Jonathan Rhys-Meyers was recently on Bonnie Hunt's daytime talk show and discussed the fact that this Season is the last of the award winning Tudors series on Showtime.
Bonnie asked Jonathan if it was going to be hard for him to move on from such a fabulous role which was so dramatic and compelling. And such a big role for Jonathan.
Jonathan said "yeah, I think. First of all, when I first did the Tudors I didn't think it was going to go beyond the first season. It's a hard sell."
(Image of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers - King Henry VIII - The Tudors - Showtime - All Rights Reserved)
Bonnie agreed "yeah when I saw the ads for it, it looks amazing, it looked epic. I thought this will be great. But will they get an audience?" Jonathan said "it did (get an audience)." So how did it get an audience?
Jonathan explained there were many clever people connected to the show and that Showtime, the producer, the director, the costume designer are all very smart people. Bob Greenblatt."
"Really smart. And what they did is that they took this show and they just molded certain parts of the show. Certain aspects of the show." To make it pacier."
Bonnie "I feel like I'm watching scenes from Camelot." Jonathan "When?" Bonnie "Richard Harris. Right now when you were speaking."
Jonathan "really?" He teased "I'm not going to break into song." Bonnie started to sing. He said "what is the King doing tonight? I wonder. I wonder".
(Image of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers - King Henry VIII - The Tudors - Showtime - All Rights Reserved)
The Last Scene On The Tudors
Jonathan continued "but then, so then the show goes four seasons. And at the end of the fourth season, and it's so strange. And the last day of shooting we shot the scene. It's in the last episode. With a beautiful white horse. Right. And we're shooting the scene and then it came to the end of the day. And it was like nothing. It was like this great emptiness for about an hour where you felt 'it's really over. And you really have to put this away now.'"
Playing The Same Character For Six Months Of Four Years
He continued "somebody you've been playing for six months of the year for four years. Someone who's become an integral part of you. To a certain extent and you've become a part of whatever you were doing. I miss the people. I miss the crew. I miss the camera guys. I miss your friends. You're going to work with your friends. And a wonderful cast. We had a menagerie of fantastic actors."
Bonnie asked "and how about the guy doing your make-up? Wasn't he up for an Academy Award?" Jonathan said "Christien Tinsley."
Bonnie showed a photo of the real King Henry VIII which is not a very attractive photo and doesn't look anything like Jonathan's actual character on Showtime.
(Image of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers - King Henry VIII - The Tudors - Showtime - All Rights Reserved)
She teased "you look exactly like him." The photo was not flattering at all and Jonathan looked at it and said "thanks very much."
Bonnie teased "it's uncanny." Jonathan laughed and responded to Bonnie when she showed a photo of him aged in the role.
He said "yes, I'm an old man. That's the work of Christian Tinsley and Annie Buchanan who's another great make-up artist. And so they gave me the look and then it was difficult because I had to have a voice that was older.
So I had to break it down. So funny enough. You said Richard Harris. Because I started looking at Richard Harris' performance in Cromwell and Richard Burton's performance in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. And then I took little aspects of their voice. Cause they had the most beautiful voices to suit what I looked like."
He paused "we'll see how it looks". Bonnie said "no, you do, it is melodic in a sense when you're playing him."
Jonathan said "well beautiful writing as well. Michael Harris is an incredible writer."
Jonathan then demonstrated his aged voice and said "when I'm playing Henry as an old man your register is very deep. Just like that."
(Image of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers - King Henry VIII - The Tudors with his sixth wife - Joely Richardson as Catherine Parr - Showtime - All Rights Reserved)
The audience applauded his demonstration of an aged voice as King Henry VIII.
Bonnie asked Jonathan about getting vocal chord nodes.
Laryngitis During Performance
He said "I got laryngitis for one scene. And it was a very important scene. I'm in Parliament and it's the last speech Henry every made. He was never seen in public again. And he made this incredible speech. With 55 lines of dialogue. And I just forced my voice through it. And so we're doing it and sometimes the voice breaks but we left it like that. Because it was the emotion broke (breaking). And it was almost towards the end of the shoot and it got very emotional in certain ways. I was saying goodbye to people like that."
Bonnie said "wow, you're really close to the character (King Henry) did you ever drive home in the car pool lane?"
Jonathan laughed and then got serious and said "no."
(Image of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers - King Henry VIII - The Tudors with his sixth wife - Joely Richardson as Catherine Parr - Showtime - All Rights Reserved)
Jonathan Is Animal Lover
Bonnie told the audience Jonathan was an animal lover like she is. She showed a photo of Jonathan's dog. Bonnie said Jonathan takes his dog (Boo Boo) everywhere with him. Bonnie said "Jonathan, he's so cute."
Jonathan said he actually thought about bringing his dog on the show and that he could have walked out on stage with him and sat with him during the show. Bonnie told him he should have brought his dog. Jonathan said "I know, I'm so disappointed I didn't. But next time I will certainly bring my dog."
Bonnie said "you know how you were giving that speech saying good-bye to the crew? I'm doing that here (Bonnie Hunt's show was canceled as of May 2010).
(Image of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers - King Henry VIII - The Tudors - Showtime - All Rights Reserved)
Jonathan said "oh no. I'm so sad." She teased him and said for her ending she was going to wear the same outfit as Henry VIII. It was very funny and true to Bonnie Hunt's sense of humor.
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