MATTHEW Goode admits to being intimidated by the volatile single dad he plays in the new Australian drama Burning Man. But that wasn’t why he took his time signing on.”There are a lot of things in this film that I haven’t gone anywhere near before, but that was one of the reasons I was very attracted to it,” he says

It was the potential effect on his partner, Sophie Dymoke, of the raw nature of some of the material – including the sexually charged opening sequence in which he appears naked with a prostitute – that gave Goode pause for thought.  “Consideration for her and her well-being was part of why I met with (director) Jonathan (Teplitzky) a few times before I agreed,” Goode says.  Another potential stumbling block was the tyranny of distance. “Sydney is a f—ing long way,” the British actor says. “Unfortunately, I often find I am going off to the farthest flung parts of the world.”  He doesn’t wish to sound churlish – “Bloody lucky I am, too, to be working,” he says, “but sometimes you just wish things could be easier for your home life.”

The depth of Goode’s feeling may well be attributed to the fact he has just arrived back at the London home he shares with Dymoke and daughter Matilda, 2 1/2, from Nashville, where he shot the thriller Stoker with Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska.

Burning Man, which required Goode to be based in Bondi for three months, is Teplitzky’s follow-up to 2003 crime caper Gettin’ Square. The new film tells semi-autobiographical story about a man grappling with the loss of his wife.  “I didn’t take the work home with me and dare I say it, it was actually quite fun to shoot some of it,” says Goode, who is backed by a strong female cast including Rachel Griffiths.

Given the subject matter, the film contains a surprising amount of humour.  “That is how you know it was written by someone who went through it,” says Goode. “Cancer can become a joke to the couple who are suffering – it’s gallows humour.”  Still, the process of filming it took an emotional toll.  “I didn’t work for a year after that. Burning Man had taken a lot out of me,” he says.  Teplitzky is from a family of foodies, which is why he made Goode’s character a chef. The actor professes to being quite handy in the kitchen.  “It’s kind of my domain,” he says, confessing that when he and Dymoke first met, they had an argument over the Dolmio sauces she had in her fridge. “Apparently I am a bit of a stickler in the kitchen. I am not as positive as I should be.”

Now that Goode’s finally working in London – on BBC drama Dancing on the Edge – the pair might have to renegotiate kitchen duties.

Source: Adelaide now

According to Matthew Goode, Burning Man is the best film that he has ever been involved with.

That means a lot, firstly because the 33-year-old English actor has appeared in Woody Allen’s Match Point and Tom Ford’s A Single Man (where he played opposite Colin Firth); and secondly because he has been known to be very frank about his projects.

Last year, he explained to a British newspaper about how he finds himself in situations where he’s “embarrassed about having to talk about a film which I don’t think is that brilliant.” Luckily, this isn’t the case with Jonathan Teplitzky’s raw and moving movie about a father dealing with love and loss.

“The main thing I took away from the film is trusting myself with harder material and challenging myself to do something that is scary and feeling like I did a good job,” Goode says, then adds with mock machismo, “without getting cocky.”

Goode spoke to Melissa Leong from Nashville, where he is filming Park Chan-Wook’s new thriller alongside Nicole Kidman.

QHow did you get involved with this film?
Q I had been filming Leap Year with Anand Tucker and he produced a film with Andy Paterson whose great friend from film school is [director] Jonathan Teplitzky. Anand recommended me. I read the script and I thought, “Crikey this could be a bit of a challenge.” Particularly after page one, I was like, “Really? What the hell is this? I’m masturbating over a hooker?”

Q Can you elaborate, not on the hooker part, but on what you found the most challenging about the role?
A When I read the script, I thought, ‘This guy is very dark and you don’t particularly like him.’ On the surface, it would seem like he’s having affairs and behaving extremely badly and erratically. Then obviously when you realize what’s going on, you feel for him immensely. There’s a huge emotional arc through the film and there’s a lot of sadness involved. I saw that as a real challenge to play, without it becoming too one note.

