Top 57 Quotes & Sayings by Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
Last updated on September 17, 2024.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Jonathan Rhys Meyers is an Irish actor, model and musician. He is known for his roles in the films Michael Collins (1996), Velvet Goldmine (1998), Titus (1999), Bend It Like Beckham (2002), Alexander (2004), Match Point (2005), Mission: Impossible III (2006) and his television roles as Elvis Presley in the biographical miniseries Elvis (2005), for which he won a Golden Globe Award and earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination, as King Henry VIII in the historical drama The Tudors (2007–10), which earned him two Golden Globe Award nominations, and in the NBC drama series Dracula (2013–14) as the title character. He also starred as Bishop Heahmund, a character inspired by the Catholic Saint of the same name, in the History Channel television series Vikings.

My life has been sensationalised into a rags to riches story.
I've never gone to acting school and I never will, so I'm learning about the business from the people who are in the business. It doesn't seem like I work at all. And the unknown is always exciting.
I think all actors have addictive personalities. — © Jonathan Rhys Meyers
I think all actors have addictive personalities.
If I wasn't so insecure about myself I wouldn't work as hard as I do. I am constantly seeking approval.
I was just a kid and I didn't have a dad. That's hard, because when you're a kid, you blame yourself for everything. And I blamed myself for him not being around, for my parents not being together.
I think everybody's got a malicious side.
I'm a one-woman guy. I think that if you can find someone you want to spend the rest of your life with, you should marry them instantly, and try to stay married.
It can take a long time for some people to find out how to ground themselves, and film sets are an odd atmosphere to do it in - especially if, like me, you finished school early.
Going after a part in Hollywood is like being a gladiator in ancient Rome. When it comes down to getting a role, you don't have any friends, you're incredibly competitive and any actor who tells you different is lying.
The hardest part about acting is realizing it doesn't matter.
That's a funny thing, fame. People definitely do treat you differently. When you begin to be successful, people say, 'Don't go changing.' Well, that's easy to say, but the fact is, you don't change at all - other people do.
When little kids come up to me, I'm a fully-grown adult, and that's always weird to me.
You go through your 20s sort of like a chrysalis in many ways, stretching into your own skin and trying to bust out of a cocoon. — © Jonathan Rhys Meyers
You go through your 20s sort of like a chrysalis in many ways, stretching into your own skin and trying to bust out of a cocoon.
I wouldn't date an actress. There's only room for one actor in my life and I'm it. Too difficult. On the one hand, they understand the job. But on the other hand, it's very competitive within the relationship. Two actors, say one becomes a mega-star and the other doesn't.
Celebrity has lost its value - all you have to do is go on a reality TV show for six weeks and everybody knows your name.
I want to do really good things with my life.
I actually live very, very simply.
I take care of myself so I don't feel insecure about my body.
If another actor gets a good role, I'm furious.
I didn't use a phone until I was 14.
You know what I like to do on a Sunday morning? Clean my house. I really enjoy it; it's my ritual. I require tidiness, actually. I have to have everything spotless before I can relax.
I don't love acting. How can you love something when you sit around 12 hours a day and work 10 minutes a day? I'm just doing it because it keeps me off the streets and out of jail.
Even though I've had the body of work I've had, and the success I've had, I do not rest on my laurels whatsoever.
Could I imagine myself as king? Of course I could.
I'm a workaholic. I also go to the gym a lot - it's my new thing. Yes, I am a compulsive person.
Let's be honest. Physicality is going to have a bearing on the parts you get. And if you think differently, you're in the wrong business.
My mother said I was a star when I was about four years old. That's all I need.
As a kid, I spent an awful lot of time pretending I was somebody else. I think growing up in the 1980s wasn't very exciting so you kind of create this secret life of an alternate person. You pretend to be whatever you need to be that day, so you live in that dream world.
Nobody's perfect. And if you think they are, you're sadly mistaken.
I got paid 20 grand for my first film. And that's the lowest I ever got paid.
