Replacements' Ifans on Satan, Balls, and Mum

August 11 -- Wales' Rhys Ifans knows that there's nothing like an international hit to take the funny guy out of Wales and suddenly find him working in Hollywood.

Ifans — whose name is pronounced "Reese Evans" — was Hugh Grant's scene-stealing slob of a roommate in Notting Hill. Now he's got three major movies in the can, the first of which has him playing the chain-smoking kicker on Keanu Reeves' football team in The Replacements.

"I had to learn to kick; I spent three weeks learning to kick a ball," he says of his preparation. "Oh, [and] they caught me in my underwear in this [film].

"One of the gyms had a TV, and I was on an exercise bike having a cigarette and watching Regis and Kathie Lee."

When his mother back in Wales heard about the movie, she asked Ifans, "Why do you always have to show your ass? You've got lovely teeth." Similarly, he insists, when he told his mum he was co-starring with Gene Hackman, she said, "What's she been in?" Ifans says, "She doesn't understand Hollywood."

Ifans obviously does. He'll next appear on-screen with Adam Sandler in Little Nicky. "I'm Adam's brother, the son of Satan," he explains.

"It was fantastic, because I've often felt like it in the past. It was familiar ground."

What kind of research does one do to play Satan's son? "I stayed at the Sunset Marquis [a notorious rocker-celeb hotel and watering hole in Los Angeles]."

Ifans thinks the major difference between working in Hollywood and working in England (aside from salary) is "The foods. … In England, there's a pork pie, a cold cup of tea, and a kick in the ass, and you go back on set.

"Here, I thought it was a wedding. I took a photo of the salad bar to send home to my mother. She was very pleased."

Ifans' most intriguing film is undoubtedly the upcoming Human Nature, screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's follow-up to Being John Malkovich. (Another tie-in: Human Nature was produced by Malkovich director Spike Jonze). "A very strange film," says Ifans, and for once he's not kidding.