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Can the world's oldest vampire resurrect Johnny Rhys Meyers?; As he films his new role as Dracula, the actor is calm, sober and happy - for now. So...
By Patricia Danaher- April 20th 2013
Irish Daily Mail
© 2013 Associated Newspapers. All rights reserved
Jonathan Rhys Meyers leans forward and fixes me with his piercing eyes, their blue-green colour striking as he speaks deliberately and seriously.
‘It’s almost like the ultimate fear of a man to have a monster growing inside them and then to have that monster take him over — it’s the ultimate sadness,’ the Cork-born actor says.
He is talking about Dracula, the dark role he plays in a new series, but he could easily be talking about himself. After struggling through a difficult upbringing and childhood, Rhys Meyers rose meteorically through the acting world after he came to the attention of casting agents in Cork.
He won acclaim for his intense and brooding performances — but soon became just as well known for his tempestuous life off-screen. He made headlines for multiple arrests and stints in rehab and, while he repeatedly swore off drink, Rhys Meyers always seemed to be fighting against himself.
‘Dracula is the ultimate monster,’ the actor says, speaking in the Four Seasons Hotel in Budapest, where the series is filming until July.
‘Bram Stoker picked up on this manifestation of a man from a normal human being into a power beyond human power. It started in Marino in Dublin for Bram Stoker and then he travelled to London to actually write the story and discovered where he could take this character.’ Rhys Meyers has rarely played cuddly or cute in film or television roles. There is an intensity to him in person and onscreen which he does not deny.
‘Can I be scary? I’m not quite sure I’m the person to answer that,’ he laughs. ‘I think I could be. I try to be as charming as possible, but everybody’s got their off days.
‘I have something in my physicality that lends to a slight haughtiness and, I suppose, arrogance that I portray. I don’t try to do it purposely, but onscreen that’s what comes off. I’ve got quite direct eyes that lend to a slight scariness that I’m able to do. I’m not quite sure I’ll be playing that many heroes in my life.’ The portrayal of Dracula in the new NBC/Sky series is a new take on the old story — described as ‘twisted, sophisticated and provocative’.
Dracula arrives in London posing as an American entrepreneur who claims to be bringing modern science to Victorian society, while in reality planning to wreak havoc on those who ruined his life centuries earlier.
Rhys Meyers, it seems, believes he is perfectly suited to the role — and he speaks about it enthusiastically.
‘I’m almost 36 and I think it makes sense to have Dracula in his mid-30s. He has to have that element of vitality and I like him being younger, erotic and diabolical at the same time.’ Rhys Meyers, who is incredibly well read, is philosophical about the recent popularity of vampire-driven plots and franchises, fuelled by everything from Bram Stoker to Twilight creator Stephanie Meyer.
‘The modern obsession with vampires is, I suppose, connected to eternal youth,’ he says. ‘You don’t age once you become a vampire, which is always attractive to humans for some reason. If you’ve been around for 400 years, you’re going to have an immense amount of charm and wealth. It’s diabolical but attractive.
‘Would I like to live forever? Of course it would be very attractive to live forever if I was to stay the same age as I am now, with all the emotions that I have and experience I’ve gathered — but that’s not Dracula’s journey.
‘He has to live forever in emptiness and I’m not sure I’d like to be imprisoned by my loss and to live forever in that way. If I could live as I am now, forever, then yes, I’d definitely want that. But I would hate to live forever like Dracula.’ Rhys Meyers, who has had more than his share of loss and turbulent experiences, is particularly introspective when discussing the role. The ten-part drama is set to air in the autumn and could also boost the US career of another Irish star, Victoria Smurfit.
Sitting comfortably in a casual white V-neck shirt and tan blazer, Rhys Meyers seems more at home in his own skin — and in his newest role — than he ever did when he was making headlines for drunken rants and violent fights.
In 2007, Rhys Meyers was arrested in Dublin Airport for being drunk and disorderly. Two years later, he was arrested in Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport when he assaulted a barman who refused to pour him a drink, then attempted to resist three officers trying to arrest him and threatened to kill both them and their families.
