Press Archive 2022

Ask Matt: TV Insider  – 19th July 2022

[Extracts]

Welcome to the Q&A with TV critic — also known to some TV fans as their “TV therapist” — Matt Roush, who’ll try to address whatever you love, loathe, are confused or frustrated or thrilled by in today’s vast TV landscape.

Goode-Bye to the Emmys

Comment: Since a small child growing up in the 1950s and ’60s, movies and TV were an important part of my life. Although my degree is in something entirely different, I did take several courses related to film history. I find today as I am comfortably retired, I have the time to watch a plethora of shows on streaming platforms. I find the Emmys are so narrowly focused on a few platforms and shows that their nominations have no merit and are totally irrelevant given the current environment. I was appalled that it seems the members have become actually lazy, and I have to surmise they did not even watch many of the shows and acting performances eligible this year.

While I agree the limited-series supporting categories can be problematic, their choices were dominated by two shows. I was particularly upset that Matthew Goode was not nominated for The Offer. That performance was a master class in acting. While the show had mixed reactions, his performance was mesmerizing. I know that many people have said they knew Bob Evans, I actually did. As a 20-year-old whose uncle was on the board of Gulf and Western, I was at the premiere of The Godfather in New York and met him. Goode captured the voice, mannerisms, and charisma that Evans possessed. I suspect that Goode, who I have admired since I saw Stoker, was snubbed because he is not a so-called Hollywood insider as so many of the nominees are. To me, the Emmys have no integrity and should go the way of the Golden Globes. — Linda V

Matt Roush: I once met Robert Evans as well as part of a Television Critics Association event, and reveled in his narration for the film version of his terrific memoir, The Kid Stays in the Picture. As I noted in my review of the very uneven and overlong The Offer, Matthew Goode was also by far my favorite part of that limited series, “stealing the show with silky bravado.” I agree he nailed the essence of Evans, and it’s a shame he didn’t earn a nomination for playing so vividly against type. (His only Emmy nomination to date was as a guest actor in The Crown.) There’s little doubt that the Emmy voters are ill-equipped to see all of the fine TV shows and performers worth nominating — and this year were seemingly so obsessed by The White Lotus and Dopesick that they couldn’t bring themselves to broaden their gaze elsewhere. I wouldn’t go so far as to lump the Emmys with the disgraced Golden Globes, but it’s hard to argue for the relevance of the awards when so few shows swallow up so many nominations.

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How Watching The Offer Makes The Godfather Better – CBRcom – 25th June 2022 [Extract]

BY JOSHUA M. PATTON
The Paramount+ miniseries The Offer dramatizes the story of how the iconic mob movie The Godfather was made — and enhances the film for viewers.
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Matthew Goode plays a spot-on Robert Evans that makes viewers yearn for a second season just to get more of Kid Notorious. Under his leadership, Paramount went from being the lowest-earning studio to the highest-grossing one in just a few years. Evans was an executive who cared about the art of moviemaking, believing that quality would translate into box office success. The struggles between him, Ruddy and Gulf & Western make up the majority of the tension and drama in The Offer. Someone watching this show might catch themselves hoping that the film gets made. It’s easy to forget that this is a dramatization of movie history, because The Offer does such a good job with its story and characters — despite not being a documentary.
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Full article – Click here

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Keep Matthew Goode in the Emmy picture for his transformative performance on ‘The Offer’ – Gold Derby – 24th June 2022  [Extracts]

By Christopher Rosen

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So when it comes to Emmy Awards consideration, maybe it couldn’t have been any other way. Because despite its solid execution and an awards-friendly premise – an insider look at Hollywood and a show about the creative process – “The Offer” has struggled to gain traction as a top contender in the crowded limited series categories. In the combined odds here at Gold Derby, “The Offer” ranks 14th for limited series, 15th in Best Actor for Teller, 14th in Best Supporting Actress for Juno Temple (who plays Bettye McCart), and 10th for Best Supporting Actor for Matthew Goode (who plays Evans). Of the group, Goode has the best chance, and rightly so: his transformative work as Evans is fantastic. The English actor not only affects Evans’ recognizable accent but gets to run the gamut of emotions, from the highs of Evans’ success as Paramount boss to the low of his split from actress Ali McGraw. “I got to turn him up to 11,” Goode told Gold Derby previously about playing Evans, “which is an awful lot of fun for me.”

That goes double for the audience. Goode is a joy to watch on the series — an unleashed id who lands every punchline and delights in each line read. In interviews, the actor – a previous Emmy nominee in 2018 for a guest role on “The Crown” – has come across as positively delighted to have gotten the opportunity. As the legend goes, the production actually approached Goode for a different role, but he was eventually cast as Evans without even having to audition. 

“They said, ‘You’re playing Bob Evans. We’re not asking why. Clearly, a big star has pulled out or something, but it’s you. And we said yes on your behalf,’” Goode recalled to Gold Derby. “It was quite daunting, but it’s good when you get to your mid-40s to have a bit of fear in your belly and to have something that is a challenge. You don’t always necessarily get stretched with every particular role you have, it doesn’t mean that you don’t put the same amount of effort into it. But this one required quite a lot of work.”

It’s work that should have Goode comfortably in position for a nomination. Few actors in his category were given the chance to go so big and stick the landing. Of course, this take comes with an unwritten bias: I have Goode not only receiving an Emmy nomination for “The Offer” but winning the category as well. Why not? This year’s supporting categories for limited series will have seven nominees, increasing Goode’s chances – especially since outside of “The White Lotus” star Murray Bartlett, it feels like any number of worthy contenders could wind up being recognized. Plus, if Goode gets the nomination, he could go far. After all, as the real Evans once said, it’s all about staying in the picture.

Full article and link to video interview – Click Here!

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‘The Offer’ Dialect Coach on Teaching Actors to Learn Accents & Impressions – Backstage – 23rd June 2022 [Extract]

BY JESSICA DERSCHOWITZ
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What was the process like working with Miles Teller and Matthew Goode, who play “Godfather” producer Albert S. Ruddy and Paramount Pictures chief Robert Evans in “The Offer”?

Impressions, in my opinion, are much more difficult than accents. You’re not just trying the voice and changing the muscles and movements to make that happen. You have to think about pitch and resonance; you have to think about mannerisms—they might be biting their lip or chewing inside of the mouth, what are they doing with their hands, what are they doing with their posture—and how the voice lives in that. It’s a lot of observation. In Miles’ case, he was fortunate to have [the real] Al Ruddy, who was so willing to answer his questions and spend time with him. But we were also watching interviews and his Oscars acceptance speech for “The Godfather,” and talking about: What can we not ignore here? And then with Matthew, he wasn’t able to talk to Bob Evans, but we watched interviews and listened to recordings. It’s almost like watching a sports replay and then talking about it: “See what happened right here? Let’s go back. Let’s look at that again.”

Were there specific scenes or pieces of dialogue that required more focus than others?

I was thinking about this very long monologue that Matthew had. It was with Bob Evans, just a mile a minute—and also it’s the ’70s, and cocaine, all those things. It was a big piece, and we worked on that a lot. And he just knocked it out of the park.

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Full article – Click Here

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The Offer review – Empire Online – 22nd June 2022 – [Extract]

By Ian Freer

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But the standout is Matthew Goode’s charismatic Evans, full of both swagger and sadness, believable as a hard-headed businessman who still has a feel for his art.

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Full review – Click here.

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Emmys: Miles Teller, Matthew Goode, Juno Temple Make “The Offer” a Show You Can’t Refuse – Showbiz 411 – 19th June 2022 [Extract]

by Roger Friedman

Voting for Emmy nominations ends June 27th at 10pm. I’ve already expressed enthusiasm for a bunch of shows that deserve noms in their show and acting categories including “Succession,” “Hacks,” “Mrs. Maisel,” “Billions,” “The Gilded Age.”

Now add to that group Paramount Plus’s “The Offer,” all about the making of “The Godfather.” If you’re voting in the Emmys and are a part of the showbiz community, this is a series you must watch now, Put everything aside. I finally did it this weekend, and I’m the happier for it.

I’d been hearing about Matthew Goode’s portrayal of Robert Evans, the Paramount exec who was married to Ali McGraw and got the movie made. Goode skipped making the current “Downton Abbey” movie so he could do this job. I was lucky enough to know Bob Evans, and I can tell you Matthew Goode deserves any award he’s eligible for. It’s a runaway hit performance. He has Evans down to his perpetual stuffed nose. Even better, he makes him real, human, three dimensional. He’s a charmer who can talk his way in and out of everything. He’s that Goode.

Goode is in the Limited Series/TV movie category as supporting actor.

Full article – Click here.

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The Offer – Review – Media Play News – 18th June 2022 [Extract]

By JOHN LATCHEM

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… the standout is Goode as Robert Evans, so completely transforming into the iconic Hollywood executive that it might as well be Evans playing himself. If Paramount+ doesn’t greenlight a docudrama of Evans’ autobiography The Kid Stays in the Picturestarring Goode, it will be missing out.

Through Evans, “The Offer” gets to indulge a bit in telling the story of Paramount in general in the early 1970s, when he was brought in by Gulf + Western boss Charles Bluhdorn (Burn Gorman) to turn the studio’s fortunes around. As such, the show delves a bit into the success of Love Story, starring Evans’ wife Ali MacGraw, and how their marriage disintegrated when he started to focus on The Godfather, and she ended up in the arms of Steven McQueen on the set of The Getaway. Evans also keeps an eye on his next project, Chinatown, despite his corporate overlords wanting to dump it as something they “don’t understand.” (Corporate stooges being idiots when it comes to art is a big theme of the show.)

