{"id":29967,"date":"2025-06-02T22:12:59","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T02:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=29967"},"modified":"2025-06-07T03:27:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T07:27:40","slug":"actor-jonathan-rhys-meyers-american-night-actor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=29967","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive Interview: Actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers on \u2018American Night\u2019 and His Career"},"content":{"rendered":"

How you know actor <\/span>Jonathan Rhys Meyers<\/span><\/a> might depend on whether you\u2019ve seen him in any of the movies he\u2019s made over the past thirty years or whether you know him more for television shows like <\/span>The Tudors<\/i><\/b> and<\/span> Vikings<\/i><\/b>. On the movie side, Meyers mayk have become known from his role in Todd Haynes\u2019 <\/span>Velvet Goldmine<\/i><\/b>, the classic Brit sports movies <\/span>Bend It Like Beckham<\/i><\/b>, or Woody Allen\u2019s <\/span>Match Point<\/i><\/b>. Meyers has also done his fair share of big studio franchises with an appearance in 2006\u2019s <\/span>Mission: Impossible III<\/i><\/b>, opposite Tom Cruise.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reason for Rhys Meyers doing interviews recently was because a few years back he appeared in a neo-noir crime-thriller called <\/span>American Night<\/i><\/b>, written and directed by <\/span>Alessio Della Valle<\/span><\/a>, playing John Kaplan, an art forger who is dealing with the disappearance of Andy Warhol\u2019s \u201cPink Marilyn\u201d that was going to a mobster. It puts Meyers\u2019 character into a relationship with Paz Vega\u2019s Sarah Flores, which leads to some steamy sex scenes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The movie got lost in the shuffle during the COVID pandemic, but it\u2019s been on Hulu since then, and <\/span>Cinema Daily US<\/span><\/i> had a chance to speak with Rhys Meyers about his decision to make the movie.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat made me do the film in the first place was I really wanted to work with Paz Vega and Emile Hirsch,\u201d the actor told us. \u201cI like them both as people and as actors. I like the character of John Kaplan because he’s never quite on terra firma, he’s always white water rafting, and nothing really ever works out for him, and those are quite fun characters to play, I suppose. Comic-tragic characters are quite fun to play. The only time he’s ever on terra firma is when he’s on his back at the end of the movie, and I think that’s a nice place for him to end up anyway.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason I’m doing the press now is because the director asked me to,\u201d the actor admits with a laugh. \u201cUnfortunately, a few of the projects that I did like <\/span>The Yakuza Princess<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Edge of the World<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>A Good Neighbour<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>The Twelfth Man<\/span><\/i>, they all kind of fell into that time, where all these movies came out in 2019, \u201820, \u201821, \u201822. That was a very difficult time to have made films that were then going to come out in that time, because of course, there were no cinemas to do it. They had to rush to make streaming deals, and of course, things got lost. Because they had to go on to streaming deals, the editing budget started to go way down for some projects, where they just wanted to f*cking bandage it up and get it out. They did this obviously with lots of projects, not only small independent films, which I usually work in, but also for big-time studio films.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey had to find an audience very quickly for an audience that were no longer able to transport themselves to a cinema,\u201d Meyers continues. \u201cThat was obviously a difficult time to bring your film out in, because things get missed and you don’t get the same amount of attention. You don’t get to have a premiere and hype people up and get them more interested in the project to see it. Things got missed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jonathan Rhys Meyers in American Night (photo courtesy Saban Films)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since Meyers mentioned doing more indepedent films, we wondered whether he intentionally eschewed doing bigger studio movies like <\/span>Mission: Impossible III<\/span><\/i> and preferred doing independent films. \u201cNo, I’m an actor, and I do the films that I get,\u201d he responded frankly. \u201cIt’s not like I get to choose as much as I would like to