Matthew Rhys can’t be serious—or at least he doesn’t want to be. When he’s not being intense on screen, as he is in his current role as criminal defense attorney on the hit series Perry Mason, “I’m the absolute joker,” he says.

For the rest of my interview for the March 2023 cover of Parade magazine, read the full story at parade.com here: Matthew Rhys Says HBO’s Detective Drama is “Not Your Father’s Perry Mason” by Amy Spencer.

—Amy