An interview with actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers from 2000, unpublished until now

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BD: Are you interested in stage work?

JRM: I prefer movies. I like making films. Maybe it’s an ego thing.

The further I’ve gone making films the more competitive it gets – money is the status symbol within the industry.

BD: Were you religious growing up?

JRM: I was Catholic for a really long time, and I really loved God and then I stopped when other things started to become more important, like girls. When I was 10 and 11 years old, I used to sit there praying, praying for change. And now I don’t pray as much. Do I have a religion? I wouldn’t say I have a particular religion. That’s a really easy way of getting out of the question. I mean, no, I don’t have a religion but I think about religion a lot. Religion is about belief. I want that kind of belief you have in yourself. I find it very hard to believe in myself, so how can I have a belief in a fundamental way of thinking? I find it hard to believe in myself because I’m constantly in a fight. If I were truly religious I’d be like, “No, you take the part if it makes you feel better.”

I’d really like to play Jesus [he laughs] – “Come on Roman boy, nail me.”

BD: I could see you playing Jesus.

JRM: In my mind, he was this beautiful suffering man with this long beautiful drooping hair falling down over his shoulders – there was just something so giving about him that made me think that this person has done this for me – and that’s the power of the crucifix and Christianity I suppose. The idea that he died for me and no one else, not even your neighbor, not even your sister, not even that guy that got the job ahead of you. That’s what I thought as a kid anyway.

I’d love to be impregnable. I’d love to have no temptation. I’d love to desire nothing, but I do desire everything.

I want to be there for the right reasons, but the right reasons aren’t necessarily the ones that make money.

BD: You travel a lot, film in a lot of different locations. You like it?

JRM: The adventure. Sure, pure adventure. I’m far away from home and anything can happen to me at any time. I’d love to be stolen and kidnapped and held hostage somewhere. I’d love to have been an explorerer, but in some sense that’s what filmmakers are, this is what actors and directors are — the world’s explorers, exploring the internal thing, the internal universe.

BD: Are you making friends in these travels in the film world?

JRM: I don’t have any friends. I have a girlfriend. I’ve never had friends in the film industry because I’ve never been part of those celebrity circles. The funniest thing is that when people become famous they only hang out with famous people. I’ve wanted to hang out with famous people, but it’s never been my trip – I’d like for my trip to be wow and huge parties and I’d be dressed by some designers. That would be fabulous. I’d like that, but it’s just never been my trip.

BD: What do you do to relax?

JRM: This is as relaxed as I get. It gets boring sitting around boozing, and I’ve never been into that sort of gratification. It’s sort of like stealing divinity, don’t you think? Any sort of drinking or taking drugs is stealing divinty because it’s reaching enlightenment. But they don’t nourish you, they don’t feed you, they don’t quench your thirst. That’s what I like about acting. Acting is as close as you can get to divinity.

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Reading back over this now, I’m struck by how often Rhys Meyers disagreed with my questions – “no”, “not really”, and so forth. And I’m struck by his pervasive ambivalence – about his looks, about the prospect of fame, about God, even about intoxication.

After the interview, we briefly wandered around the corner onto Old Compton Street, in the heart of gay London. As nervous and rushed as Jonathan seemed when he arrived at The Groucho Club, he now seemed happy just to hang out for a few minutes. As we walked by the window of a fairly busy café, I noted a handful of stares – was it the actor’s nascent fame, or just his arresting look?

If he noticed the stares, he didn’t let on.

“How tall are you?” he asked me. “I wish I were a tall boy.”

When we stopped to admire some Elvis clothes in a storefront – t-shirts, underwear – I asked him if I could take a quick photo. He was happy to do so, but first wanted to make sure that I didn’t plan to publish it (a promise I am now breaking 12 years later). Of course, in 2005 he starred in the made-for-TV Elvis, for which he won a Golden Globe.

A couple of moments after this photo, he gave me a kiss on the cheek in the middle of the street and we went our separate ways.

I ended up having a remarkable weekend in London from there. I stayed at a hostel on Montague Street, attended an avant garde performance that night in a warehouse space on the other side of the Thames after a visit to the Tate Modern, met up with a local politician, attended Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man the next night at The Old Vic and used my Bobby Zarem connection to meet up with lead dancer Will Kemp and much of the rest of the cast for a few pints at a nearby pub afterward, and even attended a lovely service of carols at Westminster Abbey. But the highlight was the interview, of course.

My best to Jonathan Rhys Meyers as he continues to craft his extraordinary career.