I recently spoke with Matthew Rhys, star of The Americans, about his character's relationship with his children and his character's often undecided view of the United States of America. We should have a complete transcript posted in a few days, but in the meantime here is a short sneak peek.
My first question for Matthew involved episode 2.09 (Martial Eagle) in which Phillip screams at Paige for her newfound religion and interpreted disrespect for her parents. I asked Matthew about what went into creating such an emotionally tense scene. Matthew responded by referencing a piece of training that he received when he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. He said that he made use of a technique called emotional callback where one essentially thinks back to a time where the emotion he is to be displaying is mirrored. He also said that he believes that Phillip realizes the amount of pressure on him has caused him to lose touch with his daughter. During my talk with Matthew Rhys it became very clear that he takes a lot of pride in understanding the characters that he portrays. For example, Matthew has created an entire backstory for the character with the mustache, goatee, and tool belt (pictured above). I wish I could tell you all about this backstory, but unfortunately the phone reception was weak at points during the conference call and I could not understand what Matthew said. Hopefully the transcript will have this piece of information for everyone.
My second question for Matthew involved the amount of leniency, some might even say forgiveness that Phillip extends toward his children at times. I wanted to understand what makes Phillip take this approach whereas Elizabeth is much more strict. Matthew saw a number of reasons for Phillip's forgiving nature. Matthew first referenced Phillip's easier assimilation to the United States as opposed to Elizabeth whose indoctrination was quite brutal. At the same time Matthew understands the great hardships that Phillip would have gone through as a child in the Soviet Union and believes that this makes him appreciate his family more given their surroundings and level of freedom.
That was all the time that I had for questions, but there were a lot more people on the call with excellent questions that you can read about once we receive the transcript. Again, we should have a complete transcript of this conference call online within a few days so stay tuned!
Tune in to The Americans on Wednesdays @ 10/9c on FX Network.
