Ioan Gruffudd: Sir Lancelot the Hot!

Okay, the Titanic just sank and you're Kate Winslet in the ocean about to freeze to death and you keep blowing that darn whistle and finally, a handsome, heroic ship's officer floats by in a lifeboat, and rescues you!  That "officer" is very cute, dark-haired Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd (pronounced "Yo-wan Griffiths"). At age 11, little Ioan got the acting bug and co-stared in a Welsh soap opera. At 18, he attended London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked in more Brit TV. He became mega-popular when audiences started asking, 'hey, who is that really hot-looking dude saving Kate W. from certain soggy death'?

It wasn't until the BBC series "Horatio Hornblower", about another sea-going hottie, that Ioan hit the bigtime in the U.K. resulting in women putting his poster up on their bedroom walls. After a few more series and feature films, Ioan was chosen to play a very different version of Sir Lancelot in the new Jerry-Bruckheimer produced re-imagining of the tale of the Round Table knights, King Arthur, in which he co-stars with hot Keira Knightley and the guy they keep saying should play James Bond...Clive Owen.

We sat down with Ioan in Beverly Hills recently and whoa, is he charming... he can be our knight in shining armor (or leather) anytime! Tune in.....

TeenHollywood: Did you have to audition for this? Was it is tough process?

Ioan: Yes, not necessarily tough, but I originally auditioned and was put  on tape and it seemed like months went by then until I heard anything, until Antoine (Fuqua, the director) and Jerry (Bruckheimer) wanted to sit down with me, and I auditioned again for them. Luckily, I had worked with Jerry on Black Hawk Down briefly so that was a good little connection to have had.

TeenHollywood: Lancelot is a little different in this version of the Arthur legend. Did that surprise you?

Ioan: Well, I was just so surprised at the whole new interpretation of the legend to be honest with you but where do our images of King Arthur and Guinevere and Lancelot come from? Have we read about them?  Has it come down through the ages of storytelling? Was it due to other movies we've seen? I suppose the original image of him is this gallant, noble knight-in-shining-armor, Arthur's best friend who has an affair with Guinevere but I like this Lancelot. I think he's darker and more brooding, more earthy really and more realistic. I think that's the beauty of King Arthur. It is a legend, a myth. We don't know what the real story is so it's open to so many different interpretations.

TeenHollywood: But, for the romantics out there, there's still a hint of something going on with Guinevere, right?

Ioan: (smiling) Oh yes, absolutely, we were determined to get that in. He's a man, and he's a ladies' man.  He speaks at the beginning of the movie about sleeping with so-and-so's wife and he's the father of Bors' third child. He's certainly a confident, arrogant chap as well. Keira and I were determined that we would get an undercurrent of that in the movie, and actually we tried to get a scene in there from the beginning. I wanted them to write that into the movie.

TeenHollywood: She said you had a couple of scenes that were cut.

Ioan: Yes, we did, and when we saw the movie we both looked at each other and said, 'Where did our scenes go?' And we both were a little bit upset, but now that we've looked at it in retrospect, people have responded to the subtleness of it and the fact that it's just behind the eyes and the looks and what-have-you.

TeenHollywood: But these scenes might be on the DVD?

Ioan: Possibly, yes. But the scenes aren't (love scenes). She's a feisty character and we just don't know how to respond to each other, because Lancelot isn't a naturally emotional character, he's a trained killer, he doesn't know what it's like to fall in love with a woman. I would imagine women are sort of objects with him all his life.

TeenHollywood: Were you asked to not watch or think about all the Lancelots that have been on screen before? Like did you watch Richard Gere in First Knight?

Ioan: No, certainly not.  As an actor I come at it from the basis of the script, and he was obviously different from any of the other images that we have of him. Why do we go and see "Hamlet" time and time again? It's because it's another actor's interpretation of that character.

TeenHollywood: What training did you have to do on a day-to-day basis for all the tough fight scenes?

Ioan: We had two weeks of   boot camp where we rode the horses in the morning and had a bit of a light lunch and a bit of weight training and then choreographed all the fights.

TeenHollywood: You are swinging not one but two swords! How hard was that?

Ioan: Very difficult, because we can all pretend to fight with the one sword, but to have the two suddenly became a little dance. You literally have to choreograph every move individually and then slowly, gradually, build it up, building up speed. Obviously with the help of editing and swift camerawork it made it look even better.

TeenHollywood: Out of all the knights who was the toughest?

