Matthew Goode

Yes, Matthew Goode is as charming as you'd expect. Matthew joins Josh to chat about his re-teaming with Scott Frank in the critically acclaimed DEPT. Q, a disastrous James Bond meeting, his early experiences on CHASING LIBERTY, WATCHMEN, and much more! Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Happy Sad Confused patreon here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! We've got discount codes to live events, merch, early access, exclusive episodes, video versions of the podcast, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:31Speaker 01

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• 0:59Josh Horowitz?

  If Chasing Liberty comes on or Leap Year comes on, which do you watch first?

• 1:04Speaker 03

  Wowzers. What a double bill.

• 1:09Speaker 03

  I'd watch Chasing Liberty first. I really would.

• 1:12Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. Let's go for that.

• 1:14Josh Horowitz?

  Leap Year is even the more extreme version of that, I know. Like, it means something to some people.

• 1:17Speaker 03

  Leap Year I turn off. That's no question about that. That's just, that's, that's just, there's a lot of bad memories. So that's why.

• 1:24Speaker 04

  Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, Sad, Confused begins now.

• 1:31Josh Horowitz?

  Hey, guys, it's Josh. Welcome to another edition of Happy Sad Confused. Today's main event will be Mr. Matthew Goode, first time guest on the pod, talking Department Q and all aspects of his amazing career. Before we get to that, thank you, guys, first of all, for checking out the show. If you are new to Happy Sad Confused, wherever you've been the last 11 years, but better late than never, I love you nonetheless. If you do like what I do, if you enjoy my conversations with filmmakers and actors, check out patreon.com/happysadconfused. All these episodes go up early over there. Plus, you have merch, autographed posters, early access, announcements of live events. We do a ton of live Events. Um, yeah, that's your home, patreon.com slash happy second fuse. Check it out over there.

• 2:15Josh Horowitz?

  If you support us over there, honestly, it just helps us make more stuff over here. No events to mention right now, except I will say we're about a month and counting from San Diego Comic Con. I'm very excited. I will be back doing a lot of things for both MTV, but also moderating a couple very high profile panels. So if you're in San Diego, look out for me, say hi. Um, and yeah, it's gonna be a good time. And if you can't be there, don't worry. All my stuff will be available online. So just wanted to tease you on that front. All right, let's talk Matthew Good. Matthew Good has been on my my wishlist for the pod for some time. It just says never wind up for the right project, the right timing. Finally, it has happened for a good cause. Department Q is this new Netflix series that you've probably heard about

• 2:58Josh Horowitz?

  or probably seen. Um, it is based on a series of very popular novels, Danish novels, that have been relocated to Edinburgh for the purposes of this series that comes from Scott Frank. Scott Frank is the showrunner, writer, director of the series. If you know his work at all, you know this guy has quite the resume. In recent years, Godless, Queen's Gambit, way back in the day, was a very, made his bones as a very notable screenwriter when he was quite young. And, um, early on in his directing career, actually, his first directing effort was a movie called The Lookout, which starred Joseph Gordon Levitt and yes, Matthew Good. So this is kind of a reunion of sorts.

• 3:39Josh Horowitz?

  Um, anyway, this conversation is fantastic. Matthew is one of those charming, self-effacing, witty Brits that I love, that I've collected over the years. I love me some Hiddlestons and Cumberbatches at Red Main's and Dornan's and add this gentleman to the mix. Um, he is fantastic. He's a great actor, great conversation. I know you guys are gonna dig this as much as I did. So without any further ado, please enjoy this, by the way, you'll hear him talk about it. He was a very apologetic. It's on an iPhone. It's fine. It's totally fine. But he is kind of, the quality is like a little jittery at times. It also let him give me a little bit of a tour of the house and meet his dog. So that's a win for me.

• 4:21Josh Horowitz?

  Anyway, uh, enjoy this conversation, uh, and check out Department Q. Here is me and Matthew Good. Matthew Good is on the podcast. He's stressed to start though, guys, just so you know. He's in a dark, self-loathing place. Are you feeling okay now, Matthew? Are you settled?

• 4:36Speaker 03

  I'm having to do this on my iPhone. We have to explain. I'm not very good with computers. The kids have played with it. They're not even here. Something's happened. So yes, I'm very stressed. But I'm fine now. It works. I didn't know I can do it on the iPhone, so it's great.

• 4:52Josh Horowitz?

  It's good. You can roam around. You can walk around the neighborhood. You can walk the dog. Whatever you need. You can multitask if you want.

• 4:58Speaker 03

  Do need to go and walk the dog in a minute, but it's so hot outside. I don't think she'd appreciate it.

• 5:03Speaker 03

  Anyway, very nice to meet you, Josh.

• 5:05Josh Horowitz?

  Same, same, Matthew. I'm a longtime admirer. We've never had this kind of conversation. I've probably passed you in passing at little junkets here and there, but finally the deep dive that you deserve today for a good cause. Congratulations on Department Q.

• 5:18Speaker 03

  Well, thank you very much.

• 5:19Josh Horowitz?

  You must be feeling, this is a nice, this is a win. You're feeling the love? You're feeling?

• 5:24Speaker 03

  I mean, I know that, I mean, a couple of people in the supermarket have come up to me. Because I don't have the beard anymore. It's one of those things. I mean, I'm pretty, I can slide through life without many people coming up and saying hello to me anyway. But a couple of people have been very nice, which shows that it's, I guess, a part of the zeitgeist at the moment. I have no, I don't really know. You know, my wife's away. She's taken our eldest daughter, she's finished her exams, over to Portugal. So daddy's got to keep the other kids alive.

• 5:55Josh Horowitz?

  It's a main task. That and podcasts. Those are the two tasks. Yeah.

• 5:59Speaker 03

  She makes it look so easy.

• 6:02Speaker 03

  Anyway, I'm partly joking, but yeah, no, it's, yeah, but we're very happy. Me and the rest of the cast are, you know, hoping we get to come back and do a season two, you know.

• 6:10Josh Horowitz?

  As I understand it, you, this was the last job you did. You had some time off, as I understand it, right? Are you going a little stir crazy?

• 6:17Speaker 03

  I needed a little bit of time off after this because it was, it was, it was a real, it kicked me in the solar plexus, this one.

• 6:26Speaker 03

  So, and then I just haven't found the right kind of thing I wanted to get involved in, and a couple of projects have gone down. And so, yeah, I'm going mental. I'm really, you know.

• 6:36Speaker 03

  If you're made to do your certain thing, which I believe is making films and television, and you don't do it for an entire year, you know, my wife wants me out of the house.

• 6:47Josh Horowitz?

  Are you just walking around doing monologues? Are you are you practicing accents? Like, how are you getting the artistic part of you out of your system?

• 6:54Speaker 03

  Nothing, you know, I should be writing scripts, but I'm just, you know, when you when you work with Scott Frank, you just go, well, what's the point of me writing a script? I'm not gonna be that good. I don't understand that kind of structure. Um, you know, it's not, it's not just, oh, let's just write a script and write a little story. It's it's really difficult.