Those familiar with The Kid Stays in the Picture (the book or the 2002 documentary adaptation of it narrated by Evans) might note a number of discrepancies between Evans’ own accounts of these events and how “The Offer” portrays them. For instance, in the show, Coppola and Ruddy are fighting with Gulf + Western over how long The Godfather is, preferring the nearly three-hour version we all know and love today, while the bean-counters want to maximize screenings with a two-hour version (a classic debate in Hollywood — the best-known recent example involving the 2017 Justice League movie). Evans has to swoop in from a drunken stupor over his failed marriage to save the longer cut, thus sending the film on a path toward Oscar glory.

In Evans’ own account, Coppola turned in a two-hour version, and Evans ordered him to recut it to make it longer, thus delaying the film from a Christmas 1971 release to March 1972 (a delay mentioned in the show that doesn’t make much sense if the longer cut already existed). Conjecture over the editing of The Godfather has occupied much discussion over the years, and Coppola’s own accounts would likely fill further volumes.

For however inaccurate it may be, “The Offer” is still first and foremost a love letter to The Godfather, and should only serve to build on fans’ appreciation of that classic film, and a love of cinema in general.

Full article – Click here

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“I Would Not Have Signed On to Remake ‘The Godfather’”: The Hollywood Reporter Presents’ Q&A With Miles Teller and Cast of The Offer’ – 17th June 2022 [Extract]

Matthew Goode, Juno Temple, Dan Fogler and executive producer Nikka Toscano also discuss the “responsibility” of accurately telling the story behind the making of Coppola’s 1972 masterpiece.

BY JULIAN SANCTON
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Matthew Goode was in some ways off the hook because Robert Evans, who died in 2019, is no longer around to scrutinize the character he played. But he was under a different kind of pressure, given Evans’ formidable stature in Hollywood as the larger-than-life producer behind such classics as Rosemary’s Baby, Love Story and Chinatown. Goode — who has earned widespread acclaim for his characterization — explains how he captured Evans’ louche charm. In addition to watching footage of the producer as an older man, notably in the 2002 doc The Kid Stays in the Picture, Goode drew extensively from YouTube clips of Evans in his ’60s and ’70s heyday.

“He has a wonderful timbre and cadence, Bob,” said Goode. “So you start playing around with that, and then you flesh it out with some more information from real people and from books.”

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Full article and link to video of cast q & a – Click here.

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‘The Offer’ Director Adam Arkin Breaks Down the Finale’s Biggest Moments, From ‘The Godfather’ Premiere to the Oscars – The Wrap – 17th June 2022 [Extract]   Spoilers for Episode 10!!!

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Bob and Ali’s Meeting That Ends in Divorce Decision

“I think all of us who have had heartbreak in our lives can relate to some aspects of that scene — the mistakes we make sometimes in prioritizing things that maybe need to be reordered and the price that we pay for that. Matthew [Goode, who plays Bob] is an absolutely brilliant actor. And, you know, both his jubilance, if that’s the word, getting to see her again, coming into that in such a high emotional state and then crashing down when he realizes what she’s really there for, that was sort of like the crux of that scene, and he navigated that beautifully.”

Full article – Click here.

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How “The Offer” Solidifies Robert Evans’ Status as Hollywood’s Most Legendary Studio Exec – Inside Hook – 16th June 2022 [Extracts]

Matthew Goode’s depiction of the Hollywood mogul cements his legacyMatthew Goode as Robert Evans in "The Offer."

Matthew Goode as Robert Evans in “The Offer.”

BY JONATHON NORCROSS

As Robert Evans once famously quipped, there are three sides to every story: my side, your side and the truth. Evans memorably told his side of the story with the memoir The Kid Stays In the Picture, which was later adapted into an unforgettable documentary. Others told their side of the Evans story by incorporating his persona into their performances (Dustin Hoffman in Wag the Dog, Martin Landau in Entourage and Bill Hader in Documentary Now!). Now we have what might be “the truth,” with Paramount+’s miniseries The Offer, about the making of The Godfather. Matthew Goode’s scene-stealing performance as Robert Evans, coming nearly 30 years after the publication of The Kid Stays in the Picture, has breathed new life into the Evans legacy.

Once upon a time, the stereotypical studio mogul most resembled people like Louis B. Mayer or Jack Warner, early Hollywood pioneers with reputations for ruling their lots with iron fists, often contemptuous of any movies that were excessively violent or bawdy. But today, Evans has become the personification of what a classic movie studio executive is supposed to look and sound like. He’s smooth and sweet-talking, not tyrannical. He champions the rebellious creativity of filmmakers rather than stifling it. He thrives in the countercultural zeitgeist rather than spurn new ideas. By analyzing a few key scenes in The Offer, we’ll see how Robert Evans has become not just a well-known New Hollywood figure but the new personification of the studio executive.

The first time we see Robert Evans in The Offer, he’s slingshotting his beautiful white convertible through the Paramount Pictures studio gate. He struts across the lot, adorned in a beautiful polyester suit, calling people nicknames like “Trudy Baby” and “Johnny Potatoes” while he casually takes a drag from his cigarette. His sunglasses are enormous. His voice sounds like liquid gold. The camera gazes up at him with the Paramount water tower looming in the background. His boss, the tycoon Charlie Bluhdorn, is worried about money, but Evans’s confidence in his film projects is unshakeable. This is about as stunning an entrance as a character can have, and although it is partly meant to contrast with Miles Teller’s character’s dreary existence at a decidedly unsexy corporation, it also tells us that Robert Evans is not just any studio head, he’s the studio head. This is the coolest man in Hollywood, and he’s the boss of Paramount Pictures in the midst of its heyday, a remarkable era that would produce such iconic films as The Godfather, Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, True Grit, Barefoot in the Park, Harold and Maude and The Conversation, to name a few.

This image of Evans was not always how his industry peers saw him. When he was named the head of Paramount in the ’60s, his track record mostly consisted of lousy acting and selling women’s pants. Every industry egghead predicted he wouldn’t last long and that his boss Bluhdorn was a fool for even giving him a chance. Despite his success at Paramount, Evans’ reputation took a nosedive in the ’80s, when he became increasingly associated with box-office bombs, a nasty drug habit and even a murder scandal. His status as a Hollywood has-been continued into the new millennium. Watch, for instance, Martin Landau’s portrayal of a former movie producer obviously inspired by Evans (they even shot in Evans’ real Beverly Hills mansion) in Season 3 of Entourage. Landau’s character is hopelessly out of touch, not just a shadow of his former self but an actual joke of a human being. He tries to regale anyone who will listen with stories of his glory days but nobody takes him seriously.

When the documentary film adaption of The Kid Stays in the Picture premiered in 2002, it was the first time in decades that someone else, namely a pair of documentary filmmakers, celebrated Evans’ colorful personality and remarkable filmography. The film’s then-innovative technique of bringing archival photographs to life using multilayered composites, coupled with Evans’ signature voiceover, allowed movie fans to experience Evans in his prime. It brought back to life his charisma and dynamism. Twenty years later, The Offer has similarly brought ’70s Evans back to life for the streaming era. But this time it’s not just a grizzled veteran waxing nostalgic about his glory days, it’s a man at the height of his talents.

Of course, as talented as he might’ve been, Evans would not be the quintessential Hollywood producer if he wasn’t also glamorous as hell. In The Offer, we see him seated at a corner table surrounded by three attractive young women, before an evil bean counter (played by Colin Hanks) arrives to berate him for not making enough blockbusters. In another scene, Evans finishes a work call while poolside with his third wife Ali MacGraw (he would have four more wives after her). He then invites her to have sex in his pool. Of course, she dives in. Throughout the series, we see Evans perpetually tan, adorned in Yves Saint Laurent shirts, flashy ascots and magnificent eyewear. Unlike the moguls of old, he embodies tinseltown flash, often sparkling brighter than the beautiful actresses always surrounding him.

One of Evans’ best scenes in The Offer comes in the third episode when he describes the moment from his childhood when he realized he wanted to be involved in filmmaking. He calls the movie theater his temple and declares himself a high priest of the religion of cinema. It’s a relatively insignificant moment in the context of the making of The Godfather (Evans is just motivating his colleague to watch some dailies), but it conveys his talent for pitching ideas, for bombast, for somehow making everyone in the room love that he’s bullshitting them. In another scene, he walks into a drab conference room filled with executives, and, with the future of Paramount at stake, proceeds to dazzle everyone in attendance. This is what it takes to get an ambitious film like The Godfather made. Evans isn’t actually sure that the film will be a hit, but he makes everyone around him believe it will be. He bridges the gap between the creatives and the financiers, translating Francis Ford Coppola’s thirst for artistic greatness into the language of dollars and cents.

Perhaps when Evans described himself as a priest of cinema, he was being too modest. He may be more like a Hollywood god, at least according to the “truth” of The Offer. Once the butt of many jokes, Robert Evans, a mogul who cared about creativity, now seems like a dream in an era of endless IPs and sequels and franchises. While studio heads today always seem obsessed with playing it safe, Evans flouted every convention he could find. Of course, this portrayal of Evans may be more fantasy than reality. Certainly The Offer is just as much about myth-making as it is about taking us behind the curtain. But then again, it would be poetic if Evans the person had become swallowed up by Evans the Hollywood legend. It’s what he would’ve wanted, and it’s the story we all want to hear.

Full article – Click here.

