Rhys Ifans

This is going back a bit, April 1999, or there about, photographing the brilliant and slightly mad Rhys Ifans for The Daily Telegraph. I had only seen him in Twin Town at that point, which I thought was a brilliant film, and he was about to appear as Spike in the film 'Notting Hill' hence the reason for the photo shoot.

The location was in some rented apartments in central London, I'll always remember how he greeted me when I arrived :

"Alright mate, my name's Rhys, the mini bar is over there, help yourself!!"

I knew straight away we were going to get along.

So as on a lot of the shoots I had a quick look around and set up my lights whilst he finished his interview with the journalist.

He turned out to be brilliant, full of energy and up for doing anything! What a joy to photograph compared with a lot of other actors. It was all a bit of a blur, as we rushed about my chosen locations in the 15 mins I had to complete the shoot. He was even happy to jump into the bath for a shot, what a great man!!

The shot that worked best for me was taken on the roof terrace, I really didn't need to prompt him much he pretty much just went mad in front of the camera as you can see from the contact sheets that I've scanned, but I was really pleased with this picture, as it pretty much sums Rhys up. Lovely chap, mad as a box of frogs.