Ioan Gruffudd may not be a household name — in fact, many people mangle the actor’s Welsh handle — but his latest films should help change that. Luckily, his moniker is actually easy to pronounce:
Yo-an Griffith. The Cardiff native, one of the many U.K. imports currently enjoying popularity in Hollywood, is starring in two upcoming movies — “Amazing Grace” and “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.”
The films couldn’t be more different. In the former, Gruffudd flexes his Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts-trained dramatic muscles as the 18th-century British abolitionist William Wilberforce, while in the latter, he’s doing his second turn as comic book hero Mr. Fantastic.
Wilberforce, the British politician who agitated tirelessly against the slave trade, was “a big leading part for me,” admits Gruffudd, sitting in a suite at the Regency Hotel. For the actor, there was the added draw of working with director Michael Apted, who’s also responsible for “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “Gorillas in the Mist” and the “Seven Up!” documentary series. “That was a huge element. You can relinquish your trust entirely to the director,” says Gruffudd.
And Apted had to put a lot of trust in his leading man. “He really has to carry the film,” says the director, though the cast also includes Rufus Sewell and Romola Garai. “It wasn’t a long list of people who had the chops to do that.”
“I liked his soulfulness. Ioan didn’t feel like he was just some cerebral man, he had a lot of passion, too. That must be his Welshness,” Apted jokes.
Besides the many moments in which Gruffudd got to indulge his “Welshness,” including “the to-oing and fro-ing in Parliament,” the self-described “fashion victim” (and star of ads for the fragrance Burberry London) got a kick out of the clothes. “There’s something about the costumes and the period. Once I put that costume on and the shoes and tie, that stock around my neck and those frilly shirts…it’s very complimentary to us guys,” he says, laughing. “The character is also such a heroic figure that it really reflects well on me.”
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He had to don outfits of a different sort for “Fantastic Four,” and endure the experience of having the paparazzi stalk him and his
co-stars, including Jessica Alba, Kerry Washington and Julian McMahon, during the filming in Vancouver. “They made us wear these capes since the producers didn’t want to reveal the costumes,” he remembers.
The box office success of the franchise has afforded Gruffudd a bit of breathing room. “It allows you to go and do these projects that are labors of love that don’t necessarily give you a massive paycheck,” he muses in his softly modulated accent. “There’s also some personal gain: It raises my profile and allows producers to think I’m a bankable commodity. That kind of thing pays the mortgage,” he says — which is lucky, since he just purchased a house in West Hollywood with his fiancée, Alice Evans, an English actress he met while filming “102 Dalmations.” The two will wed in September. (Giorgio Armani will outfit the wedding party, à la TomKat.)
Meanwhile, Gruffudd waits for these two movies to hit the screens, as well as the indie satire “The TV Set,” with David Duchovny and Sigourney Weaver, out in April, and has just been “pottering around the house.”
“I love it,” he says. “I’ve been busy cleaning, tidying the garden, in the garage. I’m like the man in his shed.”