The multi-Emmy award winning Welsh actor was a guest on his fellow star’s podcast
Matthew Rhys was a guest on the SmartLess podcast, which is hosted by Ozark star Jason Bateman, centre, and Sean Hayes, right(Image: Getty)
The Welsh language was discussed on a hugely popular podcast hosted by three well-known Hollywood stars. SmartLess became an instantaneous success when it was launched during the Covid pandemic. It secured a deal with Amazon for a reported $80 million in 2021 before a $100 million acquisition by Sirius XM in 2024.
The hosts are the actors Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett. They have around 208,000 subscribers on YouTube. Bateman is the star of globally-revered shows like Ozark; Hayes starred in Will & Grace and Arnett starred in Arrested Development and BoJack Horseman.
This week they re-released an episode of SmartLess recorded a couple of years earlier with Welsh actor, Matthew Rhys, after he made history by becoming the first person to win two lead acting prizes in one night. Rhys was named best lead actor in a limited series for Netflix’s The Beast In Me, then won best lead actor in a comedy for Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay. The actor dedicated his second award “to the great and good people of Wales” and signed off his second acceptance speech on stage with “Diolch yn fawr iawn”.
On the podcast, the three actors lovingly discuss Wales, its people and language with their Welsh guest. But getting to grips with the topic, Bateman first asks “Welsh is a language, is that what I heard you say?” before following up with “So it’s not English?”
Matthew goes on to explain: “It’s not English, it’s much older than English, it’s one of the oldest in Europe. I grew up speaking Welsh, the whole family speak Welsh.”
When he is then jokingly asked “Isn’t Welsh just English with an accent?“, Matthew also jokes, saying: “Yes, basically. What we do is try and adopt such a harsh accent no one really understands the English we’re speaking.”
Arnett interjects to say “No, no, no, no, no, he’s having you on” before going on to describe the time he spent in Wales filming in Rhys’s hometown of Cardiff, where he went to school in Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf and Welsh was his first language. Arnett says: “The signage in Wales is delightful — one in English and one in Welsh.”
“In Wales, there’s a great reverence for the performing arts,” explains Rhys. “There’s an ancient tradition, it’s pre-Christian, whereby everyone congregates and sings competitively or recites poetry or anything of that ilk. It’s very modern these days, but twice a year all the children of Wales will gather and you’re very much encouraged to get on stage in some art form or another and compete for your school or your county. You’re kind of kicked on to a stage.”
Rhys is asked “What’s the distance between English and Welsh? I’ve no idea what it sounds like, what it looks like” and he recites the 7th century Welsh poem Y Gododdin:
Gwyr a aeth Gatraeth oedd ffraeth eu llu, Glasfedd eu hancwyn a gwenwyn fu Trychant trwy beiriant yn catau A gwedi elwch tawelwch fu.
When the hosts say it sounds like “the elves in Lord of the Rings”, Rhys explains that “Tolkien based Elvish on Welsh.”
A gobsmacked Bateman says: “I’m a 54-year-old man that is not living in a cave — why have I never, ever heard Welsh spoken? I don’t understand how that’s gone by me.”
Rhys also explained on the podcast how his relationship with fellow actor Keri Russell was exposed by mistake during a police photoshoot after their home was burgled while they were inside. In a recent interview with WalesOnline, he said he couldn’t be described as “Wales’ greatest living actor”, gasping “You can’t say that — Anthony Hopkins isn’t dead and he’s got two Oscars and two Emmys!” and explained how his feet were kept on the ground, saying: “Nothing can pull you down faster than a Welsh older sister.”
He also laughed when he recalled how his uncle came backstage at the end of a play in which he starred with Paul Bettany and said: “Well, that was sh*t.”