• 7:09Josh Horowitz?

  He's ruined you. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 7:11Speaker 03

  Yeah. So I'm just drinking and and not too much. Uh, and and walking the dog incessantly.

• 7:18Josh Horowitz?

  The, uh, before we get deep into department Q, one thing you could be filling your time with, and maybe he's busy, why are we not in season 10 of The Wine Show by now? This seems like the greatest boondoggle in the history of mankind. What what what happened?

• 7:32Speaker 03

  Well, Reese's quite, he's quite busy anyway, and he's over in New York. And I think he's doing like something with John Krikowski right now. And God bless them both, fine gentlemen, uh, they are. Um, I don't know what happened to The Wine Show. I should really ask my brother in law, who's the producer, but it kind of, it sort of floated around. First of all, it was gonna be on Amazon and then it and then it was, I have no idea, but it should come back. I believe there's people asking for it to come back and I, but maybe we'll go and do specials, like Matthew and I go to Argentina and drink Argentinian wine and and find some Argentinian Welsh speakers or something. I don't know. Um, but I'd love it because he's hilarious. Matthew Reese's pound for pound.

• 8:12Josh Horowitz?

  One of my favorite, one of my favorite human beings. I'm a New Yorker. I've gone to know Matthew in recent years.

• 8:15Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 8:16Josh Horowitz?

  Love our Matthew Reese.

• 8:18Speaker 03

  Oh, my God, the man is hilarious. And also his missus is, um, just world class as well. They are, they're some couple.

• 8:26Josh Horowitz?

  The best of the best.

• 8:27Speaker 03

  Yeah, I like that. Just kiss.

• 8:29Josh Horowitz?

  Just kiss. Do you get newfound respect in recent years post Wine Show? Like, do you get wine sent over to you? Do you feel like there's a little bit of, no, nothing?

• 8:37Speaker 03

  I wish, no. Um, I I think the older I get, the more I'm just like. You know, we found, I mean, yeah, but if in a, in a, in an ideal world, if you're a billionaire, you know, you could go and buy extraordinary expensive wine, but we just find, we found, I found a very nice bottle of Waitrose claret that's seven quid a bottle. And you know what that does me? I don't need expensive wine. I just need volume.

• 9:03Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 9:04Speaker 03

  Obviously not when I'm working because, because I don't want to, I don't want to affect the craft.

• 9:08Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, everything in moderation.

• 9:09Speaker 03

  Everything in moderation.

• 9:11Josh Horowitz?

  All right. So, so back to this. So we were talking about how, yes, yes, the barometer of any success of a show is how much they notice you in the supermarket with or without the beard. But truly.

• 9:20Speaker 03

  I do think it's good. It really is a good, you know, indicator. If people come up and go, I like that. I thought you were right in that. Some people obviously come up also and go, why did you, why this show is terrible?

• 9:32Josh Horowitz?

  No, they don't. They've done that too.

• 9:34Speaker 03

  Yeah, I've heard that before. Yeah, because they really liked the book that something was based on. So, so, so they were like, why is there no blood in Discovery of Witches? And I was like, it's above my pay grade, but that was a, that was a call by, by someone. I know, strange for a vampire show, I know. But there we go.

• 9:52Josh Horowitz?

  Well, okay, so let's, let's, let's gush about Mr. Scott Frank, who is an important gentleman in, in your life in particular. One of your favorite topics, I know. He, he, he is one of the greats, truly. And I'm, I mean, I remember, we're about the same age. So like, when I grew up, I remember, like when I started to become a film nerd, even clocking him as a young screenwriter. I remember being obsessed with like Dead Again, like one of my, one of my favorite all time thrillers. You, you guys clicked at a really interesting point in your career and his career at first. It was The Lookout, which was his, his directing debut. So he was obviously a very successful screenwriter, but that was his directing debut. You were probably pretty hot off of Matchpoint, et cetera. Can you talk to me a little bit?

• 10:35Speaker 03

  I wouldn't say hot. I would, but I, but I was, I was, I was in LA doing press for, for Matchpoint. And the, I got, I got this script sent around along with a couple of other ones. And I was like, I started reading. I was like, this is really, really good.

• 10:49Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 10:50Speaker 03

  Who, who's, who's Scott Frank? Cause it was in, it was before I had a, a phone you could look anything up on. So I didn't really know anything about this guy. But I, but I knew enough by looking in the mirror to, to know that there's no way that they're going to cast me looking, looking like this. I look far too English, blah, blah, blah. So there was a really big speech. And I that they wanted to to use as the audition. And so I was I nipped it I nipped out and I went to a barber shop. And I just got them to to take off, take it down to a grade one. So basically, nothing, which is that, which is a look I operated at university quite a lot because that way you didn't have to worry about your hair. Um, anyway, um, so, yeah, then I went and met this, you know, Scott Frank and I've seen, um.

• 11:34Speaker 03

  Oh, what was that glorious film that he did with Jodie Foster? Little Man Tate. Yeah, I saw I saw that and I was like, so I was already a fan, you know, I didn't know all of his work. Um, um, anyway, went and met him. And he was such a nice, brilliant. He made he made it kind of fun. And I mean, he brought me back another six times, if I'm honest, it wasn't one and done. But, um, and then we got to work together, we went up to Winnipeg and we shot this film and I remember my first day, he was like, I'm really sorry. Because we're having to shoot this, we had to shoot a a a scene from right to the end of the movie. Well, I'm and it's on an ice rink, but the ice rink was melting. So so that's why we had to shoot it, shoot it up first is I had Jeff Jeff Daniels playing a blind guy.

• 12:19Speaker 03

  I had a gut shot wound and I'm bleeding out and nearly dead. And then you've got Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I mean, and I've got a Magnum forty five. It's quite, you know, it's quite, it's quite amazing that I that he that Scott gave me that job. I I recently I found out that some of the other people on that list, you would not believe that I beat them to that job. I wouldn't have cast me.

• 12:42Josh Horowitz?

  It it must have been.

• 12:44Speaker 03

  They are very famous people.

• 12:45Josh Horowitz?

  You you're kind of alluding to the fact that like, I mean, like you, it was kind of casting you against type at the time, like, I mean, and and and the fact that like you're coming off of like, you know, I grew up on Woody Allen films, but I also know how he directs actors. It's very famous, like, you know, he does not really say much, it's not like maybe that rewarding a artistic exchange.

• 13:04Speaker 03

  And then you're working. I liked it.

• 13:05Josh Horowitz?

  Did you?

• 13:06Speaker 03

  I have to say, working with Woody, I was quite, you know, he he wrote artists with with the standards. Which is so funny. And so it's quite annoying when your standing comes and goes, uh, you know, would he really liked it when I, uh, when I, when I moved over to this thing? And you're like, surely I'm supposed to be doing that.

