Matthew Rhys

Matthew: (on a recent accident): I had to rope a calf and flip it on its back. It nearly pulled me off the horse. Foolishly, I thought I was fine. I grabbed the calf and its hoof went straight into my face. I thought: 'oh my God, my teeth'. I thought I'd lost my teeth. My teeth were fine but my nose was a wreck. It was very swollen the next day and I had two black eyes.

Matthew: (on his character Kevin Walker in Brothers And Sisters): I share the commitment-phobic aspect of his character. There are elements of him that I love which I don't have myself. He can be very fearless when he wants to be and very brave when he needs to be, maybe because of his job. I admire him for that. But what I enjoy about playing him is that at one hand, he's this big, tough lawyer and on the other hand, he's this insecure person who has problems with relationships, commitment, finding true love and all that stuff we go through.

Matthew: (on playing Dylan Thomas in The Edge Of Love): He's such a Welsh hero. Everyone in Wales is like, 'Oh my God, you're going to be the person to play Dylan Thomas'. I was like, 'Stop saying that'.

Matthew: (on how he feels about his success): Yeah for the moment. There'll come a time when they'll say, 'He's too big for his boots. He's changed'.

Matthew: (on how he got into acting): I was 17 when I played Elvis in a school production and that's when I got the acting bug, which a bit sad really when you think about it [laughs.] I realised I could maybe make it into a proper job, as it were, when Ioan [Gruffudd], who I was at school with, went to RADA to train. Up until that point I'd always thought RADA was some posh place that was just for English people, but when one of our own ended up there I started to think of it as an achievable goal for someone like me so I auditioned and got in. But, having said that, there was definitely no great master plan to have a big acting career. I just drifted along to begin with. Things just evolved organically, I suppose.

Matthew: (on performing The Graduate on stage): I took the part with trepidation because the film was so well known. Dustin Hoffman had cast the part in stone, and here I was a young nobody trying to step into his shoes. But I made sure I did not see the film until after I finished the show.

Matthew: (On people's reaction to him playing gay roles): Yeah. I was a little shocked at the reaction of the press at the beginning. A lot of the questions were, you know, "Was it a problem for you to play gay roles?" Or "Were you concerned about getting typecast?" You know, I was a little confused as to why I was getting.

Matthew: (On spending Christmas with his family): I'm a Christmas sucker. I'm into the whole Christmas card image. I love the trees, the food, songs, drinking and the pub on Christmas Eve.

Matthew: (on working in America): I'm sure very soon the Americans will grow very tired of us, but God bless them for letting us work here.

Matthew:(on his celebrity crush) I would like to kidnap Catherine Zeta Jones, but she's taken and I don't fancy a tangle with Michael Douglas.

Matthew: (on living with his friend, Ioan Gruffud) It's a bit sad that we're still living together after all these years. Ioan gets upset when I say we're like an old married couple- we've even hired a cleaner...though it was more of a health-oriented decision than anything.

Matthew: (on women's reaction to his career) When you say, 'I'm an actor', they think you're either unemployed or living off their tax. Saying you're a fireman is best.

Matthew: We've kept that joke (saying 'dad's dead?!' when he is mentioned in the script of "Brothers & Sisters") going much to the annoyance of Sally and Calista (co-stars).

Matthew: (on the dynamic between the male cast members of "Brothers & Sisters") We keep complaining, Why don't you write more brother scenes? and they say, Because they take so long to shoot because you're like the Three Stooges.

Matthew: (on the cast dynamic of Brothers & Sisters) What I love is that we've sort of taken on a real family status. Sally tells us to 'shut up' whenever we get too boisterous. And Rachel and Calista, as the older sisters, laugh the first two times we tell a joke, and then tell us 'shut up' whenever we milk it.