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
Acting is not an intellectual process for me. It comes from my heart. It's this strange netherworld of osmosis where I simply become.
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.
I don't sit around with other actors and talk about the pain and the magic of acting.
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.
Edward Curtis was a photographer in the late 19th century who tried to document the rapidly disappearing Native Americans. He assembled a canon of work which, today, is exemplary and invaluable.
The majority of comic book villains are pure evil, but Curt Connors is an exception. Curt Connors is a good man who initially wants to save the world, but he gets hungry and greedy and reckless, and he pays the price for that.
I went to the Guilford School of Music and Drama, which was affiliated with the Royal Shakespeare Company. I was lucky enough to be taught by a beautiful, wonderful teacher called Patsy Rodenberg, who works a lot with the Royal Shakespeare Company as a voice coach and technician.
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.'
Very often, actors have to face being rejected time and again, and we must remember that the red carpet lasts just a minute.
Villains are fun. I think the important thing in playing them is that they don't see themselves as villains. It lets you be a little more expansive.
If it is not scary, it is not worth doing.