Matthew Rhys on a Welsh Braveheart, Little Chef service stations, and his new film Hallow Road

You might recognise Matthew Rhys as the undercover Russian spy in The Americans, the titular Perry Mason in the recent reboot, or as DC Comic's Nite Owl in the Watchmen animated adaptation. Given his international silver-screen career and typecast-proof roles, it almost came as a shock when Shortlist recently met up with Matthew to be greeted by the heartiest Welsh accent imaginable.

We'll next see Matthew in the new thriller Hallow Road which will be landing in cinemas Friday May 16th. After getting a late-night phone call from their teenage daughter, Alice, after she's accidentally hit a pedestrian, husband and wife Matthew Rhys and Rosamund Pike jump in the car to come and help her, before anyone else can find out. However, as they drive deeper into the night and further into the countryside, it gets spookier and spookier, with secrets and revelations coming to light.

Directed by Babak Anvari and written by William Gillies, it has already scored an enviable 72/100 on Rotten Tomatoes, with early reviews calling it a disturbingly realistic dramatisation of every parent's worst nightmare. After we watched it, it made us very grateful for TFL.

We caught up with him over a pint at The Lucky Saint pub to find out more about the film, his own pet driving peeves, and his dream roles. Move over split the G, we decided to split the Qs - a little Q and Ale if you will.

Shortlist: Cheers!

Matthew Rhys: Cheers!

*slurps beer*

SL: So you spend a lot of your new film Hallow Road in the car...

MR: I do yes, nearly all of it in fact

SL: So if you’re driving for real, what is your go-to roadtrip soundtrack, what are you listening to?

MR: Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, by Bob Dylan. It’s mellow, it lasts a long time, it feels like you have a soundtrack to your drive… it’s the perfect soundtrack

SL: Okay, so it’s kind of like having your own trailer?

MR: The trailer to my life, yes, exactly. I live my life like I’m in a trailer

SL: DJ, passenger princess, snack master, what’s your role?

MR: Definitely snack master, I’m quite militant about snacks. Music is tough because that depends on the company. Most of my friends have far superior music tastes than me…

SL: So you’re quite a diplomatic DJ?

MR: I think it’s just old age, I don’t have the fight in me any more.

SL: Are you a service station stopper?

MR: Absolutely - for the snacks. I like to see who has the best snack game in town. My go to is probably Little Chef. Little Chef is the best UK service station. Do they still have them? Little chef’s Full English Breakfast that’s what I’d get - even though I’m Welsh.

SL: What’s in a Welsh breakfast?

MR: Leeks probably? Glemorgan sausage? You know what there is actually an official Welsh breakfast: it's laverbread, sausage, an oat patty, fried in bacon fat, served with cockles.

SL: Wow, start the day as you mean to go on, right?

MR: With a coronary, yes…

SL: Hallow Road feels a bit different from some of your other roles. What would be your dream role?

MR: Off the cuff, any cowboy in a Western. My absolute dream role is from a true story - it was a Welsh Prince from the year 1500, very similar to Mel Gibson’s Braveheart. I’ve been trying to get it made for a long time but sadly Mel Gibson’s Braveheart put an end to that - every time you present the idea to a studio they go - “that’s a Welsh Braveheart”, and you go “I know… Happened to us as well”...

SL: You’ve played a lot of different roles - do you prefer playing a hero or a villain?

MR: A hero for the Welsh Braveheart. Although I’d say the villains I've played have been far more fun. Look at the bond villains, superman villains. Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor - the best one!

SL: Do you ever karaoke?

MR: Usually solo on a roadtrip. It’s the only place I’m allowed to sing! It would probably be Tom Jones. Every Welsh cliche covered.

SL: The Welsh stereotypically have great voices - do you fall into that category?

MR: I mean, I don’t know. A tentative yes? If I’m singing, it’s got to be Tom Jones, Fall in Love or The Mexican Puppeteer. Jones is the Welsh Elvis after all.

SL: Do you have a comfort film or show that you always watch?

MR: Yes, easy - The Princess Bride. I introduced my nine year old son to it recently and I was worried that he was too young for it and wouldn’t get it. I didn’t want him to hate it but he loved it. He now just walks around the house going “inconceivable”.

SL: Do you ever do impressions yourself? Whose better at them, you or your son?