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How Matthew Goode Brought Robert Evans Back to Life in ‘The Offer’ – Hollywood Reporter – 12th June 2022

The actor donned plenty of polyester and countless pairs of large-framed sunglasses to portray the Hollywood icon in the Paramount+ limited series about the making of ‘The Godfather.’

BY JASON DIAMOND

Matthew Goode as Robert Evans and
Matthew Goode as Robert Evans and Meredith Garretson as Ali McGraw in THE OFFER. NICOLE WILDER/PARAMOUNT+

Transforming yourself into a Hollywood icon is one thing, but for Matthew Goode to really pull off playing Robert Evans — a titan of 1970s cinema who helped make some of the biggest movies in history happen — he had to go all-in. It wasn’t just the suits and the late Paramount producer’s penchant for cool eyewear; the British Goode had to perfect Evans’ smoothed down New York accent and deep tone in order to sound just like the guy who helped reshape cinema forever in Paramount+’s The Offer. The limited series tells the tall Hollywood tale of how Evans — along with Albert Ruddy, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola and a number of other film luminaries — helped take The Godfather from a successful novel to one of the most important films ever made. Goode spoke with THR about how his wardrobe (and many pairs of glasses) helped him embody the infamous film executive.

Did you ever get to meet Robert Evans when he was alive?

No, I never did. I spoke to a few people who did and some who knew him really well. I found out recently that I was in the same place as him once — we were in the same cinema screening, [2009’s] A Single Man, but I would never have thought, “There’s Bob Evans. I’ll go meet him.” Even if I had known it, I don’t think I would’ve gone up to him. I think I’d have scurried away.

He had this unmistakable voice, a very specific way of speaking that was fast, but easy to understand, peppered with cool phrases and Yiddishims. How did you get it so right?

It was rather terrifying, I can assure you, when Dexter [Fletcher, executive producer] said, “Do you want to do it?” I was like, “Oh Lord.” I knew who he was, obviously, I saw The Kid Stays in the Picture [the 2002 documentary based on Evans’ 1994 memoir] when it came out, and I just thought what a brilliant program that was, but I didn’t want to listen to that voice because that’s his future. That’s him in his 70s, and rhythms change. I got on YouTube and found some amazing interviews from the 1970s, which I subsequently went on to watch hundreds of times. I think I had about a month and a half from when I was asked to do it to my first day [of filming]. That’s a really lovely amount of time to get your teeth into. I did that slightly embarrassing thing of putting myself on tape and looking at his physicality and certain gestures that he used. I’m was also bearing in mind that when someone’s giving an interview, they’re presenting a different side of themselves. This project focuses on a time when his life is slightly more haywire, so I got to — to quote Spinal Tap — turn it up to 11.

Lazy loaded image
The real Robert Evans, the Paramount executive who greenlit The Godfather.SILVER SCREEN COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES

Evans’ Beverly Hills mansion was sold in 2020. Did you have an opportunity to see it when you were in L.A.?

I did! Well, not in the way that I’d hoped. I went to Armani to be fitted for a suit for a premiere, and as I finished, I was like, “Bob lived not far from here. I’ve got nothing else to do today. I’m going to walk from here up to his house. It’s a lovely walk.” I don’t know what I was thinking. I [thought]maybe there’d be a housekeeper or something. I obviously knew he was dead, but maybe somebody would take pity on me and let me in. I just wanted to see the pool. It would be nice to have a view of where the great man lived. There was a nice foreman there who came down to the gate. I was like, “Any chance I could, uh, come in and have a look at the pool?” I think if I’d been Brad Pitt or someone with a huge stature, they might have been OK, but they were like, “Who’s this weird English bloke?” They didn’t let me in. But I offered up a couple of words to [Evans], and then I thought, “Why am I talking to a dead man?” And then I promptly left and walked home.

Something I appreciate about The Offer is the attention to detail, especially all the famous L.A. locations like Musso & Frank or Chateau Marmont. Did you get to spend time in any of those spots?

We couldn’t actually film at Chateau Marmont because of ongoing disputes between the staff and [hotel management], which is a shame, although I thought [the production designers] mocked it up rather well. I went to the Polo Lounge. That was, you know, a bit of research. I know it’s changed over time; it’s too modern in there, so we couldn’t film there. We filmed at Musso & Frank, which is wonderful. I think I went out four times in several months [of filming], and that was one of the places. I was like, I’ve got to come back here cause I keep hearing about how when they make a martini, you get a little jug of it on the side. Who doesn’t want extra martini?

Those martinis can put a big man on the floor.

Yes, they will. They’ll sneak up on you.

The wardrobe department did an incredible job dressing you as Evans. Did you have any input, or did you just let them do their jobs?

I think I only have input when you feel that something isn’t going the way you would expect or what you had envisioned. It was a lot of polyester — the ’70s was not necessarily the most comfortable era. But it was brilliant. They found some Yves Saint Laurent shirts, I don’t know where they got hold of them, but they were exactly the same ones that Bob would’ve worn. They had a double button at the top and four buttons down the [wrist]. It was so highly starched, after about three days my fingers were bleeding. And then, obviously, they brought out 20 pairs of glasses as well. They asked, “Which ones do you want to use? And I was like, “I think we should just use all of them.”

You do have a nice variety of eyewear on the show.

Yeah. We get through quite a lot. There are a couple of scenes where I was like, “This has a bit more gravitas, so [the glasses should be] a bit more serious.” I did stick to the classic black pairs, but I had a lot of fun every day with Dusty, who was in charge of the props. I would often go, “What do you reckon today, Dusty?”

You’ve played Charles Ryder in Brideshead Revisited and a lawyer on The Good Wife. You’ve been on The Crown and Downton Abbey, and now you’ve played Robert Evans. Who is your best-dressed character?

I had a lot of people ask where I got that jumper when I was playing Uncle Charlie in Stoker — I had this mustard jumper and suddenly that was all anybody was talking about. And Charles was pretty well-dressed, but I’m getting to the age now where I forget what the hell I’ve been in. I’d have to IMDb myself, which would be a terrifying thing to do.

You mentioned you said a few words to the spirit of Evans when you went to his house …

It sounds a bit silly when you say it like that, but yes.

No, it’s lovely. If you had a chance to talk with him right now, what would you ask Robert Evans after getting to play him?

For his forgiveness.

Do you think you’d get along?

I think we’d bond. He’d tell me that I should have sat out in the sun a bit more to really get a better tan.

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Matthew Goode on ‘The Offer’ and Finding Robert Evans’ Accent – Collider – 15th May 2022 [Extract]

BY CHRISTINA RADISH

Collider: You are so fantastic in this series. I cannot sing your praises enough. But I also think it’s interesting that you’ve previously talked about how you don’t think you look anything like Robert Evans and were surprised that they wanted you to be in this. But since you signed on, jumped in and did it anyway, was that challenge part of the appeal?

MATTHEW GOODE: Well, I’ve definitely reached the part of my life now where I’ve realized that sometimes you’ve just got to do what’s really scary rather than being a self-saboteur. I’ve had a few opportunities, none of which I will name, where I got scared and said, “No,” and then someone went on to win an Oscar. It’s a brilliant story and I should be so lucky, and it came from so left field. I was originally given the script to look at a different part, and I never got a phone call about when the audition would be, so I just thought, “Well, I’ll watch it when it comes out, and it’ll be whoever it is.”

And then, I got phoned up and was told, “Dexter [Fletcher] and Nikki [Toscano] would like you to play Robert Evans,” and I was like, “Hmm?” I think that’s what you need occasionally, is someone to bestow that upon you, and you just go, “Well, if they feel I can do it, then I’ll give it my best shot.” And also, Dexter is incredibly charming. I felt like, “Wow, if he thinks I can do it, then I must be able to do it.” He’s got that superpower, when it comes to actors. Maybe it’s because he does that himself, but I genuinely think he’s such a force for good in the world that he hypnotized me into it.

From talking to various members of the cast, it definitely sounds like Dexter Fletcher knew how to handle everyone to make them feel better about what they were doing.

GOODE: Yeah. You’re a wrangler, as a director, and you want that responsibility. As long as you’re not megalomanic, the best directors, everything is done as a community. He creates an incredibly warm community, and he is also very able to say, “I don’t know what the idea is, so we will discuss this as a group,” rather than being a dictator. Both sides of those can work, but what a warm and generous man, he is. I can guarantee you that every single person on that set loved him. No bullshit, loved him.

Did you have a moment when you felt like you’d really nailed Robert Evans? As an audience member, it’s so insane to watch what you do in this role, but did you ever feel comfortable and confident that this had really worked its way into your bones?

GOODE: Dexter started me off on that road. It’s so difficult talking about it without sounding like an idiot, but really and truly, it’s not necessarily about what I do. I watched some of the rough cut, and I was like, “Oh God, I’m not sure.” And then, I watched some of the stuff that was fully done and I breathed a sigh of relief. For the first time on this project, I was like, “I’m quietly proud of that. I’m really proud of that.” I’m not sitting there watching rushes, every evening. Thank God, that’s just not how I work. When did I think I finally got it? People had said some nice stuff along the way, but it was when I saw how I merged and melded with everyone else’s performances because you can’t really highlight one performance in this. There are so many, really. That sounds really silly, but it’s true. The sum of the parts is everybody.

How did you find the accent? Did you have a dialect coach for that? How did you work through figuring that out?

