Matthew Rhys

“I lost a dear friend of mine from a rugby injury at 26. We don't usually deal with mortality at that early age and it's given me an appreciation of time, of trying to fit everything in.”

“I love it when television is shot in a cinematic way and I think to aspire to that is no bad thing.”

“There's such a unique humour in Wales that I just love and miss in Los Angeles.”

“I wasn't one of the cool kids by any stretch. I just bumbled along really.”

“I feel comfortable here primarily because I think Los Angeles is made up of people who don't come from here, so you can find kindred spirits very easily. It's a town of gypsies.”

“You play to whatever publication you're being interviewed by.”

“I think my mother would be very happy if I found a nice Welsh girl.”

“I first went to the Chubut valley, the colony that runs about 800km across the width of Argentina, in 2000. My uncle had been there tracing family and came back saying I had to go. So a year later I did.”

“I thought maybe I'd be a farmer. That was another silly notion. I think I'd last about five minutes, being a farmer.”

“When I speak to people from Britain, that's when I feel like a fake, speaking with an American accent.”

“As for waxing, I've never waxed in my life and I never would. I'm extremely Welsh, so I draw the line at removing body hair.”

“Within the microcosm of a film you get drawn to people. There are certain projects you care enormously about, and 'The Edge Of Love' was one because I was portraying a great hero of mine, Dylan Thomas.”

“At home I can become lazy and if a Welsh word is really long, I just replace it with English.”

“I still dream about that one opportunity where the Welsh Rugby Union call me up and say, 'We need you.' There is an incredibly talented Welsh hooker called Matthew Rees, so maybe some incredible quirk of misfortune for him would mean I get called up instead.”

“I do like to keep my private life to myself. But then again, I don't really get up to much.”

“I've aged. 'Patagonia' has robbed me of a decade of my life.”