Matthew Goode

Interview By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

With a name like Matthew Goode it's hard to expect him to be anything less than, well, good. This British actor has deftly avoided typecasting with each new role he takes, genre-hopping with the skill of an old pro. He's tackled the romantic-comedy alongside Mandy Moore in Chasing Liberty, the dark tragedy under the direction of Woody Allen in Match Point, playing an American baddie in the crime thriller The Lookout, and he just completed a superhero role in the hotly anticipated comic book adapted Watchmen. Not to mention his current project, the period piece drama Brideshead Revisited.

The film's an adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's 1945 novel. It was previously made into an 11-hour television series which first aired on PBS in 1982, so in essence it's more of a Brideshead Revisited Revisited. But the film version brings a decidedly fresh approach to the story which deals with issues of religion, sexuality and class. Goode plays Charles, an aspiring painter who befriends the exceedingly wealthy Sebastian (Ben Whishaw) and his beautiful sister Julia (Hayley Atwell). Though Charles falls in love with Julia, it's his deep friendship with Sebastian that has been the source of much debate since the book was released. How does Goode view their relationship' 'I thought it was much more interesting for the idea of what male love is and the complications and I always saw them as two people who had comparable loveless childhoods sort of gravitating towards each other,' he says.

Brideshead manor, the sprawling estate that serves as the focal point of the film, is a symbol of wealth, but its meaning also goes beyond that. 'I think for Charles it's this extraordinary well that Sebastian's invited him into,' he says. 'And I think it's the only place'I've always thought of this child as being seriously damaged before he ever went to Oxford and I think it's the only place he's ever really been happy.'

In the film Charles meets Sebastian first, and later falls for his sister Julia. If Charles had met Julia first, would he have been later attracted to Sebastian' 'I mean obviously it's the main love affair of his life but I think that's one of the reasons that he has the guilt at the end is the fact that actually it was more an idea of possession and the complications, you know,' he says. 'Nothing's black and white in this and I never thought that he was so hugely in love with her and again I never saw him as a social climber. I just don't think Charles understands love and if you look at the line where he finally sleeps with her it's kind of like he says it was like taking possession of the keys for the freehold, which makes him look like a definitive social climber but I think his ambitions only come in the second half of the film so I don't know. I think the main love of his life was Sebastian but just in that way that they were linked.'

The relationships between all the characters are quite complicated, so it was necessarily to have skilled actors play out those dynamics. Goode believes the cast was top-notch. 'We have some really great actors in this, with Emma [Thompson] and [Hayley] disappearing into their characters,' he says. 'You're just sitting back, and obviously for Charles he's a catalyst merely by his presence. I just love to just watch these people do their work. My most fun was watching Ben in that sequence where he gets out of the bath, which is one shot, which is really kind of fun to do those 'cause it's like a bit more like theater, a bit more fluid and you don't have to suddenly get all the camera angles and split it all up and it takes three days. They set it up, it takes two hours to light it, and then you do it. And, I really love what Ben did with that scene. We had so much less time than, obviously the original series and the book so, yeah, it was fun.'

Charles is a middle-class citizen entering into a very posh, luxurious world. Goode himself experienced some class differences while growing up in Devon, England. It's farming country, but Goode's family stuck out because they had a bit of money and pursued education. Sometimes this caused misconceptions or pre-conceived notions among other people in town. 'My parents put the money they did have into an education,' he says. 'We lived in quite a small house. And so people think you're quite posh and I'm doing hay baling with the farmers. [The farmers think] you're posh, and by the end of the summer they're your mates. It's something that continues, it's that weird thing'you're actually guilty for having an education in some ways but, you know, everyone always comes around.'

Next up, Goode sheds the period clothes for blonde hair and a superhero alter-ego. He plays billionaire and brainiac Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias, in Watchmen. It's a departure and that's exactly the point. Goode is good at keeping us guessing.