Matthew Rhys needs to watch his mouth. The Brit’s 2-year-old son, Sam, has entered the sponge phase where he absorbs every little thing he hears. “What’s frightening is sometimes they repeat exactly what you’ve just said or done. You go, ‘Ahh! Don’t copy me!’” the Americans star told Us Weekly Video. Recently, Sam uttered an expletive with his dad in earshot. “I heard this kind of echoing parrot in the corner,” Rhys recalled. ”I was like, ‘Ah! I said, ‘duck! You little turd.’”
Rhys, 43, shares Sam with longtime partner Keri Russell. (The couple star together in the FX series, which is in its final season.) They began dating in 2013 and Us Weekly broke the news in 2016 that they had welcomed their first child. Russell is also mom of River, 10, and Willa, 6, with ex-husband Shane Dreary.
The Welsh actor, who is currently promoting his new lifestyle series The Wine Show, admitted he doesn’t know much about tannins and grapes, even though he spent a month in Italy learning about them. “I spent most of the time being drunk,” he joked. “We would start drinking at 8:30 in the morning and finish at 6:30 p.m., so I dare anyone to retain any information!”
Now he just enjoys a glass at home with the Felicity alum after their children are in bed. “Wine is the only thing that keeps children alive,” he teased. “Maybe they should put that on the labels, as opposed to being some kind of health warning. It’s a health warning to kids if your parents don’t drink wine.”
Though filming on The Americans has wrapped, Rhys obviously still gets to spend plenty of time with his favorite costar. “We’ll still spend every day together in some spy-like situation where she will probably be trying to attack me with weapons and I’ll fend for my life!” he quipped.
All kidding aside, Rhys tells Us he “loved” working with Russell. “For many, many different reasons,” he gushed. “So that lot I’ll miss enormously.”