GOODE: I did. I had spent a month and a half at home because I had to wait a long time to get a visa. I actually had to go to Budapest because it was lockdown, to get my American visa, and I was there for eight days in a hotel room. It allowed me to spend a lot of time just listening to his voice, over and over. I just spent hours listening to him, and it wasn’t difficult. It was an easy listen. Some of his interviews are just spellbinding, in their honesty. I was lucky enough to have the sheer repetition of it.

At some point, you have to commit. Because I wasn’t able to be in rehearsals, I distanced myself from the cast to do some homework. I would send stuff, and little did I know until I got there, that Dexter was showing it to some of the other cast. It was just a lot of work. There was a lovely lady who was helping the cast with the accents, and she was great. I had an hour and a half with her and she said, “You’re absolutely fine. Just go off and do it.” That gave me a lot of confidence, so that was nice.

I love how each of these characters is really the hero to someone and the villain to someone, depending on what is going on, in any moment.

GOODE: Yeah, exactly.

If someone wants something from them, and they say, “No,” they’re the villain. If someone wants something from them and they say, “Yes,” they’re the hero. What did you enjoy about playing someone like that, who really could make someone’s dream come true or end their career?

GOODE: Colin Hanks, or Chanks, as we like to call him, had a very astute point about that, early on. He plays a composite character of many different people, who were the naysayers about that project at the time, and they had very good reasons for saying no. It’s only because we can view this from where we are now. Brando could have been a massive disruption on this film. There are many, many different strata that this could have been a disastrous film. We’d never heard of Francis Ford Coppola. It’s just that this weird alchemy happened and it had Al Ruddy, and he will go down as the greatest physical producer of all time, or he should, considering he put out so many fires.

This film should have been a disaster. It shouldn’t have been finished. It goes down as one of the greats. How can we produce great films? Sometimes there needs to be massive amounts of duress and a lack of funding and angst, and everything else. The $40 million film, which I think would probably be what that would be equivalent to, has disappeared, for many reasons of which we do not need to get into. If you’ve got a $40 million film and everything was easy, and you got your stars, and there was no duress, it might well turn into a very dull film. Sometimes you need that friction. I don’t know. If I could bottle it, we’d all be millionaires.

With all the things you get to do, just through Robert Evans’ life and the interactions with Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, what was the most surreal moment on set?

GOODE: I’ll tell you, I had a very, very surreal moment. First of all, I was working with Justin Chambers. My very first job, I met him in Luxembourg, 20 years ago. He was filming The Three Musketeers, and I was filming something that I’ll dare not speak the name. And then, suddenly, like you do in life sometimes, it’s like how you learn history. You learn about the Tudors when you’re eight, and then you learn about them again, 15 years later, when you’re doing you’re a-levels, in a slightly greater detail and at a slightly more interesting time. So, once again, I was with Justin and we’re sitting there, and I’m playing Evans, and he’s playing Marlon Brando. I was like, “That’s pressure, right there,” and he does it, beautifully. He was great. I was watching him work, and I was like, “That’s so brilliant.” We were doing the scene, and I was like, “I’m so proud of him. He’s doing really well.”

And then, (director) Adam [Arkin] cut and came in, and I was like, “I thought he was doing really well.” But Adam said to Justin, “Justin, I want you to eat those onion rings just a bit slower. Just do it a little slower.” I was like, “That’s a funny bit of direction.” So, we started the take again, and Adam was bang on. Brando was obsessed with food, and Justin was eating them too quickly. When he slowed down, it was like they were some delicious sweet that he was taking his time with. Suddenly, I forgot my lines because I was so absorbed. He became Brando. You can ask anyone about it. I pontificated about it on set, probably too much. I was like, “You really got it. You’re really nailing him!” He was amazing. In fairness, so was Anthony [Ippolito], who played Pacino. The way he got his voice gave me goosebumps. It was amazing. There’s so much good stuff in this.

Full interview and link to video – Click here.

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Robert Evans wouldn’t approve of the man playing him on TV. He would be wrong – Los Angeles Times – 5th May 2022

 

BY MARY MCNAMARA CULTURE COLUMNIST AND CRITIC 
Photography by DANIA MAXWELL
A seated man in a brown suit and darker brown tie.
Matthew Goode stars as Paramount Pictures chief Robert Evans in “The Offer.”
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

Even in the cocaine-and-creativity-fueled orgiastic landscape of Hollywood in the 1960s and ‘70s, Robert Evans stood out.

From behind an extensive selection of oversize glasses, the preternaturally tanned actor-turned-studio executive saw brilliance in scripts and actors where no one else did. In fewer than 10 years, he took the near-dead Paramount Pictures to No. 1 by launching a string of film classics, including “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Love Story,” “The Godfather” and “Chinatown,” all while maintaining a “This is Hollywood, baby” lifestyle that earned him the title “the playboy peacock of Paramount.”

He was, in a phrase, larger than life.

And nothing is tougher to play than “larger than life.”

Unless, perhaps, you are an actor better known for enigmatic subtlety than joyous scenery chewing.

In Paramount+’s “The Offer,” which chronicles the epic “almost didn’t happen” journey of “The Godfather” from book to screen, Matthew Goode takes on the role of Evans, who fought for (and sometimes against) Francis Ford Coppola’s iconic vision — and what seems to be a marriage of opposites turns out to be, as such marriages often are, a perfect match.

Goode has built a career on playing the less showy parts in very showy stories: the responsible if smitten bodyguard in “Chasing Liberty,” Charles Ryder in “Brideshead Revisited,” Colin Firth’s dead lover in “A Single Man,” Finn Polmar in “The Good Wife.” He has played more than one creepy villain but is cast more often in romantic roles. Paired with Vanessa Kirby’s Princess Margaret, Goode’s wildly seductive Tony Armstrong-Jones brought sex appeal to “The Crown” just as his Henry Talbot had, a couple of years earlier, taught Michelle Dockery’s Lady Mary to love again on “Downton Abbey.” (And to answer “Downton” fans’ most pressing Goode-related question, he does not appear in the upcoming “Downton Abbey: A New Era” and does not know if his character is alive or dead.)

But even when playing a brooding vampire in forbidden love with a witch, as he did in the recently concluded “A Discovery of Witches,” Goode tends to conjure his characters’ intensity from restraint. Few actors get more out of a beats-long stare or a quirked smile than Goode.

Evans was not a man known for restraint. With a singular presence and a deeply personal cadence, he preened and strode, quipped, opined, demanded and screamed into many, many telephones. While working with Evans, Dustin Hoffman gathered the material for a subgenre of Evans impersonations, from the bathtub drowning scene of “Marathon Man” to the Evans-inspired producer he played in “Wag the Dog.”

Not an obvious role for a soft-spoken Brit. And no one was more surprised than Goode when he was cast.

A man on the phone, sitting in bed with a woman
Matthew Goode as Robert Evans and Meredith Garretson as Ali MacGraw in “The Offer.”
(Nicole Wilder / Paramount+)

“Originally, they sent me scripts for another role,” he said during a recent interview, “and I thought, ‘Any day now they’ll be phoning for an audition or a meet for this role.’ And it just never materialized. I thought, ‘Well, I guess it’s going to be someone famous and someone really good and I’ll watch it anyway.’ Because,” he adds, laughing, “sometimes you don’t watch it because you feel really wounded.”

Then, one day, while he was supposed to be golfing but was instead waiting out a rainstorm in his car, his phone rang. It was a transatlantic call with all his agents. “I wondered, ‘What have I done? I’m in real trouble.’ And they said, ‘You’ve got the job, you’ve got Bob Evans.’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about? I haven’t met with anyone, haven’t talked to anyone.’ But my agent said, ‘We said yes on your behalf.’”

He is telling this story, complete with the name of the golf course near his home in Surrey, England, in part because he is an energetic storyteller — one trait he does share with Evans is the ability to speak in a string of perfectly structured paragraphs — but also to underscore how he felt when he got the role. “The fear of God,” he said.

It wasn’t until he spoke with director Dexter Fletcher that he actually believed he’d been cast. “[Producer] Nikki [Toscano] said I was the only one they had considered and I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, which big star dropped out at the last minute,’ but I didn’t want to question it.”

This was well after the scandal-plagued Armie Hammer dropped out as “Godfather” producer Al Ruddy, to be replaced by Miles Teller.

But Goode had his own logistical obstacles to overcome. The pandemic had left him with free time but made getting a visa to work in Los Angeles, where “The Offer” was shot, almost impossible.

“I had to go to Budapest to get my visa; it was so busy in London that I would have lost the job.”

Then there was the prep.

“I did a lot of homework, went down a lot of wormholes on YouTube,” he said, including the Hoffman/bathtub scene. “I didn’t want to watch [2002 Evans documentary] ‘The Kid Stays in the Picture’’ again because that was when he was older and our rhythms change when we get older, but there’s amazing interviews from the 1970s and he’s incredibly candid and charming.”

A man in a brown suit sits, hands clasped in front of him, looking slightly upward.
Goode says the series was thoroughly fact-checked, though “as Bob would say, there’s your version and my version and somewhere in between is the truth.”
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

Goode worked with Fletcher to make sure their ideas were in sync. “When I came to L.A., the costume fittings helped put the armor on, and then the final thing was, ‘Which pair of glasses do we use?’ They showed me a box and there were like 20 pairs and I said, ‘I’m going to use all of them.’”

When he slipped the glasses on, he said, it all came together. Still, it is not easy to step into a Hollywood icon’s loafers, even if said icon is no longer around to judge. (Evans died in 2019.)