• 13:22Josh Horowitz?

  The one thing I get to do to make decisions about my character, like literally the one thing I get to do.

• 13:26Speaker 03

  Uh, yeah, I don't even do the blocking.

• 13:28Josh Horowitz?

  Wow.

• 13:29Speaker 03

  Um, but actually it was quite, I found it quite, quite liberating. I, I quite, he, I think Emily Mortimer and I were like, after we made it through two weeks, we're like, I don't think we're going to get fired, love. I think we're okay. Um.

• 13:41Josh Horowitz?

  Well, that's the absolute thing I was gonna say is like, that's the thing I would think if I was an actor, I would have in the back of my mind. He's like reshoot portions, like entire films. I mean, you know,

• 13:51Speaker 03

  I know.

• 13:51Josh Horowitz?

  Michael Keaton was fired from Purple Rose famously. I mean, like this is not unusual. So that would always be creeping in my mind.

• 13:59Speaker 03

  He was really nice. He didn't speak to us that much. We just got on with it. And he, and the day was quick. We were, we were home by three thirty.

• 14:07Josh Horowitz?

  Can't, can't quarrel with that.

• 14:08Speaker 03

  He doesn't like shooting quickly.

• 14:09Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 14:10Speaker 03

  One or two takes, moving on.

• 14:11Josh Horowitz?

  You gotta get a Clint Eastwood movie before he packs it up too. That's the other one.

• 14:14Speaker 03

  Oh, no. And I love the fact he never says, um, action in your own time.

• 14:19Josh Horowitz?

  He, he doesn't want to get the horses upset. That's apparently where that came from.

• 14:23Speaker 03

  That's what makes, yeah, exactly. All the lens monkeys.

• 14:34Speaker 00

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• 15:05Speaker 05

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• 15:38Josh Horowitz?

  Okay, so wait, we're all over the place. Your mind works like I do, but that's all good.

• 15:41Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 15:41Josh Horowitz?

  So Scott Frank, so in the intermittent years, it's been nearly two decades in each other's lives?

• 15:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, a little bit, yeah. I mean, I remember this is, he was just when he was still living in Pasadena. I went out and visited him out once there, I think. My mind is a sieve. And then, and then, yeah, I don't go, I never, I hardly go to Los Angeles. And not many things film in Los Angeles, but, you know, I would often have a conversation with my agent, Joel Lubin. He'd be like, Matthew, man, you have to come out to LA. And I was like, no, I really don't, Joel. And he's like, you do, man, because people think you're dead. And I was like, oh, shit. Okay, well, I suppose I better then. So every sort of five or six years, I'd, you know, I'd scrape my ass into a, into a, into a, into a plane and make it out there. And, and on those occasions, I would, I'd look Scott up.

• 16:30Speaker 03

  And so we had a few dinners and I've just been so, I'm just ever so, it's weird to say proud, but impressed by how, you know, he got to make his Western, which he always wanted to make with Godless, which I just loved. And the cinematography was amazing and he got to work with Jeff again. He's very loyal to some of his actors. He's asked me to work for him again on, on a couple of jobs. And in fact, I did shoot the, the final scene in Godless.

• 16:56Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 16:57Speaker 03

  In Godless, I flew down, I was doing this film up in Canada and I flew down and I'd just made it. Um, I literally got in, I'd been postponed because of the thunderstorm. And I got into makeup and then literally hadn't slept, got into costume, put a cowboy hat on, some boots. But got taken to set, got on a horse, given a rifle and then just went and shot this scene with Jack O'Connell. But I end up bursting into tears and giving him a hug because I'm his brother. I played the brother and then Stephen Soderbergh saw it, who's a great friend of um of Scots. And he was like, he's, he loved it. He loved the whole, loved the show. But he's like, you've got to trim some of this stuff from the ending because it's like this has more endings than Return of the King.

• 17:44Speaker 03

  So, so I, it was the first time that I hit the, the cutting room floor, but I had a lovely time working with Scott again. And maybe that wet our whistles to, to try to do something together again, but once again, I could never have expected that he would have um. Passed me against type, I suppose. I mean, certainly he knew that I could do this, but because, because we, he has an in, he knows me and. He knows just how dark I am. Um, but, but I suspect that, you know, many other English, English directors, other, you know, American directors. Would, would not have come to me. So that's the, the joy of working people who know.

• 18:21Josh Horowitz?

  Yes.

• 18:22Speaker 03

  What you, you know, your ranges. There's a lot of actors out there who've got loads of range, I'm sure, but they just never get to show it.

• 18:30Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, it's the, it's the curse of success in one, in one realm is the obviously. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and no, I mean, this one, I mean, beyond just the Scott Frank of it all, which is a huge part of it, has so many wins for you, I would think, as an actor. The character itself, um, the, the ensemble, the amazing ensemble, the very palpable setting.

• 18:49Speaker 03

  Um, yes.

• 18:50Josh Horowitz?

  This, this is, this is a joyous special. This is like top tier experiences for you. Is that for all the reasons I mentioned?

• 18:56Speaker 03

  It's definitely, it's definitely one of my favorite experiences and one set and, and, and that's, but that's, I mean, let's talk about how you transpose this novel, first of all, because it's meant to be set in Copenhagen. But bringing it to, um, to Edinburgh, which is a kind of similar sized city, probably a bit, bit smaller than Copenhagen. But again, a port city and it has this incredible beauty to it, which is, you know, akin to Copenhagen. But it also has this medieval history. It becomes a real part of our show. So, so, and I'd never, I'd never been to Edinburgh before, even though I was forty seven years old. Um, I'd always gone to the airport and then gone up to other places, but, um. So that was wonderful, that, that, that part of it, being in this, being in new surroundings, but also this character that he'd given me.

• 19:41Speaker 03

  He, he makes, by making him English, that's very different to the novel. By making me this outsider, which I think works spectacularly well. And then, and then what he's also, because Scott's a brilliant writer, he's given me not just tropes, left, right and center around me, you know, he's given me strong female characters, left, right and center. He's given me, um, you know, and some of the great, some of the really great Scottish actors of our, of our time at the moment. They're just permeating through it, through our, our piece that you wouldn't believe. So, um. You know, it was, I wanted to work, but I, you know, it was like a Scottish bingo actor bingo card. Like Shelley Henderson.

• 20:22Speaker 03

  You know, um, Kelly Macdonald, tick, Mark Bonner, tick, Seth Sivers, who I sat on a biffa. The British Independent Film Awards, we, we were, we were judging it one year. And I, I haven't seen him in eighteen years, but I loved him and I've seen his bits of his work. And so to have him play my partner, ah, with Shangri-La.

• 20:43Josh Horowitz?

  It, it, it's also, I've heard Scott talk a little bit like, you know, it's kind of his homage to like the police procedural. I mean, this is like a tried and true wonderful format that we all love.

• 20:51Speaker 03

  Yeah, he's been heavily involved in, in doing, in, in crime in one way or another, Elmore Leonard or, you know, Cat Shorty.

