Rhys Ifans has played a lizard, a rock star and a wizard. None of those parts made him as nervous as playing a primary school teacher with Parkinson’s disease.
The Welsh actor stars in “Onwards and Sideways” opposite Laura Linney. The film opens in UK cinemas on Friday, November 6. Ifans spoke to Variety about the role and used a word actors rarely say out loud: frightening.
The film follows two strangers who receive the same diagnosis on the same morning. Ifans plays Tony, a deputy headteacher. Linney plays Emma, a musician and composer. Their lives change in a hospital corridor, and the story stays with them for the next five years.
Ifans has been attached to the project for about a decade. He says the wait gave him time to understand what the film needed to be.
A role that made him want to run
Ifans told Variety that the weight of the part hit him during a read-through. He was not playing one person. He was representing millions.
“We were representing a vast worldwide demographic of people who live with Parkinson’s day by day, and will live with it for the rest of their lives. It’s something that won’t get better — it evolves. So there was no question that we had to do everything in our power to make the portrayal as authentic, real and tangible as possible.”
He told Collider that the responsibility was unlike anything in his career.
“I’ve never felt such a responsibility, because, like you said, you’re representing a worldwide demographic and it’s a demographic that has to live with this condition day by day and for the rest of their lives, and we were just visiting briefly at the peripheries of it.”
Deadline reported that both leads felt the pressure before filming started. Linney said she had “never been so nervous” in her life. Ifans agreed that the task felt heavy from the first day.
How Ifans built the “costume”
Preparation started with listening. Ifans found the podcast “Movers and Shakers”, which is co-hosted by the film’s writer, Paul Mayhew-Archer. Mayhew-Archer was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2011.
Ifans listened to the entire back catalogue while driving across England and Wales. He learned about small daily tasks, not just medical facts.
“I learned about everything, from how to get dressed to coping with sleep, and all the little details in between.”
Physical training came next. Director John Madden brought in two neurophysiotherapists from Neuro Heroes, a UK group that works with people who have Parkinson’s and other neurological conditions. The team worked with the actors for two to three weeks before cameras rolled.
The result was a physical routine that Ifans describes as a costume. He told Variety that it took time to settle.
“You begin to wear the Parkinson’s costume, if you like, and it starts to feel as though it belongs to you, as much as it can for someone who isn’t living with it every day.”
Ifans also joined a dance class in North Wales. The room had a harpist and a support dog. He watched people arrive looking restricted by their symptoms, then move more freely once the music started. Linney attended similar classes at Juilliard in New York.
Parkinson’s does not always look like shaking
Most people picture one symptom: shaking hands. Ifans wants audiences to see the rest.
His character, Tony, does not shake. He freezes. His body stops mid-step and refuses to move forward. Variety noted that the film shows up to 40 possible symptoms, and each person gets a different mix.
“Everyone gets their own version of the disease.”
The film also shows the side effects of medication. These can include compulsive spending and gambling, along with other problems that families rarely discuss. Ifans said the daily routine of taking tablets at the right time is a constant battle.
Linney told Deadline that the script was a surprise because it was funny as well as sad.
“Paul is the most optimistic of people and he’s been living with Parkinson’s for a long time. Given all that comes with Parkinson’s and how easily one could just fall into a hole and never get out, it did the opposite for him.”
Laura Linney and the humour that holds the film together
Ifans and Linney had never worked together before. Both are known for Richard Curtis romantic comedies — Ifans in “Notting Hill”, Linney in “Love Actually”. The writer of their new film, Mayhew-Archer, is a longtime friend and collaborator of Curtis.
Ifans called Linney “heaven-sent” and said the two actors had to admit their fears to each other early on.
“Laura is literally heaven-sent. I wouldn’t have been able to achieve what we’ve achieved here without Laura and me being able to make ourselves completely available to each other in a way I’ve never experienced before.”
Linney explained how comedy works inside the story. Her line to The AU Review sums it up.
“When you’re out of control, humour is a lifejacket.”
Ifans added that the humour comes from the slapstick side of the condition. Bodies fall. Clothes go on backwards. A person can laugh at the version of themselves from before the diagnosis.
The AU Review asked both actors how they stopped Parkinson’s from defining their characters. Ifans said the opposite can happen.
“The beautiful irony is that, because of that pitfall, you almost become more yourself. You dig into the things that make you who you are in order not to be defined by the thing that’s happened to you.”
What the film is about
“Onwards and Sideways” was written by Paul Mayhew-Archer, best known for “The Vicar of Dibley” and “Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot”. John Madden, who directed “Shakespeare in Love”, directed the film.
Tony is a widower and a deputy headteacher at a primary school. Emma is a single mother of two daughters. They meet at the same clinic after both are told they have “five good years” before the disease takes over more of their lives.
The story moves through five chapters and five years. Tony wants to keep his diagnosis private. Emma wants to speak openly. Their friendship grows because each understands something the other cannot explain to anyone else.
Monica Dolan plays Tony’s sister, Liz. Rory Kinnear plays Professor Ridge. The film was shot in six weeks in Norfolk, England, with a score by Thomas Newman.
Madden told Deadline that the script came from Mayhew-Archer’s own life, which gave the film its tone.
“There’s something very specific about Paul’s writing. He just has a natural sense of wit that’s not forced in any way.”
Where and when to watch
“Onwards and Sideways” had its world premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival in September.
UK and Ireland: Opens in cinemas on Friday, November 6, distributed by Icon Film Distribution. It will later air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer later in the year.
United States: A cinema release is planned, but no exact date has been announced.
Canada: The film screened at TIFF in Toronto. A wider Canadian release date has not been confirmed.
Australia and other markets: Kaleidoscope Film Distribution is handling worldwide sales. No dates for Australia, New Zealand or India have been announced.
What critics are saying
Early reviews have focused on the two lead performances.
Variety’s review said the film is “given genuine feeling and integrity by stars Laura Linney and Rhys Ifans.” The Guardian gave it 3 out of 5 stars and said the two actors “lift” the drama. Next Best Picture scored it 7 out of 10 and called it possibly “the finest exploration of the disease on film yet.”
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The Hollywood Reporter said the film “succeeds better than most in avoiding the pitfalls” of illness dramas. Film Threat wrote that Ifans is doing “some of the best work of his long and storied career.”
Ifans told Variety that the response from people who have seen the film is what matters to him.
“Everyone I’ve spoken to who has seen the film has walked out of the cinema knowing or understanding more about Parkinson’s. For me, that’s job done.”
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