Ioan: I think Keira. She was always in the gym doing sit-ups so she's got a six-pack. She's 19 so she can eat anything she wants and get away with it. I was probably the laziest. I'm 30.

TeenHollywood: You look younger than that.

Ioan: Thank you very much; it's the Hollywood lifestyle. (yeah, right.)

TeenHollywood: Does a big action movie like this open up many doors to you?

Ioan: I hope so, certainly the exposure is going to be enormous, and it has already opened doors in the sense that I'm now meeting directors and I'm testing for certain movies.

TeenHollywood: Does that make you nervous that you can go from relative unknown to stardom in a very short period of time?

Ioan: It doesn't frighten me, because as a performer, as an actor you have to admit that you are a showoff and you like the attention, but the right sort of attention, and so far it's been attention through the parts that I've played rather than attention individually towards me.

TeenHollywood: So you're kind of worried about getting recognized more on the street?

Ioan: Well, I think the more attention you have as an individual, the less mystique you have as an actor and the audiences won't go to the movies to see you because they know everything about you. This celebrity-ism is a very dangerous thing for an actor.

TeenHollywood: You were in a futuristic lawyer show called "Century City" for a while but it was cancelled. Are you kind of upset about that?

Ioan: They didn't give it a chance, and that's the ruthlessness of American television. It's incredible. I'm glad for the experience, and to be honest with you it's the hardest thing I've ever had to do.

TeenHollywood: Why?

Ioan: Physically harder than this movie; honestly, the hours were intense. We would go into the 17th, 18th hour sometimes, and I would go, 'Are we going to stop shooting?' I was struggling with the American accent and everything. I must admit I was blown away by the professionalism and the attitude, it's a real industry, it's very exciting and it's a business and I love that.

TeenHollywood: Have you moved here?

Ioan: Yes,  I have, about a year and a half ago. I live in West Hollywood. I moved out here with my girlfriend. She's English. She's an actress, we met on 102 Dalmatians. Her name's Alice Evans.

TeenHollywood: Do you ever get homesick?

Ioan: Yes, I'm always homesick for Wales specifically, and my family, I miss them terribly. I haven't really missed London as a place at all. I miss my friends back in London, but as a place I've sort of had enough of it.

TeenHollywood: When you were in Ireland did you and the guys go hit the pubs and have a pint every now and then?

Ioan: Every night, yes. The best way to get over a hangover is getting on the back of a horse in the morning. We would always be helped onto the horses in the morning. I know it sounds a bit boring but we didn't have any incidents or accidents that make for good stories.

TeenHollywood: You mentioned talking about your roles with Keira. Did you talk to Clive Owen about your roles and relationship?

Ioan: Yes, we did, and Antoine (Fuqua) – he involved us in that process. At lunchtimes we'd get together and work on the scenes and trim them down and make them more concise and precise, and Clive and I had a great relationship on and off set.

TeenHollywood: Clive is rumored to be up for the James Bond role – is there an ideal fantasy character for you?

Ioan: That was very smooth. I always fancied being in a western.

TeenHollywood: You don't want to try and beat Clive for the role? I've been rumored to be associated with that part in Britain –

TeenHollywood: Where do these rumors come from?

Ioan: Mine started from an article that  I did for Esquire magazine in Britain, where they put a photo spread in there where I'm standing next to really cool cars in sharp suits, and they put it in their Bond issue with Pierce on the cover, and so that's how that started. I'd love to play Bond, absolutely love to, but I think I'm 10 years too young to play Bond at the moment.

TeenHollywood: Connery was only 30 when he did Bond.

Ioan: Yes, but he's much more manly than I am. Clive can do two or three and then ...

TeenHollywood: Did you take any mementos home?

Ioan: No, nothing for this movie, absolutely nothing.

TeenHollywood: Not even your helmet?

Ioan: No, nothing. I hated my helmet, I got rid of it immediately. When I got up on that hill at the end in full battle armor, and that stupid cone-helmet – I hated it, I got rid of it immediately because I didn't want to die a heroic death in that ridiculous –

TeenHollywood: You didn't want to take home any of the armor and wear it around the house?

Ioan: No, no. It's just too awkward.

TeenHollywood: No swords?

Ioan: What I did do, Penny Rose, our costume designer, had commissioned the armorer to make miniatures of all the body armor at the end of the movie, so I commissioned the guy to make the same outfits as I was wearing, so I've got a miniature version of Lancelot. It's a work of art.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.