‘I let her down’: Matthew Rhys regrets not stepping in after Kathleen Turner photographed nude onstage

Matthew Rhys has said he regrets not intervening when a photographer took a picture of his co-star Kathleen Turner naked on stage.

The Welsh actor – best known for his role in FX’s hit series The Americans – starred alongside Turner in a stage production of The Graduate in 2000.

In a new interview with The Times, Rhys, 48, recalled how a tabloid newspaper had sent a photographer to one of the performances.

The photographer in question took a picture of Turner – who played Mrs Robinson – naked on stage, which everyone on stage and in the audience knew of  because a flash went off in the crowd.

“I think about that moment so often,” Rhys said. “We locked eyes for a second, and because she was such a force and spoke her mind very freely and was very direct and straightforward, I thought, if anyone in this world could stop this production, it would be Kathleen Turner. And she didn’t.”

The actor added that looking back on the incident, he has come to a different realisation.

“In retrospect, that was my responsibility in that moment to stop and go, ‘Hang on, that’s not OK,’” he said.

“Because the next day, in the tabloids, there was a picture of her naked. She wasn’t happy about it, to put it mildly. And as she was a guest in the Sceptred Isle, I was like, ‘Oh, I let her down.’”

In March, it was announced that London theatres may considered banning mobile phones during performances after naked photos of James Norton in A Little Life were published by The Daily Mail.

The Independent has contacted a representative of Turner’s for comment.

Elsewhere in the interview, Rhys detailed his excruciating and “terrifying” failed audition for Casino Royale.

Rhys is best known for playing Philip Jennings in The Americans, where he met his co-star and now wife Keri Russell.

Fans will also recognise him from Sky Atlantic’s TV series Perry Mason.