02-16-2000
LONDON -- Although Rupert Penry-Jones is one of London's emerging young actors, he's clearly headed for a lot more than favorable theatrical reviews.
The 29-year-old, 6-foot, blond star of the Royal Shakespeare Company's soon-to-be-imported Don Carlos also plays the ideal cyber-boyfriend in the soon-to-open teen flick Virtual Sexuality. But his offstage life is made for celebrity gossip columns: He's dating pop star Kylie Minogue, was expelled from drama school and has a tendency to show up for interviews in motorcycle leathers.
In addition to that, he's friendly. He expresses relief that Don Carlos, which is part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's May 10-27 season at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, doesn't call on him to be relentlessly cute. ''Lots of times I play parts where that's part of the character. And it's a real burden. It's much more fun to be uncool. And easier,'' he says, chatting in a smoky coffee bar in fashionable, funky Clapham, south of London.
His career is only about 5 years old, starting with understudying for Ralph Fiennes in the 1995 Broadway production of Hamlet. He was relieved he never went on. ''I was having too good a time to work hard. I had the best time in New York. It's like walking onto the biggest film set in the world. Everywhere I went, I recognized it from films.''
Since then, he has gone on to success in Edward Albee's enigmatic new work, The Play About the Baby, and has made brief appearances on British TV and in films such as Cold Comfort Farm. He's ambitious, to be sure, but not that much in a hurry. He knows the theater world is more welcoming and forgiving than the film world, and he wants to be ready when the big break comes along.
Also, he has seen the pluses and minuses of fame close up through his relationship with Minogue. They haven't seen each other in a while because she has been in Australia, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. ''It's difficult and confusing: You're accommodating two people, the person and the star. You're not in love with the star, and the star gets in the way a lot. But any hassle has been worth every minute of it.''
Copyright 2000, USA Today, a division of Gannett Co., Inc.