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
I added 3 images of Matthew in The Burning Man, thanks to Debbie for emailing them to me.
Movies and Television > 2011 – Burning Man > Promotional Still Images