choose. You do the projects that are the best projects offered to you at that time. That’s what you do as an actor. It’s much simpler and more straightforward like that. I’d like to say that it was more convoluted, more determined than this. Because of that change in streaming things, there may be films I would rather I hadn’t done. Sometimes, you do films just because you want to take up time. There are many films, if I had my choice, just talking straight as an actor, I may only have done a dozen films in my career. It’s different as an actor: it’s a job, it’s a career, so sometimes you’re going to do things that are not things that you really want to do, but you have to do because one has to work, and I’m a father.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Meyers did sign on to act in <\/span>American Night<\/span><\/i> despite not being familiar with Della Vale before joining the movie. \u201cI didn\u2019t know his work because that was his first film, so at least I knew the work of Paz because I was very impressed with <\/span>Sex and Lucia,<\/i><\/b> and I was very impressed with Emilio Hirsch in <\/span>Into the Wild<\/i><\/b>, of course. I\u2019d seen their work. I’d never seen Alessio’s work, so sometimes, you take a chance on a first-time director. The first-time director, of course, has to make his first film. They’ve got to break their bones somewhere, and make their bones, funnily enough. That’s usually how it works out. He was an unknown quantity, but I knew the work of the other two, which is why I wanted to work with them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI did like Paz,\u201d Meyers says about his scene-mate for a number of steamy scenes. \u201cShe has that old-world Castillian energy, but she\u2019s also quite liberated as a human being. She’s a smart cookie. And then I’m very fond of Emile. He’s got that quiet intelligence that I like in an actor.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Annabelle Belmondo and Jonathan Rhys Meyers in American Night (photo courtesy Saban FIlms)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although the movie does mostly take place in the States, the filmmaker\u2019s Italian background and the logo for Italian production giant Rei might make some thing that the movie was filmed in Italy. In fact, it was shot mostly in Bulgaria, though Hirsch did shoot some stuff in Italy. Meyers has been acting for so long that he\u2019s comfortable filming wherever his work takes him with no concerns about the language spoken by the crew. \u201cI don\u2019t tend to worry about language barriers ever, because I’ve had to work in different languages. You have to get lingual very, very quickly in places. If I’m working in Spain or Italy, after a week or two, my Italian starts to get better, my Spanish gets better. If I’m in France, the same, my French will get better. <\/span>The 12th Man<\/span><\/i>, I did the entire film in German, so you just surround yourself with different people, and you just start to pick up the linguistics as you go.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When asked whether languages was something he was always good at or it was something he picked up just by the nature of being an actor, Meyers responded, \u201cYou’ve got to work on it. No one’s that good. Because I play music [sings the notes \u2018A, B, C, D\u2019], that makes it a little bit easier for me. If you’re musical, learning languages is easier. There’s no doubt about that. That’s hands down.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mentioning that he plays music, wanted us to know more about Meyers\u2019 musical background, since he had appeared in quite a few music-based films over the years, going all the way back to Todd Haynes\u2019 classic, <\/span>Velvet Goldmine<\/i><\/b> in 1998. Meyers elaborated on how that interest in music developed. \u201cFor many years I knew just the basic chords. Just playing the guitar, you can play a few tunes and you know the basic chords. I had to play a little bit in <\/span>Velvet Goldmine,<\/span><\/i> and I certainly had to sing, but then I had to do the same thing for <\/span>Elvis<\/span><\/i>, then I had to do the same for <\/span>August Rush<\/span><\/i>, and then for <\/span>London Town<\/span><\/i>, playing Joe Strummer. I had to perform and record all the songs as Strummer, and so all the Clash stuff up until then, I knew the basics of being able to play the guitar. You can just play a bit of guitar, and a little bit of lead.