….
I was half way through watching Tristan and Isolde (2006, recommended by Netflix) in June of 2008. In the middle of the scene with Rufus and James Franco (Tristan) on the bridge where Lord Marke (Rufus) asks if Isolde is faithful to him, I said to myself, “who is this [amazing] guy?!” He spoke with so much emotion, with exceedingly convincing expressions and just so much shear heart that I rewound that scene about fives times and was immediately in love with my first movie boyfriend. When I told “Flixy” (rtm) how excited I was, (now that I had someone comparable to her dear Gerry Butler), she said, rather nonchalantly, oh, yes, Rufus, I like him, he’s in Dangerous Beauty, The Illusionist, The Holiday and knew he was a Brit. Well, imagine my delight, again! So then the relentless hunt began – to see anything I could that mentioned Rufus Sewell, to see if T&I was just a fluke, or if he was always that stunning.…
Very soon after, Flixy and I had a Friday Movie Night and watched Dangerous Beauty (1998), and I totally, completely, fell head-over-heals. I had already seen The Illusionist and The Holiday without realizing at all that Rufus was in either, that’s how much the Bridge scene took me away.
Turns out many knew him from the 1998 mystery/sci-fi thriller Dark City. Not my usual genre, but understood the praise after watching it. Then came his more well-known parts as vengeful, spurned suitors in A Knight’s Tale (2001, Count Adhemar) and The Illusionist (2006, Crown Prince Leopold), and his downright villainous scoundrel in The Legend of Zorro (2005, Armand). He played rather ordinary men in some rather interesting circumstances in Cold Comfort Farm (1995), The Woodlanders (1997), In a Savage Land (1999), Paris, je t’aime (2006), Amazing Grace (2006) and Downloading Nancy (2008). He is in period-costume glory in Hamlet, Arabian Nights, Helen of Troy and Pillars of the Earth.
He is comfortable either on TV, film or stage. He prefers finite TV series (Gone to Seed, MiddleMarch, The Last King, John Adams, Taming of the Shrew) as opposed to an open-ended series like Eleventh Hour, (which lasted only a year on CBS), but was too long to for him be in one place. According to Rufus… “an interesting experiment” as he calls it, to be polite. And aside from his outstanding acting, in ordinary life the guy is just plain charming, considerate, and friendly… as displayed in Craig Ferguson’s interview… which easily endears me to him even more.
Anticipation
Now that I’ve seen most there is to see of Rufus outstanding work, (except, or course, his stage plays, which include performances in Arcadia, Translations and Rock ‘n’ Roll), the only thing that’s left to do is see it all over again, or look forward to what’s coming up. The Pillars of the Earth (eight-part mini series) debuted in the USA in July, is playing on BBC4 in Britain currently, premiering in Germany this week and has been seen in Italy, Greece and maybe more. I haven’t even seen any episodes yet, but there’s buzz that Emmy nominations can’t be far behind. I don’t have Starz, so am anxiously waiting for the DVD to come out at the end of November here in the USA. To see the extraordinary range that Roof is capable of, watch this compilation of him as Tom Builder in Pillars of the Earth. Even where the music eclipses the dialogue, you can’t miss the depth and range he conveys:
And then we can look forward to seeing him out of 11th Century garb and back in a suit again in the Aurelio Zen series he stars in on PBS sometime in the future and another contemporary role (a “small, but significant” role, according to Ruf) in the major Hollywood film The Tourist opening here December 10.
And lastly, I have to give a shout out to all my fan girl friends over at The Rooftop (Everything Rufus, All The Time – made up tagline, but so true). Life would be a little less bright without it. And I would feel a lot crazier as a Ruf fan if not for them, because their fantasies (and “Caps” ;-)) are usually more than I could ever dream up. But some really do come true however, just ask Gloria, aka Dreamer who met Ruf on the set of Zen in Rome this summer.
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Love your pix choices! And I really have to thank aniabeataa from YouTube for the charming clip of Ruf in AMONI. That film is so hard to get a hold of I was quite surprised and giddy with joy when I accidently found it recently. Grazie!