MR: [Does Princess Bride impressions for three and a half minutes] My son is much better at impressions. He is good. Now he’s like Fezzick and always tries to watch it. For me, I watch it every couple of weeks - I need that comfort. God, that film must be 35-40 years old.

*more beer*

MR: I made 100 Welsh cakes the other day

SL: Any reason?

MR: Yes! My son came home from school and said that they had to bring in 100 of something - 100 pennies, 100 buttons, 100 peas - and he wanted to do Welsh cakes. I said you can only bring them in if they’re fresh which means we would have to get up very early, and he just went, well let’s get up very early then! And we did. I think it was a teacher who didn’t know what to do next.

SL: A teacher ChatGPT-ing the lesson plan?

MR: Yes, maybe! ChatGPT: scraping the barrel for new ideas for entertaining nine-year-olds. Actually, I think it was their 100th day at school. So there was a reason behind it - 100 things for their 100th day.

SL: Do you have a favourite character you’ve played?

MR: I did a show called The Americans. I was playing a Russian spy pretending to be American. That was fun because within that one role he was playing many different parts. It was tricky at times - but useful because if your accent slipped you could just go well that’s part of it - you know, he’s undercover playing something else.

SL: You have done a lot of different accents across your different roles. Which accent is hardest to do?

MR: Posh English. Usually I run through the alphabet to get myself into the accent I’ve got to do. Or just start speaking in the accent the week before - just to really annoy the kids! When the kids try to imitate me though, they do a Cockney accent - they sound like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins going "ello Guv'nor" and I just think I’m Welsh! I don’t sound like that - I’m not even from England!

SL: We’re currently having a nice (alcohol free) pint right now. What pub snack would you be ordering?

MR: Pork scratchings. My favourite. And there was a pub I used to go to in West Wales where they would get fresh scratching from the butcher. They were fresh pork scratchings deep fried and you could literally feel your arteries hardening when you ate them - that is commitment. Deep fat swine…

SL: That is the sign of a good pub snack, can you feel your arteries hardening when you eat it?

MR: Exactly - does your mouth pucker with the taste of it? In terms of crisps, I’m a classic salt and vinegar crisp person. I don’t do well with prawn cocktail. I’m no stranger to a Quaver though.

SL: Pub roast or home roast?

MR: Ooh, that's a tricky one. Depends on the pub. There are a lot of expat chefs where we live [in America] so there are really good pubs. I’ll have lamb at Easter but I’m predominantly always beef if there’s a choice. I want a Yorkshire pudding! I’ll take any kind of Yorkshire pudding.

SL: So an Aunt Bessie’s passes muster for you?

MR: Absolutely, even if it’s just warm cardboard by that point

SL: You’re a sailor now!

MR: Aye aye, I just like it when people say aye aye skipper.

SL: Do you make them call you captain on set?

MR: I try, no one does though

SL: Do you wear the hat?

MR: I do

SL: Is that your guilty pleasure? Do you have any others?

MR: Taking Terry's chocolate orange and microwaving it slightly so it’s a little melted. Or whacking it in the freezer

SL: What job would you have if you hadn’t been an actor?

MR: Cowboy - I mean I can’t back that up but I’d like to think I could. Or astronaut - any of the obvious really. I had horses for a long time - I knew a couple of cowboys on the pro-rodeo circuit and I really liked their life. I liked the hat, I liked the gate, the stoicism, the monosyllabic answers.

SL: That’s the retirement plan sorted, pro-rodeo cowboy. Do you think you have a Doppelganger? Is there anyone you get mistaken for?

MR: Not a lot, but I do get mistaken for the Australian actor Julian McMahon - I sometimes get people yelling out “Loved you in Nip/Tuck!” and I just go thank you thank you very much - I don’t even question it, I just enjoy the complement. Sometimes they go, “I thought you were Australian!" and I go, Australian Welsh, yeah… I’ll take it! He’s a dishy catch.

SL: Do you think he ever gets it for you?

MR: I hope not, the poor bugger. I'm pretty sure his father is the Australian Prime minister or something.

SL: You could claim yours is Tom Jones...

MR: I think half of Wales could claim that!

• Hallow Road is in cinemas from 16th May

Main image credit: Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/WireImage via Getty Images

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