Matthew Goode talks “Brideshead Revisited,” “Watchmen”
A version of this story ran in Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
‘Brideshead’ turns into Goode challenge
Matthew Goode doesn’t shy away from a challenge, whether he’s acting the part of a sympathetic social climber or a superhero with an agenda.
The English actor, 30, plays starring roles as morally ambiguous characters in new film adaptations of not one but two books on Time magazine’s All-Time Top 100 Novels list.
He inhabits the starring role – and appears in nearly every scene – in the period drama “Brideshead Revisited,” an adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s acclaimed 1946 novel that opens today in Oklahoma City.
His follow-up derives from divergent but equally revered source material: He plays the pivotal part of “costumed vigilante” Ozymandias in next spring’s hotly anticipated film version of the graphic novel “Watchmen.”
Goode readily acknowledges the burden of making movies from such high-profile material.
“When something has been done so well and is so beloved … then there is a real pressure out there. And I think it’s a pressure to sort of almost say well, was there any point; you’re sort of defining why you’ve actually done it,” Goode said in phone interview last week from a press day in Dallas, before flying to San Diego for last weekend’s Comic-Con International.
American audiences first saw Goode in 2004’s “Chasing Liberty” as a nice guy romancing the runaway first daughter (Mandy Moore). He got another good guy part in Woody Allen’s infidelity drama “Match Point,” before shattering expectations with his turn as an American bank robber in “The Lookout.”
In “Brideshead,” he carries the movie as lonely working-class teen Charles Ryder, who enters Oxford in the years leading up to World War II. He befriends Sebastian (Ben Whishaw), the charming black sheep son of an aristocratic family, and finds himself snared in a love triangle with Sebastian and his friend’s lovely sister Julia (Hayley Atwell).
In his visits to their lavish ancestral estate, Brideshead, Charles also gets entangled with the family’s rigidly religious matriarch (Emma Thompson) and hedonistic patriarch (Michael Gambon).
“When I finally sort of got the part, I got quite scared. I wasn’t expecting to, and obviously, when I looked at the script, he’s practically mute compared to the book. I mean, because in the book he’s so vocal because he’s the narrator,” said Goode, who read the book when he was 12 or 13.
His character has been damaged by his loveless upbringing and desperately wants to belong, Goode said. Charles tries to be a good friend to Sebastian, but is seduced by the rich life the titled family lives – though none of them seem particularly happy.
“It’s one of the things that I really love about the script is the ambiguity,” he said.
He added, “He’s a catalyst in situations, but not in that he’s seeking to do wrong, it’s just that bad things happen around him.”
But Charles is an “unobliging lead” since he is less colorful than the people surrounding him.
“You do your homework and you think about things and you set the wheels in motion and then you get there. You try not to demonstrate how he’s feeling, but you’re trying to get some of the thoughts across,” he said. “It was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
Goode also found himself following in the footsteps of an English acting icon: Jeremy Irons, who played the lead role in the 1981 miniseries based on the book.
“Five or six years ago, I got given the series as a present by my agent, which is sort of prophetic really, because he was saying, ‘You should watch this and you should learn from it because it’s the best thing that’s been on television. …
“There are a lot of people out there who don’t know it (the book), and obviously, we’re trying desperately not to offend the sensibilities of the people who’ve loved the series before us.”
He took comfort in having a pair of great Brits on the film: Gambon, whose stage performance in “Volpone” inspired him to act, and Thompson, who is “so universally loved.”
“When you knew that Michael Gambon and Emma Thompson were gonna be doing it, we were all like, ‘Well, if we’re going down in flames, at least we’re in good company,’” he said laughing.
Goode also found himself in good company on “Watchmen,” with Zack Snyder (”300″) helming the film and Billy Crudup, Jackie Earle Haley and Jeffrey Dean Morgan co-starring.
He was in England filming “Brideshead” when Snyder, who had seen him in “The Lookout,” asked him to put an audition on tape.
“I didn’t know the (graphic) novel at all, which probably helped I think, otherwise I’d have been really nervous. … Then I heard back that I’d got it and it was sort of very, very bizarre,” he said, still sounding surprised.
“And then two days after I finished filming ‘Brideshead,’ I was suddenly out in Vancouver. And I read the book and I was like, “Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m involved in this.”
He now considers himself a fan, calling the tale, which takes place in a revisionist 1980s in which costumed superheroes are real, the “‘Citizen Kane’ of the graphic novel world.”
His character, Adrian Veidt, has made his superhero identity, Ozymandias, public, and uses it to get rich. But he is part of a conspiracy at the heart of the dark tale.
“We don’t really know a huge amount about Adrian Veidt, so we sort of gave him an interesting back story. … Everyone thinks he’s this sell-out, big-egoed guy, but actually he’s got this plan to try and save the world.”
He added, “Again, it’s those delicious kind of gray areas that you get to muck about with, and the psychology of all the characters is very, very interesting.”
-BAM
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