine, Velvet Goldmine isn’t a character, he’s aphysicality. I don’t think I’ve ever gone out and madejust a character role, that was just a pure character.I’ve never done a film where they purposely uglied meup a role, whereas you find someone like Jude Law, whowill actually hunt for a role that makes him uglybecause he has to try to fight to get away from beingwhat he is which is a matinee idol.


You’ve always been a proud Irish person. Is that animportant part of who you are would you say?

Yes well I’ll never lose my identity, because I’llalways be Irish but I don’t want that to overshadowwho I am as a person. But I don’t think being Irishdefines who I am. I don’t want an identity to defineme because I’ve only played three Irish characters inmy whole life. I don’t usually get cast as thatbecause I don’t look like a typical Irishman. So inthe film industry its very simple, any actor whobelieves their physicality is not an intrinsic part ofwhy they get the role is fooling themselves. You watchfilm so your physicality definitely it defines theroles that you play. The reason Angelina Jolie playsthe roles she does is because she looks that way. Thereason Julia Roberts plays the roles she does isbecause she looks that way or Matt Damon.


Do you have to have a certain amount of vanity to bean actor?

To get up in front of a camera of course you have tohave a certain amount of vanity. All acting isnarcissism in some way. Would I be a narcissisticperson? Absolutely. Am I vain? Absolutely.


It’s brave to admit that.

It’s not brave its reality, and any actor who sitsdown in front of you and tells you they’re not vainits bullshit. I’m sure a lot of actors are like ohno, I’m not vain I just look fabulous everyday. Nowthey’d like to believe that themselves. Its all verycarefully manipulated, and I’ve met and worked withsome of the most beautiful actors in the world andthen you see them on a cover of a magazine they don’tlook like that, any of them, they just don’t.


At the same time what’s interesting, why did you wantto act?

I wanted to act because it was soft money.


You’ve said you’ve never taken an acting lesson andyou never would.

I just think I’m too far down the road to start takingacting lessons and the reality is you can’t take anacting lesson for film, you really can’t you eitherhave it or you don’t. You can’t learn it, you can’tachieve it and nobody can give it to you. I can go toa million acting classes but that doesn’t necessarilymean I’ll be good on film, you either are or you’renot.


How did you get your first lot of soft money?

Well the first thing I ever did was a commercial and Iwas 15 years old and I got 500 pounds to do thatcommercial for two hours work. Then the next film Iwas on it was my first lead role and it was a smalllow budget film and I got 20,000 pounds for hangingout on a film set and acting. I was 17. What boy isnot going to go I’ll do this?


When did you realise that you really liked it?

I think when I went on to the set of Michael Collinswhich was the second film that I shot. And it wasn’teven the acting it was that whole atmosphere andsuddenly I was on a film set with Liam Neeson and AlanRickman and Neil Jordan and it was the whole buzzabout it and the big cameras and suddenly it was kindof like this is a pretty fucking cool job.


You left school at 16, and I read that you quiterebellious is that true?

I don’t think I was rebellious. I think I just didn’tsuit school. I never went out to be rebellious, whenI was younger and when I was doing interviews when Iwas younger I think I made a mistake because I wasyoung. I talked a lot about my younger life and thenpeople make up this fantasy that I lived indegradation and that I had to crawl my crawl my way upfrom the gutter. This is people being poetic withtheir pens, it wasn’t exactly like that, that’s theimage they want to promote, here he was a youngrebellious Irish rogue now we’ve tamed him to be anactor. That’s not the reality of the situation,that’s just the fantasy people have in their heads.


You bring a certain intensity to every character youplay, is this difficult to achieve time and again?

Well yeah you certainly have to give an awful lot ofintensity. I think it’s easier for an actor to betense and dramatic than it is to be light and comedic. For me its easier to be dramatic. Even in that filmMy Favourite Year Peter O’Toole turns around and saysdying is easy, comedy is difficult. Because comedyis the most difficult thing to do, I find comediansextraordinary and I was talking to Robin Williamsabout it and its like doing two actors do a very funnyscene in film its great. But they’ve done that scene20 times in front of a crew that’s’ not laughing. Comedy is more serious than drama and I’m not sure I’dbe able to do that to be able to play a joke whereeverybody is standing around and they’re not laughing,but the audience will laugh and you’ve got to get thatin your head and forget about the crew because they’veheard it 20 times you have to think about the audiencewho will hear it for the first time.


What attracted you to this film?

In August Rush I was able to play somebody who wascompassionate and who was looking for that first love.You know there’s always that girl or that guy who youjust didn’t spend enough time with or maybe you’resitting in a café and you see this beautiful girl orthis beautiful guy and you never see them again butthey stay with you.


What do you think about love at first sight?

I completely believe in love at first sight and ithappens to Lewis in August Rush.


Did it happen to you personally?

Yeah once, I fell in love at first sight.


Is that one of the main reasons to make this film?

There’s that and I get to shoot in New York and I getto work with Kirsten Sheridan who I really wanted towork with and Terrence Howard who I really wanted towork with and Freddie Highmore who I really wanted towork with. And I get to be a musician and its a bigcommercial film that shows a lighter side to acharacter and allows me in the future to get rolesthat are different to Match Point. When somebodylooks at the body of work that I’ve done and they putBend It like Beckham, Match Point, August Rush, TheTudor’s and Elvis next to each other they can see verymany different layers of what I can do as an actor. Sofor a director to sit down and go well I need a bit ofthat and a bit of that well he’s our man. That’s why Ido different roles so people can see your range.