I completely believe that I will produce my best work and my best work will come in my thirties.
I like being 30. I wouldn't want to do the twenties again. They are their own entity.
I can be intolerably jealous and I think that's what's driven me. My ambition knows no end.
I don't hang out with movie stars, and you won't see me going to many Hollywood parties. I'm actually quite boring.
A lot of my success is because of what I look like. I know that.
I like reading, going to the gym, hanging out with my family. That's it.
No one picked on me for my lunch money. Probably because it was the 1980s and no one had lunch money. — © Jonathan Rhys Meyers
No one picked on me for my lunch money. Probably because it was the 1980s and no one had lunch money.
I can be intolerably jealous and I think that’s what’s driven me. My ambition knows no end.
I think what qualitiy make for good directors is being able to articulate what you want; it can cause problems with a lack of communication. I'm not an actor who requires much talking to a director, I don't want to sit down and discuss a scene for hours and hours; that would bore me.
I find actors who play nasty guys in movies are the nicest guys in real life, and the opposite then goes for heroes.
My failures has helped me as much as my successes.
You can give the greatest performance possible, but if you don't have a director who's pointing the camera in the right direction and an editor who's editing it properly, it doesn't matter what you do. The director and the editor are the most important people. Not the actors. Sometimes the writer is important. But if you don't have a good director, you can't have a good production.
I could sing and play as well. I've got some brothers; one of them is the drummer in the band. They're good musicians. I play for fun. They play properly. Music in general, I grew up in a house of musicians. Everybody's life has a soundtrack, I'm sitting here talking to you but there are horns beeping outside. I know I'm in New York. That's an element in the film as well. How strong that sense can be.
I don't live in Ireland, I live in London with my girlfriend; and it's because of the globalization of our planet, it's not necessary to live in Los Angeles to be a successful and any country is just an airplane ride away. If there's a director who wants to meet me or if there's something I have to do, I can just hop on an airplane - the world's small now.
There's not much of a difference shooting something for TV and shooting something for film; the difference is film is in a cinema and TV is in your home.
I'm part of the Ipod generation. I got 10,000 tracks from all over the world.
You really have to keep people interested, at all times, until the punch comes. You can do that with a film that lasts 90 to 100 minutes. That's very difficult to do at 160 minutes.
You really have to work harder to come up with new ways to play the scenes. — © Jonathan Rhys Meyers
You really have to work harder to come up with new ways to play the scenes.
For me, I felt bad for people asking the questions, cause you know their boss sent them out saying, 'Get me something on Mission Impossible.' And you ask the question, and it's just a polite, 'I'm not going to tell you.' Then, every so often, they'd go, 'Well, can't you just tell us a little bit?' I have to say, 'You know what guys, I'm under contract and I'm not going to tell you anything.' So you keep asking the questions and I'm just going to keep smiling. And it's hard, cause I don't want to seem rude, but it's part of my job just like it's part of their job to keep a secret.
When I was a kid, you listened to a certain genre. Now it's like, "I love indie rock, I love hip-hop, jazz, funk." Also, we knew it couldn't be the same thing each year.
That's a funny thing, fame. People definitely do treat you differently. When you begin to be successful, people say, 'Don't go changing.' Well, that's easy to say, but the fact is, you don't change at all -- other people do.
When it comes to dreams, one may falter, but the only way to fail is to abandon them.
You can work well with people that you may not get on well with in life because it's a parallel realism.
You hurt the ones you love the most. Because it hurts you the most.
Nobodys perfect. And if you think they are, youre sadly mistaken.
With a director it's all about the work; I'd work with a great director over - you know, I'm not the kind of actor who that doesn't go, 'I want to play this role.' It's more like, 'I want to work with this director,' regardless of what the role is because if it's a good director, you'll probably find a good role because it's a decent film. But a mediocre director will always make a mediocre movie.
I always think there will be that time that people will find out that I'm crap at what I do.
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