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If history is any evidence, if Matthew Rhys is the star of your TV show, odds are it’s going to be a banger. From The Americans, one of the most acclaimed shows of the 2000s, to HBO’s Perry Mason to his recent Netflix hit The Beast In Me, Rhys has become one of the most reliable leading men on TV. That decade-and-a-half-long hot streak has continued this year with the release of AppleTV’s Widow’s Bay, which debuted to a 100% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Speaking to BroBible’s Post Credit Podcast ahead of the premiere of Widow’s Bay, Matthew Rhys broke down his lead character Mayor Tom Loftis, making the jump into comedy, blending horror and humor, and much more.
Emmy-winning actor Matthew Rhys breaks down his new AppleTV series Widow’s Bay in an in-depth interview with BroBible
Playing a character that’s far less smooth than ones in his past
Eric Italiano, BroBible: Tom Loftis — and these are from official notes, I did not come up with these words — is described as soft, cowardly, and desperate for respect he hasn’t earned. What drew you to playing a guy whose whole journey starts from that kind of vulnerability, and is there something freeing about not having to be a traditional gruff hero?
Matthew Rhys: Of course, although I hard disagree with “cowardly.” I think he’s misunderstood in those moments — he’s obstinate in his vision for the island, which can be perceived as cowardly, but ultimately he’s trying to maintain the mission. But yes, it was a character I’d never seen before, a piece I’d never seen before, a script I’d certainly never read before. Katy Tipple starts with wrongfooting you from the off, so you immediately lean in going — who are these people? If this is the trajectory he’s beginning on, how will he redeem himself? Where’s the hero’s mission in this?
How to calibrate the comedy of reactions
BroBible: Something I was really impressed by specifically in this show — and this is on the back of your work in The Beast in Me, where you’re a very suave, menacing figure — is that a lot of the comedy seems to come specifically from your reactions. The way you are exasperated isn’t necessarily something I imagine was on the page. And especially because you’re a classically trained actor, comedy is a bit outside of your usual comfort zone. How do you calibrate the comedy of reaction?
Matthew Rhys: Very good question, and I found it very difficult, to be perfectly honest. Hiro Murai’s big pitch to me was: don’t treat this as a comedy, don’t treat it as a horror — we create a world and we play it for real. And then sometimes within that, the reactions we would play around with on the scale of size and dynamic — sometimes more extreme, sometimes not. All I was trying to do was root the whole thing in a truthfulness. It’s definitely not slapstick.
BroBible: I don’t think you pushed it too far at all. The clash of the tonality of the show and your character’s reaction just works so well.
Matthew Rhys: There are moments where Tom is placed in very extreme circumstances, so the reaction to me is extreme — especially if those circumstances are pioneer moments he’s never experienced. I also thought: if you’re seeing a more extreme reaction at the beginning, where does he go from there? If he is like this at certain points, how does he then find his inner core, his inner steel — where does the resolve come from?
When he realized Widow’s Bay was a special project
BroBible: To that point — given that this is a show that excelled so much in the specificity of its world and tone — I’m trying to write myself, and I understand that something on the page can be very different from when you shoot. How did you first receive this script? Did you get it immediately, or did it take more talks with the crew to zone in on what you were going for?
Matthew Rhys: I believe — I hope — I got it immediately, because I was like, “Oh my god, this is so special and unique.” The world is built in such detail, the backstory is so detailed. Everyone comes with a very strong sense of previous circumstances and history that through great drama will clash with other characters. Especially when I was talking with Stephen and Kate — three people with similar painful backgrounds, all seemingly looking for their own community, all seemingly trying to help the community but going about it in three very different ways. Common goals that interact in a very conflicting way. That to me is where some of Katy Tipple’s writing is just magnificent.
Mayor Tom Loftis: sabotage or just clueless?
BroBible: There’s something very specific about a man who keeps putting himself at risk purely out of pride. Tom keeps trying to prove himself as a leader, as a father. How much did you play that as conscious self-sabotage versus him just genuinely not knowing better?
Matthew Rhys: I think it’s him not knowing better. Also, I think he’s desperately trying to prove himself — he realizes the only way forward is if he proves himself to be the leader they don’t think he is. And so that continues to be disastrous for him, but very entertaining to watch.
Balancing performing horror and comedy simultaneously
BroBible: There’s some genuinely haunting imagery in this show underneath all the comedy. When you’re on set and something is meant to be both funny and scary, how do you do one without canceling out the other?
Matthew Rhys: Hiro always said just play the reality of it, play the truth of it. If we build the world properly enough, it should all come out organically, because the comedy was always situational and character-driven. There was never landing gags, never rule-of-three comedy. If you played the truth of the situation, the hope was the comedy would come organically.
His desire to start in a horror-comedy project
BroBible: You’ve obviously done drama at a very high level, but horror-comedy is an entirely different part of the brain. Did you have a desire to do something like this, or were you just so taken by this one script?
Matthew Rhys: When I read the script I just knew I wanted to do it. I’d never read anything like it, I’d certainly never played anyone like Loftis, and I just knew I wanted to do it and I didn’t want anyone else to do it. It’s not that I was necessarily looking for comedy or horror — the great luxury is getting to try different genres, different mediums, different characters. For a project like this to come along that was so different to anything I’d done, it was a true luxury.
The first two episodes of Widow’s Bay premiered on AppleTV on April 29, and will continue releasing episodes on Wednesday until its season finale on June 17. Addition stars include Stephen Root, Kate O’Flynn, Dale Dickey, and Kevin Carroll. Check out an official teaser for the series below.