Jonathan Rhys Meyers

His arrival in the world, on July 27, 1977 in Dublin (Ireland), was quite complicated since the doctors detected heart problems. Both his parents and the doctors themselves did not expect him to survive, so he was quickly baptized, so that he would at least die a good Christian. However, after three months under observation and intensive care, he managed to overcome his health problem.

His real name is Jonathan Michael Francis O’Keefe and his stage name is derived from his mother’s maiden name, Geraldine Meyers-O’Keefe. Her parents separated in 1980, leaving Geraldine alone to care for her and her three younger brothers Jamie, Alan and Paul.

The adolescence of this Irish actor was difficult. Jonathan spent time in an orphanage and was kicked out of his school at age 16. After walking without a job or studies, wandering around the billiard rooms, the opportunity that arrives and marks the path that a person in his life will follow, he wanted it to be Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Casting agents looking for young Irishmen to appear in the film War of the Buttons spotted Jonathan at a pool hall in Cork and invited him to audition. Although he was not cast in this film, casting agents encouraged him to continue auditioning. In this way, his first role came in 1994 with An Unimportant Man .

In 1996 he appeared in a short role for the filmMichael Collins , starring Julia Roberts and Liam Neeson . She also for the television production Samson and Delilah , in which she worked alongside Elizabeth Hurley and Dennis Hopper .

From there he began a slow but sure path to fame. Rhys Meyers was a good musician and he proved it in 1998 with Velvet Goldmine , sharing the bill with Ewan McGregor , Toni Collette -with whom he was dating- and Christian Bale . His daring incarnation of former glam rocker Brian Slade earned him a nomination from the London Film Critics Circle. It was at that moment that he became known internationally and since then he has not stopped working with the most famous actors of the moment. He also worked in films like The Governess and B. Monkey , this one starring the beautiful actress Asia Argento, with whom he began an affair during filming. As early as 1999, she acted alongside Jessica Lange and Anthony Hopkins in William Shakespeare ‘s adaptation Titus . He began a romance with actress and model Stella Warren after they met while filming Tangled .

In 2002 he became the coach of the women’s team where Keira Knightley played in I Want To Be Like Beckham , as well as singing in The Magnificent Ambersons . Later he worked with Reese Witherspoon in Vanity Fair and with Colin Farrell and Angelina Jolie in Oliver Stone ‘s Alexander the Great , earning a supporting role.

We could say that his best year without a doubt was 2005. Jonathan won a casting to which more than 200 applicants appeared to play Elvis Presley in the miniseries Elvis: the beginning , along with Rose McGowan who played the actress Ann- Marget. So much so that he strengthened his career as an actor, becoming nominated for an Emmy and obtaining a Golden Globe. That same year, the great Woody Allen knew how to appreciate his acting skills and his physical charm to give him the co-starring role in Match Point , along with his muse, Scarlett Johansson. The film premiered at Cannes and Rhys Meyers won the Chopard Award for Most Promising Actor. His performance was critically acclaimed as one of the best of the year. Despite countless rumors about a romantic relationship with Scarlett, Jonathan Rhys Meyers has always claimed that nothing outside of the professional happened. The following year he worked opposite Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible III .

2007 was a tough year, perhaps bittersweet, for this Irish actor. On Sunday, November 18, he was arrested at Dublin Airport for disorderly conduct and being under the influence of alcohol. Although he was released on bail, he had to appear before the Dublin District Court. He was in his home country to promote his new movie August Rush on the Tubridy Tonight television show. Two days later, on November 20, his mother passed away at the age of 50, after a long illness. His friend Colin Farrell was with him, accompanying him at the funeral.

It is necessary to emphasize his vocation for music. Perhaps it runs in his blood, since his father was a folk musician and his three brothers are musicians. He is a fan of Bob Marley and Irish music. Thanks to his character in the film Velvet Goldmine we were able to discover this hitherto unknown facet. Jonathan performed many of the songs in the film, although some of these were replaced on the soundtrack CD by other songs performed by well-known vocalists. He also sings in the TV miniseries The Magnificent Ambersons , Elvis and in the movie August Rush . Such is his passion that he even plays in bars while taking a break from his acting job.

In the following years he has worked on the film Huang Shi’s Children , a film set in the 1930s where he plays George Hogg, an English journalist who tries to save the children of an orphanage in Japan-occupied China. Also with Julianne Moore in the horror film Shadow of the Others and From Paris with Love alongside John Travolta .

We cannot ignore his performance in the series The Tudors where he plays King Henry VIII. We would never have imagined that his perfect physiognomy and his athletic body could remind us of the obese, bearded and gout-stricken Henry VIII of England, immortalized in the portraits of the time. But if we forget all this and the classic film performances of Charles Laughton and Richard Burton , we can imagine the young, seductive, ambitious, intelligent and renowned for his taste in cutting off heads that the producers of The Tudorsmake us believe “He is the best king England has ever had, his court was the mecca of entertainment and the most influential in Europe,” says Jonathan. He also says that it was not so difficult to interpret the monarch, but quite the opposite, it was a very fun and interesting process.

With a background in various modeling campaigns, he was chosen as the face of the Versace men’s collection during the 2006 and 2007 seasons. In addition, he was the face of Hugo Boss.

From the year 2005 to the present he maintains an affair with Reena Hammer. At the beginning of 2007, after two years of relationship, they had a crisis, but at the end of the same year they decided to continue together. She admits to being a narcissist in part because of the insecurity she has. If he wasn’t so insecure, he wouldn’t work as hard as he does. He often reads the bad reviews because he thinks they’re the only honest ones. Despite his reputation as an excellent impersonator -Woody Allen is one of his recurring characters- he says he couldn’t do comedy since he considers himself a horrible comedian.

Since his mother passed away, Jonathan Rhys Meyers has gone through ups and downs to such an extent that on June 30, 2011, the British newspaper The Sun published that Rhys Meyers had been hospitalized for an alleged suicide attempt caused by an overdose of medication. As they say, “the good and the bad go hand in hand”. When he is not filming a production he resides in London and Los Angeles.