Matthew Rhys, who we’ve secretly been in love with sinceThe Americans, is quirky.
Hemingway used to own a similar boat.
The actor likes his gig onPerry Masonprobably for the same reason he’s fixing up Rabbit.
I feel like I was living out an exotic American childhood dream."
Rhys isn’t American.
Rhys didn’t get Rogers as a babysitter because he grew up in Cardiff, Wales (viaEsquire).
It wasn’t until 1998 that he moved to Hollywood.
Is Matthew Rhys a farmer at heart?
It’s only natural that as a child, Matthew Rhys, boat-builder, wanted to be a farmer.
(There is no doubt.
Rhys is Welsh to his core.
He once toldEvening Standardthat he’d eat salt marsh lamb and lava bread risotto for his last meal.)
That’s how he developed the beginnings of his believable American accent.
But before that, Rhys had fun.
He wound up in California only because he couldn’t find work in Wales.
Then, of course, he found love.
“So I sort of knew when I was 26,” Rhys told Andy Cohen (viaElle).
He (drunk) asked Russell for her number.
She never called him back.
It wasn’t until they started working together onThe Americansthat Rhys and Russell got a second chance.
And, were it been for his pal,Adam Driver, Rhys might never have gotten the part.
Driver ran lines as Elizabeth Jennings to help Rhys prepare forThe Americansaudition (viaEsquire).
Shooting the show was intimate.
So intimate, that Rhys and Russell shared wigs.
Russell got divorced; one thing led to another.
There’s a lot of practical jokes."
What’s the secret to their happiness?GQasked.
“Sienna is so fun-loving, a real free spirit,” he toldDaily Mail.Distance tore them apart.
You wouldn’t always have thought of him that way.
Certainly not when he was a kitchen porter (viaEvening Standard).But Rhys worked for his success.
Even after he’d gotten some parts, he didn’t always get them regularly enough.
The officer in charge of his second interview, however, was suspicious of his acting background.
He needn’t have worried.
Rhys was soon famous enough to meet thepresident and first ladyof the United States.
This is what Matthew Rhys didn’t say to Michelle Obama
It happened something like this.
While in the White House,Barack Obamaused to watchThe Americans.
“And then we got invited to go to the State Dinner,” Keri RusselltoldStephen Colbert.
“It was amazing.”
Maybe not so amazing for Rhys, who was seated next to the first lady.
(We get it Rhys.
IfMichelle Obamainvited us to dinner, we’d go a bit dizzy, too.)
Rhys described Michelle as “engaging and very charming.”
That didn’t prevent him from making a mess out of things.
For the first hour, he told Seth Meyers, he didn’t speak (viaNBC).
The tomato “went off like a … grenade,” headed straight towards Michelle Obama’s white robes. "
I’m thinking either the Secret Service man will dive in and catch it," Rhys narrated.
“Or if I dive in, he’ll shoot me.”
The tomato, just barely, missed.
Clearly, someone who spends three years renovating a boat has a bit of a romantic streak.
When Rhys isn’t getting nostalgic about old Hollywood, he’s watching survival shows.
Naturally, then, Rhys' idea of an adventure is a la Hemingway.
Rhys admitted toWales Onlinethat he once escaped to Pamplona, Spain, to go bull-running.
“Obviously, I lied to my mother about it too,” he said.
That’s fine by us.
We’re happy he found Keri Russell.