Glad you like it, Becky. Your post is wonderful… what a fitting tribute to a wonderful actor. Wouldn’t it be great if Roof himself read this? 😉
Even though it more like an “assignment” from the “headmaster” blogger rtm (joking, kinda ;-)), I really enjoyed researching and writing it. Yes, one of the Rooftop gals hoped maybe somehow Ruf would read it too. At first I dismissed the thought, but then look what happened to Dreamer (Gloria) this summer! So I will just imagine in my mind that he will, and that he’ll enjoy like everyone else. Thanks!
Nice post, and happy B-day to our RufRuf. And I think Prairie girl already knows I share her love for RufRuf’s performance in TRISTAN AND ISOLDE, although I loved him years and years before that as well.
And Dez, you gotta know I love you for your love of Tristan and Isolde! And yes, I am certainly a late-comer to loving Rufus. When and how did your affair with him start? And how about a link to your summer post about him? ;-D
Here’s the linky dinky, Prairie Girl 😉
http://hollywood-spy.blogspot.com/2010/09/gerard-butler-is-hollywood-spys-best.html
Oh, yes, Dez, now I remember, our luv came in second in your Fav Brit Gents poll. Not too bad being runner-up to GB!
Oh yeah, glad to see Dez’s readers have excellent taste. I told him it was agonizing to have to choose between Gerry Berry and Roof 😦 If only both of them would star in a movie together! Seriously, if I were a movie producer, that’d be the first thing I’d try to do!
Amen! to casting GB and RS together. Talk about a fantasy come true… ;-D
Put Blanchett in that dreamy cast as well, and you have me as your faithful supporter :)))
Well you know I already put her in my fantasy movie pitch… but if I had my way, I certainly don’t mind casting her in every one of my movies 😀
and may I be so bold to ask for Catherine Zeta Jones as well 🙂
PS, Flixy you should’ve borrowed pics from my post on RufRuf earlier this summer 😛
You know what Dez, I did come across your pics when I was browsing Google images, but I wanted something that’s more of a horizontal format. Thanks for the offer though… I know you always feature the coolest photos on your blog!
oh, I won’t be modest, but it’s true so many of my images have found their way into Google image search that sometimes it’s almost funny finding them all around 🙂
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Oh right! He was in The Illusionist, never realized ahah 🙂 I did like Rufus in Dark City, one of the most underrated sci-fi film ever.
Yes, he was great in Dark City. The film starts out more like a mystery or a who-done-it and it takes a while to realize something sci-fi is going on. So it’s kind of an in-between genre, maybe that’s why it doesn’t get all the credit is deserves.
…so, i’m guess i am the only one not in love with Rufus around here *backs away to corner in embarrassment*
Although i didn’t know he was in The Illusionist
Hey Dirty, again, LOVE all the love coming out for Ru today!
Like I mentioned in the post, I saw the Illusionist a full year before I saw Tristan and Isolde, and had no idea the major character Prince Leopold was Rufus. Not that is wasn’t a great performance (it was, check out this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzsnCrWObxQ&feature=&p=AAE172C76815B679&index=0&playnext=1), but he played the type of character a girl wouldn’t endear herself too, thus the major theme of the movie – his love interest would rather (almost) die before succumbing to him ;-D. So just goes to show what an amazing chameleon he is, being able to so effortlessly go from the giving and forgiving character of Lord Marke in T&I to the controlling Leopold. and both in the same year (2006)!
Oh, my bad, misread you’re comment about NOT lovin’ Ruf, no problem, he’s got plenty of that from all the rest of us. 😉
It seems so. I have nothing against the guy, i just don’t have the love for him that everybody else here has.
I love Rufus Sewell. He really is far less famous than he should be. I’ve not seen nearly enough of his films, but he’s one of the few actors who will get me to go see a film jstu because he’s in it.
My favourite of his work is his Petruchio in the BBC modern version of Taming of the Shrew. Has to be seen to be believed. Absolutely awesome.
Hi Katie, I totally agree, I’m continually amazed that he isn’t more prominent in the industry, but as long as he keeps giving us series like Pillars of the Earth and Zen, and more films (waiting patiently here!) I’ll settle on seeing him in anything I can. And Taming of the Shrew is one of my favorites too. He is simply a comedic genius in that!
Love the guys work. He’s been around for quite a while? Nice post 🙂
Hey, Mike, thanks for the shout-out for my boy Ruf! Yes, he’s been acting for twenty years now, let’s hope it’s for 20 more!