Matthew Rhys ‘nervous of Hanks and Spielberg’
WALES’ award-winning actor Matthew Rhys has revealed how nervous he was to work with screen legends Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.
Cardiff-born Rhys stars in the new film about American TV icon Fred Rogers and is grateful for the help he received from the Hollywood Oscarwinning duo.
“I didn’t get them anything, that’s embarrassing,” Rhys reflected when talking to the Western Mail about the generosity of co-star Hanks and director Spielberg.
Rhys is front-and-centre with Hanks in the new film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, starring as journalist Lloyd Vogel.
He said everything you’ve ever heard about how nice Hanks is, is true. And, yes, he was nervous as anything the first day he was one on one with the acting great.
“It took me a few days to get over my nerves,” said Rhys, speaking from his home in New York a couple of days after he wrapped his latest project, the reboot of legal drama Perry Mason for HBO.
“Everything you think you know about him is true, he’s the nicest person you’ll ever meet. He’ll go out of his way to make you feel comfortable and people will still be, ‘Oh it’s Tom Hanks.’
“Hanks will hire out cinemas, take everybody to a baseball game.
“I’m asking if I can get anyone a cappuccino,” adding, that he then will shout: “I can only carry two, mind!”
At the end of filming The Post, which also starred Hanks, though they didn’t share much screen time, director Spielberg gifted the company the vintage typewriters used in the Oscar-nominated movie.
Rhys added: “And he gave us a few other gifts, too. I didn’t get them [Spielberg and Hanks] anything. That’s embarassing.”
The new film is based on a children’s TV presenter who is loved by many Americans still, and an interview Rogers gave to Esquire journalist Tom Junod.
Rhys said the film has an element of humanity that’s been lost from many big-screen films.
“It changes you in a way; it’s not an easy film to watch,” he said.
“It’s a film about relationships, something which everyone experiences in life, and what needs to be done. It’s reminding us about the humanity we have in us.
“I asked Keri [Russell, Rhys’ reallife partner and co-star in The Americans], ‘Who is Mr Rogers?’ and she said, ‘WHAT?!’
“So, I started watching it and it was such a stupid programme. But then you realise ‘this was not for adults’, Mr Rogers worked with a child psychologist who helped him slow his speech down, so children could listen and process what he was saying.”
The dad to three-year-old Sam went on to reveal that he and his son watch cartoon Daniel Tiger’s Neighbourhood, which is based on Mister Rogers’ Neighbourhood.
“Sam watches it and says, ‘Oh, he’s talking to me!’” said Rhys, who became a household name in the US with roles on The Americans and Brothers & Sisters.
The Welsh star added: “I realised they were truly onto something.
“Mr Rogers wanted to talk to them about death and divorce and everything that kids might have to deal with, rather than have them watch people throwing custard pies at each other.
“In the UK, we had Timmy Mallett, our kids’ TV was maniacal – that kind of TV Rogers was viciously opposed to.”
Rhys managed to perfect a great American accent for the film.
Flipping the subject over to Welsh accents on screen, he was asked about recent much-publicised attempts by Stephen Graham and Sarah Lancashire to master the Welsh accent.
Both Graham and Lancashire have been making TV viewers wince with their attempts at what seem like generic, or stereotyped, Welsh accents.
Amid calls for Welsh actors to play Welsh parts, what does an actor, who has reached fantastic career highs and done it in a US voice think?
Rhys said: “When the opportunity does arise you do feel a number of things.
“You want it to be authentic, not caricatured, because it’s so rarely heard. When it is done by someone else [badly] it’s a missed opportunity.
“I’ve no problem with non-Welsh actors doing a Welsh part, they can be from Timbuktu. All I ask is that it’s done well and authentic.”
■ A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is in cinemas now.