Prior to this interview I'd never seen Matthew Goode in anything so my knowledge of him was limited to basic resume research. I have to say that he's a very droll, funny guy who definitely seems like he'd be cool to hang out with.
That said, of all the interviews we did on this set visit, this was the first where I really didn't buy him as the character. For those familiar with the comic Adrian Veidt is not only the smartest man alive, but also an athlete of the highest order. The skinny, slightly effete Brit sitting across the table from me just didn't seem to fit.
We didn't get a chance to see any of his performance, and Zack Snyder put everything else together so well that I tend toward giving the benefit of the doubt. But in this case it's a pretty large benefit. Still, an interesting interview with an engaging guy, who happened to do the audition for this project in his bathroom.
Matthew Goode
Are you enjoying the hair?
Kinda of yeah. It sort of gets you in the eye in the morning quite a lot, but yeah pretty happy with it.
You were here doing a costume fitting today?
No we were filming something this morning. I was putting the cancer agent in, which took 5 minutes. And then getting into the super suit for a test later on.
In the book he has one of the more "interesting" outfits.
I know. I was slightly worried. Found out I got it and was like this is great. Then I read the book and going "Oh my God." Luckily they've [made it] slightly cooler. I mean when I first went to L.A. I was in after Patrick and I felt pretty good because he came up and was like, "Dude, it's fucking awesome." He looks quite Batman-y. I'm in more of a suit, rather than just pants. I wouldn't have the legs for it. It would ruin the whole effect, my skinny pasty English legs.
Were you familiar with the comic?
You know I wasn't. I met someone who was involved with The Incredibles, so I knew that was loosely based upon the novel. I was told a little bit about it, but I wasn't really into that area of comics and graphic novels. It was all very new to me. Apparently it is the best graphic novel ever written. According to Time magazine. So when I did finally get around to reading it, it was so much more complicated, and adult, and intelligent than I was expecting. So it was a pretty easy decision to go, "Fucking hell, if you want me I'm in."
What struck you as it's strength. Was it the political side of things? The characters?
Well obviously if we were attacked by an outside force then we'd all be forced to come together and I thought that was a really interesting concept. With energy issues we have now it's incredibly relevant, and I suppose I feel very proud that it was written by a Brit.
All of those things jump out. And the idea that you can have a lot of fun. It's treading a very nice line between - it's almost a little bit camp. Which it sort of needs to be. I don't think anyone's gonna watch it and go, "Goddamit this is relevant. We need to make changes." But those comments will be made. Ultimately it's going to be fun.
That was something Zack was talking to us about are things that on the printed page are very serious, when you see them playing out live take on a different tone. How do you walk that line between playing it serious and having the campier aspects and keeping it in control?
With difficulty I think. What's funny to me on this job is that I came right from doing Brideshead Revisited which is, you can't really get anymore different. With that I was in every day. With this I come in and do a couple of hours, deliver a monologue, and then fuck off and play golf for a couple weeks. Which I love. But it's the same as anything. You learn your lines. You have a chat with Zack. The movie is bigger than any one particular actor, character, or anything. And they're all sort of intermeshing.
I'm dealing with it as I go on. The first day I'm standing there in a bright purple jacket and blonde hair. I've got women who work for me in my office wearing particularly little. There's 200 people standing around. God knows what it will look like, but we have Zack here. I know when he did 300 people were watching the rushes and going, "What the fuck is this guy doing?" And ultimately they were blown away. So I know he's a bit of a visionary, and he's got so much energy. In Zack we trust.
One of the great things about the book is you can argue with your friends about what Adrian was doing. Was he right? Was he wrong? Was he coming from a good place? What's your take on his whole angle?
There is the big question of morality, and we've seen it in films like Saving Private Ryan, saving the one over the possibility of more dying. And in this it's saving the world vs. 15 million or whatever that figure is. As a ratio, compared to the rest of the world, if you put it into that kind of perspective it does seem like a good equation. But obviously it's a really horrific thing to do. It's the line of insanity. Is it absolutely clear, crystal clear, cold I'm doing it in that way and you can fucking deal with it. And I couldn't give a shit what you think.
