Matthew Rhys joins Claire Danes for tense Netflix thriller

Stephen Price

Emmy award-winning actor, Matthew Rhys is set to join Claire Danes for one of this year’s most highly anticipated thrillers, The Beast In Me, this November.

Following widespread acclaim for his roles in The Americans and Perry Mason, Cardiff-born Matthew Rhys and Claire Danes find themselves playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse in the new eight-episode drama coming next week from creator Gabe Rotter, who previously worked on The X-Files.

Danes plays Aggie Wiggs, a grieving writer; Rhys plays Nile Jarvis, her new neighbor and possible murderer. But who is the monster? And who’s the bad neighbor? That’s another story.

Showrunner, executive producer, and writer Howard Gordon, who worked with Danes on Homeland, was excited to team up with her again. He shared: “I was a fan well before I her.

Howard Gordon explained: “She really has that uniquely rare ability to convey the most interior thoughts, and you know what’s going on inside her.

“There’s a fierce intelligence, but there’s also her vulnerability. She really conveys that.”

Danes was the obvious choice to play Aggie, but finding Nile was much more difficult according to Gordon, who said: “That was the far more challenging part to cast for.

“For me, the heavy lifting in the show was really, really making that character by turns dangerous, charming, and even vulnerable.”

Soon, Matthew Rhys entered the conversation, and he jumped at the opportunity to play the ‘slimy’ Nile. Gordon said: “Matthew happens to be, aside from also another incredibly sweet guy, a fiercely good actor.

“And I have to confess, not only was I surprised by their chemistry, but I was surprised by how virtuosic he was.”

Chasing demons

According to the show’s synopsis, The Beast in Me focuses on acclaimed author Aggie Wiggs (Danes), who has receded from public life since the tragic death of her young son, finding herself unable to write and a ghost of her former self.

Danes’ character finds an unlikely subject for a new book when the house next door is bought by Nile Jarvis (Rhys), a famed and formidable real estate mogul who was once the prime suspect in his wife’s disappearance.

At once horrified and fascinated by this man, Aggie finds herself compulsively hunting for the truth — chasing his demons while fleeing her own — in a game of cat and mouse that might turn deadly.

The title of the series comes from a Johnny Cash song — but it’s not as simple as it might initially seem, according to Gordon.

He told Netflix: “It really is about all of our complicity.

“Whether it’s Monica Lewinsky or Amanda Knox or Nile Jarvis or whatever, sometimes we are quick to make assumptions. But when we are forced to look at it from another angle, do we have the humility and the compassion to listen and to revise the narrative?”

November is shaping up to be a busy month for Matthew Rhys, as he is set to take to the stage to play Richard Burton to raise funds for Welsh National Theatre.

Emmy Award winner Rhys is set to return to the London stage for the first time in 21 years to play Richard Burton at The Old Vic. The iconic venue has ties to the late star’s early success and has been added as an extra date (Sunday 16 November) to the Welsh run of Playing Burton to meet popular demand.

The performances will run in Welsh theatres from 16 to 28 November 2025, including Cardigan, Wrexham, Cardiff, Aberystwyth, Bangor, and Swansea, and culminate at Bethel Chapel Café in Burton’s birthplace of Pontrhydyfen.

The acclaimed one-man play is being revived to mark the centenary since Richard Burton’s birth, raising funds for Michael Sheen’s new Welsh National Theatre

The Beast in Me streams on Netflix from Thursday 13 Nov 2025