• 21:01Speaker 03

  Monsieur Spade most recently.

• 21:03Josh Horowitz?

  Right, right.

• 21:04Speaker 03

  You know, I think, I think Scott's, I don't know who I would compare him to. He has sort of Sidney Lumet tendencies, as I would say, which is probably the best. I think he's a sort of second coming of him.

• 21:18Josh Horowitz?

  That's a good company to be in. How many, how many, how many focus groups had to decide on the beard? You mentioned the beard. Was this a big conversation?

• 21:28Speaker 03

  Um, yeah, that's what Scott wanted. Yeah, that's what, that's what he wanted. He, and I was, and I was like, I don't, I said to him, look, I don't really operate a beard in my, in my, in life in general. I did, I'll have to let, so I started growing one. I was like, I don't even know if I can. Um, but it, but it, but it worked. It came off. After a month, I was like, I think I've got this.

• 21:54Josh Horowitz?

  Got the hang of this. Yeah. It takes a lot of skill to grow a good beard. And

• 21:58Speaker 03

  Doesn't it just?

• 21:58Josh Horowitz?

  Does it, does it, does it change your, I don't know, does it change your demeanor? I mean, if you gained 30 pounds for a role that changes your walk, does, does growing that beard and seeing it in the mirror every day change how you carry yourself?

• 22:10Speaker 03

  I wouldn't say it was just the beard. I was, it was kind of just, because that was one of the reasons that Scott was like, there's no point really reading the book because I'm changing so much. And your character sort of doesn't really exist anymore in the sense of, you know, you're not, you're not from Denmark. None of the book will make sense. So let's come up with our own ideas about where he may have come from, sort of socioeconomic, political background of him. Which actually he's taken a lot of that out, which I find very interesting because Mork still is a, is a bit of a mystery. They've all, they're like acronyms and total mystery. I mean, there's my favorite character in the whole thing probably.

• 22:49Speaker 03

  And that's great because it is, I think it's, I think it's, he's taken some of that stuff out in the final edit because fingers crossed we get to come back and do it again, you know, so we don't, we don't, we want, we want to drop that in a later date, but so, but because I was on the inside of it and knowing some of the background, uh, good and bad, you know, I try, we don't really rehearse anymore.

• 23:14Speaker 03

  And I kind of like that, you know, I suppose, I mean, I mean, a fraction. We did a read through, which was, which was quite sort of fun in the same way, because you get to see sort of what people are gonna do with it. Yeah. Um, but not really. And it's a great pressure. But so I, I do a lot of homework at home. I'm, I'm not all day as the character. Um, but I'm in my house doing certain things as Mork, or I'm going out into the, into the, into the wild as Mork. Um, and trying him on for size. Uh, and partly of that is look, and partly it's, you know. What would I, you know, you're in a supermarket, what would he buy? Yeah, yeah.

• 23:58Speaker 03

  He's a policeman, you know, he's probably gonna get back late. So it's just in my own mind, it's like, and then you build a soundscape. So I build, like, I don't know what Scott's gonna do with the music in the future, and I love what he did do. But, um. So I build like thirty or forty songs that create mood. And then I find a scent that I think works for Mork. Which was Davidoff Cool Water, uh, because he's just, he'll throw something on, but it's just that, you know, but it's not gonna be super expensive, but it, you know, but it'll smell him, make him, you know, smell all right. He cares enough about himself to, to do at least that. And all these sorts of things. And then, you know, you can't, you find passages of where he speaks.

• 24:44Speaker 03

  And I work, you know, you, like, he has speeches where he just takes people apart. And you use those and I, and I send some stuff back and forth to Scott before, in pre-production, just like, I think I'm, I'm gonna do it like this and blah, blah, blah, blah. And he's like, okay, yeah, seems all right. Um. And then you, then you turn up when you, you're kind of ready to go. But through doing it for a month or so. My walk changes and you know, my posture's changed. Things that I only sort of really notice, you know, when, when, when you're kind of forced to watch the, uh, the final product.

• 25:19Josh Horowitz?

  You, you, you mentioned the, the remarkable ensemble. By my count, you have not one.

• 25:23Speaker 03

  Oh my God, I love them.

• 25:24Josh Horowitz?

  Not one. Here's a curious fact. Not one, but two, uh, Harry Potter ghosts are in this. Kelly McDonald and Shirley Henderson are in your cast.

• 25:33Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 25:34Josh Horowitz?

  Does this win you, I don't know, ages of your kids, if they grew up on Harry Potter? Any cred by dad working with two Harry Potter actors in this one?

• 25:44Speaker 03

  They could care less. Honestly, that if I don't know, if I was some sort of weird influencer who plays computer games, my son might like me. Um, but he's.

• 25:55Josh Horowitz?

  That's your next career. You're gonna be an influencer.

• 25:57Speaker 03

  I can't even get him to watch Star Wars.

• 26:01Josh Horowitz?

  What's happening to kids?

• 26:02Speaker 03

  What is wrong with you? I mean, um, no, my, my daughters would be, I don't, but they haven't watched it. So I, I can tell, I'll tell them tonight. I'm sure, I'm sure I can tell one of them tonight because the other one's in Portugal, but, uh, I, I'm sure I'll get this. Hmm. But I quite like that, you know?

• 26:22Josh Horowitz?

  The other way is unhealthy. You don't want too much.

• 26:24Speaker 03

  The other way is so unhealthy. Daddy, daddy, I loved you in this, daddy. It's so good, daddy. Shut up. Um, yeah, no, it's great. They could care less.

• 26:34Josh Horowitz?

  Did, did Harry Potter?

• 26:35Speaker 03

  For me, it was amazing to get that. It was honestly one of my favorite company of, it felt very theatrical, like a company as opposed to, you know what I mean? We were, we were very, I mean, I'd like to say we were really tight. Certainly we were tight on workdays, but all of the other actors were living in Glasgow. So they'd go home at night. It was only Alexei and I, Alexei who plays Akram, who was actually staying in Edinburgh. So it was quite, and it was great, I suppose in some senses for me. I was a very lonely job. I mean, I was I was crunching lines. I mean, I started off, you know, you're sort of two months. I got the first two scripts off by heart. That was fine. And then

• 27:17Speaker 03

  it's just, and you get rewrites and blah, blah, blah. And so you're just in a daze of.

• 27:21Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, but you're in it. You're doing one episode thinking to the next. So it's.

• 27:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you then and then you make the mistake of going home on the sleeper train on, you know, on the Caledonian sleeper, which was great. But then you come home and you're like, why have I come all the way home? Because I'm stressed. And I've got lines so much lines, so many lines to learn. And I can't be present. So I think if I if there is a season two, I'm gonna make sure that that some weekends I go, honey, I love you. But as you said, there's no point coming home if I can't be present. And I can then he can just do. It's one of those jobs where you're just, you have to be in it.

