Wednesday July 04, 2012 01:00 PM
Not many actors from a summer superhero movie would cite Shakespeare to justify their film’s existence.
Then again, not many actors are “The Amazing Spider-Man’s” Rhys Ifans, a very unlikely person to grace a big-budget action extravaganza.
A classically trained theater performer who dropped off the Hollywood map for more than a decade, the Welsh actor, 43, presents an odd blend of thoughtful eloquence, rock ’n’ roll swagger and career ambivalence — not to mention a, er, high-mindedness about the work he’s doing.
“There are these enduring, socially mirroring qualities that Spider-Man has that beg us to revisit him,” Ifans said when asked why he thought the time was right for a new Spider-Man movie. “He’s in a sense a spokesman for every generation. And like all great albums, or movies, or pieces of literature, we revisit them. ‘Hamlet’ is prepared dozens of times, and nobody ever says ‘Why the … are we doing that again?’ “
Ifans is a key part of doing that again — that is, Etch-a-Sketching one of Hollywood’s most popular franchises just five years after it last appeared on the big screen. Improbably directed by the indie filmmaker Marc Webb (“(500) Days of Summer”) and anchored by a cerebral Brit (Andrew Garfield), the movie is both a financial and tonal gamble.
“The Amazing Spider-Man,” which opened Tuesday, tackles a familiar tale about the transformation of the ordinary teen Peter Parker — told by Sam Raimi to great creative and box-office effect beginning in 2002 — more intimately than the original.
Sony Pictures executives are crossing their fingers that they made the right decision with their $230 million bet.
Ifans has plenty riding on the movie too. As Curt Connors, the lizard-morphing scientist who is Spidey’s chief rival, the actor has taken on the most prominent role of his enigmatic career.
After enchanting U.S. audiences as Hugh Grant’s unkempt roommate in 1999’s “Notting Hill,” Ifans largely disappeared from the American screen. He took minor roles in forgettable studio comedies (“Little Nicky,” anyone?) and larger parts in well-regarded but little-seen indies. Instead he concentrated on theater and music in his native U.K. (Ifans was briefly the lead singer of the cult Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals.)
But in the last 18 months Ifans has been unexpectedly thrust back into the Hollywood spotlight. He has played the editor of a wizard magazine in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1”; the Earl of Oxford in Roland Emmerich’s Shakespeare-flavored period drama “Anonymous”; and an unctuous professor competing for Emily Blunt’s affections in “The Five-Year Engagement.” He’ll next appear as a pining lover in the star-laden romance “Serena.”
In all these guises, Ifans’ Super Furry Animals past has never been too far behind. The actor carries himself with a Mick Jagger air — living much of the year on the Spanish island of Majorca doesn’t hurt, nor does an arrest at Comic-Con — that makes an impression even on co-stars accustomed to groupiedom.
“Rhys is just way cooler than you are,” said “The Hunger Games’ ” Jennifer Lawrence, who stars opposite Ifans in “Serena.” “It’s an effortless cool that makes you feel like a nerd; even his clothes make you feel like you should have worn something cooler.”
Sporting fashionable scruff and a necklace with a sword pendant dangling from it, Ifans’ appearance confirmed Lawrence’s description. His thin blond hair was stylishly bed-headed, and a pack of cigarettes was tucked into the pocket of his fashionably skinny slacks. Though he was relaxed and engaging, he could also sound a boastful note, suggesting at one point that he differs from the character of Don Juan, whom he once played on the London stage, because he reads Gabriel Garcia Marquez and, really, would Don Juan do that?
As he invoked Shakespeare to describe Spider-Man, Ifans was just getting going.
“Not that I’m comparing ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Spider-Man’ in literary terms. But in archetypal terms they’re both very real and relevant figures. Hamlet is a youth grappling with the loss of his father, same as Spider-Man. It’s easy to say, ‘Why is Sony doing this again, but (not) ‘Come on, Shakespeare, write another one.’ ”
In “The Amazing Spider-Man,” Connors is a mysterious amputee who knows what’s happened to Peter Parker’s father, his former partner. Uptight and smug, Connors conducts high-level genetic research about limb regeneration — until a risky self-experiment unleashes the beast within and turns him into a rampaging reptile. The actor viewed the lizard transformation as conferring on his character “a great euphoria, a sense of hubris, in the same way as a crystal-meth user.”
Still, the script hits a number of familiar beats — the spider bite that gives Parker his powers, the death of Parker’s uncle and the hero’s evolution from awkward teen into web-slinging hero — prompting consternation in bloggerdom.
Ifans said he understands fans’ concerns. “Spider-Man is not a millionaire who lives in a dark tower on a hill and keeps his car in a cave and hangs out with a scantily clad boy called Robin,” the actor said. “He’s not some deity like Superman who lives on another planet. He’s the kid next door; he’s you and me. We’ve all been there. … We’ve all been bullied to some extent. He’s overcoming something we’re all familiar with. So people feel they own him even more.”
Ifans said any worries he had were dispelled when he heard Webb would be behind the camera. “Marc has a forensic attention to human relationships, and I thought that would elevate ‘Spider-Man’ to something very present … realer than the way we’d seen it before,” he said.
When the studio and producers were seeking their Connors/Lizard — a tragic figure in his own right — they called director Emmerich, who recommended Ifans.
Ifans said while he’s grateful for the new work, he doesn’t always relish the media attention that comes with it. At last summer’s Comic-Con, Ifans was arrested on suspicion of battery after scuffling with a security guard. No charges were filed, but many in the blogosphere had a field day anyway. “That’s one of the things about being in the public eye — something like that happens and suddenly you’re an ax-wielding madman,” he said.
Despite the recent bounty, Ifans can radiate an ambivalence about a Hollywood career. Nicholas Stoller, who directed Ifans in “Engagement,” noted that, though devoted to the part, the actor was “pretty private, just a touch removed.”
Ifans doesn’t disagree. “There is a part of me that thinks I just want to rear pigs in Wales. It’s weird. I don’t know if it’s a protection mechanism or what, but there is a part of me as a child that wanted to be a farmer, and I really think it would be OK if it went that way.”
He added, “There aren’t a lot of similarities between my work now and that, except maybe the unsociable hours, the free food and the bull—” He paused. “But the bull — on the farm you can shovel away.”
from: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/04/3688908/rhys-ifans-cool-in-person-cold.html
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using the number/letter grid:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A B C D E F G H I
J K L M N O P Q R
S T U V W X Y Z
Where:
A = 1 J = 1 S = 1
B = 2 K = 2 T = 2
C = 3 L = 3 U = 3
D = 4 M = 4 V = 4
E = 5 N = 5 W = 5
F = 6 O = 6 X = 6
G = 7 P = 7 Y = 7
H = 8 Q = 8 Z = 8
I = 9 R = 9
Rhys Ifans
9871 96151 47
his path of destiny = 47 = Famous. Internationally known.
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