Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Taking on the name Rhys Meyers,[12] his first acting role came in the film, A Man of No Importance (1994). In 1996, he appeared in Michael Collins, as the title character's ambusher. He played a David Bowie-inspired glam rock star in Velvet Goldmine (1998), In 1999, he appeared in Ride with the Devil as psychopathic guerrilla fighter Pitt Mackeson. He starred as Steerpike in the BBC's Gormenghast (2000), he played a dedicated girls' football coach in Bend It Like Beckham (2002), in Vanity Fair (2004) opposite Reese Witherspoon, and co-starred in 2004 in Oliver Stone's epic Alexander where he plays Cassander.[13]

The following year he starred in Woody Allen's drama Match Point (2005), for which he received a Chopard Trophy at the Cannes Film Festival, and in the CBS 4-hour mini-series Elvis (2005) as Elvis Presley alongside Randy Quaid as Colonel Tom Parker, but did not sing for his role in the miniseries.[14] The latter earned him an Emmy[15] nomination and a Golden Globe win.[16] In 2006, he appeared in Mission: Impossible III.

He starred in the CBC/Showtime co-production The Tudors (2007) as Henry VIII. He was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Drama in 2007 for the role.[17]

Meyers with Natalia Vodianova at the premiere of Belle du Seigneur

Subsequent projects include August Rush (2007), In 2008, he appeared in The Children of Huang Shi, and in 2010, Shelter and From Paris with Love.[18]

In 2011, he starred as Solal in Belle du Seigneur, an English language film adaptation of Albert Cohen's novel Belle du Seigneur. The film was released in Russia on 29 November 2012 and in France on 19 June 2013 after premiering at the Champs Elysees Film Festival.

In 2013, Meyers was cast as Dracula in NBC's television series Dracula alongside Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Jessica De Gouw.[19] It was also announced in May 2013 that Jonathan was to participate in the recording of his brothers' album entitled Blossom, which was released on 21 April 2014.

On 23 October 2014, he received The Irish Post Legend Award at the London Hilton on Park Lane in recognition of his remarkable achievements in Film & Television over the previous 20 years.[20]

Meyers played the lead in the spy thriller Damascus Cover, based on the novel by Howard Kaplan.[21] It premiered on September 23, 2017, at the Boston Film Festival.[22]

Meyers portrays Patrick Pearse, a political activist and one of the leaders of the bloody 1916 Irish Easter Rising, in the centennial commemoration biopic film The Rising, written and produced by Kevin McCann.[23]

In 2018, it was announced that Meyers would star in the remake of the Korean film Hide and Seek.[24] That same year it was revealed that he would be joining the cast of the thriller Altitude.[25]

In 2019, it was announced that Meyers would star in Rajah, a biopic of the British explorer Sir James Brooke.[26] He was also revealed to have joined the cast of American Night. A neo-noir thriller co-starring Emile Hirsch, Paz Vega, and Jeremy Piven.[27]

A self-taught singer and guitarist, he has appeared in a number of musical roles. His first such role was as "Brian Slade" in Velvet Goldmine; two of the songs he sang ("Baby's on Fire" and "Tumbling Down") are on the film's soundtrack. He sang briefly in the TV miniseries version of The Magnificent Ambersons, performed in studio scenes of the miniseries Elvis and played the flute in Gormenghast.^{[citation needed]}

In the 2007 music drama August Rush, he performed on-screen as singer-songwriter Louis Connelly and is credited for four songs on the soundtrack – "Break", "Moondance", "Something Inside" and "This Time". Of the four, "This Time" and "Break" were considered in the Best Original Song category of the 80th Academy Awards. "This Time" was not released as a single but peaked at number 84 in the Canadian Hot 100.

Una foto dell'attore alla festa del cinema di Roma

Rhys Meyers dated his Velvet Goldmine co-star, Toni Collette, for a year.[28]

From 2004 until 2012, Meyers was in a relationship with Reena Hammer, daughter of makeup artist Ruby Hammer.[29][30]

In 2007, Meyers' representative, Meredith O'Sullivan, confirmed that, "After a non-stop succession of filming, Jonathan Rhys Meyers has entered an alcohol-treatment programme."[31][32] His representative confirmed Meyers was again receiving treatment in 2010.[33] In November 2011, Meyers was ordered by a French court to pay a restitution of €1,000 and was given a judgment of a suspended sentence for public intoxication 24 months earlier.[34]

In 2009, Rhys Meyers was detained in Paris by French police because he allegedly assaulted an airport lounge employee while drunk.[35]

In 2010, Rhys Meyers made headlines when at John F. Kennedy International Airport he abused the staff and an official, who had refused him access to the boarding area, by calling them the 'N' word. Allegedly, he had gotten drunk on vodka while waiting in the first-class lounge at approximately 7 am.[35][36]

In a 2018 interview with Larry King, Meyers addressed his drinking, stating that it doesn’t suit him. He also stated that before an incident within that same year, he’d been sober for a long time. He insisted that he’d learned his lesson and was now sober again.[37]

On 20 November 2007, his mother, Mary Geraldine "Geri" O'Keeffe, died at Mercy University Hospital, Cork, aged 51, following a short, undisclosed illness.[38]

Rhys Meyers and Mara Lane, who were married in 2016,[39] had a son, Wolf Rhys Meyers, in December 2016.[40] Lane said in September 2017 that she had miscarried a second child.[39][41]

In 2019 Meyers credited his family, and fatherhood in particular with making him the happiest he’s ever been. He stated “Once you have your first child, you become the past. We’re all busy giving out to ourselves and driving ourselves forward. A child gives you a new perspective on life”.[42]