• 27:55Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 27:56Speaker 03

  Unless, of course, he gives Scott decides he's gonna give my character a hiatus and he's gonna make Akram the center of the story.

• 28:02Josh Horowitz?

  Never.

• 28:03Speaker 03

  Season two, which could happen.

• 28:06Josh Horowitz?

  Let me ask.

• 28:07Speaker 03

  I did say to Scott, we should have him trained up in Krav Maga.

• 28:12Josh Horowitz?

  Let me ask you. Okay, so God willing, we get we're gonna get more of this. And the reviews are very good. Fingers crossed. It sounds very, very promising. But since we've never had the deep dive, I'm gonna go back a little bit with you, if that's okay, man.

• 28:23Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 28:23Josh Horowitz?

  I've talked a lot to a lot of your contemporaries over the years. I don't know if like you intersected with them. I'm curious, like, were you, you know, were you part of kind of like that Cumberbatch, Hiddleston, Redman, Dornan, like, there's like a big kind of smaller, expanding group in your age group. Is that your crew? Like, who is your crew coming?

• 28:43Speaker 03

  I don't really have a crew. I mean, I, I, I mean, I saw I saw Eddie and Charlie Cox a little tiny bit when I was out in LA. But they were out there. They'd be out there for a whole season, pilot season. And so I just sort of.

• 29:01Speaker 03

  Cross paths with them and I knew Eddie and I love Eddie, he's such a sweet boy.

• 29:06Speaker 03

  And so I occasionally saw Eddie at functions and my wife likes Eddie because he actually listens and talks to her as opposed to just banging on about himself, which is what some other actors do. So he's world class. Jamie, I know a little bit and I really, because he's hilarious, Dornan. I mean, he really is. He's one of the funniest people you meet and I think someone should make him a comedy star. Someone should get him into more of that stuff because his timing is too much.

• 29:34Josh Horowitz?

  Barben Star, did you see him in Barben Star Go to Vista Del Mar? He was amazing in that.

• 29:37Speaker 03

  Oh, I didn't see that.

• 29:38Josh Horowitz?

  Oh, you.

• 29:39Speaker 03

  I didn't see that. I'll save that up for a rainy day.

• 29:42Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 29:42Speaker 03

  Um, so I don't, and I thought, so I sort of knew them. I was never part of a group though, you know.

• 29:48Josh Horowitz?

  Okay.

• 29:48Speaker 03

  Um, I don't know why that is.

• 29:52Josh Horowitz?

  He's a loner, he's on his own.

• 29:54Speaker 03

  People didn't want me to be part of a group.

• 29:55Josh Horowitz?

  No, no, no, no.

• 29:56Speaker 03

  No, I just sort of like, I would think it's quite healthy not to have, to be, I was just a bit out of it. You know, I have friends who work for the government and other stuff, you know, real, real people.

• 30:11Josh Horowitz?

  People of substance.

• 30:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

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• 31:23Josh Horowitz?

  Do you remember the first time you kind of started to go up for like the evil big American films? Obviously, Chasing Liberty was the first kind of like Hollywood movie you did, but like

• 31:32Speaker 03

  Yeah, and it'd be very easy to poo poo that, you know what I mean? Because like, you don't really get to choose what your first job is. So, I mean, my first job was actually doing something with, I did this, Gavin Miller directed it, very nice man. And it was called, I can't remember what it was called, but it was with Stockard Channing and Jonathan Pryce and Azura Sky. And it was like a postmodern reworking of Cinderella. It was amazing. And Trudy Styler, who's still a chum, God love her. Yeah, anyway, so, but yeah, my first big, big inverted commas, first sort of Hollywood style film was working

• 32:13Speaker 03

  with Mandy Moore. And she was amazing. And, you know, and we got to go to Venice and Prague. And like, so it was kind of a dream job. Because you probably, at that stage, I'm like, well, it's probably the only one I'm ever gonna get to do. You know, so.

• 32:29Josh Horowitz?

  How aware were you guys of the competing first daughter?

• 32:32Speaker 03

  It wasn't a cool, it wasn't a cool movie. It wasn't like, you know, some people get to work with, you know, Scorsese on their first

• 32:39Josh Horowitz?

  Spike Jonze on my first movie. It wasn't that, but it's okay. People love it. Some people love it. It's all good.

• 32:44Speaker 03

  Exactly. Yeah.

• 32:46Josh Horowitz?

  So were you aware very much like it was the competing first daughter films at the time? It was Katie Holmes' first daughter versus Mandy Moore's Chasing Liberty. Were you aware of that at the time?

• 32:56Speaker 03

  No, I wasn't aware of it at the time. I was made aware of it, I think, when they came out. I don't know if they came out at exactly the same time. One of them did better. I don't know if it was ours. But actually, I don't remember. No, I don't think it was. Thank God I didn't know.

• 33:15Speaker 03

  Well, that wouldn't have made any difference.

• 33:17Josh Horowitz?

  But that is something that you kind of like have to, I don't know if that comes with with age and experience of kind of like that acceptance of like, I made a movie, is it gonna be like one of the AFI top 100? Do I love it as a great film? Maybe, maybe not, but it means something to other people like, you know, that like

• 33:35Speaker 03

  Oh, no, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, that tape ones, but also I had the most wonderful experience on that job. I really had great fun. Also, at the same time, you had Matt Damon and Heath Ledger there and my friend was another friend of mine was out. What was the big? Oh, God.

• 33:54Josh Horowitz?

  It's age, we're done.

• 33:55Speaker 03

  The Grimm's Fairy Tales was what Heath Ledger and Matt

• 33:58Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Brother Grimm, the Terry Gilliam movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 34:01Speaker 03

  Yeah, the Terry Gilliam one. And then there was another, there was another thing with a I used to hang out with him in the pub. Oh, Ron, he's dressed as like the devil with a big hand or whatever.

• 34:13Josh Horowitz?

  In the same movie?

• 34:14Speaker 03

  No, it's not the same movie. He's got his own movie. It was like a, like he plays like a little devil who smokes a cigar. Red. He's also in Sons of Anarchy, Ron Perlman.

• 34:24Josh Horowitz?

  Oh, Ron Perlman. Oh, that's a, he's a character. Oh, my God.

• 34:26Speaker 03

  Yeah. So whatever his comic book thing, that

• 34:29Josh Horowitz?

  Oh, Hellboy, Hellboy. Yeah.

• 34:30Speaker 03

  Hellboy, yeah. And my mate was in that. And so we, so we finished work and we'd all go for supper and we'd all get you know, very merry together. And so it was, it was joyous. And then, you know, Mandy was, Mandy was, and I got to work, Jamie Piven and Annabelle Sciarro. So you're like, that's a pretty good, pretty good first experience.

• 34:50Josh Horowitz?

  So if, if, if, if Chasing Liberty comes on or Leap Year comes on, which do you watch first?

