Johnathan Rhys-meyers' Monarch Makeover.... Mission: Impossible 3 star Jonathan Rhys-Meyers has defended his casting as famously overweight English king Henry Viii, insisting US audiences don't want to watch an obese royal.
The Irish heart-throb is playing the 16th century tyrant - who married six times - in Us Tv Series The Tudors, which shows a sexed up side to Tudor England.
Rhys-Meyers says, "You're trying to sell a historical period drama to a country like America, you don't want a big, fat, 250 pounds, red haired guy with a beard.
"It doesn't let people embrace the fantastic monarch he was, because they're not attracted to the package. Heroes do not look like Henry Vlll. That is just the world we live in."
