He’s a long way from ‘Notting Hill’

Moviegoers familiar with Welsh actor Rhys Ifans from his scene-stealing comedic turn as Hugh Grant’s slovenly roommate Spike in 1999’s “Notting Hill” probably won’t recognize him in “Vanity Fair.” With his blond shaggy hair cut and dyed dark brown and sporting an upper-class British accent, Ifans cuts a dashing figure as a noble 19th century British soldier.

Directed by Indian filmmaker Mira Nair (“Monsoon Wedding”), “Vanity Fair” is based on William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1848 satire of British society. The film, which opened Wednesday, stars Reese Witherspoon as the ambitious heroine Becky Sharp, who will stop at nothing to rise to the cream of British society. Ifans, 36, plays the stalwart William Dobbin, who loves Becky’s best friend, the very married Amelia, but is too frightened to tell her.

Since “Notting Hill” put him on the international map five years ago, Ifans has worked with such diverse directors as Mike Figgis (“Hotel”), Lasse Hallstrom (“The Shipping News”), Michel Gondry (“Human Nature”) and Steven Brill (“Little Nicky”).

Most recently seen in the Australian comedy “Danny Deckchair,” Ifans also stars in “Notting Hill” director Roger Michell’s latest film, “Enduring Love,” which opens Sept. 17. In the intense character drama, Ifans plays an enigmatic man who falls madly in love with an analytical professor and writer (Daniel Craig) after the two try to rescue a young boy from a hot-air balloon crash.

Question: Had you done many period films before “Vanity Fair”?

Answer: I did a film called “Dancing at Lughnasa” with Meryl Streep years ago, which was set in the 1930s. But this is the first film I have done with horses and the first time I wore boots and a sword. The only reason I did it really was because I was such a fan of Mira Nair.

I thank the insight and the imagination of an Indian woman to cast me in a very English period film. I doubt any white English male would have the foresight to cast someone who is educated in a comprehensive [public] school. Usually to appear in a British period film, your education has to have been paid for somewhere down the line.

Q: Had she seen you in a particular project that led to her casting you?

A: We met a few years previously at the BAFTAs [British cinema’s equivalent of the Oscars]. I was lucky enough to sit at her table and we hit it off straight away. We kind of mocked the proceedings in a very similar fashion. I did a play in the Donmar Warehouse last year [in] London, “The Accidental Death of an Anarchist.” I played the maniac in that. Mira saw that and she thought, “Let’s get him to do something [in the film].”

Q: Dobbin must have been a challenge to play.

A: Dobbin is very much not me. [The character] was actually for William Thackeray an afterthought. When Thackeray wrote the book, he was advised by his publishers to write a character like Dobbin, otherwise people would not read the book. They kind of needed a moral vessel to take them through the narrative. I don’t know if that is true with the film or not, but the challenge with Dobbin is that you had to play it for real.

Q: Was working with Nair what you expected?

A: You feel very safe in her company and inspired. Mira and I have a healthy irreverence for English culture.

Q: Is that a typical Welsh sentiment?

A: Absolutely! England invaded us before they invaded India. India has a democracy right now, but we haven’t.

Q: But you still have your language.

A: Absolutely! So hey, thanks guys for leaving us that. English is still very much my second language. I am much better in Welsh. There is a lot more to say [in Welsh].

Q: Was there even any confusion on the set with both you and Reese Witherspoon having the same first name?

A: Luckily, I had only one scene with Reese. I don’t know many Reeses, but Reese Witherspoon is the most beautiful one I know.

Q: “Enduring Love” reunites you with director Roger Michell.

A: Roger is in many ways a similar director to Mira in that he’s very much an actors’ director. Especially with Roger, it is the pace of the actors’ work that determines the pace of the day. So often with studio films, the actor is really the last person who is considered in the pecking order. When you work with Roger, the actors’ needs are paramount.

Q: Do you see any similarities between Dobbin and your character, Jed, in “Enduring Love”?

A: Jed and Dobbin are people who are very, very much in love. One has trouble expressing it and the other expresses it too much. Jed has to be absolutely blindly in love, head over heels in love with a man. You don’t exactly take your character home, but the emotional residue stays with you quite some time. Unflinching and unmoving devotion is childlike. It’s strange to play. It’s kind of worryingly easy to access and very more worryingly hard to leave somehow.