• 34:58Speaker 03

  Wowzers. Um, what a double bill. Um, I watched Chasing Liberty first. I really would.

• 35:06Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 35:07Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah. Let's go for that.

• 35:08Josh Horowitz?

  Leap Year is even the more extreme version of that. I know. Like it means something to some people.

• 35:11Speaker 03

  I turn off. That's no question about that. That's just, that's, that's just, there's a lot of bad memories. So that's why.

• 35:18Josh Horowitz?

  Is it, is it, it's just one of those productions? It's just didn't, it wasn't your thing. You weren't feeling it. It was just not.

• 35:23Speaker 03

  No, it wasn't. That wasn't that. No, lovely people involved. Ireland's incredible. And stuff that's, you know, it's just lost in the sounds of time really. But, um,

• 35:32Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 35:33Speaker 03

  You know, actually remarkably similar plot to Chasing Liberty.

• 35:36Josh Horowitz?

  Right. I don't know. Yeah. So let's talk about happier times. Watchmen still stands the test of time. What a, what a, what an accomplishment that Zach did. And I mean, I know.

• 35:47Speaker 03

  Bless Zach. Yeah.

• 35:48Josh Horowitz?

  I mean, my gosh, what a, what a, what a leap, what a, what a challenge. And he was really able to execute it. And it was so well cast, including you, obviously, in this iconic part. Did you? I thought so. You were gonna disagree. Come on.

• 36:01Speaker 03

  I mean, I was a bit young.

• 36:03Josh Horowitz?

  Well, here's what I'll say. Were you aware at the time, like, that part was like, it's, it's Tom Cruise, it's Jude Law, it's like, it's perfection. You're playing perfection.

• 36:13Speaker 03

  I was aware, my friend. I walked in, I walked into my costume fitting and Jude Law's face was on, was on all the things. So, um, but I didn't mind. I was like, I honestly couldn't believe that they'd given me this job. I don't know what, I think he'd seen The Lookout or something. Goodness knows why he made the jump. But, um, yeah, I mean, Tom Cruise would have been amazing in that, in that film, but it would have cost them an arm and a leg. So I guess.

• 36:40Josh Horowitz?

  You know what Zach, you know what Zach told me? I talked to Zach a year or two ago. He told me he did talk to Tom, but Tom wanted to play Rorschach.

• 36:47Speaker 03

  Of course he did. He might have been great at Rorschach. I don't know.

• 36:52Josh Horowitz?

  Totally. I mean, he could have done that. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah.

• 36:54Speaker 03

  I mean, that's the thing. And, you know, I mean, speaking of which, I mean, you know, he did a brilliant job on Rorschach.

• 37:01Josh Horowitz?

  Oh, Jackie Earl. Yeah. Amazing.

• 37:02Speaker 03

  Jackie, Jackie just, you know, knocked it out of the park, as they say in America. Um, so I wish, I wish I hadn't overthought it, you know, I mean, if you really want, I mean, I wish I hadn't tried to give him the kind of German accent when he's, you know, full American in public and then a kind of softish German, American accent of, you know, I could have just made it easier on myself because then people just go, he couldn't hold his accent. You're like, ah, okay, that's, like, I understand why you might think that. I didn't, but, um, but it was a wonderful experience. Again, really great actors, Paddy Wilson, Billy Crudup, Pacilla, great friend of mine. I mean, I love, I mean, I mean, the laughter I had working with Billy Crudup. He's he's he's quintessentially one of the finest actors around.

• 37:47Speaker 03

  I mean, seriously.

• 37:49Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 37:49Speaker 03

  And if I ever get back on stage, it's gonna be with him.

• 37:52Josh Horowitz?

  I was gonna say, his stage work especially is really amazing.

• 37:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, man. Yeah, but he's just also such a sweetheart and he's and we had a lot of giggling. But it's very difficult when he's when he's also wearing, he's wearing pajamas and he's got a thousand dots all over his face and some ping pong balls. And he's standing on a chair and you're like, you know, it's difficult. It's difficult to keep a straight face.

• 38:15Josh Horowitz?

  That's why they that's why they pay you the big money. Yeah.

• 38:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, he forgave me. Yeah, it did. I think I think it stands the test of time. I don't think it. I mean, I don't really know, you know, if something goes out in the world, I don't spend a huge amount of time checking up on it. Does that, you know what I mean? It's just sort of out there and I haven't seen it since since we went to the premiere.

• 38:39Josh Horowitz?

  I revisited it every year or two.

• 38:42Speaker 03

  Time though, I thought I thought visually it was very terribly faithful to the comic. Yeah, well, to the to the graphic novel, I should say. Um, yeah, I don't want to get into trouble. Um, apart from obviously the giant squid, which I think might have been a leap too far.

• 38:57Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 38:58Speaker 03

  Um, so, yeah.

• 38:59Josh Horowitz?

  Is that is that the that's around the time that you did go up for Bond at some point? Was that around the time you got your shot at a Bond audition?

• 39:08Speaker 03

  I didn't audition. I went in and met Barbara. Um, so I didn't get to the audition, but it was quite a funny one because and she's she's gorgeous and just lovely, lovely person. You're invited into this blooming great offices that's very close to sort of Hard Rock Cafe on Piccadilly, right in the center. It's like a quite a grand place to have your office. Um, they can afford it and and I remember she'd given up smoking recently, but she allowed and that was back when I was still properly smoking. It's Marlboro Reds. God, God, what was I thinking? Um, and so she let me smoke in the room and she was like, so what's your idea for Bond? And I was like, my idea for Bond?

• 39:50Speaker 03

  We've got to take it back to the books, you know, really, we absolutely have to make this guy an alcoholic, a drug addict. He hates himself, he hates women, he hates a lot of people. He's, he, and, and all, like, he's in deep pain, he's brilliant at killing people, you know, I, like, really like that. Like, like, I, I think by the end of the interview, she was like, mhm, next.

• 40:18Josh Horowitz?

  Because I wanted to make it really dark.

• 40:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 40:22Josh Horowitz?

  But what I should have said was, but also incredibly charming.

• 40:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, but also so accessible to children of all ages.

• 40:29Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 40:30Speaker 03

  Yeah, I, I mean, but I think, I mean, ultimately, you know, what, what they did get was, was Daniel Craig, which was, which was, and Daniel just, I mean, I, the only, I've never met Daniel, I, that's not quite true. The Golden Globes once, I got a tap on the shoulder in the smoking corner where you meet the finest people.

• 40:48Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 40:48Speaker 03

  And I got this tap on the shoulder and I turned around and I just got zapped from a foot away by Daniel Craig's, like, just incredible blue eyes. And I was, I was like a fly being drawn into, in a butcher's shop into one of those machines, like that. And I, and he said, only chance I can have a light. And I was like, yes, of course. Cause I'd just seen him as well in one of, in a really great, in Sam Mendes's.

• 41:15Josh Horowitz?

  Oh, Road to Perdition, yeah.