QHow did you prepare for the film’s intensely emotional scenes?
A It would have been parasitic of me to go and sit in hospitals and talk to families who are afflicted with this kind of thing. I spoke to Jonathan [who had been through something similar] at length. That was a worry of mine. The last thing I wanted was Jonathan coming up to me and going, “That’s not how it was mate. You got it completely wrong.”

QWhat do you think audiences will take away from seeing it?
A For me, I’ve only seen it once and I was as affected as when I was making the film. There’s a huge love story, really. It’s something that is very real and raw put on the screen. When someone’s suffering from something you forget that the people around him have to go on with every day.

QWhat were your most memorable days on set in Australia?
A Oh good god, masturbating over a hooker was one. [Laughs.] There was one point where we had been filming it for a few hours. I remember in the middle of a take, the wonderful voice of our director going: “It’s not that big, mate.” Thanks! Sorry if I was over doing the hand actions.

Source: Ampersande

Actor Matthew Goode nearly turned down the best role of his career because he was concerned about his other half, Sophie, seeing his sex scenes.

‘It’s not very nice for her having to watch me. It’s not fair to her,’ Matthew told me.

But Sophie gave him her blessing — and, at only two, their daughter Matilda is far too young to be allowed to watch what her daddy gets up to in Burning Man, which has its world premiere in  Toronto tomorrow night.

Burning Man is set in Sydney, and follows chef Tom (played by Matthew), who’s at a dangerous crossroads in his life. Tom has a family and his private life has become chaotic.

That’s as much as I’m giving away, because  director Jonathan Teplitzky deliberately, and  deliciously tantalisingly, unfolds the story at his own beautiful pace.

The movie has moments of incredible humour and a few of aching heartbreak.

Matthew admits he was scared of not being able to go to the emotional depths the part requires. But there are no worries there — he delivers the best performance of his career so far.

He’s certainly not the upper-class type he played in the film version of Brideshead Revisited or in Woody Allen’s Match Point.

‘Tom’s a screwed-up individual when you first meet him, but then it all falls into place,’ Matthew explained.

He will next star (possibly with Chiwetel Ejiofor, but the deal’s not finalised) in the new Stephen Poliakoff drama for BBC2, Dancing On The Edge.

The drama will follow a black jazz band in Thirties London.

Recently, I incorrectly had Mark Strong playing Matthew’s role in Dancing On The Edge. I had my actors mixed up, so apologies.

Meanwhile, we’re no doubt going to be hearing more about the hot Burning Man.

Source: Daily Mail

While looking for some gossip, I found an interview with Peter Jackson (The Hobbit), and it includes a little mention of Matthew….

4. Jackson did lose Martin Freeman at one point to the BBC series “Sherlock Holmes” and even had to consider different actors for the lead.
This you probably already know if you’ve been following “The Hobbit” gestation closely, but it’s interesting to hear how downcast Jackson was and how much the film was delayed until it could find another actor. Or rather, keep waiting for the right one in Martin Freeman. “We couldn’t tell Martin our dates until after the MGM situation was sorted out, which was the reason Guillermo ultimately left,” Jackson said of the project’s uncertainty at the time. As a greenlight approached, Freeman had to officially decline the role to get ready for the second season of “Sherlock Holmes.” Jackson scoured audition tapes for a backup (Matthew Goode is one of the few actors who admits he auditioned), but nobody stuck like Freeman. Jackson would watch the first season of ‘Holmes’ to torture himself and was completely “miserable.” Eventually he took matters into his own hands. “I called Martin’s agent myself: could he ask Martin if we could make Bilbo work around ‘Sherlock’? Freeman quickly agreed and the production began mapping out a reconfigured shoot which would allow the new Bilbo Baggins to return to the U.K. for his scheduled BBC shoot.

Source: IndieWire