Matthew Rhys opens up about his struggle for 'The Beast in Me'

Matthew Rhys recently revealed he had to convince The Beast in Me team that he could pull off being creepy.

In a talk with Entertainment Weekly, the 50-year-old Welsh actor admitted when he read the script of Netflix’s show, The Beast in Me, he thought the role of Nile Jarvis, a real estate tycoon suspected of killing his wife, was out of his reach.

Sharing his thoughts, Rhys said, "I read it and I was like, 'I won't get this. People don't come to me for this.’ I have these Celtic eyes. I do downtrodden well, I don't do megalomaniac or sociopath."

Moreover, the show’s creator, Howard Gordon, went on to offer his thoughts on The Edge of Love star’s audition, noting he could not get a chance to depict a role of sociopath or megalomaniac before.

“He brought something else to it. He's so charming and funny and charismatic. But he is scary,” Gordon confessed.

"I had to persuade them that I can be creepy," Rhys quipped and added with a joke that he ‘parked outside’ cast member Claire Danes’ residence to prove his point, saying, "That seemed to do it.”

For the unversed, in The Beast in Me, Danes plays Aggie Wiggs, an author who cannot write after her young son’s death. When Nile moves in next door and wants a running path, Wiggs argues with him, until she thinks he might be the “perfect subject” for her next book.

It is pertinent to mention that The Beast in Me is slated to be released on November 13, 2025.