From Jonathan

“Acting’s the easiest job in the world. Just say the lines.”

“My mother said I was a star when I was about four years old. That’s all I need.”

On the “Michael Collins” audition:

“I went up to Dublin and met Neil at the Davenport Hotel. I was sitting in the lobby waiting for the audition and I’ll always remember the carpet, this beautiful royal blue carpet I was looking down at while I was waiting.”

“I’ve never gone to acting school and I never will, so I’m learning about the business from the people who are in the business. It doesn’t seem like I work at all. And the unknown is always exciting.”

“I think I’d really like to be someone who would be known for being a nice guy.”

“But actors, everything is so physical. You’re basically the only product you have. The hardest part of acting is realizing it doesn’t matter. I’m going to try and not take it too seriously because, if I do, I would really wreck my head.”

“Somebody once said to me: ‘Jonny, you’ll either end up sweeping the streets or owning them.’”

About Jonathan

“The Disappearance of Finbar” producer David Collins:

“Jonathan is the absent centre of the film. Once we met him, he was always going to be Finbar. He had this quality, this heady mixture of youth, passion and vulnerability.”

“Michael Collins” director Neil Jordan film diary notes:

“I have found someone to play Collin’s killer. Jonathan Rees-Myers(sic), from County Cork apparently, who looks like a young Tom Cruise. Comes into the casting session with alarming certainty. Obviously gifted.”

Spin magazine on “Velvet Goldmine”:

“[Rhys Meyers’] is a genius at capturing vulnerability, confused desire, and calculation in a single expression.”

Variety on “B. Monkey”:

“Outside Argento, most of the movie’s character color comes from Everett, very good as a waspish, drug-addled homosexual, and Rhys Meyers, tightly-wound as his dangerous, lovelorn partner.”

Boy George on “Bend It Like Beckham” from The Sunday Express, April 14, 2002:

“Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays the football coach and I remember meeting him before he appeared in Velvet Goldmine. It was at my chum Phillip’s flat and he said rather cheekily: ‘It’s great meeting people like you — it’s good research for my next role.’ He is very good in the film, much better than he was as a fake Bowie. He is what you would call a real pretty boy and has lips you could lounge on while being fed grapes.”

Parminder Nagra from USA Today, April 8, 2003:

“The top question I always get is, ‘What was it like to kiss Jonathan Rhys Meyers, you lucky cow!’ What can I say? He was great to kiss. Good lips. It was embarassing, actually. The first time we had that kissing scene, I actually forgot my lines, I got so lost in it. There was silence all around me and I thought ‘What is everything so quiet?’ I looked around and then said, ‘Oh, it’s me, isn’t it?’”

The Washington Post on “The Lion in Winter”:

“Versatile Jonathan Rhys-Meyers livens things up as that sneaky rake Philip II of France, brother of Henry’s mistress, Alais, played seductively by Yuliya Vysotskaya. Rhys-Meyers has an intriguing sense of decadence about him…”

Time Magazine on “Match Point”:

“Rhys Meyers—who played a similar character, George Minafer, in a 2002 A&E version of The Magnificent Ambersons, and was a convincing Elvis this week on CBS—carries himself with Jude Law’s silky creepiness and an Irish charisma all his own. He also carries the film, lending a fascination to all of Chris’ machinations. The screen comes alive whenever Rhys Meyers radiates his cunning magnetism.”