Matthew Rhys must have been known as the fierce KGB agent from Fx’s action drama series The Americans, but we’d love to explore his soft side (or is it really) as he serves us with sumptuous dish in his upcoming chef flick.
In his preparation for his latest film role rivaling Bradley Cooper as chef masters, the Welsh actor pulled up tips from Bryn Williams at Odette’s as he cooked lamb. Diners at the top London restaurant were surprised as they were delighted to learn that Hollywood star Matthew Rhys was in the building cooking Welsh lamb meat.
Rhys tweeted a photo of himself with Bryn in the restaurant’s kitchen. Don’t be fooled though, The Americans spy isn’t planning a change of career any time soon. Instead he asked his acclaimed chef pal Bryn , who runs Odette’s, to give him some cooking advice as he trains for his new role as a Michelin star chef.
“I contacted Bryn as I wanted to chat to a professional chef about the job,” said 39-year-old Rhys, who is now based in Los Angeles but has returned to the UK to film his part.
“He’s got a kitchen table at Odette’s so told me to go in early so we could have a chat about cheffing and then I could watch him cook. I took a few friends with me and then I cooked their lamb. I like to think it was a roaring success.”
The 39 year old Rhys is starring opposite Oscar-nominated heartthrob Bradley Cooper in the currently untitled-as-of-yet movie which is being filmed in a location in London.
From highly acclaimed filmmaker John Wells whose credits include ER, The West Wing and Shameless , the movie stars Cooper as a two star Michelin chef whose arrogance and ill temperedness ruins his career, on his comeback Rhys will be his nemesis who would make it difficult for him to redeem himself. There are also appearances from Emma Thompson and Uma Thurman.
Rhys, who also starred in the American series Brothers And Sisters, admits that he’s not much of a cook in real life although he and fellow LA-based Welshman Andrew Howard are usually in charge of the annual St David’s Day meal across the Pond.
“We roast a lamb which is something of an undertaking. After doing that for eight hours you don’t want to cook anything else for the rest of the year.” He cheekily said.
As far as his latest co-star is concerned, he has nothing but praise. He was totally enthralled. “Bradley is lovely and god he’s good at his job – I’ve been blown away by him. There have been a lot of ‘dishy’ jokes flying around the kitchen from the crew when he’s there.”
Rhysmust be tight on his schedule as he was also working on a number of projects to commemorate the centenary of Dylan Thomas joing the Dylathon, along with Welsh filmmaker Sara Sugarman, he will be producing a version of Under Milk Wood for LA Theatre Works, which he will also star in. “We will be doing it the old-fashioned way with eight actors and eight microphones”, he said.
In the meantime, audiences in Wales will be able to hear him on Bank Holiday Monday when he reads The Outing Thomas’ story of a trip to the seaside which includes people’s memories from the summers of the 1920s and 30s.
