Film Gecko

Ioan Gruffudd Talks with Charmian Christie

by Jane Boursaw on September 20th, 2008

My friend and writing colleague, Charmian Christie, had the opportunity to talk with Ioan Gruffudd about his diverse acting career. Read on for their Q&A…

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With unconventional good looks and a name that’s easier to pronounce than read, Ioan Gruffudd (pronounced YO-en GRIFF-ith) might be the biggest celebrity you don’t know you know. Although instantly recognized in Britain, Gruffudd coasts under the radar of North American mainstream media, despite landing roles in major Hollywood films like Titanic, Fantastic Four, Black Hawk Down and 102 Dalmatians. And that’s fine with him. He thinks a bit of mystery helps.

The former child star is full of such surprises. Although he’s spent most of his 34 years in front of a camera and now lives in Tinsel Town, acting isn’t his life. Having refused to Anglicize his name, he doesn’t miss Wales. And he actually likes driving in LA.

More after the jump…

No wonder Gruffudd feels at home in Hollywood — his life sounds like it’s been lifted straight from a movie. As a child he toured Germany and Austria singing in a choir and playing oboe in a youth orchestra. He landed a role in a Welsh soap opera before his teens and at 18, left for London to earn a theatre degree at the famed Royal Academy of Drama. Since graduating, he’s starred in eight Horatio Hornblower movies, played Pip in Great Expectations and was cast as Phillip Bosinney in a mini-series of The Forsythe Saga.

An established film and television actor with movies in the hopper, is Gruffudd swelling with pride? Hardly, he likens acting to mere child-like pretending, calls some of his performances “cringe-making,” and is humbled by his role as William Wilberforce in Amazing Grace. And when asked about married life, this former Cardiffian turns as sentimental as a Welsh lovespoon.

With four new movies in 2008, including a role as Tony Blair in the upcoming W. (in theaters Oct. 17, 2008), Ioan Gruffudd is poised to become a household name this side of the Atlantic. Then his biggest challenge will be getting people to spell and pronounce his name correctly.

Charmian: When did you become interested in acting?

Ioan: It’s sort of an old cliché actually. I fell in love with acting by having a go at doing it. I auditioned when I was about 11 or 12 to be in a Welsh language soap opera when I was back in school, and I got the part. I fell in love with it, and I just knew if I could do it for the rest of my life, I’d be really happy.

Charmian: With parents as teachers, did they try to talk some sense into you?

Ioan: My mom would have loved to have been an actress professionally, but I guess it wasn’t the done thing in her generation. So, she kind of understood where that desire came from.

Charmian: So did they send you off to America with “make us proud”?

Ioan: The journey to America came later on in my career. The big journey was leaving Cardiff [Wales] to go to study acting in London instead of going to university.

Charmian: Being Welsh and living beside England, do you feel you had to fight harder to get ahead?

Ioan: Yes, you know, the culture I inherited, the culture of singing and performing, that certainly helped with my confidence at an early age to be up on stage. And I think I quite literally gained my confidence performing and acting through my singing and through playing the oboe in the orchestras and singing in the choirs.

As far as fighting and everything, I just have a dogged determination. And I always had an outlook that whilst I was at drama college this wasn’t the be all and end all, which it sometimes felt. It instilled a real discipline in me. And I always realized there was a world outside drama college. It was all towards getting the skills and the tools to get out there in the real world.

Charmian: Did you get any backlash for moving to America? Did they think you sold out?

Ioan: Not so much coming here [to America]. There was the backlash of when I went to London to study. It always comes from people who are insecure and jealous. People who are just too insecure or too nervous to go stick their neck out and have a go in the Big Pond. So whenever I went home, yes, inevitably there’d be that drunk person in the bar saying, “Who the hell do you think you are?” kind of thing. And you just have to laugh it off and feel sorry for them really.

Charmian: You’ve played a lot of historical figures. How do you bridge your experiences to these roles?

Ioan: You use your imagination. And you act (slight laugh). I mean, I know it sounds pretty straight forward, but it is essentially that. It’s like a child’s instinct. You just pretend. You’re just pretending to be somebody else and trying to imagine how they would feel and what they would do in these scenarios. And I think that’s what I enjoy the most. That escaping and being somebody else and trying to immerse yourself in somebody else’s character.

Charmian: You’ve been quoted as saying that movies were your first love. Did you got to the movie theatre and see a movie that blew you away?

Ioan: No. No. It was actually having a go at acting in front of a camera at the very tender age of 11. So by experiencing it, I fell in love with it.