“I never met him,” Goode said, “though I found out recently I’d been in the same room; he came to the AFI screening of ‘A Single Man.’ So there was a little less pressure on me than on Anthony [Ippolito], who plays Al Pacino.” Still, he was quite nervous, Goode said, until Fletcher put it in perspective: “Dexter said, ‘Well it could be worse. You could be playing Brando.’

“Which,” Goode adds seamlessly, “Justin [Chambers] did brilliantly.”

“The Offer” is based in large part on Ruddy’s memory of events and is told from his perspective; it will no doubt spark the sort of debate common to scripted retellings of famous recent events. Coppola, for example, had by many accounts a much more antagonistic relationship with Evans than the series portrays.

Goode says the series was thoroughly fact-checked, though “as Bob would say, there’s your version and my version and somewhere in between is the truth.”

Goode said he kept “bumping into people who knew Evans and they all described him the same way — charming, generous, funny, kind. You don’t need to like the character you are playing, but I was pleased to know that although he was Hollywood royalty, he didn’t have airs and graces. He could have a chat with anybody.”

Including Goode himself. During the seven months he was in Los Angeles, the actor had many conversations with the man he was playing.

“I don’t do Method, but I do during rehearsals, so I spent a lot of time in my role, sometimes having amusing conversations with myself as Robert. I’d be sitting there,” Goode said, leaning back and into character, “a libation in my hand and from sheer boredom, ‘I don’t agree with the casting, man,’” he said, in Evans’ voice. “‘You don’t know me’ [in Goode’s voice] ‘and that’s exactly my point’ [back to Evans]. Who the hell are you?’”

A man in a suit stands in the street talking to a man in a leather jacket and jeans.
Matthew Goode as Robert Evans, right, in “The Offer.”
(Nicole Wilder / Paramount+)

It’s an alarmingly believable and amusing interchange — “hours of fun,” Goode said — but it was also necessary.

“His timbre and cadence are incredibly idiosyncratic,” Goode said, “so if I don’t get that right, I’m really going to sink. And that’s one reason I’d joke around. You really need to get the voice, not just the lines in the script. You’re going to fail big time if you can’t be him on any subject.”

Evans was “definitely different than anything I’ve done,” he said, and coming from Goode that’s saying a lot. Since he starred in the swoony teen romance “Chasing Liberty,” Goode has done romance, mystery, fantasy, lots of period dramas and even the superhero genre — he played Ozymandias in the 2009 film “Watchmen” (again “sharing” a role with Jeremy Irons, who played Ozymandias in the 2020 HBO series and Charles Ryder in 1981). Caught somewhere between romantic lead and character actor, Goode has become one of those reliable, ubiquitous performers whose quiet force often allows others to shine more brightly.

His role in “Downton” came about while he was shooting “Self/Less,” a film in which he co-starred with Dockery. “She said, ‘Why don’t you come and play my husband,’” Goode said. “So I was cast by Michelle Dockery.”

He is not upset, by the way, that he is not in the new “Downton” movie. “I tend to end series rather than start them, and the ‘Downton’ family is very close. And there are so many actors that it seems impossible they were able to schedule the ones who are in it.”

Also, he had something else to do. It’s tough for even a terrific series to stand out in today’s wildly overpopulated television landscape, but given its subject matter, and the fact that it heralds the 50th anniversary of “The Godfather” “The Offer” has a better chance than most at getting the attention it deserves.

As does Goode, who, despite starring in films and series that have won many awards, has few of his own. With any luck, his portrayal of Evans will change that. Taking us through, as Goode says, the best and worst of the man, it captures the high-wire thrill of moviemaking. Goode’s Evans doesn’t just swing big, he swings big with confidence and joy. He is larger than life because he believes that movies make life larger than itself, and Goode makes us believe that too.

At the end of filming on “The Offer,” the real Ruddy gave each cast member an inscribed glass horse head. “That’s something I’ll be able to treasure,” Goode said. “My mantle isn’t too cluttered, so I should be able to fit that up there.”

Perhaps next year, it will be a little more cluttered than it was.

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The Offer‘s Matthew Goode Unpacks His Transformation Into Hollywood Legend Robert Evans – E! online – 2nd May 2022 [Extract]

Matthew Goode told E! News what he did to become the studio executive responsible for The Godfather on The Offer. See what he—and co-star Colin Hanks—said about the show.

By ALYSSA RAY MAY

The Offer is a different kind of period drama for Matthew Goode.

The British actor has traded in his posh Downton Abbey accent for a very specific American drawl, ’70s attire and a classic California tan in order to portray Hollywood legend Robert Evans. As Goode told E! News in an exclusive interview—where he was joined by co-star Colin Hanks—he spent “a lot of time” perfecting his take on the studio executive that helped bring The Godfatherto life.

“I was quite scared when I was given the job,” he admitted about his role in The Offer, which dramatically retells the making of the iconic crime film. “So I spent quite a lot of time watching lots of documentaries and lots of old interviews.”

By watching hours of YouTube videos, Goode was able to perfect Evans’ “very interesting cadence,” which is a mix of the Valley and a New York accent.

As for his physical transformation into Evans? Goode revealed that he tried to get the film producer’s deep tan by lying out in the sun, but he was unable to achieve the color he needed.

“We did some spray tanning” he told E! News. “And then we did various levels of makeup as well, and I think it worked out.”

The Offer, Paramount+, CastParamount+

Keep reading for a closer look at the Offer cast and their real-life counterparts!

The Offer, Real Life v Actors, Matthew Goode, Robert EvansNicole Wilder/Paramount+; Moviestore/Shutterstock
Matthew Goode as Robert Evans

Full article and videoed interview – Click here.

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A Roundtable Interview With Matthew Goode – TOISTO – 30th April 2022

BY JOONATAN ITKONEN

I got a chance to speak with Matthew Goode, the actor playing Robert Evans in The Offer, which premiered on Paramount Plus this Thursday, April 28th.

In the series, Evans is a larger-than-life character. A self-proclaimed messiah of epic proportions. With a perpetual shit-eating grin, he dominates the screen every second the camera is on him.

In-person, Goode couldn’t be further from his screen persona. Soft-spoken with an English lilt, he’s affable and thoroughly charming as he answers some rapid-fire questions about the show. The following is edited for length and clarity.

How much did you know about the making of The Godfather before this project? Does it still hold up after making this?

I’ve been sent a couple of scripts in conjunction with a different part. I read them and went, “well, maybe they’ll call,” and nothing happened. But I liked the writing so much that I hoped to at least see the show when it came out.

Then one day, I was playing golf, which I enjoy. This is boring the hell out of you, but roll with it chaps! And I noticed my phone was blowing up with messages. All my agents had called. I was so scared I had done something bad. But it was them saying I got the job.

I was shocked, because I, like everyone else, love The Godfather. It’s so seminal and important. Even at its length, which is massive for today. My kids, bless them, they’ve got all these things, TikTok and ThisThat, and their attention spans are shocking.

But I love something that takes its time and has texture and is nuanced, so The Godfather is just a joy to me. There aren’t many films like that, that have that level. So it was a cinematic treat for me to have an excuse to go back and watch it again.

I was initially terrified when offered the part, I’m not going to lie. I told my agents, “I don’t think I’m anything like him!” So my hat’s off to (showrunner) Nicky Toscano and (director) Dexter Fletcher for seeing the possibility of me doing it.

The Godfather has millions of fans around the world and all the generations. Did you feel extra pressure in telling the story of something that means so much to people?

Luckily for us, the level of writing is through the roof. We had that on our side. If the writing wasn’t good it would have been a disaster. Let’s just say if I had a valet, I’d have asked him to bring my brown trousers.

Robert Evans is a massive personality. He commands every room he enters. You don’t seem that way, and your previous parts haven’t typically been as loud. 

He (Evans) is extremely emotional and brilliant. Luckily I had Youtube to mine a wealth of material from the 70s. He gives fantastic interviews. That was my approach at least initially.

There’s a line early on in the show: “Robert Evans is more connected than God.” Is he basically the stereotype that now defines other producers?

We have to remember that he was a producer in the golden age. That sweet spot of movies. He was a charismatic man, truly eccentric. But also a tastemaker. He made movies others would shy away from now. Like Harold and Maude. That’s why his relationship with (Gulf & Western owner) Charlie Bludhorn was so fascinating. They’re both gamblers.

But I don’t know if folks are still like that. I live in the UK. I’ve got three kids, so I don’t know what’s going on in Hollywood!

This is clearly a portrait of a time with rampant misogyny and difficult attitudes. How did you approach it?

It was very much a time capsule and pretty much a very misogynistic time. But there are also interviews where Evans says he likes hiring women rather than men because they’re smarter. So maybe he was ahead of the times in some way.

How do you avoid it becoming a hagiography? Does it even come into consideration? 

If you’re lucky enough to get a script that allows you to be in a sandbox, like this, you do your homework and worry about the truth of the project. Is it true to the script, is it believable, and does my director like it?

I have to give Dex a huge shout-out again. When you’re playing Bob Evans – or any of these icons! – you’re terrified. It’s like going down the rapids in a canoe. But I try to do what’s right. I try not to judge them. Because even it’s a time capsule, if I judged them beforehand I wouldn’t be doing my job. Because while we’re doing a look back, for them, it’s as modern as can be.

That’s a rambling answer. I got lost without Dex here.

Did you have a chance to meet with (The Godfather producer) Al Ruddy? 

