Cool in person, frightening in film

NEW YORK – Not many actors from a summer superhero movie would cite Shakespeare to justify their film’s existence. Then again, not many actors are Rhys Ifans, a very unlikely person to grace a big-budget action extravaganza such as “The Amazing Spider-Man.”

A classically trained theater performer who dropped off the Hollywood map for more than a decade, the Welsh actor, 43, presents an odd blend of thoughtful eloquence, rock ’n’ roll swagger and career ambivalence – not to mention an, er, high-mindedness about the work he’s doing.

“There are these enduring, socially mirroring qualities that Spider-Man has that begs us to revisit him,” Ifans said when asked over breakfast why he thought the time was right for a new Spider-Man movie. “He’s in a sense a spokesman for every generation. And like all great albums, or movies, or pieces of literature, we revisit them. ‘Hamlet’ is prepared dozens of times, and nobody ever says ‘Why the … are we doing that again?’”

Ifans is a key part of doing that again – that is, Etch-a-Sketching one of Hollywood’s most popular franchises just five years after it last appeared on the big screen. Improbably directed by the indie filmmaker Marc Webb (“(500) Days of Summer”) and anchored by a cerebral Brit (Andrew Garfield), the movie is both a financial and tonal gamble. “The Amazing Spider-Man,” which opened Tuesday, tackles a familiar tale about the transformation of the ordinary teen Peter Parker – told by Sam Raimi to great creative and box-office effect beginning in 2002 – more intimately than the original.

Sony Pictures executives are crossing their fingers that they made the right decision with their $230-million bet.

Ifans has plenty riding on the movie, too. As Curt Connors, the lizard-morphing scientist who is Spidey’s chief rival, the actor has taken on the most prominent role of his enigmatic career.

After enchanting U.S. audiences as Hugh Grant’s unkempt roommate in 1999’s “Notting Hill,” Ifans largely disappeared from the American screen. He took minor roles in forgettable studio comedies (“Little Nicky,” anyone?) and larger parts in well-regarded but little-seen indies. Instead he concentrated on theater and music in his native U.K. (Ifans was briefly the lead singer of the cult Welsh rock band Super Furry Animals.)

But in the last 18 months Ifans has been unexpectedly thrust back into the Hollywood spotlight. He’s played the editor of a wizard magazine in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1”; the Earl of Oxford in Roland Emmerich’s Shakespeare-flavored period drama “Anonymous”; and an unctuous professor competing for Emily Blunt’s affections in “The Five-Year Engagement.” He’ll next appear as a pining lover in the star-laden romance “Serena.”

In all these guises, Ifans’ Super Furry Animals past has never been too far behind. The actor carries himself with a Mick Jagger air – living much of the year on the Spanish island of Majorca doesn’t hurt, nor does an arrest at Comic-Con – that makes an impression even on costars accustomed to groupiedom.

“Rhys is just way cooler than you are,” said “The Hunger Games’” Jennifer Lawrence, who stars opposite Ifans in “Serena.” “It’s an effortless cool that makes you feel like a nerd; even his clothes make you feel like you should have worn something cooler.”

As he invoked Shakespeare to describe Spider-Man, Ifans was just getting going. “Not that I’m comparing ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Spider-Man’ in literary terms. But in archetypal terms they’re both very real and relevant figures. Hamlet is a youth grappling with the loss of his father, same as Spider-Man. It’s easy to say, ‘Why is Sony doing this again, but (not) ‘Come on, Shakespeare, write another one.’ ”

Ifans said he understands fans’ concerns. “Spider-Man is not a millionaire who lives in a dark tower on a hill and keeps his car in a cave and hangs out with a scantily clad boy called Robin,” the actor said. “He’s not some deity like Superman who lives on another planet. He’s the kid next door; he’s you and me. We’ve all been there. … We’ve all been bullied to some extent. He’s overcoming something we’re all familiar with. So people feel they own him even more.”

Born in a small town to teacher parents, Ifans’ entree to acting came when he joined a youth theater group in his hometown. He had no ambition of becoming anything more than a theater creature when he decamped at 17 for London acting school.

Those first years in the big city were difficult – “like taming a giant horse,” he said – and there were nights he cried himself to sleep. But he stuck it out and soon began landing theater roles, eventually ending up in Shakespeare and other productions at the likes of the Royal National Theatre.

All that changed in 1997 when Ifans and his actor brother Llyr starred in a scrappy black comedy movie called “Twin Town.” Made on a tiny budget with an offbeat Welsh sensibility, the movie became a huge hit in the U.K. Two years later, “Notting Hill” put him on a U.S. radar.

Soon the studio comedy offers streamed in. But Ifans chose to go dark instead. “‘Notting Hill’ was a great gig and a great part. But after that movie the amount of scantily clad goofballs that came my way was unbelievable,” he said, referring to his half-naked antics from “Notting Hill.” “This industry is built on pigeonholing. And that’s what I wanted to avoid.”

“Anonymous” was a turning point. Some of the cast and crew were taken aback by the choice of a little-known actor as the lead, director Roland Emmerich recalled. But he believed the actor possessed a subtlety. “There’s a vulnerability to Rhys that gives any performance an element of the tragic, and that’s what I wanted,” Emmerich said.

When the studio and producers were seeking their Connors/Lizard – a tragic figure in his own right – they called Emmerich, who recommended Ifans.

Ifans said while he’s grateful for the new work, he doesn’t always relish the media attention that comes with it. At last summer’s Comic-Con, Ifans was arrested on suspicion of battery after scuffling with a security guard. No charges were filed, but many in the blogosphere had a field day anyway. “That’s one of the things about being in the public eye – something like that happens and suddenly you’re an ax-wielding madman,” he said.