• 41:17Speaker 03

  Yeah, and I just, I saw, I have a real soft spot for that film. I really, well, partly it's mostly because of Conrad Hall and the beauty of it. It's just insanely shot, that film.

• 41:29Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 41:29Speaker 03

  He deserved that posthumous Oscar. Um, a part of me died the day that Conrad Hall died.

• 41:35Josh Horowitz?

  I know.

• 41:35Speaker 03

  It really did because I was like, god damn it, I really want to work with him.

• 41:40Josh Horowitz?

  Were, were you, but back when you were auditioning a lot, I assume you don't have to do that much of it all nowadays, but were you, did you, did you relish that opportunity or were you a nervous?

• 41:49Speaker 03

  I very happened to.

• 41:51Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 41:56Speaker 03

  Always nervous. I mean, the classic thing is, the more you want something, the more nervous you're going to be.

• 42:03Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 42:03Speaker 03

  You know, and so the, the, some of the jobs that you've gotten, it's not that I would, some people say, I went in, I didn't give a shit about it and I've got the job and you went, God, I've never gone into something, never given a shit about it. I've, I've just said, I don't want to go and audition for something if I don't, I don't, I won't, I don't want to waste anyone's time.

• 42:17Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 42:17Speaker 03

  At least of all mine, but certainly not the casting director and whatever. If you don't connect to something, don't go. Um, because actually, if you, you're going to give a crap audition. I mean, these days, people don't know, I mean, I'm, I think it's going to come back to bite the industry in the ass a little bit. Because you can't consistently tape people who's particularly the younger ones, who have no experience of being on a set. I'm sure people do have a second audition and then they must go into rooms and meet them. Because if you can't do it in a room in front of three people, good luck on a set. Because on the day, you're gonna, your nerves are gonna be up, your hackles are gonna be up.

• 42:51Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah. It's a, it's a different skill set to like tape yourself on a camera in your home. I mean, you can do it.

• 42:57Speaker 03

  Everyone's comfortable in their own home.

• 42:59Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 43:00Speaker 03

  You know, to a point, because you can just go again, go again, go again.

• 43:04Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 43:04Speaker 03

  And you can fincher the hell out of yourself if you want, you know. I did a hundred and eighty auditions and by the end I was, I stopped acting. Um, but yeah, so, but I'm, but you know what, there, if, if there's, there's always going to be stuff that's competitive and it's like, I'm very happy to.

• 43:22Speaker 03

  Sense, like if, if I know there's twenty people that they're gonna see or taping for, you know, tape a bit extra, tape something else, tape, you know, go to a, a level where you think, oh, that's interesting. Or sometimes they're thinking about you. Um, they'd like to have a chat online. I might just go ahead and look in the script and find a monologue or whatever, or cobble together a scene and just, and just send it across just because like, well, at least you look like you give a shit.

• 43:49Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 43:50Speaker 03

  You know?

• 43:51Josh Horowitz?

  Is, is it true that, that they thought they, that the tall drink of water that is Matthew Goode would be perfect for Bilbo Baggins at a certain point?

• 44:00Speaker 03

  Okay, that is funny. Um, I don't think perfect. I think there was a change of director.

• 44:06Josh Horowitz?

  It was Guillermo, I think, right? It was Guillermo del Toro when you were going.

• 44:09Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 44:10Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 44:10Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And yes, it was, it was Guillermo. But I can't remember if I was the Guillermo or the Peter. I think it was the, I was the gamer. Yeah, I was gamer. And I even I was like, I was, I said to Simon, I said, Simon Beresford, this is my agent, and my English agent, I've been with him ever since, ever since drama school. He's a wonderful man. And I said, Simon, I'm six foot two, love. I mean, what are we talking about here? I can't play Bill. But and he's like, camera trickery, darling, camera trickery, it's all gonna be fine. It'll be absolutely fine. They like your face for it. And it's like, okay. Um, again, they got their man. But what I was really interested in was, I remember talking to the casting director and going, when I grew up, as when I was a kid.

• 44:54Speaker 03

  There was a one, like, it's amazing to me, this podcast thing that's come along. As a child of the eighties. We were, we were, all we had was podcasts, because it was always these tapes that we would listen to in our Walkmans on long journeys. There were books that had been read. So Audible's way late on what we were doing in the eighties. And my favorite one was The Hobbit. That would get me all the way from Devon to Heathrow Airport and back again, probably. Um, and it was read by Nicole Williamson, who's a very famous actor. Nutter, um, tried to kill himself on a couple of occasions, and a huge drinker, but, but, but a classically trained brilliant actor from the R S C.

• 45:33Speaker 03

  And it's, and it's amazing, the way he reads that and does all the parts. And it's truncated, it's an abridged version of it. But it's still like four tapes or whatever it was. And, um, and the music on it was great. I, I, I recommend any, and I actually got that for Teresa Palmer's kids. I got hold of it on, on record, and I gave it to them at, at some point. I can't remember why.

• 45:57Josh Horowitz?

  Did they stare at the record and say, what, what do I do with this?

• 46:00Speaker 03

  What the hell do I do with it? No, I get, no, the parents were like, we've got a record player at home, so we'll put it on for them. But they were probably a bit young for it. I probably thought I was nuts, I don't know. But I, I, I send it back to her if you, if you've never used it. Because I'll get myself a record player and just, I'll nostalgia the hell out of that.

• 46:16Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah. So that one is exciting for that reason, to go up for it, to just for that reason.

• 46:21Speaker 03

  So exciting for that, for that reason. And I also love, you know, I loved, I loved, I loved the whole lot. I loved the books, uh, when I was a kid, you know.

• 46:28Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 46:29Speaker 03

  Um, I loved all of them. So, um, but I was, I was saying, we've got to get Nicole Williamson into this show, right? Like, and, and they were, they were fully on board, but they couldn't get hold of him. They didn't know where he was. No one knew he'd sort of given up. That was a real shame. Because it would have been a nice nod.

• 46:46Josh Horowitz?

  Talk to me a little bit about you referenced, besides somebody in the supermarket criticizing a take on the discovery of witches, you must feel a lot of, you must feel a lot of, like, there's a, that fandom is a fandom, that's a legit strong.

• 46:59Speaker 03

  Well, I'm, I'm, listen, I'm with them. I was like, listen, I, I found it curious too, but it's not, it's above my pay grade. I think it was a decision made by Sky and, you know, you get on with it. I, I, and maybe it's because they wanted it to be multi-generational, you know, which, which would make sense. There's not a lot of swearing in it. So maybe they wanted the younger kids not to be put off and who knows, who knows. Listen, we had a lovely time filming it. The great Jane Trant, the producer, the English, English producer working down in Cardiff. Here's to you, Jane, you're amazing.

• 47:30Josh Horowitz?

  Um, I need, need to let you go in a few minutes. I'll mention, uh, the, your role as Robert Evans in The Offer was amazing, man. What you did in that is really, if people haven't checked it out, people should check it out. It's a, it's a, that's a big swing to, and he was a big personality and that voice, everything about it, to go for it and to like commit as you did and really nail it as an accomplishment. So well done on that.