I had an opportunity earlier and I didn’t take it. Al wanted to say something nice over the phone, but I was terrified of it affecting the performance. So, no, I didn’t meet him. But I had many stories down the line from Miles Teller, who plays Ruddy on the show. But I’m meeting the real man soon, luckily! The series is a love letter to Al, really.

Did anything particularly shock you about the behind-the-scenes drama?

I knew some of the myths about it, the famous ones, like Marlon Brandoputting in the tissues to become Don Corleone. That must have been an amazing thing to witness.

But shocking? Maybe just how much Al put on the line. There’s that line in the show how “every day producing this is the worst day of my life.” That’s the scale and enormity of what he went through.

I also didn’t know how close he got to (mafia boss) Joe Colombo. It’s hardly a shock, I guess. A man you don’t want to get close to you befriend. But it’s a shock in the sense of, wow, how did that happen!

After playing a producer, would you want to try it for real?

I’ve been afraid of doing that for quite a while. But now, I think I’d like to direct something. Maybe I should try producing something first. I just hope to God that nothing like what happens in this series happens to me. Even if you don’t like The Godfather you can appreciate how much luck and genius it takes to get something on the screen.

Let’s see, maybe down the line. Until then, I’ve got some avenues to look at in my day job.

You seem like a bit of a masochist with your roles. First a major part of a seminal comic book in Watchmen and now an iconic film in The Godfather. What attracts you to them?

The responsibility is huge. It’s terrifying. But sometimes there’s a choice and sometimes there’s not. With this, I don’t understand how they thought I could pull Evans off. Luckily Dexter and Nicky had the vision that some gangly bloke from England could do it. After that, it’s the fear that propels you because you don’t want to be the weak link. It drives you to a very focused place.

For a show talking about the love of movies, it’s ironic you’re making it for television. In some sense, The Godfather probably wouldn’t be made today as a movie, but as a show. 

That’s an astute observation. Today there’s that gulf between budgets. There’s the five-million-dollar movie that goes into TV and a two-hundred-million-dollar movie that’s completely different. Something likeShawshank Redemption wouldn’t get made today as it was.

I think The Godfather would still get made, but, as you said, on television. It was the biggest book in the world at the time! But it would probably be a show because we’re in such a good time for new series. Shows that get texture and time to evolve. I still love film, I do. But I really, really enjoy being part of the TV business too.

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‘Pure joy’: Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren are royally charming in art heist film ‘The Duke’ – Patriot Ledger – 29th April 2022 – [Extract]

By Al Alexander  
…

Give Michell credit for molding the performances. But even he knows his film lives or dies on Broadbent’s ability to deliver up Kempton as an irresistible bloke whose undying belief in humanity – and the essentiality of every citizen, no matter their race or economic standing – is a constant and irresistible source of inspiration. He reaches his zenith in a courtroom scene under questioning by his haughty barrister, Jeremy Hutchinson, the husband of Dame Peggy Ashcroft and fresh off successfully defending the publisher of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover.”

In yet another Michell casting coup, he’s played with suave and icy-cool charisma by Matthew Goode in a performance that rivals Broadbent’s in terms of above-and-beyond. Their question-and-answer volley before a raucous gallery is a hefty sprinkling of movie magic. The display is as funny as it is engaging. And it’s saying something that the chemistry between client and counselor rivals that of Broadbent and Mirren. The latter pairing is the film’s lifeblood and what keeps it relevant amid all the corn you’d expect from a movie about a populist bringing the halls of government to its knees.

…

Full article – click here.

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‘The Offer’ Star Colin Hanks Knows His Character is Easy to Loathe: “He Stands for a Lot That I Am Against” – Hollywood Reporter – 29th April 2022 [Extract]

“What I wanted was for people to take one look at him and say, ‘I know what this guy’s all about’ and think of him as an asshole, actually,” says the actor, who assures the character has an arc.

BY RYAN PARKER

…

Speaking of team, I am curious which of your fellow actors really blew your mind in their transformation because they’re all fantastic. 

I was only able to see a little bit of Justin Chambers’ performance as [Marlon] Brando, but I thought it was incredible. And I was only able to see a little of Anthony Ippolito’s [Al] Pacino, who’s great. But the one I enjoyed the most, and that’s probably because I had a front-row seat, was Matthew Goode’s Bob Evans. It really was an inspiration to see a fellow actor just go for it. He took it all and made his Bob seem completely real but at the same time, larger than life, which is a hard thing to do. Watching the episodes, he is a living human being, and I can see his brain work. And it was also so much fun working with him.

…

Full article – Click here.

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HOW THE OFFER RECREATES THE GODFATHER’S BEHIND-THE-SCENES DRAMA – Rotten Tomatoes editorial – 28th April 2022 [Extract]

STARS MATTHEW GOODE, GIOVANNI RIBISI, AND DAN FOGLER AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCER NIKKI TOSCANO TALK CREATING THE LIMITED SERIES ABOUT THE MAKING OF ONE OF THE GREATEST FILMS OF ALL TIME.

by Kimberly Potts

2. MATTHEW GOODE IS A SCENE-STEALER AS ROBERT EVANS

The Offer: Matthew Goode

(Photo by Miller Mobley/Paramount+)

The entire cast, which also includes Juno Temple as Ruddy’s assistant Bettye McCartt, Patrick Gallo as The Godfather novel author Mario Puzo, Burn Gorman as Gulf & Western head Charles Bluhdorn, and Colin Hanks as Gulf & Western executive Barry Lapidus, is stellar, but the big scene stealer throughout the series is Matthew Goode as Hollywood legend Robert Evans, the larger-than-life Paramount honcho who was a champion of The Godfather But Evans, like many of the movie’s cast and producers, went through a lot of personal and professional problems during the Godfather production, and The Offer’s writers used those experiences to portray Evans in a more vulnerable light than the one he himself painted in his classic memoir The Kid Stays in the Picture and his reputation in Hollywood.

“It was important to all of us writers to be bringing that sort of nuance to light, humanizing Joe Colombo, humanizing Robert Evans in a lot of different ways,” Nikki Toscano says. “We all have different perspectives on what each of us has to do to get through the day, and it was like shining a little baby light on some of that, to better understand their thought process and not make them caricatures. I think when you’re trying to portray someone that really existed, that was already so larger-than-life, it’s sort of incumbent upon you to illuminate the parts that people may not have seen.”

As for Goode’s performance, specific kudos go to his capturing of Evans’ voice, which anyone who’s seen an Evans interview, or the documentary version of The Kid Stays in the Picture, will appreciate and enjoy. Evans’ loquaciousness and ability to “choreograph his words” was an inspiration to Bob Odenkirk when he created his Saul Goodman character. “I’d like to say it was something more exciting than just I’m a sort of a baritone, so I guess there’s a bit of a match to that,” Goode says of creating the voice of his Evans. “Particularly, when (I woke) up in the morning, I was able to find it pretty easily, or certainly the timbre … it’s the cadence you have to work on. It’s that rhythm of his, and once you’ve got it, you can’t not be in it. So you felt like you could improvise. But it took a couple of months of hard work.”

And a tip Goode shares when we mention his performance as Evans makes us want to re-read The Kid Stays in the Picture: “Don’t read it, listen to it, the next time you do it,” the actors says. “Because I read it as well, but Colin Hanks says you’ve got to listen to him read it. Evans reads the whole book. It’s not the truncated version like the documentaries, and it’s meant to be phenomenal. So, it’s going to be my treat now.”

Full article – Click Here.

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The making of The Godfather, a story almost as epic as the movie – The Sydney Morning Herald – 27th April 2022

By Michael Idato

There are films which amuse and delight. And there are films which inspire, frighten and impress. And then, there is The Godfather, the 1972 crime film masterpiece, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, co-written by Coppola and Mario Puzo, on whose best-selling novel the film was based.

The film is close to unique in cinema history, a high benchmark shared by only a handful of masterpieces. Its cast included Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan and Richard Castellano, playing various members of the Corleone mafia family, their friends and rivals. It gave birth to a trilogy, though it is the original which remains truly unequalled.

British actor Matthew Goode first saw The Godfather on video in his late teens, “actually rented from a local video shop in Clifton Mary,” he says, laughing. The actor grew up nearby, in Exeter, in south-west England. Almost 30 years later he has come full circle with that moment, with a starring role in The Offer, the dramatisation of the making of the film, a story almost as big as the film itself.

“I fell in love with The Godfather immediately because I’d never seen anything shot like that before,” Goode says. “It’s pretty different to Predator, you know what I mean? And it gave me my appreciation for directors of photography, who I genuinely think are masters of the dark arts.

“We’re very lucky to have it in that [single-film] format, and we’re very lucky that Coppola carved a different story out of the book,” Goode says. “The book was fine, the book is good, the book is readable, but the movie is something artistically on a different level. I can say that comfortably because I know that Mario has now passed away, and he’s not coming for me.”

The miniseries stars Goode as producer Robert Evans, Miles Teller as producer Albert S. Ruddy, Juno Temple as Ruddy’s assistant Bettye McCartt, Dan Fogler as writer/director Francis Ford Coppola, Patrick Gallo as novelist Mario Puzo, Burn Gorman as Gulf and Western owner Charles Bluhdorn, Colin Hanks as studio executive Barry Lapidus and Giovanni Ribisi as real-life crime family patriarch Joe Colombo.

The idea of creating historical narratives for television which contain fictional elements is not new. The Crown has been the subject of some criticism recently because of the way it smudges historical detail to suit the story. A more recent example, The Thing about Pam, went the opposite way and stuck to fact. The Offer is pure Hollywood, but Goode says the series is true to its promise.

