Matthew Rhys is about as famous an American as a Welshman can get. The Cardiff-born actor got his big break in a Broadway adaptation of an all-American classic, playing Ben to Kathleen Turner’s Mrs Robinson in The Graduate. He starred as LA’s most famous attorney in HBO’s Perry Mason and won over audiences in the US cable hit Brothers & Sisters. He won an Emmy for his most famous role as agent Philip Jennings in the FX espionage drama called what else but The Americans – although to be fair, his character was a KGB spy.
It goes without saying, then, that Rhys does a great Yank accent. So much so that it’s a shock to hear him speak in the rolling consonants and round vowels of his birthplace when, on meeting him, he asks after a packet of crisps. “I’m craving salt,” he says, smacking his lips. The 50-year-old is out of luck. There’s coffee and fruit, but no Walkers. He sits down, resigned to a crisp-less hour ahead. For what it’s worth, Rhys himself is so used to playing American that it comes as a surprise whenever he doesn’t have to fake it. “I can’t remember the last time I used my native accent,” he laughs.
