Welcome to Part V, the final installment of DRIVEN’s exclusive interview series on Watchmen (Part I: Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Part II: Malin Akerman. Part III: Zack Snyder. Part IV: Billy Crudup).
Today we feature short chats with actors Matthew Goode, Patrick Wilson, and Jackie Earle Haley, plus some odd Watchmen linkage from around the web.
MATTHEW GOODE
Although several actors, including Tom Cruise and Jude Law had been attached to play the suave Adrian Veidt and his crime fighting other half, Ozymandias, it was Englishman Matthew Goode who landed the role of the retired superhero who publicly revealed his dual identities. Having his character to adopt a German accent in private and an American one in public was not the only affectation Goode bestowed on his character—he also tinkered with Veidt’s sexual orientation.
Where did you get the inspiration regarding which team Adrian Veidt bats for?
“It’s suggested by Rorschach – ‘Possibly homosexual. Must investigate further.’ But then you can say that abuse leads to abuse, so some people could say, if they’re psychologists, that there’s a possibility that Rorschach might be a homosexual. You never know, maybe he fancies Veidt. I don’t think that was the case, and I think it’s only suggested in our film. I actually started laughing hilariously when they are trying to break into the computer with the password. He puts in the things and it gives his operations. Then on the other side it says ‘boys.’ (laughs) I found that hilarious, because it is the ’80s and so there’s an element of him looking a bit like David Bowie. So that very subtle thing suggests it all right there. Is he gay? Isn’t he? It’s not a huge part of his story.”
Do you think you were an obvious choice to star in a film like Watchmen?
“No, I would never have cast me in this. [Laughs] I’m not blonde. I’m not 45. I’m definitely not the smartest man in the world. There are many reasons why I should not have been cast in this, and I think people are going to be pissed for a lot of reasons! My friends are like, ‘Everyone hates you.’” [Laughs]
How do you feel about the way hardcore Watchmen fans have been reacting to you on the internet — without having even seen the film?
“Look, I’m about to have a child with my wife. The idea of genetically manipulating a brain and making a giant monster, is just amazing. So, if they still hate this film after all we did, then every fan boy can line up and suck my dick. I don’t give a fuck. You work as hard as you can, so it would be nice if they loved it. But, I’m having a child, so that’s more important to me. So seriously, grow a dick.”
PATRICK WILSON
A well-respected Broadway (Oklahoma), TV (Angels In America) and film (Little Children) actor, Patrick Wilson leaped at the chance to star in the sci-fi epic Watchmen when John Cusack passed on the role. Cast as the high-tech geek Daniel Dreiberg and his Nite Owl II superhero persona, Wilson didn’t prepare for his part by spending extra hours at fight camp. Instead, he volunteered to double his caloric daily intake in order to gain 25 pounds to look like the retired, overweight superhero.
Why did you decide to pack on the pounds instead of wearing a fat suit? And, was it tough just sitting around and eating to prepare?
“Well, my character is coming at everything from a much different place in his life. Nobody asked me to, but I wanted to gain the weight for it. And I had never done anything like that. But the problem is, honestly, all joking aside, I couldn’t just sit around and eat hamburgers or anything and not work-out, because then as soon as you put on the suit and try to do anything, you’re dead in the water. So I had to find a balance of doing a very specific actual workout with the trainer to have it not burn as many calories as everybody else, so I wasn’t being counterproductive and losing the weight. I actually would do a lot of heavy lifting to gain muscle mass so that I didn’t have to burn it all off doing cardio. It was actually sort of a weird dynamic to gain weight and to still play a superhero.”
What was your sex scene like? How did you approach it?
“We knew exactly what we set out to do. Dan is obsessed. He alludes to the Twilight Lady in the comic. It was someone he was used to corresponding with. He’s got a little fetish, it’s true. So we took that side of how we wanted to do this sex scene. We needed shots of the leather, the boots and the zippers, because that’s the sexiness that defines these characters. That’s the reaction I had. The reaction my wife had ranged from ‘It’s great, it’s sexy, it’s weird, it’s fetishy to it’s funny.’”
JACKIE EARLE HALEY
A longtime fan of the Watchmen graphic novel, former child actor and Oscar nominee (Little Children) Jackie Earle Haley steps into the shoes of Walter Kovacs and his superhero alter-ego, Rorschach, a masked crime fighter who refused to hang up his vigilante belt once his activities were outlawed.
What was it like playing Rorschach? What did you have to do to tap into his emotion side? Once you did, did you like what you found?
“Playing this character has been a real trip. A big part of what I was doing was trying to find the humanity of this character, but also find his sense of humanity. When I look at the world through a Roarshakian filter, I don’t like what I find. As an actor, humanity and the human condition is so much about storytelling and what we’re about. The answers of what I see with humanity, through this character, is nothing but greed and self-centeredness and it’s unsettling.”
Did your Black Belt in Kempo and Tae Kwon Do help in playing Rorschach? His movements are very ninja-like when he fights.
“I would show you some of my moves, but I’m a little rusty right now. I haven’t been stretching. But I think I can break this table. All right, step back. (laughs) Back to your question, actually, his fighting is kind of more boxery. But he does have some legs and stuff. I think what helped me with already having some experience with Martial Arts is that I didn’t need to do what the other cast members did, which was show up two months before filming started. I know everybody kind of went into fight training, and then into choreography. So I got to skip all of the fight training and just go into choreography. I did do some of the fight training, and it was neat that the stunt guys didn’t have to spend so much time teaching me how to throw a punch. It was just going right into the choreography of it.”
This concludes Earl Dittman’s series of interviews for DRIVEN’s Watchmen Week.
And now, for your surfing pleasure, some off-the-wall Watchmen links.
If you have spent any time in comic shops, you will appreciate these two “Comic Critics” strips hosted on Comics Should Be Good First up we have two amusing Watchmen-movie themed comics from the Comic Critcs web comic hosted by Comics Should Be Good. Also stay tuned, as our contest winner will be announced early next week.
Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder
Next up, a lovely little cartoon for fans familiar with the graphic novel:
And from Slate.com …
And finally a completely jaw-dropping cartoon imagining a WM adaptation as a 1980s TV ‘toon:
Saturday Morning Watchmen: Jawdropping
Plus: The winner of the Watchmen survival pack will be announced early next week!
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