I tend to think it's, because of his eating a ball of hash and suddenly being in love with Alexander the Great, is he metrosexual, all that kind of rubbish, at the end of the day I don't want him to be maniacal in the slightest. We've still yet to film all that, so Zack might come back and say, "Yeah, he's CRAZY!!" You want to be as human as possible. Cold and clear cut, and yet show some remorse for what he's done. I think that's something that we'll see how it plays out. We'll probably do a few different things, I'll have a few eye twitches, y'know try not to think about it. Wing it.
You mentioned that you were shooting a scene with placing a cancer agent, which is not in the book. Is there some bulking up of character as far as what we actually see. 'Cause he's not in the book -
- a whole lot.
He's always present but -
He's not, that's always sort of the, suddenly you're stuck with a lot of exposition. And exposition is fine, but certainly in the book when he's talking to his Vietnamese work group there's that four or five pages of lalalalalala. And that's quite worrying to do, because how the fuck am I going to do that without boring myself to death? And make it interesting.
So that's being broken up, as you're obviously going to have to do. As with any adaptation there's going to be putting it into a different sequence, making it more interesting. So there has been, I wouldn't say bulking up, but there've been sequencing issues. Which I think has been done particularly well.
You don't ever play Adrian at your own age right? You're always playing older or younger I'm assuming.
Well that was one of those things. He's meant to be in his 40's as with the rest. Though with the Watchmen in the 70's when it first starts up, that's sort of about my age. But he's meant to be a particularly fine specimen of man. Suspend your disbelief. So while I'm not playing my age, it's sort of meant to be he's a walking advert for Oil of Olay kind of thing. There hasn't been too much prosthetic stuff for me.
Poor old Jeffrey on the other hand. He's gone through the gambit of sitting through makeup for 7 hours and getting a bit touchy as one would do. Yeah he goes from like 20 to 67. I tell you what, you're going to love the opening of the movie, and this is where I don't think enough can be said for stunt people. Shit the bed, he gets the crap beaten out of him. Thrown across rooms, busting through tables. 'Cause in the book it's like the Comedian's dead. Done. Whereas you really get to see why he's dead in this one. And I just think the less I'm involved in swinging punches the better because they make it look so good.
You do have some action scenes at the end -
Karnac.
Yeah, did you train at all for the fights?
I look like I haven't been. They're very busy so we're doing initial, sort of English hasn't been in anything apart from something with a corset kind of training. So I think we're gonna get round to doing that, it's more around them because I've got a lot of time off. Whenever they call me in I'll be in my spandex and ready to go.
Is there any superhero that growing up that you wanted to play? Did you ever want to do this in you life?
No. I hate to shit on the question. It wasn't really my thing. It's not that I'm not enjoying this, but running around in a cape was never really, or not really, my thing. But it's not to say that I didn't have a laugh when we're all standing around with our capes on flexing our fake biceps.
You're a latecomer to this you said. You came to the set after it had been filming?
No I came straight from doing another project and so I finished that, and my audition was actually on a toilet seat in my hotel room. The casting director came up from London and we tied up a bedsheet behind me and I did the audition. Never expected to get it, and then suddenly got it and went straight from there.
The characters all have these pasts. Have you guys hung out to bring that sort of familiarity with each other to the screen?
Not specifically for the project. Often times because it's a long schedule, and because of the way it's sequenced in filming we're not all here at the same time. But when we are, beer's gotta be drunk. We do go out and have fun together. You want to be as friendly with the rest of the cast as you can possibly be.
Are you looking forward to being an action figure?
It's all slightly mad. The action figure's in one of the shots so I've been staring at it. Staring at myself, and I have to say it's incredibly lifelike. It's done and dusted. It's enjoyable. I think it's probably something I'll put in the shitter at home for people to enjoy when they come out to the house. Though people might say, "God you're an asshole."
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