“I know that there have been questions about other series that have done this sort of thing, particularly when some people are still alive, but this was fact-checked to within an inch of its life and there’s very, very many sources that will be able to go, oh, that did happen,” Goode says.

“Obviously, we’re not making a documentary, and so you’ll find that there are always, within this, those sorts of dramatisations,” Goode adds. “You’ll have composite characters, for example, Colin Hanks’ character was several naysayers, rather than just the one person who was Charlie Bluhdorn’s right-hand man, but ostensibly, it’s as close as we could get it.”

In tackling the role of Robert Evans, Hollywood offered Goode a multitude of people, still alive, who knew and worked with the man. But Goode was particularly struck by something Evans himself was famous for reminding people. “It’s like Bob would always say, there are three versions to anything. There’s your version, there’s my version and there’s the truth,” he says.

Most intimidating, Goode says, was capturing Evans’ physicality and voice. “He has such a unique timbre and cadence, and that’s fascinating and terrifying at the same time because you’re like, if I don’t get this right, I’m going to get laughed off the screen.

“Then luckily there was a day I was with Dexter [Fletcher, the director] and he’s like, you should be scared, but it’s a great story, it’s well written, we chose you because we think you can do the job, and then he just went, imagine how scared Anthony Ippolito is, he’s playing Al Pacino. And I was like, well, that does put it into perspective, a little bit.”

As a British-born actor Goode, like the Australian television audience who will watch The Offer, has a very specific perception of director Dexter Fletcher. Correctly identified as an actor/director, Fletcher’s earliest acting roles were playing Spike Thomson in the teen series Press Gang and Baby Face in the 1976 film Bugsy Malone, opposite then-kid stars Scott Baio and Jodie Foster.

“He does everything, he’s doing the voiceover for McDonald’s, I can’t escape the man, he’s on the radio in my car,” says Goode, laughing. “He has a gift, he has a superpower and that is that he can spin plates. He can put his foot into every world. I’m so looking forward to working with him again if I’m lucky.

“Dexter is a brilliant actor, he gets actors, he likes actors which is something because sometimes you work with a director, and you go, no, you shouldn’t be doing this job,” Goode says. “He’s just very, very smart, and I think, as you say, he’s been in this world, intoxicated by it and in love with it, since he was six years old.”

Fletcher set up the project, and directed its first two episodes. He was supposed to return for the final two, but a scheduling clash meant he could not. “And we mourned the loss of him, we wanted to finish this project for him because he gave us all this confidence,” Goode says.

“We adored him. Everyone adored him, and I’ve never been on a set where everyone would say that because he treats everyone with the greatest of respect,” Goode says. “But it’s also how it should be on set. I’m completely in love with the man, I must say, and also his wife Dalia [Ibelhauptaitė, the opera and film director and playwright].“

The screenplay of The Offer was written by Michael Tolkin, the novelist. It is true, Goode agrees, that Tolkin’s work as a novelist sets him up well to bring to the screen the story of a novel as dense and epic as The Godfather. But Goode singles out one of Tolkin’s credits as being particularly critical in capturing the energy behind-the-scenes of the film.

Tolkin wrote both the book and screenplay of The Player, Robert Altman’s critically acclaimed 1992 satirical comedy, about a studio executive who kills an aspiring screenwriter. The film is largely noteworthy as being packed with Hollywood in-jokes.

“So if anyone was going to be able to tell a Hollywood story and get it all in, it would be him,” Goode says. “It’s not like it’s just a stream of consciousness, I think it’s the amount of research that novelists undertake before they start writing. And it does take someone who can deal with the epic nature of the story, but also tie these little threads together. There’s a little bit of genius from the writers [Tolkin, Russell Rothberg, Nikki Toscano and others] and the dialogue is delicious.”

For Goode, himself, whose credits include The Good Wife, Downton Abbey (both the television series and film), The Crown and A Discovery of Witches, The Offerhas left an indelible mark on the canvas.

“I think when I started out, I was trying for this one way to do this, and I was quite blinkered, but the older I’ve gotten, and Dexter did ask me to do this occasionally, I like to try more things,” Goode says. “So rather than it be a line drawing, it’s now getting a bit more Jackson Pollock, so I am a little braver with my choices. In the end, though, I am just trying to please the director, that’s all I’m trying to do.”

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The Offer review – CRP – 27th April 2022 [Extract]

However, the show’s standout is the incessantly hilarious and quintessential 60s Hollywood producer, complete with the bronze tan, pearly white teeth and flashy suits, is Matthew Goode as Robert Evans. His opposing dynamic with Ruddy works as comedy gold and feels like an authentic portrayal of the old-timey movie producer who loves the lavish, party lifestyle.

Full article – Click Here

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The Offer – review – The Guardian – 27th April 2022 [Extract]

By Adrian Horton

Still, there are some bright spots. Goode is delightful as the charismatic, unstable Evans. Anthony Ippolito’s embodiment of a young and hungry Al Pacino is uncanny; the same cannot be said of Justin Chambers’ Marlon Brando whisper or Frank John Hughes’s portrayal of an aggressive, petty Frank Sinatra, both of which strain against the weight of iconography. And inside baseball can be fun – somehow the farther up Paramount Pictures’ ass this Paramount+ show goes, the more interesting it is. Teller is the kind of actor you want to watch throw some elbows to get things done, even if his faux gravelly voice slips in more intimate scenes.

All criticisms – and there are many – aside, the Offer remains watchable to the bloated end. It may not be the hard-won prestige of The Godfather, but in this over-saturated landscape content, that is its own form of achievement.

Full article –  Click Here.

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Paramount+’s ‘The Offer’: TV Review – Hollywood Reporter – 26th April 2022 [Extract]

The tumultuous production of ‘The Godfather’ gets limited-series treatment by creator Michael Tolkin, with a sprawling cast led by Miles Teller.

BY DANIEL FIENBERG

…
There’s bound to be general affection for Goode, who looks nothing at all like Evans, but delivers a fine rendition of the legendary raconteur’s velvety tones and Yiddish-littered carnival-barker cadences.
…
Full article – Click Here

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Why is ‘The Offer’ really useful viewing? – Gossipchimp.com – 26th April 2022 [Extract]

Matthew Goode.

He’s so good as long time producer and Paramount studio head Robert Evans that you just can not take your eyes off him.

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Paramount +’s ‘The Offer’ entertainingly dramatizes the struggle of a few folks to make ‘The Godfather’ –   TV Review – News Herald – 26th April 2022 – Extracts

Binge-worthy miniseries gets good work from Miles Teller and great work from Matthew Goode…

…

However, it is Goode’s sublime performance as Evans that is the show’s greatest asset.  Goode (Downton Abbey, The King’s Man) simply oozes smooth and cool whether Evans is casually enjoying a drink with a few lovely ladies at 9am or calmly solving problem after problem – at least for a while.

Full article on News Herald site – behind paywall.

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‘The Offer’ Review: The Classic Movie That Almost Wasn’t – Wall Street Journal – 26th April 2022 – Extract

A new series on Paramount+ dramatizes the shaky road Mario Puzo’s and Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘The Godfather’ took from page to screen.

…

Mr. Goode is perhaps the most entertaining element in the series, his Evans impersonation perfect, from the nasal singsong to the glad-handing Hollywood smarm.

Full article – Click Here

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Matthew Goode on ‘terrifying’ role in new show about the making of ‘The Godfather’ – National News – 26th April 2022

The British actor plays studio executive Robert Evans, who produced Francis Ford Coppola’s mob classic, in the miniseries ‘The Offer’

Matthew Goode says playing real life producer Robert Evans was 'a huge responsibility'. Photo: Paramount Pictures

Matthew Goode says playing real life producer Robert Evans was ‘a huge responsibility’. Photo: Paramount Pictures

By Chris Newbould
Looking back at the career of Matthew Goode, you can’t help but wonder if he’s very brave, or simply a masochist. Of course, he’s appeared in a selection of British classics such as Downton Abbey and The Crown, as befits an English actor of his status, but it’s his choice of roles in high-profile adaptations that forces you to question his sanity.

In 2008, Goode took on the role of Charles Ryder in Julian Jarrold’s movie adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, a role that had already been immortalised by Jeremy Irons in the 1981 BBC drama — a show that revolutionised TV drama in an era before HBO and Netflix.

The following year, he played Ozymandias, the strangely loveable sociopath at the centre of Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Alan Moore’s graphic novel Watchmen, a book widely regarded as the “greatest comic ever written”, and one that was deemed “unfilmable” by Moore himself.

Now, he’s stepping up to play Robert Evans, the Paramount Studio executive who oversaw production on The Godfather, and gave the film’s producer Albert S Ruddy (played by Miles Teller in the show) his big break. The Offer is a fascinating look at the troubled making of Francis Ford Coppola’s mob classic, considered by many to be one of the greatest movies of all time.

“The responsibility is huge, and it was terrifying,” Goode tells The National. “You have to remember also, I don’t mean it in a bad way, but if I was a golfer I’d be described as a ‘journeyman pro’, possibly even an amateur by some.

“Sometimes you just don’t have a choice, though, so I made this, and I still don’t quite understand how they thought I could pull Evans off.”

Such disarming modesty seems misplaced when viewed in the context of Goode’s impressive CV. One person who didn’t share Goode’s reservations was The Offer’s director Dexter Fletcher.

