'The Tudors' Jonathan Rhys Meyers feeling royally fit

Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers has earned international acclaim for his performance in "The Tudors," currently airing its final season on Showtime.

During his four-year run on the show, however, his off-camera life was nearly as turbulent as that of Henry VIII, marked by the death of his beloved mother and intermittent reports of problems with alcohol.

The actor says he has gotten past all that, though, and is calmly considering his next projects.

"I think the nature of life is to change and to evolve - chrysalis to butterfly, however you want to put it," he tells Zap2it.

"You may have to go through periods of great unrest, but those bring periods of great clarity and calm. I think where I am now is a direct result of all the work that I have done and all the difficulties that I have had to push through to get to the place where I am at 32 years old. Now I can sort of look back reflectively on that time, which also gave me great strength."

He says the films he took during his hiatuses from "The Tudors" often were selected more for their shooting schedule than for the inherent quality of the material, something he wants to avoid in the future.

"I finished 'The Tudors' and went straight the next day into costume tests for 'From Paris With Love,'" Rhys Meyers says. "When you're young, it's important just to work as much as you can, but then you reach a certain point where you have to be a little bit more choosy about what kinds of roles you go for and what actors you work with."

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