As Philip and Elizabeth deal with their feelings for each other, does it make it more difficult than for them to do anything to complete the mission?
Rhys: Yes, I think that’s the beauty of it. That’s where the conflict comes in. As their real emotions come in, honey trapping gets hard to do. Whereby they have less investment in each other’s danger, now that’s up. If she’s in dangerous situations, it makes it far worse. The ante is raised enormously which is fantastic.
Is there always a constant threat of the kids finding out? Are there close calls?
Rhys: Yeah, that’s the beauty of it. You have to keep your voices down, they’re walking in on you holding a gun. There’s always the danger of, which adds beautifully to it all.
Are Philip and Stan still going to be hanging out as buddies and friends?
Rhys: There’s a lot of to and fro’ing. There are times when Philip thinks it’s better to get close to him and keep him close, rather than sort of think who’s this guy floating around the neighborhood. So there’s a lot of tango between the two.
Is it a very different experience from “Brothers and Sisters?”
Rhys: Yeah, where an action sequence was opening a bottle of wine in that. So yeah, it’s very different.
Do you miss that show at all?
Rhys: I do enormously. It was such a learning curve for me and we had, as you know, such a great team on it. We had such a laugh, whereas this one’s a nightmare. Hopefully she’ll thaw.
What does Margo Martindale add?
Rhys: What’s fantastic is there’s this air of mystery about her and this sort of mercurial character. She relays all the information with the KGB. It’s a tricky part to nail down but she brings this gravity to her. You just go, “Who is this?” As she does to most parts.
How did you approach Philip in the ‘60s versus Philip today (in the ‘80s)?
Rhys: Flashbacks are such a minefield, whether you play youthful or you try and think of an innocent. I think ultimately it’s down to the scene as to what you need to convey out of the scene. That usually lends itself. There was a tentativeness about the first time that they met that lends itself to the sort of nervousness, this doe-eyed slightly sort of innocence that comes with that zeal of indoctrination of “This is for the motherland.”
Kevin Bacon told us about the flashbacks in “The Following,” how in a feature he’d love to change the look of the character in flashbacks, but he can’t on television. Do you find that limiting?
Rhys: Yeah, they’re like, “Okay, you’ve got 10 minutes. Straighten his hair. Put another filter on the camera. Wash his skin out.” Time is your enemy, always, in this game.
How much do you know about where the show is going?
Rhys: Very little. In that age old tradition, when we talk to you lot and go, “Gosh, you’ll never guess what happens in eight. I die.” No, to be perfectly honest, I think they’re discovering it as well. As the first five are establishing themselves, they’re constantly changing and they’re going, “Oh, this works well. These elements work well. We should amp that up in the next six.” So I think they’re changing a lot.
Did you write a backstory for yourself and how much did you know about him before coming to America?
Rhys: We spoke a lot with [Joseph Weisberg]. We did big biography work. They would have been recruited very young from the KGB, late teens basically which is so frightening, and then gone into training and then kicked over to the US.
So at a time where you cannot know who you are, they were already assigned their life’s vocation which I sort of find staggering really. In that respect, you can understand why it gets to a point in Philip’s life where he’s like, “This isn’t me. This isn’t for me. I love my family too much, more than a cause. This is why I want to defect.” So yeah, there was a lot of biography work that I think reflects what you see now.
What do you miss about England when you live here?
Rhys: Fish and chips. That’s about it. The occasional beer. I think more specifically Wales where I’m from, there’s a Welsh humor that is incredibly unique that I miss, which is incredibly acerbic. I miss that sort of vicious element but I’m lucky there’s plenty of my old friends who are here now. Apart from the fish and chips, there’s very little I miss. And my mother.
Did you have to meet Keri and do a chemistry read before you got the part?
Rhys: Two.
You didn’t convince them the first time?
Rhys: Well, she had to sleep off the hangover the first time and then she was good to go the second time.
Was the second one a lot better?
Rhys: I thought it was exactly like the first to be honest. You’ve just got to convince the powers that be. They’re like, “We’re not sure. Bring him in again.”
Did you have to read with anyone else who didn’t get the part?
Rhys: I didn’t. No, no, she had already gotten the part so I was the one coming in going, “Please, miss, I loved you on ‘Felicity.’”