Matthew Goode as Robert Evans and Miles Teller as Albert S Ruddy in 'The Offer'. Photo: Paramount Pictures

Matthew Goode as Robert Evans and Miles Teller as Albert S Ruddy in ‘The Offer’. Photo: Paramount Pictures

“Sometimes you just need someone to have that belief in you that you don’t have yourself, and Dexter thought that some gangly bloke from England might be able to do it. So you do your homework and you just hope you won’t be the weak link,” Goode says. “Fear will drive you to a very focused place, and Dexter gave me the confidence.

“He basically put me in a canoe and kicked me out on to the river, and we negotiated the rapids together. If I had a valet, I would have turned to him and said ‘bring me my brown trousers.’”

The Offer is a behind-the-scenes tale of what, even by Hollywood standards, was a difficult production. It’s no surprise to learn that the mafia weren’t delighted to learn that a movie was being made of Mario Puzo’s best-selling novel, but Ruddy and Evans were treated to the full gangster playbook of shootings, dead animals in their beds, and the occasional kidnapping as some of the US’s leading crime families sought to close production down.

Eventually Ruddy would become close friends with gangster Joe Colombo, who acted as his protector, and can take credit for the film ever being completed. It’s also down to Colombo’s unofficial “editorial” role that eagle-eared viewers will notice the word “mafia” is not uttered once in Coppola’s film.

A scene from 'The Offer', which tracks the making of the classic film 'The Godfather'. Photo: Paramount Pictures

A scene from ‘The Offer’, which tracks the making of the classic film ‘The Godfather’. Photo: Paramount Pictures

To add extra stress, Paramount Studio was in financial meltdown while the film was being made, and Evans himself was widely, but incorrectly, reported to have been sacked as production rolled on.

The screenplay for The Offer is based on Ruddy’s own recollections, with the Hollywood executive also serving as producer.

The irony is not lost on Goode. “It’s so weird that he’s the producer of this show,” he says. “I’m meeting him for dinner this week, and I’m so excited I’ll probably be tongue-tied.”

Matthew Goode and Miles Teller at the premiere of 'The Offer' in Los Angeles. AFP

Matthew Goode and Miles Teller at the premiere of ‘The Offer’ in Los Angeles. AFP

In the first few scenes of The Offer, it soon becomes clear that the making of The Godfather was packed with almost as much drama as Coppola’s classic itself, and it’s incredible that it has taken so long for the story to be told.

Goode admits that he was aware of some of “the myths” around the making of the film — the tales of Marlon Brando’s bizarre behaviour on set, Coppola’s frequent arguments with the studio, and Puzo’s seemingly never-ending scriptwriting efforts are almost as famous as the film itself. But now that he’s entered the inner circle of Godfather historians, he admits there’s one person who stands out.

“What was really shocking was just how much Al put on the line, he just refused to quit,” he says. “There’s a quote from him that ‘every day I was producing that movie was the worst day of my life,’ just the sheer enormity and scale of what one man went through to get this film made. His life was literally on the line.

“Wouldn’t you want that kind of utterly dedicated producer to be on your next project?”

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The Offer Review: All Eyes are on Matthew Goode – TV Fanatic – 25th April – Extracts

By Carissa Pavlica 

Why is The Offer recommended viewing?

Matthew Goode.

He’s so good as longtime producer and Paramount Studios head Robert Evans that you cannot take your eyes off of him, and anything that doesn’t work about The Offer is swept under the rug.

Matthew Goode Breathes Live Into Robert Evans Tall - The Offer

Goode’s performance is brilliant as he transforms from the actor we’ve known from The Crown, A Discovery of Witches, Downton Abbey, and The Good Wife into Evans so entirely that it seems as if The Offer was always intended to be his vehicle.

…

As long as Goode’s Evans is in the forefront of The Offer, it doesn’t matter.

As Ruddy deals with the criminal underworld with his trusty assistant Bettye (Juno Temple) at his side, Evans is trying to save Paramount Studios.

Then owned by Gulf & Western, its chairman, Charles Bluhdorn (Burn Gorman), tried, again and again, to make life miserable for Evans. Evans, though, had already had success with Rosemary’s Baby. That film beat expectations. His gift was to recognize the next best thing.

He’d done that with early options on novels that hit the cultural zeitgeist.

As Bluhdorn threatened to close the door on Evan’s right as Paramount head with their ninth-place studio ranking, Evans never lost his optimism or charismatic way of gathering the troops with his rallying cry of big money makers lying in the wings.

Love Story and The Godfather had to pay off, and Evans was willing to move heaven and earth to make it happen.

Those are the moving parts of The Offer. Series creator Nikki Toscano and executive producer and her good friend, Russell Rothberg, hold it all together by balancing two stories — that of Ruddy, the producer and mafia wrangler, and of Evans as he battles for the fate of the studio he loves.

One is more successful than the other, evoking passion and determination as Goode’s colorful performance lights up the screen like old movie stars once did.

He’s not just Matthew Goode as Robert Evans. He becomes Robert Evans, body and soul. Whether he’s emulating Evans’s vocal gait or working a crowded party with all of the ’70s panache one can muster, Goode is having a hell of a time, something that seems to be missing from other performances in The Offer.

His is a mesmerizing performance, and if they announced they were snapping up rights to another series that followed Evans after his Paramount Studios tenure, there’s nobody else I’d want more in the role.

Evans’s love story with Love Story star Ali MacGraw (Meredith Garretson) is initially glossed over early on, but it outshines Ruddy’s less passionate affair with Francoise Glazer (Nora Arnezeder).

Ruddy and Glazer don’t connect well in life, and Teller and Arnezeder aren’t any better at making it work on screen.

Evans was larger than life, and Goode makes sure we know it. That’s even standing alongside such superstars as Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando (Justin Chambers), and Al Pacino (Anthony Ippolito).

Matthew Goode for The Offer

Although it’s hard to imagine everything Ruddy recalls could be taken as gospel, and The Offer lingers a little too long on the mob connection, it introduces a new generation to raking and charismatic Robert Evans, a talent with whom everyone should be acquainted.

He was the real deal, a true Hollywood success story, and Goode’s performance seals that deal handily.

Despite the saying, everyone isn’t a critic, and The Offer will prove entertaining to many no matter what the critics say.

The Godfather’s legacy is secure. There’s not much that can taint it, and here, we see how hard the key players fought to get it made and ensure its greatness. It’s not a perfect telling, but if The Offer was made with even a sliver of the love of the craft that brought us The Godfather, it’s worth the effort.

The first three episodes of The Offer premiere on Paramount Plus on Thursday, April 28, with a new episode dropping each subsequent week.

Full article – Click Here.

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‘The Offer’s’ Anthony Ippolito on Being Intimidated to Play Al Pacino: ‘It Makes You Want to Throw Up’ – Variety – 22nd April 2022 – Extracts

By Carson Burton

…

Co-star Matthew Goode plays Robert Evans, the legendary Paramount Pictures executive who greenlit “The Godfather.” Goode explained the difficulty of getting into the the character of Evans.

“You can go down so many wormholes on YouTube,” Goode told reporters on the carpet. “So I spent hours and hours on it, and I found one particular interview that I thought was brilliant because it summed up his personality. He sort of was so un-PC about Robert Redford and all that, and so I captured a lot from that. But still he’s not a private man, so I got to turn him up to 11 at some moments. And I get a great arc because the ups and downs for him are pretty massive in this.”

Full article – Click here.

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‘The Offer’ Review: Fascinating and Fun Dramatization Behind the Scenes of ‘The Godfather’ – C.Net – 21st April 2022 – Extracts

This Paramount Plus drama has its flaws, but it’s a treat for movie nerds, Godfather fans and anyone who loves the silver screen.

By Richard Trenholm
Matthew Goode shines as real-life movie mogul Robert Evans in this Paramount Plus drama about the creation of ’70s gangster epic The Godfather.
…
Perhaps the standout performance comes from Matthew Goode as fabled Hollywood impresario Robert Evans. Goode plays Evans as a groovy smoothie who nonetheless reveals hidden depths. He’s smarmy but capable of sincerity, manipulative yet loyal — and even seems to actually care about movies.
Full Article – Click Here.
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Review: Broadbent, Mirren charm in art heist pic ‘The Duke’ – Syndicated Interview – 20th April 2022 – Extract

By JOCELYN NOVECK, AP National Writer

…

it’s the balance between humor and pathos that makes this film work, and the trial scenes are the high point, with the bewigged judge and prosecutor clearly unprepared for the sympathetic response Bunton will receive. (Matthew Goode also impresses as an impossibly suave defense attorney — when Bunton first meets him, he says he feels like he’s about to be offered a gin and tonic.)

Full article here – Click Here.

 

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The Unexpected Sadness of “The Duke” – The New Yorker – 15th April 2022 [Extract]

By Anthony Lane
Roger Michell’s final feature, based on actual events and starring Jim Broadbent as an unlikely art thief, shows the late director’s affinity for autumnal characters…
… Exhibit A: Jeremy Hutchinson, the barrister who defends Kempton (and who was married, as the movie reminds us, to the great Shakespearean actress Dame Peggy Ashcroft). He is played by Matthew Goode, an actor whose sleek demeanor can seem like a protective shell. Here, however, that very suavity becomes a weapon, gracefully wielded in tandem with his client’s cussedness. When Hutchinson sits down, having made his final pitch to the jury, the prosecutor—his opposite number—looks across at him and smiles, as if to say, “Beautifully done, you bastard.” If this is Goode’s best performance to date, it’s because he conveys the conscious delight with which his character, bewigged and robed, is performing a starring role.
Full article – Click Here.
 

Radio Times – January 2022

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