Michael Reese Meyers just can't seem to stay in one place. The Oscar nominated 007 actor is known as the chameleon, always changing his appearance for his roles. He also loves to switch art forms, from acting in films to musician. He is the lead singer of Chants of Reign, an electro rock band he formed back in 2009 who he now says is "the second most important thing in my life". He has homes in Los Angeles, New York, and London. And as usual, he cannot seem to find love...in one place. After his legendarily tumultuous romance with Best Tears/Inception co-star Mel Morley (whom he says "feels like a lifetime ago") Meyers has been connected to everyone from Rosie Huntington to Mila Kunis to Demi Lovato to Jessica Lounge to Minka Kelly, and more. Much much more. The infamous ladies man admits he does not want to womanize, he wants love, BAD. "Something always goes wrong" he says when trying to explain why he hasn't been able to find lasting love with one woman. "I don't know if I ever will. I fall fast and hard and then some kind of cosmic karma ruins it somehow. I have no clue why". In this interview we try to probe the mysterious thespian behind those piercing blue eyes and what makes him tick. He refuses to make it easy and the more answers he gives, the less we understand, including him revealing some shocking facts about his "relationship" with Gina Rage, "casual" drug use, his Chants of Reign "love child", his plans for 2013, and possibly retiring from acting...for good...???
The 28 year old Meyers, born in Laguna Beach, California and raised in Beverly Hills, is eager to convince us that his demons are behind him. His drug issues are a thing of the past ("I still take prescription pain medication from time to time for migraines and body aches but it's not a problem" he insists) and he smokes the least marijuana of any of his Chants of Reign bandmates. He says he is more fond of alcohol but does not drink to the point of being drunk since he is "a lightweight" and "alcoholism runs in the family. I don't want to awake those genes". He says the biggest source of his female problems was his fractured relationship with his mother, Sonia Meyers (who has been a part of Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" for two seasons now), but that wound has now too finally healed. "Me and her have really gotten very close over the past year. After I went on the show and was a part of that reconciliation of her and my brother Tony's relationship, it led to a change in her behavior overall that has made our relationship much more peaceful. She is so laid back and much more supportive now. Not negative. She focuses on the positive and lets us make our own decisions. I like the new her." He says they speak multiple times a week now, when at one point they'd go months without speaking. "It's a normal mother-son dynamic now, versus a parole officer-criminal type dynamic, haha".
Meyers has certainly taken advantage of his "freedom" to "do his thing". A few days before Christmas he was spotted at a New York coffee shop chatting with Scarlett Johansson (whom he acted with back in 2005's "Desire") but when asked if the two were an item he said "No, just good friends" with a mischievous smile. The real romance seems to be brewing elsewhere. He has also recently been seen out and about with British pop singer Frankie Sandford, one fifth of the English girl group The Saturdays. They made their debut when spotted shopping on Christmas Eve in Manhattan and Michael took her as his date to the Golden Globes in L.A. in January where he was nominated for Best Actor for his stellar dual performances in Oliver Stone's action thriller "The Devil's Double". Of Frankie Meyers refuses to say much but does concede "She's a fun chick. We have a great time together. She brings out the kid in me...and the accent doesn't hurt, haha".
When asked about his serial dating Meyers admits "it can come off like I'm some sort of player who just wants to go from girl to girl and bang everything in Hollywood but that couldn't be farther from the truth. I'm actually a hopeless romantic who loves love, marriage, all that. But I keep picking the wrong ones and they just (turn out to be) short lived and I meet someone else and it just sort of happens. But I don't mind it. I hate being single. I loathe it. I get real depressed. And we have all seen what happens when I am lonely, I get into trouble, haha (most of his arrests and rehabs have been during periods when he was single). I am much happier and stable and focused when I have a woman in my life. I just need that energy. I need to feel loved, wanted, needed. It's the way I am. So I prefer that pattern of going from relationship to relationship. But nailing everything that walks is NOT my goal. I want to find one girl and stick to her. That is the plan, it just doesn't seem to be working out that way, haha."
