Matthew Rhys: Five things you may not know about Emmy history-maker
By Danielle Herbert, BBC Wales
Hollywood actor Matthew Rhys made history at the Emmys by becoming the first person to win two lead acting prizes in one night. He took home the gongs for best lead actor in a limited series for the psychological thriller The Beast In Me and best lead actor in a comedy for Widow’s Bay.
Here are five things you may not already know about the history-making 51-year-old.
1. Almost a failed actor
At the start of his career, Rhys was so desperate for work he considered joining the British Army. In 2000, he starred alongside American actress Kathleen Turner in a West End production of The Graduate. But for nearly two years afterwards, he struggled to find work. He even met with an army officer who he said was "incredibly suspicious" of him because he was an actor, and told him "we’ll be in touch". Rhys recalled:
"Then about a week later, I got a rejection letter from the British Army saying, ‘thank you for your interest, good luck in your career’."
2. He formed the ‘LA Tafia’
In 2006, Rhys moved to Hollywood and surrounded himself with fellow Welsh actors – including Michael Sheen and Ioan Gruffudd. He lived with Newport-born Gruffudd, whom he met at Welsh medium school Ysgol Glantaf in Cardiff. In an interview with The Big Issue Cymru in 2003, Rhys described their living arrangement:
"’LA Tafia’ – that’s what we call ourselves," he said, referring to their group that also included Sheen. They would often speak Welsh to one another, dream of good fish and chips, and watch rugby together in a British pub.
3. Meeting partner Keri Russell
A decade after first meeting actor Keri Russell, the pair finally became an item when they starred together in the TV series The Americans in 2013. They played a married couple who were Russian spies from 2013-2018. Rhys and Russell were a couple from 2014 and had their son, Sam, in 2016. Rhys has previously told the BBC he speaks Welsh to Sam in the hope he will understand the language for life.
4. His boat is named after a famous Welsh dish
Rhys owns a 1939 wooden cruiser boat named Rarebit, after a famous Welsh dish. He told the US TV show Today he didn’t realise "the disaster of buying an old wooden boat" before making the purchase. Rhys said the boat is "part of Brooklyn history" and is the same class of boat that acclaimed author Ernest Hemingway owned.
Quotations and specific details have been preserved as they appeared in the original text.
