RHYS Ifans' has won the hearts and respect of audiences, been hailed as the brightest acting talent from Wales and linked to supermodels.
But what few knew until this week's Celtic Film and Television festival was that his passion for acting was born out of a pre-pubescent obsession with "giving old ladies from the Wirral electric shocks."
This must have come as a surprise to even diehard fans of the man who shot to fame courtesy of Notting Hill.
The Ruthin actor, who has gone on to star in Enduring Love and Not Only But Always, says mischievous visits to Clwyd Theatr Cymru unwittingly kick-started his love of theatre.
"I wasn't the most academic of youths," says Ifans.. "But when I was about 10 years old they built this theatre in Mold where I went to school, and it was the most modern building I'd seen in my whole life."
Dressed in jeans and a denim jacket, he is addressing a packed amphitheatre at the Celtic Film and Television Festival. He has the trademark 60s-mod feather cut that made him the epitome of indie-kid cool even before the hairstyle became fashionable - again.
But despite being Wales' best-known film icon , he looks visibly nervous on stage. He frequently reaches for his pint of lager while chatting with Welsh film director Ed Thomas, nodding anxiously at an assistant in the audience when he needs a refill, his pupils widening as his glance flits around the room.
"It was like this spaceship that appeared on this hill and it was just a place to go," he says of the Mold theatre. "We discovered that if you rubbed your trainers on the carpet you could give people electric shocks. So we spent the first three or four months giving old ladies from the Wirral electric shocks.
"But then I joined the youth theatre and I discovered that acting was kind of liberating. You didn't have to be academic, you just had to be emotionally brave - you didn't have to be an athlete or a mathematician to address and express and dig deep."
Ifans refuses to give an interview after the staged discussion - a show-piece event to kick off the festival. "You've just heard it - you know it all," he remonstrates with a dismissive shake of the head, an exasperated expression giving his rugged looks an angry shadow as he makes it clear he feels he's done his bit for the public.
But a few drinks later in the bar he is open, friendly and as laddish as any working-class, thirty-something North Walian man.
He has no prima-donna tendencies, and chats enthusiastically with a wannabe film-maker from Rhyl who hopes to get him on board with a movie project.
But during the staged event, Rhys is tight-lipped about what he has in the pipeline. He will only confirm that he won't succeed Christopher Ecclestone as the next Doctor Who after he was tapped up about the part. "I haven't the time," he jokes..
He is happier enjoying a bevy after doing the hard work on stage than he would be fighting Daleks and Cybermen.
But after the success of Enduring Love - "It was something I always wanted to do, to kiss a man and kill a woman," he jokes - expect big things from Ifans soon.