Meyers says 2013 will be "The Year of Conquering Fears". He will begin the year by hanging off a 70 story ledge while filming the Phone Booth sequel "Truth or Die" in New York City for 3 months. "I'm very very excited about this project. To work with Sean Penn and Gary Oldman, to act with Olivia Wilde and Keira (Knightley) again, two great friends of mine, it's going to be a blast. The script is great. We wanted to come up with something as unique as a man stuck in a phone booth so here I will be standing above the city high up on a ledge unable to leave because Kiefer (Sutherland's caller character) won't let me. Heights is my biggest phobia so I knew this would help me attack that fear. I am producing the film with Olivia through our new production company we started together, Passion 8 Productions. So that's been an exciting business venture that has brought me and her closer together as both friends as well as business partners. A lot of work but a ton of fun too".
In the sequel Meyers will portray a young Democrat Congressman running for New York Senate against the much more experienced Republican sitting Senator, played by Oldman. Wilde plays Meyers' loving and devoted wife. Sutherland returns as the mysterious caller who hates liars to terrorize Meyers' character's life and threatens to expose his affair with one of his assistants (played by Knightley). Penn will play the police negotiator trying to talk Meyers down from the ledge. Meyers will then take some time to promote the next Bond film when that is released in May and then he will spend the summer on tour in Europe with his band. After that he plans to tackle another fear in the fall of 2013: comedy. "I need to do a comedy, I can't keep avoiding that. To me, that's my last challenge as an actor I haven't tackled yet" he says. Meyers has recently signed on to star in the comedy "Ted" where he will play an immature Boston guy who is friends with a talking stuffed teddy bear and how this effects his professional life and his relationship with his girlfriend. Amy Adams has been cast as his love interest and Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane with write, direct, and co-star in the raunchy rated R comedy. Meyers admits though the biggest fear he will be facing in 2013 is fatherhood. "It will certainly be very new to me. To have someone in my life I'm responsible for. Whose needs are more important than my own. It's obviously a huge huge life changing experience, becoming a parent. But I'm ready for it. I'm ready to have that responsibility. I think I need that right now."
Meyers is quick to mention how he has no upcoming film projects lined up after Truth or Die and Ted wrap filming (other than the two more James Bond films he is contracted to do in 2015 and 2017) and how much he has fallen in love with performing with his band and cannot wait to record more Chants of Reign albums. He mentions their third album will be titled "Ill Escape"(one of the original names they wanted to name the band before they chose Chants of Reign) and that should come out summer 2013. It will be a mostly instrumental album "inspired by the current New York dubtrance scene" and there also early plans for a fourth album in 2014 or 2015 which will be a more "R&B, funk sounding record" in which he hopes his band can collaborate with Drake producer Noah "40" Shebib. "That album is gonna be crazy, we're gonna call it Funky Fresh Flow" he says. Could Meyers pull a Jared Leto and stop acting completely in favor of becoming a full time rock frontman? "I don't know. I love acting. I really do. There's nothing like it. But music touches people in a different way and it is more personal, for me. It's my words, my life. Not some fictional character's life. I still want to do film and be apart of that process. I want to direct another film. You see a lot of actors now from my age group starting to direct now too. Ryan (Gosling), Joseph Gordon-Levitt, they're directing projects I heard. So it is the next evolution I think. More control. Tell the stories you want to tell. It's a director's medium. And to be honest, I started acting because I had so much pain inside of me and acting was the only way I knew how to get it out. But I feel now all that pain is gone and there's nothing left to vent. I don't know what is left in me. Sure I can keep acting. You don't need to be a tortured soul to act or give a good performance. I know I can still do it and a big part of me still wants to, but I am just not sure if I still need to". When asked what DOES he feel the NEED to do, he thinks for a while and replies: "I need to grow. I need to grow into someone complete enough to love something unconditionally whether or not it loves me back. Maybe being a father will help that".
Maybe music, directing, or becoming a father will finally give Meyers whatever fulfillment and inner peace he feels he is searching for. But the good news is that angry little California boy we first saw kicking a soccer ball in Bend It Like Beckham is demon-free. The bad news is the possibility this newfound happiness could prevent one of the best actors of his generation from doing just what he does best: Act. But who are we to force a once tormented soul to remain that way just for our enjoyment? Meyers is happy with being happy. And we should be happy for him.