As the downward spiral continued and he entered rehab again in 2011, he was dropped as the face of Hugo Boss, for whom he had been advertising since 2006. Then, while he earned significant praise for his performance in The Tudors, his erratic behaviour and tempestuous personality raised questions about who, if anyone, would give him further work.
In addition, he had a notoriously stormy relationship with on-again, off-again girlfriend Reena Hammer, with police even called during one particularly violent fight.
Multiple times in the past, Rhys Meyers has claimed he’s given up alcohol and put his wild ways behind him — and again, as he works on Dracula, this is the case. He has stopped drinking, has reportedly been treated for depression and everyone on set claims he is heavily committed to the project.
Among them is Smurfit and another Irish actress, Katie McGrath, whom Rhys Meyers worked with on the Tudors. She plays the winsome Lucy, while Smurfit plays Lady Jane, a vampire killer and socialite.
‘It’s a pleasure to work with women like that,’ Rhys Meyers says. ‘I get a great joy out of it. Victoria is very, very clever and powerful and she has this incredible elegance.
‘Katie I’ve known for a long time and she’s from this very beautiful Irish family. She’s very well educated and has a degree from Trinity that she did before going off to become an actress. Her talent and beauty is matched with an incredible intuitiveness and brain power. Those two keep me in line — that’s always a good thing.’ Rhys Meyers has dated his share of beautiful women over the years. His eight-year relationship with British heiress Reena Hammer finally came to an end late last year after several break-ups and reunions.
Since January, he and Australian model Victoria Keon-Cohen have moved into a €3.5million home in London, although he is based in Budapest until Dracula finishes filming in July.
He says his intensity extends from his working life into personal relationships. ‘If I find somebody attractive, I pay more attention and I try to pour on all the sort of Irish lilty charm,’ he says. ‘If it’s a woman I really, really want, she sees through it very quickly.
‘I love women; I truly love women, not just in the essence of “I love her and I have to have her”. I can sit with a beautiful woman and I can have dinner with them and I don’t need to have a hidden agenda. I love their company.
‘There’s something soft, something delicate and there’s something very powerful and strong at the same time, which I really appreciate. I love their company and most of my friends are women anyway.’ Rhys Meyers says he is fascinated by stars of years gone by and the grace they displayed.
‘I kind of fancy all the ones from the past, you know? Maybe Ava Gardner in her day or maybe Ingrid Bergman in her day. I think I prefer the old world movie stars. Marlene Dietrich would have been interesting. She’d have been at least a bit of a challenge, you know?’ His affection for women is not surprising as he was incredibly close to his late mother Geraldine. His father left when he was very young and even after he became successful, Rhys Meyers and his mother were in constant contact.
She died after a short illness in 2007, leaving him devastated.
At the time, he was photographed on a London street drinking cider at 10am, wearing a black donkey jacket with the collar turned up as he wandered along swigging straight from the can. Now, however, Rhys Meyers seems better adjusted and off the booze — and heavily invested in the dark character he’s portraying.
‘Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee did versions of Dracula that I appreciate, but Gary Oldman’s performance is for me the best,’ he says. ‘This is a very modern take on Dracula. We’ve eliminated a lot of the unexplainable supernaturality and given very human explanations as to why things are happening to the main character. You’re not going to see our Dracula flying across the sky,’ he says. ‘That said, it’s now the kind of show that could run on and move into many different eras, even into the future.’ Exactly what lies in Rhys Meyers’ future, however, remains to be seen. Dracula, as the actor states himself, is stuck forever in time, in an enduring state of emptiness.
But as Rhys Meyers bites into this new role and series, perhaps he will be able to move on once and for all — and fill his life with more critical acclaim and less controversy.
