Matthew Rhys Revealed His True Colors After One Simple Question

Matthew Rhys is currently riding the biggest wave of his career, commanding attention across Hollywood, Netflix, Apple TV and the awards circuit. At the Emmy Awards, he made history by becoming the first actor to claim two lead acting prizes in a single night, recognised for his performances in the supernatural comedy Widow’s Bay and the psychological thriller The Beast In Me.

Although his profile has now reached a global audience, Rhys has been a familiar presence in acclaimed film and television projects for years. His credits include The Americans, the espionage drama that earned him a Best Actor Emmy. He is, by any measure, a Hollywood A-lister and one of the industry’s most decorated performers.

Yet anyone who watches or reads an interview with Rhys — born and raised in Cardiff, educated at a Welsh-language secondary school and later accepted by RADA — will notice how unassuming he remains. During a recent WalesOnline interview, he visibly blushed when described as “Wales’ greatest living actor” and immediately redirected the praise towards Sir Anthony Hopkins and Michael Sheen.

Speaking to The New York Times, Rhys admitted that even his extraordinary run of recent success has not erased his doubts. “I’ve just never felt that confidence, that self-assuredness that I always wished I had,” he said.

The journalist who conducted that interview later observed: “You would think two Emmy nominations for leading roles in the same year would make the actor Matthew Rhys feel very secure in himself and his career. But as I learned in our conversation, you would be wrong.”

Of course, public humility does not always tell the full story. Hollywood is packed with stars who appear gracious and modest in interviews, only to behave very differently once the cameras are gone and the reporters have left.

But it is difficult to imagine anyone placing Rhys in that category. After collecting his recent Emmy awards, he dedicated them “to the great and good people of Wales” before leaving the stage with the words “Diolch yn fawr iawn” — Welsh for “thank you very much”.

I have spoken with the actor twice. The first interview took place in Swansea around the release of The Edge of Love, the 2008 film in which he portrayed Dylan Thomas alongside Cillian Murphy, Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller. It was our second meeting, however, that has stayed with me.

In 2019, Wales were preparing for their Rugby World Cup semi-final, and the WalesOnline team wanted to produce something capable of lifting the players and supporters before a daunting clash with South Africa. Wales eventually lost by just three points to the side that went on to beat England in the final and lift the World Cup.

We chose Now and Then, a poem by Welsh poet and playwright Owen Sheers that captures the shared, unifying feeling of watching your country compete. It seemed the ideal message — provided we could find the right person to perform it. You can watch the video here.

I sent Rhys a message to ask whether he would take part. Feeling more than a little nervous, I first had to explain exactly who I was: “I don’t know if you remember me but I interviewed you when The Edge of Love was released.”

I assumed the message would go unanswered. By then, Matthew Rhys was an established star living in the United States, with 75 episodes of The Americans and 109 episodes of Brothers and Sisters already behind him. Asking him for a favour was not quite the same as texting Tom Hanks — but it was not far off.

“Steffan!” came the quick response, as if he was greeting a dear old friend and not a random journalist he met fleetingly 11 years ago. He immediately said he’d do it and sent over the recording shortly afterwards. I still cringe at what I did next, which was to suggest to this world-class actor that one part wasn’t quite right and whether he might do it again. To which he politely replied that he was “just busy filming at the moment” but that he’d do it later if he could. I’m not entirely sure what he was filming but the HBO remake of Perry Mason, in which he starred in the lead role, came out shortly afterwards.

His generosity is something I remember clearly and fondly all these years later and I doubt I’ll ever forget it. You’d be hard-pressed to think of another star at this level who would so kindly take time out of what must have been a frantic filming schedule to help out when he really didn’t have to.

There are moments in history when

regardless of your seat, a nation becomes a stadium.

When a country’s gaze and speech,

tightens in one direction.

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When a population leans, from sofas,

pub stools, in village halls, to watch.

Or strains to listen in cars at the sides of roads,

or in tractor cabs stilled in silent fields.

There are moments when the many,

through the few, become one.

A faithful but demanding tribe,

fed by the past, hungry for a win

but also more. For beauty as well as strength,

But romance, history, fervour,

are the privilege of watchers only.

For the men who must do, who must carry this burden,

though fuelled by the colour of the jersey,

the feathers on their chest, there can be no past

or future when, but only now.

For them those eighty tightening minutes

will be an ever-living present

composed of the angle of their runs,

the timing of cross kicks, the learned set piece

which like a trigger will fire the line

to light the match. It will be the focused practice

of what their bodies have learnt on the training pitch.

The thousands of hours of solitary pain,

the sacrifice which has led them,

A nation watching, sharing a pulse

as the clock counts up to the final whistle

when, in an instant, now becomes then.

The moment, whichever way it falls, cast forever,

and theirs to carry for the rest of their lives

until, like those who’ve passed through

this crucible before, they too will join

the soil, the tir, the pridd of this land

they were prepared to fight and suffer for.