Charmian: Do you ever look at yourself on the screen and say, “Who is that?”

Ioan: (Laughs) Gosh no. I wish. You know that’s the ultimate ambition as an actor is to disappear completely. But, no it’s impossible. It’s me up there. It’s me pretending to be somebody else and whenever I see myself, it’s a cringe-making experience. Why did I do that? Why did I do that funny face? You’re incredibly critical of yourself when you see yourself. I know a lot of actors don’t even watch their work. They just can’t bear it.

Charmian: Do you watch your work and say, “I’m going to make my next performance better?”

Ioan: Yes, I do. And I think because I was so used to seeing myself on television from an early age that I sort of got over that insecure feeling of seeing yourself up there. So I learn by watching myself. I can even watch myself back on the monitor during a particular take doing something, because I appreciate that I’m a cog in the machine of painting a picture. So it’s not just my own involvement of what I did on camera, it’s my place within the scenery, the background and what’s going on. You know, what story’s being told, so I can look at it objectively.

Charmian: Amazing Grace is an incredible story. Has it changed you?

Ioan: Well, it’s certainly a humbling experience when you come across a character like Wilberforce. You appreciate that this is somebody that dedicated his entire life to good causes and for the good of others. And it only pointed out that I’m on a very selfish, ambitiously-driven career for myself.

You know Wilberforce and William Pitt the Younger were two extraordinary orators and extraordinary young men. And that’s another thing I just can’t get over. These guys were in their early 20s when they started out. And what was I interested in when I was 21 or 22? My diction. These guys were interested in changing the world. When you put yourself up against what they achieved, it is very humbling.

Charmian: How do you keep your balance in Hollywood?

Ioan: I think L.A. has a bad rap for being a town full of crazy people and being a crazy town. It’s an industry town and if you’re successful, it’s a great place, and if you’re not it’s quite a tough place to live.

The place itself? I love the lifestyle here. I absolutely love it. I haven’t missed living in London or living in Cardiff at all.

Charmian: You don’t miss it?

Ioan: No, I don’t miss it at all. I was really surprised, actually, because I was expecting to. Of course, I miss the people and I miss my family. That never goes away. But I don’t regret moving here. I’m actually loving it and really embracing the lifestyle and the culture here.

Charmian: What about the lifestyle and the culture do you like?

Ioan: I liken it to my domestic, middle class upbringing in Cardiff, in Wales. You know, we’ve got the two cars in the driveway, you have to drive everywhere. Drive to get the groceries, drive to this, drive to that. It’s that suburban upbringing I had that sort of reminds me of that. I feel closer to Wales here than I did in London.

I absolutely loved my time in London and could live there again no problem, but what I’ve decided is to never say never. I was a very idealistic young man when I started out. Now that I’m older and wiser, I realize that as long as I’m happy and in good health and with my wife, I could live anywhere, really.

Charmian: What were some of these great ideals that you had?

Ioan: I don’t think I was this extreme, but alluding to the fact that I would have to live in Wales, I’d have to marry a Welsh woman, I’d have to raise my kids in the same way that I was raised — in the Welsh community, in the Welsh language, having a Welsh medium education. You know, those things.

Charmian: And you’re now married to Alice Evans - a Brit, but not Welsh.

Ioan: I know it’s funny. Yes, yes.

Charmian: You were together quite a long time before you got married.

Ioan: About seven or eight years before we got married. I didn’t expect getting married to change things so much. I’m absolutely loving it. And kind of regretting that I hadn’t done it sooner. I feel sort of indestructible now that I’m part of a team, as it were. I feel that I’m twice the person that I was and it’s just a really amazing feeling.

Charmian: How do you maintain your privacy?

Ioan: It’s interesting, this game with the media. It’s a game of give and take. I want to keep myself out of the papers as much as I can unless I’m promoting something. I think the more mystique one has, the more mystique one has on the big screen when people go to see you in the movie theatres.

Charmian: What are your plans for the future?

Ioan: I just finished a movie called The Moon Princess [released as The Secret of Moonacre, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this month], which is a kid’s genre movie. So who knows? I’m going to go on a honeymoon because I had to immediately do that [Moon Princess] after my wedding. So I’m going to enjoy married life.

Charmian: I wish you and Alice all the best. I really do appreciate the time you spent with me.

Ioan: Thank you very much. Have a great day.

Images: The TV Set, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2006; Amazing Grace, Cinevista Video, 2006; 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2007; Fantastic Four, 20th Century-Fox Film Corp., 2005

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