Matthew Rhys regrets not stepping in after Kathleen Turner photographed nude onstage: ‘I let her down’

Rhys and Turner starred in the 2000 stage production of ‘The Graduate’

Monday 24 April 2023 06:12 BST

Trailer for Sky Atlantic's Perry Mason starring Matthew Rhys

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Matthew Rhys has said he regrets not intervening when a photographer took a picture of his co-star Kathleen Turner naked on stage.

The Welsh actor – best known for his role in FX’s hit series The Americans – starred alongside Turner in a stage production of The Graduate in 2000.

In a new interview with The Times, Rhys, 48, recalled how a tabloid newspaper had sent a photographer to one of the performances.

The photographer in question took a picture of Turner – who played Mrs Robinson – naked on stage, which everyone on stage and in the audience knew of because a flash went off in the crowd.

“I think about that moment so often,” Rhys said. “We locked eyes for a second, and because she was such a force and spoke her mind very freely and was very direct and straightforward, I thought, if anyone in this world could stop this production, it would be Kathleen Turner. And she didn’t.”

The actor added that looking back on the incident, he has come to a different realisation.

“In retrospect, that was my responsibility in that moment to stop and go, ‘Hang on, that’s not OK,’” he said.

“Because the next day, in the tabloids, there was a picture of her naked. She wasn’t happy about it, to put it mildly. And as she was a guest in the Sceptred Isle, I was like, ‘Oh, I let her down.’”