Rhys Ifans
Rhys Ifans
Rhys Ifans is a Welsh actor and musician. He is known for his portrayal of characters such as Spike in Notting Hill, Jed Parry in Enduring Love and Eyeball Paul in Kevin & Perry Go Large. He is also known as a member of the rock groups Super Furry Animals and The Peth. Ifans also appeared as Xenophilius Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, and as Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man. He...
NationalityWelsh
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth22 July 1967
CityHaverfordwest, England
I come from a culture where the pub is the centre of the community. The pub is the Internet. It's where information is gathered, collated and addressed.
When I'm not filming, I do rock n' roll; when I'm not doing rock n' roll, I do filming.
Acting is not an intellectual process for me. It comes from my heart. It's this strange netherworld of osmosis where I simply become.
I'm always flabbergasted and overwhelmed by the audience a film reaches.
If you had to find a period in history that would equate to what the Internet has presented us with now, it would be Elizabethan England. It was a world in flux.
The war on drugs is being lost on a daily basis.
Welsh women aren't the most tactile unless they're your relatives. And then you don't want them to be.
There's two kinds of rock n' roll casualty: the one that has huge success and adoration, and then suddenly it stops. Or there's when you're in a band: it is all-consuming, so then you have the dream of that, and then the dream's taken away from you even before it happens.
Shyness is invariably a suppression of something. It's almost a fear of what you're capable of.
I honed my passion for acting in theatre and education, and I think it's important not to belittle the child audience.
I think Liverpool generates generosity which rubs off - it's a good place to work and to party.
I'm a passionate Welshman. I have a culinary relationship with language: I taste what I say because I have two languages, and each informs the other.
I just don't take myself as seriously anymore. But as a result of that, I am taking myself more seriously. My ego has gone on holiday, and it can't get a flight back home.
The strange thing is, if I was speaking to drama students about the thing that you should do if you're lucky enough to know or to meet the character that you're playing, I'd say, 'It's obvious: you quiz them diligently about their experience.'