Matthew Goode is about to become a star. Honestly, as good as he is in the film, it probably won't be because of Brideshead Revisited, his above-average period piece that opens this week, but one of the biggest films of next year - a little flick called Watchmen. In the highly anticipated graphic novel-to-screen adaptation (like, anticipated for the last twenty years), Goode plays the legendary Ozymandias. But that's the future. The present contains one of the better lead performances of the year and something that should help Matthew from being pigeonholed into the role that's going to make him a star. Honestly, it's something Goode has been doing for years now. Match Point, The Lookout, Brideshead Revisited - those roles have little to nothing in common except the man who played them. By showing range in his choice of roles, Matthew has become one of the most interesting young actors of his generation. It's no wonder everyone from Woody Allen to Zack Snyder wants to work with the guy. He's charming, self-effacing, and simply fun to talk to. We did recently in Chicago for this week's release of Brideshead Revisited and look forward to talking to him again in March when he's a household name.

THE DEADBOLT: I talked to you last year for The Lookout and I'm going to throw your own words back at you. The last lines of the interview were - "I'm doing Brideshead Revisited next. It's going to be scary. Very, very scary." So, was it very, very scary?

MATTHEW GOODE: Yeah. Well, sort of, it was and it wasn't. [It was a] far greater, more rewarding experience than I was expecting it to be actually. And, of course, it was scary the whole way along... because of the previous adaptation; because it's such an important book for Brits, as well as all across the world. And, particularly, because I'm not a very well-known actor. The last thing you want to become known as is "Oh, you're the guy who f**ked up Brideshead." "Excellent. Yes, that was me. And you didn't work again for HOW long after that?" [laughs] "23 years." But, yes, it was amazing. Emma [Thompson]. Michael Gambon. Ben [Whishaw]... Joy.

THE DEADBOLT: So, it was daunting in concept alone but is it actually intimidating on-set? This is the biggest role you've done.

GOODE: Absolutely. I'm the one person who kind of goes across it all. I'm in practically every scene. And it's very observational. It's a straight-man and all of the "bigger characters" are everyone else. And there are so many ambiguities to him and you don't want to be seen as this overly ambitious prick. And I don't have any voiceover to help the audience understand what I was thinking at the time. Or that I'm not this cold, manipulative person. The one thing that I was really happy with the other day when I saw it was that it's nice to have that change when he's on the boat with Julia. When he finally is with Julia on the boat, there is a distinct change.

THE DEADBOLT: Like he finally opens up?

GOODE: Like he opens up. He's more full of life. I want it to be as subtle as possible. Sometimes it can go a bit overboard, but I thought it was all done very "neatly" in this production.

THE DEADBOLT: So, you were familiar with the book?

GOODE: Yeah, but not because I'd had it as part of a syllabus when I was younger. I read around the course - as a part of doing the film.

THE DEADBOLT: So, how different is it?

GOODE: What's great about that is that you've asked something that's not about the original adaptation, the BBC mini-series. You can never do it better than the series because it gets to do it chapters at a time. I think it has bags of integrity. The religious stuff and the homosexuality are things that I think it dealt with very, very nicely. I think, obviously, one of the different things with the narrative structure and the way the book is is that Julia doesn't come in until, I think, book two, chapter two - "Now we talk of Julia." What was great was that Jeremy [Brock}, who inherited the script from Andrew [Davies], as he himself had said in a mission statement to MGM - "I imagine you're going to want to concentrate on bringing her into the story earlier."

So, they sought permission from the Waugh estate to do that. It's the only way that it could be done really. She had to go to Venice to get her into the story earlier. Which is why the story starts with him on the boat. You're watching the early stuff to see how it gets back to that position. We were wondering... Once you've read the book and you fall in love with it because it's such a wonderful piece of prose, it's so beautiful, you're like, "I don't like these changes. I don't like her coming-out ball, which as actually meant to be at Marchmain house, which we don't see anything of. Why is that with...?" These are the things. It's an adaptation.

THE DEADBOLT: You're going to have purists who are going to feel that way.

GOODE: Of course. Absolutely. I'm a purist myself. But you're caught between a rock and a hard place really. But what I say is that the integrity of the direction and the writing - because this is Julian's [Jarrold] vision and there's not much we can do about it - you follow the script. Overall, it's a very European film. The French should quite enjoy it. It's very human. It's not about Hollywood endings. You see these people and their plight and all those themes of doomed youth. You don't get everything you want, and the ambiguities that go with those things. I'm really, really happy with it.

THE DEADBOLT: They go to the Waugh estate to get approval?

GOODE: Absolutely.

THE DEADBOLT: What happens if they say no?

GOODE: Well, I'm not involved with that but they were very surprised that they were able to get the rights. The rights had been owned and people had gone to them with other scripts and they had said no. And Jeremy Brock, who is just the most lovely bloke and an incredibly talented writer, went to them with his passion and said, "Well, I think that to compress all of this into two and a half hours, it is an adaptation." So, he went to them with the changes and they said yes. If they hadn't said yes, they would have found another way around it - "We can't go down that avenue. We'll go down this one.

Revisiting Matthew Goode Page 2