Matthew Rhys - Career

Career

In January 1998, Rhys went to New Zealand to star in Greenstone, a colonial costume drama for television. He then landed a role in Titus, Julie Taymor's adaptation of Titus Andronicus, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange. Next he played Ray in Peter Hewitt's film comedy, Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? After returning to Wales, he did two consecutive films with Jonathan Pryce: The Testimony of Taliesin Jones, a film about a dysfunctional single-parent family in which he played the elder son, and Sara Sugarman's comedy Very Annie Mary, in which he played the role of Nob. Rhys would later reunite with Very Annie Mary star Rachel Griffiths on Brothers & Sisters.

In 2000, Rhys played the lead role in Metropolis, a drama series for Granada TV about the lives of six twenty-somethings living in London. Next he starred in Peaches, the film of the play written and directed by Nick Grosso. Rhys starred as Benjamin in the 2000 world premiere of the stage adaptation of The Graduate, alongside Kathleen Turner at The Gielgud Theatre in London's West End.

Rhys traveled to Ireland to star in the 18th century swashbuckling adventure, The Abduction Club. He played the lead role of Darren Daniels in Tabloid, and then returned to New Zealand to shoot the epic drama Lost World for the BBC. His other film credits include the independent horror film Deathwatch in Prague and Fakers, a comic crime caper. He appeared opposite the late Brittany Murphy in the independent feature Love and Other Disasters, in Virgin Territory opposite Hayden Christensen, Tim Roth and Mischa Barton, and playing poet Dylan Thomas in the love quadrangle biopic The Edge of Love.

Rhys was adamant he could happily give up his career to play international rugby for his country.

On 15 July 2008, Rhys was honoured by Aberystwyth University as a Fellow. On 8 August 2008, he was honoured at the Welsh National Eisteddfod by being accepted as a member to the druidic order of the Gorsedd of the Bards, for his contributions to the Welsh language and Wales. His bardic name in the Gorsedd is Matthew Tâf. In August 2009, Rhys took to the stage with the National Youth Orchestra of Wales as part of the National Eisteddfod.

Airing on 10–11 January 2012, Rhys will appear in the BBC Two two-part drama adaptation (written by Gwyneth Hughes and directed by Diarmuid Lawrence) of Charles Dickens' last novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, left unfinished at his death in 1870. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) aired it as one feature-length episode on 15 April 2012.

In 2012 Rhys will reprise Sir Alec Guinness's 1959 double role of John Barratt/Jacques De Gué in a new adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's 1957 novel The Scapegoat. The Scapegoat went into production on location in London in November 2011 and will be released for cinema audiences worldwide, a theatrical distribution managed by Content Media following its screening on ITV1 in April 2012. Also, in 2012, Rhys is set to play "Jimmy" with the Roundabout Theatre Company's Off-Broadway revival of John Osborne's play, Look Back in Anger. Look Back in Anger is set to open officially on 2 February at the Laura Pels Theatre in the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre. The production will play a limited engagement through 8 April 2012.