‘I’ve got direct eyes that lend to scariness’
‘I love women. I love their company’
Thanks to :http://stephany-france.tumblr.com/
Jonathan Rhys Meyers promises ‘Dracula’ will be provocative, eroticBy Sonya Faria (@SonyaWrites) at 9:15 am, April 22, 2013
Dracula star Jonathan Rhys Meyers is finally speaking out about his new role playing the infamous vampire and what fans can expect from the show.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers will be playing Dracula himself on the show coming to NBC for the Fall of 2013 season. The series will take place in the 19th century as Dracula returns to London with some unfinished business. What he didn’t plan on was meeting a woman who he believes to be the reincarnation of his dead wife.
Rhys Meyers reveals that the role isn’t the easiest, having to play someone who is both terrifying and alluring. Although, he can surely draw experience from his times playing King Henry VIII on The Tudors. Rhys Meyers explains to The Sun, “I have to make him diabolical and erotic at the same time and let it pass between these two things so that it’s a balance between, ‘Oh my God, I’m really repulsed by this but I can’t stop watching.’”
Back in January, NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt teased that Dracula would be based on the original Bram Stoker novel but that it would also have its own original elements. Rhys Meyers seems to echo this sentiment saying he even pulls some of his character’s inspiration from his own personal experiences. The actor explains, “I’ve taken my part of my interpretation of Dracula from the book, part of it from the history of Vlad Tepes [the Impaler] himself and partly from my own personal experiences, both the good and the bad. These will all come out.”
Many fans of the actor have been wondering how much sexy NBC would allow on the show. Rhys Meyers doesn’t dissapoint when he promises to bring eroticism to the series. “We are working very hard to make it as erotic, as entertaining and as provocative as we can possibly make it, so that people can enjoy it,” Said the actor.
Fonte
Hypable
There’s something about me physically which makes me look just a little bit dangerous…
When Dubliner Bram Stoker sat down to write his horror classic Dracula he could have been channelling actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
Everyone working on the set of the upcoming NBC/Sky series of the same name, which airs later this year, says the Cork native was born to play the role.
It’s the whiff of danger around Rhys Meyers that makes him the perfect seductive vampire.
Speaking to me on the Budapest set of the new series, he’s inclined to agree.
He said: “I have to make him diabolical and erotic at the same time and let it pass between these two things so that it’s a balance between, ‘Oh my God, I’m really repulsed by this but I can’t stop watching.’”
Vampires have been everywhere in recent years, from True Blood to the Twilight phenomenon, but Rhys Meyers does a compelling and terrifying Dracula like you’ve never seen before.
He told me: “There’s something about me physically which makes me look a little dangerous. I have too much of the serpent in me to play someone erstwhile.
“I don’t get offered that many sweet parts because directors have this idea that I always want to be incredibly serious and that’s not necessarily the case.
“Parts like August Rush and Bend It Like Beckham are sadly few and far between.
“I wouldn’t exactly call myself Twilight material! I’m nearly 36 and a bit older than most people think I am.”
It’s hard to believe how much Rhys Meyers has packed into those years.
He’s made more than 30 movies, won a Golden Globe for playing Elvis in Diamond Goldmine and was nominated for another for his unforgettable portrayal of King Henry XIII on The Tudors.
He is represented by the Ennis-born uberagent Hylda Queally, who has clients like Nicole Kidman and Marion Cotillard on her books.
This is Jonathan’s first television show since those five years spent filming The Tudors in Co Wicklow.
He likes moving between film and television, likes being in Europe and is very happy to be working with two Irish actresses on Dracula.
Victoria Smurfit plays a seductive vampire killer, Lady Jane, and Katie McGrath, who worked with Jonathan on The Tudors, plays Lucy Westenra.
Jonathan said: “Katie is an angel who I’ve known for a long time and I’m incredibly fond of her. She’s very grounded and very well educated.
“Victoria has this incredible elegance that’s very different to Katie and she’s very, very powerful. It’s a pleasure to work with women like that. They keep me in line.”
He was in a long-term relationship with heiress Reena Hammer for over eight years, but they split in 2012.
He now lives with Australian model Victoria Keon-Cohen in London.
