Matthew Rhys is having one of the strongest awards years of his career, but there is still one movie role he wishes had gone differently.
The Welsh actor auditioned to play folk legend Pete Seeger in James Mangold’s Bob Dylan film A Complete Unknown, only for the part to ultimately go to Edward Norton. Rhys admitted the rejection felt terrible, telling The New York Times in a recent interview quoted by Entertainment Weekly that he “felt crappy” when he learned he had missed out.
Rhys had already discussed the same audition in a June New Yorker interview, where he was even more direct about what losing a job can do to an actor. He said the experience made him “hungry and angry again” and added, “It lit a fire again.”
The irony is that Rhys hardly looks short of career momentum now. His performances in Widow’s Bay and The Beast in Me have earned him two acting nominations at this year’s Emmys, while his work as an executive producer on Widow’s Bay brought him a third nomination. Yet he says getting too comfortable is exactly what he wants to avoid.
Rhys Auditioned for Pete Seeger, Not Bob Dylan
When Rhys first revealed the audition, he was careful to clarify that he had not been pursuing Timothée Chalamet’s role as Bob Dylan. “Not for Chalamet’s role; for Ed Norton’s,” Rhys told The New Yorker.
He wanted the part of Pete Seeger, the influential folk musician who becomes an important figure in Dylan’s early New York years. Rhys said learning that Norton had won the role softened the disappointment slightly because of who had beaten him to it. “So when I found out Ed Norton got it, I was, like, Oh, O.K., fine, that felt much better,” he said.
But when interviewer Emily Nussbaum responded that she could completely picture Rhys playing the part, he admitted the loss had not entirely stopped bothering him. “Oh, thanks. Yeah, it still hurts,” Rhys said.
Norton ultimately received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. A Complete Unknown earned eight Oscar nominations overall, including Best Picture, Best Director for Mangold, Best Actor for Chalamet and Best Supporting Actress for Monica Barbaro.
The Rejection Made Rhys Hungry and Angry Again
For Rhys, the disappointment eventually became useful. He told The New Yorker that auditioning reminded him of an earlier stage of his career, before established actors begin receiving roles through offers. “It’s horrible. It’s still horrible,” Rhys said of auditioning.
But after missing out on the Dylan film, he found himself reacting with something closer to determination. “I didn’t get a job, I felt shitty and it made me hungry and angry again and I said, Fuck you, I will work eight times as hard now for the next job,” he said. “It’s good to be humiliated.”
Rhys quickly clarified what he meant by humiliation, and that is the rejection had restored a competitive energy he did not want to lose. “It lit a fire again,” he said. “If you want something, audition for it,” Rhys said. “The director’s not sure you can do it? Prove to him that you can! I couldn’t. But next time I will.”
A Later Interview Brought Back the Same ‘Crappy’ Feeling
Rhys revisited the experience in a more recent New York Times interview, and the emotional balance remained much the same. “I was like, Who got it? And they went, Ed Norton. I was, like, Oh, OK,” he recalled, according to Entertainment Weekly.
“But it’s terrible. I felt crappy, because it reminds you of everything you used to do. You used to give yourself all this hope and then you’d be knocked down,” he said. “It was good. It enlivened me again.”
Rhys saw his reaction as proof that he still cared enough to compete. “I was kind of relieved that I still had that hunger,” he said.
Movies and the Oscars Still Have a Special Pull for Him
That hunger is particularly strong when it comes to film. Although some of Rhys’ most celebrated work has been on television, from The Americans and Perry Mason to his current projects, he said movies still occupy a different place in his imagination. “Movies to me are still the grail.
The Oscars still have the allure to me,” Rhys told The New York Times. “That’s another echelon.” At the same time, his previous awards success has taught him not to expect a trophy to permanently settle an actor’s insecurities.
Rhys won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2018 for playing Philip Jennings on The Americans. Yet he said recognition does not necessarily provide the lasting fulfillment people imagine it will.
“You always think, especially with the awards, that it’ll fulfill some gaping hole that has been there your entire life,” he said. “You go, If I just win an award, it’ll fulfill everything, and it does nothing.”
Rhys Is Now Nominated for Two Very Different Performances
The Television Academy has nominated him for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for playing Mayor Tom Loftis in Widow’s Bay and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for his performance as Nile Jarvis in The Beast in Me.
The two roles put very different sides of Rhys on display. Widow’s Bay casts him as the increasingly overwhelmed mayor of a cursed New England island, while The Beast in Me gives him the darker role of real-estate magnate Nile Jarvis.
Rhys is actually a three-time nominee this year because he is also nominated as an executive producer of Widow’s Bay in the Outstanding Comedy Series category.
Even that run of recognition has not convinced him that he can relax. “I find myself at moments going, Maybe I can relax,” Rhys told The New York Times. “And then you go, Oh, that’s the death knell if you do.”
Tom Hanks Gave Him Advice for Both the Highs and the Lows
Rhys said one piece of advice has helped him keep the current success in perspective. His A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood costar Tom Hanks has a phrase Rhys returns to repeatedly: “This, too, shall pass.”
“You’ve been out of work for a long time? This, too, shall pass. You win two Oscars? This, too, shall pass,” Rhys said. He knows both sides firsthand. Rhys recalled believing he was on a major career ascent after appearing opposite Kathleen Turner in The Graduate on London’s West End in 2000, only to find himself out of work for an extended period afterward.
“I realized the entire journey is the roller coaster,” he said. “You’re up, and then you’re down, and you’re up. So this is just a moment,” Rhys said. “It’s a fantastic moment, but it’s a moment.”