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Meyers continued to tell how his love of music continued, though it led to a sad note about losing his favorite guitar in this year\u2019s L.A. fires. \u201cIn about 2015, I was in Louisiana doing <\/span>Roots<\/i><\/b>, and I met up with a blues guitar player. I had a really, really nice guitar, which now, unfortunately, I don’t have anymore, because unfortunately, my house burned down in the L.A. fires. All of my guitars, my artwork, my clothes, but I mean everything I owned up until 44 years old was in my house in Southern California, so the whole thing went up in smoke rather quickly, unfortunately. So that guitar is gone, but I met this player and we started playing a little bit, so from maybe 2016, I’ve been playing a lot myself, extensively, but I don’t record, but I do play pretty regularly now. I play on the daily, yes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Knowing the actor\u2019s proclivity for blues guitar and the fact that Ryan Cooger\u2019s <\/span>Sinners<\/i><\/b> also includes some Irish folk music, we wondered if he had a chance to see it yet since he hadn\u2019t been in Southeastern Ireland, rather than in the States. \u201cI’m not quite sure that it\u2019s here yet, but I hear good things. He’s a talented man, Ryan Coogler. He’s a gifted director, and Michael B. Jordan is a gifted actor. He can definitely open a film anyway.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Jeremy Piven in American Night. (Photo courtesy of Saban Films)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rhys Meyers won the Golden Globe for playing Elvis Presley in the CBS mini-series, <\/span>Elvis<\/i><\/b>, but he generally doesn\u2019t watch his own work to confirm that it\u2019s worth seeking out. \u201cPersonally I’ve never seen it, but then that’s not uncommon that an actor won’t see their own work,\u201d he says about rewatching <\/span>Elvis<\/span><\/i> after his Golden Globe win. \u201cI think at that time I would have been too nervous to look at it, and then I was getting awards for it and people said it was good, and then I really didn’t want to look at it, just in case I thought it was bad.And then, I got Golden Globe-nominated the next year for <\/span>The Tudors<\/i><\/b>, they asked me again if I had seen <\/span>Elvis<\/span><\/i> since I won the Golden Globe, and I still haven’t seen it. And then I thought, \u2018I never should see it now.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When asked about what he\u2019s looking for in projects that he accepts these days, having been told earlier that he goes where the work takes him, Meyers had a confident response. \u201cCompetent directors, that’s plain and simple. Actors appear in films, they don’t make films. Directors and editors make films, so depending on the quality of the director and the quality of the editor, that will judge the quality of how your performance is viewed. Film and TV are not an actor’s medium \u2013 they\u2019re a director’s medium \u2013 so it all lies in the competency of your director. Directors make the film; actors just appear in them. If you’re an actor and you appear in a film with a competent director, your performance should be good, because the competent director is looking out, and then, if they make good films, people will see them. But it’s not an actor’s medium, so what am I looking for? I’m looking for a good, competent director. That’s it.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And yet, Rhys Meyers has no interest in writing or directing something himself. \u201cI question my competency,\u201d he admitted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Before letting Rhys Meyers get back to his day, we wondered why he didn\u2019t appear in more comedies, since he was generally pretty funny when we spoke. \u201cI don’t know, maybe I’m not a funny guy. That’s a different skill. I don’t think people look at me, and go \u2018Ah, funny\u2026 ha ha.\u201d I mean, I would certainly do it, but I don\u2019t think I could do a Jim Carrey-esque type movie, or an Adam Sandler-ish type movie, or a Will Ferrell-type movie. I just think I\u2019d suck.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That said, he does have one comic filmmaker that would interest him to work with. \u201cI’d love to do a comedy for [Armando Ianucci] maybe, because his comedies are extraordinarily smart. They\u2019re very cleverly done, the situations are very funny, and he’s extraordinarily f*cking talented, and that\u2019s it. <\/span>The Thick Of It<\/i><\/b> is funny, <\/span>In The Loop<\/i><\/b> is funny, <\/span>The Death Of Stalin<\/i><\/b> is funny, even though these subjects are deadly serious, but it\u2019s because of the competency of the filmmaker. That’s why they’re good.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You can watch the trailer for <\/span>American Night<\/span><\/i> below, and the movie is available to stream on <\/span>Hulu<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n