He’s also reportedly been off the booze for a few years now after a series of embarrassing and very public incidents.
Everyone talks of how calm and focused he is on Dracula and how much he brings to the part.
He said of the filming: “I don’t get much time to go out really. I try to go home to London once a month, but I live very quietly here in Budapest. Some trips to restaurants with people are always nice.
“Hungarian is a very difficult language and mine is non-existent. There’s a charm in trying to communicate with people by not using a language. You have to search a little bit harder.”
Music has been a great passion of his for many years and he confesses that he thinks actors are really frustrated musicians. His father John O’Keeffe is a musician, as are his three brothers, who are in a band called Suzy’s Field.
He said: “It’s a strange thing to say but music allows you to smell things and I think that’s really important.
“Being from a family of musicians, I, of course, love to play music — but I’m not allowed to play with my brothers because I’m not good enough!
“‘You’re an actor,’ they say, ‘go act like you can sing, go act like you can play guitar!’ If I was in a fantasy band, I suppose my ego would say that I would definitely have to be the lead singer.
“Robert Plant would definitely be there. I’d probably have Keith Moon on drums… Django Reinhardt.
“The backing singers would be Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s qawwali party. I would do a few duets with Sade, Billie Holiday and Aretha. Cole Porter would write our music.”
A rich fantasy life indeed, and why not given the range of dark roles he plays?
With all the versions of Dracula there have been, from Bela Lugosi to Gary Oldman, I wondered how terrifying it was to undertake such an iconic role?
Jonathan revealed: “Gary Oldman was pretty spectacular because he brought romance as well as horror and he balanced the pain with the monster. I am not afraid of not being as good as somebody else and I am not afraid of being better than somebody else.
“I think I’m old enough now not to be intimidated by those who have come before me.
“Success has very little to do with me — beyond my performance and paying attention to what is happening on set. Success will be decided by the people who view it.
“We are working very hard to make it as erotic, as entertaining and as provocative as we can possibly make it, so that people can enjoy it.
“I’ve taken my part of my interpretation of Dracula from the book, part of it from the history of Vlad Tepes (aka Vlad the Impaler, who influenced Stoker’s character) himself and partly from my own personal experiences, both the good and the bad. These will all come out.”
DRACULA will be on Sky One later this year.
Interview by Patricia Danaher
Fonte :
The Irish SunWorking with Johnny is wild. He is like a ‘stallion’, says Victoria Smurfit
By Aisling Scally - April 20th, 2013
Irish Daily Mail
© 2013 Associated Newspapers. All rights reserved
Victoria Smurfit has been working with Jonathan Rhys Meyers on the new US series Dracula and she can count on one thing - working with the star is never predictable.
‘When you walk into a room with Johnny, it’s like walking into a scene with a stallion,’ she said. ‘You don’t know what he’s going to do. He’s very exciting to work with.’ Dracula, which is being filmed in Budapest, is based in the 1890s. The vampire, played by Rhys Meyers, arrives in London and becomes infatuated with a woman who appears to be a reincarnation of his dead wife - played by Ms Smurfit.
The duo aren’t the only Irish actors on the set - they’re also joined by Katie McGrath, from Wicklow. Ms Smurfit, 38, said: ‘[Rhys Meyers] and Katie and myself have a kind of Irish shorthand on the set and we’re often roaring laughing at things that no one else understands.’
Ms McGrath and Rhys Meyers worked together on The Tudors. Ms McGrath said: ‘Dracula and Johnny have a lot in common… They walk into a room and you don’t know what they are going to do. It’s what makes him such an exciting actor. He’s so intellectual. You think you know what he’s going to do, but he surprises you every time and then you have to respond.’
Dracula is expected to air in the US in autumn.
Fonte : Irish Daily Mail
tramite
http://stephany-france.tumblr.com/tagged/irish-daily-mail
sicuramente sarà un ragazzo inglese o irlandese....che attore carino c'è di queste nazionalità?! collin farrel a parte!!!
He was really sweet and nice, kind. I really like him.