Why Swansea Girl Catherine Zeta-Jones Keeps Turning Down Ryan Reynolds and Welcome to Wrexham
SINCE Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac took control of Wrexham, the north Wales football club has attracted an extraordinary roll-call of celebrity visitors and supporters. Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Hugh Jackman, Blake Lively and David Beckham have all been drawn into the story in one way or another. But there is one Welsh Hollywood star the owners have apparently been unable to persuade.
Catherine Zeta-Jones has revealed that she has repeatedly turned down invitations to appear in the documentary Welcome to Wrexham — and the explanation has nothing to do with Ryan Reynolds, Rob Mac or Wrexham itself.
The problem is that Catherine is Swansea City through and through.
Appearing on Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden this week, the Swansea-born actress revealed that she had been approached not once, but “many times” about appearing in the hugely successful documentary series.
Her response?
“I can’t go to Wrexham.”
For American followers of Welcome to Wrexham, accustomed to Hollywood stars embracing the remarkable story of the Red Dragons, it might require a little explanation.
For a Welsh football supporter, perhaps rather less.
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Swansea City loyalties run deep
Zeta-Jones explained that she had grown up with Swansea City and recalled how her uncle Bobby was a director of the club during the celebrated John Toshack era.
She remembers being at the front of the parade as the Swans made their extraordinary journey through the divisions towards the old First Division.
Those memories have clearly stayed with her.
She joked that she couldn’t even travel to Wrexham simply to explain how much she loves Swansea, imagining the reception she might receive from supporters there.
And when the Heart presenters mischievously brought Cardiff City into the conversation?
“I’m saying nothing about Cardiff.”
Probably wise.
The story had actually surfaced earlier this month when Zeta-Jones told The Times she had been asked three times to appear in the Wrexham programme, asking how she could possibly return home to Swansea afterwards if she accepted.
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Why the story may resonate in America
The exchange is funny, but there is something rather revealing about it too.
Welcome to Wrexham has introduced millions of viewers around the world — and particularly in the United States — to the passions, rivalries and peculiarities of Welsh football.
Hollywood ownership may have transformed Wrexham into an international name, but football loyalties in Wales existed long before the cameras arrived.
Catherine Zeta-Jones may have spent much of her adult life in America and become one of Hollywood’s best-known Welsh exports, but ask her to cross one of those football divides and suddenly she sounds like any other supporter defending the club they grew up with.
And Swansea currently appears to be very much on her mind lately.
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Catherine comes home for Kill Jackie
Zeta-Jones is preparing for the launch of her new eight-part Prime Video thriller Kill Jackie, which arrives on October 2.
She plays Jackie Price, a former international drug smuggler who has reinvented herself as a wealthy art dealer, only to discover that a group of deadly assassins has been hired to kill her.
But there is a particular reason for Welsh viewers to take notice.
For the first time in her major screen career, Catherine Zeta-Jones is playing a Welsh character using her own Swansea accent — and parts of the drama were filmed in Swansea itself.
It wasn’t an accident.
Zeta-Jones, who is also an executive producer on the series, specifically wanted Jackie to be Welsh.
She told BBC Radio Wales that she drew on people she knows back home — including their humour — when developing the character and felt making Jackie Welsh would give her nuances she instinctively understood.
After decades playing characters with different accents around the world, she has described finally using her own as “liberating.”
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Fish and chips, Joe’s Ice Cream – and “Hiya Cath”
Returning to Swansea to film also provided some rather more familiar pleasures.
Zeta-Jones has spoken warmly about revisiting streets she remembered from childhood and heading for Johnnies fish and chip shop and Joe’s Ice Cream.
Filming took place close to places connected with her childhood, dancing lessons and family.
And despite the Hollywood career, Academy Award and international fame, the reaction from local residents was wonderfully understated.
People watched filming quietly before greeting their returning hometown star with a simple: “Hiya Cath.”
Zeta-Jones described walking through Swansea both as Jackie and as herself as one of the most poignant experiences of making the series.
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And Tom Jones gets involved too…
There is even another Welsh superstar hiding within Kill Jackie.
Zeta-Jones devised a scene involving Andy Warhol-style pictures of Sir Tom Jones, behind which Jackie has installed some decidedly lethal security equipment.
She also wanted a Tom Jones song involved in the sequence.
Apparently Sir Tom may not yet realise quite how important a contribution he has made to Jackie’s survival.
Catherine joked that she probably ought to text him.
It all adds to what feels like a particularly Welsh moment in the career of an actress who left Swansea as a youngster and went on to conquer the West End and Hollywood.
Within the space of a few weeks she has been talking about Swansea City, turning down Welcome to Wrexham, filming in the streets where she grew up, finally performing in her own accent — and finding a role for Tom Jones along the way.
Ryan Reynolds may have brought Hollywood to Welsh football.
But when it comes to Catherine Zeta-Jones, it seems Swansea got there first.
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Did Ewe Know?
Catherine Zeta-Jones and husband Michael Douglas share exactly the same birthday — September 25 — despite being born 25 years apart.
The couple celebrated again this Friday, with Catherine turning 57 and Michael 82.
So this has been quite a week for the Welsh star: a shared Hollywood birthday, a return to the headlines back home — and another reminder that however far Catherine Zeta-Jones travels, Swansea is never very far away.