• 47:50Speaker 03

  Thank you so much. That was quite scary, that one. Yeah. But, um, but also I think liberating once I had, you know, once I, we were quite, I was quite lucky because I was in, I think, I know someone dropped out now. I know who it was, quite a big person. And, um, so I only had like a couple of weeks before we started filming. And so that was quite terrifying. Uh, but luckily I had that big speech to work on and I had lots of YouTube and stuff. And then when we got there, then I, what was really lucky was I got an extra two weeks because, um, someone in the cast got COVID.

• 48:23Josh Horowitz?

  Oh, COVID, yeah.

• 48:24Speaker 03

  And so we suddenly went into shutdown mode. So that gave me another two weeks. And boy, did I use that time to, to really find, uh, well, not necessarily, you know, I took certainly help with my Bob. So again, by the time I actually went back to set, I was sort of quite confident. And, you know, and we had to keep, we, you know, we couldn't see anyone else. We had to keep, you know, work and then straight back to your hotel room.

• 48:48Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 48:48Speaker 03

  So that there's something about, which I, I think I had a lot in common with, with, um, with Carl Mork. You know, I was just on my own a lot and.

• 48:58Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 48:58Speaker 03

  It. And it seems to be something, something, good things.

• 49:03Josh Horowitz?

  Working for you. Yeah.

• 49:04Speaker 03

  It's kind of working for me.

• 49:06Josh Horowitz?

  Um, I'm gonna, I'm gonna end with this, the happy second fuse profoundly random questions for you. This is a little bit more rapid fire for you, Matthew.

• 49:12Speaker 03

  Oh, okay. I didn't know anything about this.

• 49:13Josh Horowitz?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Are you a dogs or cat person, dog or cats?

• 49:18Speaker 03

  Dog. Stay there. Ooh, ooh. Okay, I can ask you another question. Yeah, I can go find her. I think she's on Ralph's bed.

• 49:27Josh Horowitz?

  Cameo from Matthew Good's dog. What's the dog's name?

• 49:30Speaker 03

  Yeah. Well, now that I'm on iPhone, I can move, you see.

• 49:32Josh Horowitz?

  I love it. Let's use it.

• 49:33Speaker 03

  Dog's name is Suki.

• 49:35Josh Horowitz?

  Suki. My, my mind is out for a while.

• 49:38Speaker 03

  She's, she's gone and she's moved.

• 49:40Josh Horowitz?

  Suki is a while.

• 49:41Speaker 03

  We'll find her. No, I'm not. This, this podcast is not going anywhere.

• 49:45Josh Horowitz?

  This is like your version of Taken, but trying to find a dog.

• 49:48Speaker 03

  She's gone in a, in a basket. There she is.

• 49:50Josh Horowitz?

  There, oh, Suki.

• 49:51Speaker 03

  Darling.

• 49:54Josh Horowitz?

  There's the superstar.

• 49:56Speaker 03

  She wasn't ready for her close up, Mr. De Meo. Okay.

• 49:58Josh Horowitz?

  No, no, no, she's a star.

• 50:00Speaker 03

  Walk in a minute.

• 50:01Josh Horowitz?

  Uh, what do you?

• 50:02Speaker 03

  Shoot, what's the next question?

• 50:03Josh Horowitz?

  What do you collect, Matthew? Do you collect anything?

• 50:06Speaker 03

  Um, women. No, um, I don't really collect much. Uh, God, my wife would say golf clubs. She's like, why do we have so many golf clubs and, and why do we have so many fishing rods? And like, I've, I've just sort of gathered them over the years. She's like, could you gather some of them and throw them out? Uh, um.

• 50:30Josh Horowitz?

  That works.

• 50:31Speaker 03

  We've gathered a few children.

• 50:33Josh Horowitz?

  Yep.

• 50:33Speaker 03

  Got three kids.

• 50:34Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 50:34Speaker 03

  Uh, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's probably my finest collection.

• 50:39Josh Horowitz?

  Do, do you have a favorite video game of all time?

• 50:42Speaker 03

  I thought you were gonna say, do you have a favorite?

• 50:43Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, we can get to that too, if you want.

• 50:45Speaker 03

  I was gonna say, what, Josh? Um, do I have a favorite video game?

• 50:49Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 50:51Speaker 03

  I don't play video games anymore, but I mean,

• 50:56Speaker 03

  I would go with,

• 50:59Speaker 03

  God, that's a really good question. Back in the day, there was a video game called Chucky Egg that I used to play on the Acorn Electron.

• 51:07Josh Horowitz?

  Wow, these words mean nothing to me, but I'll trust you.

• 51:10Speaker 03

  Chucky Egg was quite a good game, but to bring it up today, I mean, I spent a lot of time when I first became an actor playing Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods golf. An arcade game, but remember the big old ones?

• 51:22Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 51:22Speaker 03

  Double Dragon.

• 51:24Josh Horowitz?

  Good one.

• 51:25Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 51:25Josh Horowitz?

  We got it.

• 51:26Speaker 03

  There we go.

• 51:27Josh Horowitz?

  This is the Dakota Johnson Memorial question. She asked me this once. I ask every guest this. Would you rather have a mouthful of bees or one bee in your butt, Matthew?

• 51:37Speaker 03

  Jesus, that's a weird question, isn't it?

• 51:39Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, talk to Dakota, take it up with her.

• 51:41Speaker 03

  Dakota came up with that one, did she?

• 51:43Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 51:45Speaker 03

  All right, baby. Um, I'm gonna go, I mean, I'll go with a mouthful of bees, love. As a man who seems to be losing some of his top lip, I mean, I seem to be losing the color in a top lip, which is not uncommon for a gentleman of my age.

• 52:01Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 52:01Speaker 03

  Maybe it'll bring that fucker back. I'd rather miss it. I don't like my having full lips anymore.

• 52:09Josh Horowitz?

  Last actor.

• 52:09Speaker 03

  I'm degrading day by day.

• 52:11Josh Horowitz?

  No, you're not. Last actor you were mistaken for. Who's the last actor you were mistaken for?

• 52:15Speaker 03

  The last actor I'd ever be mistaken for?

• 52:18Josh Horowitz?

  No, the last actor you were mistaken for. Do you ever get mistaken for somebody?

• 52:22Speaker 03

  No, I don't. No, then everyone, everyone can see me coming. Um,

• 52:28Speaker 03

  have I been mistaken for anybody?

• 52:32Josh Horowitz?

  There's only one Matthew Good. It's okay. You're singular.

• 52:35Speaker 03

  It's really sad. I don't know.

• 52:37Josh Horowitz?

  It's not sad. What's the, what's the wallpaper on your phone?

• 52:41Speaker 03

  Uh, I've got a shot of of my dog on the beach. Well, I've got several. I've got several. They get this.

• 52:47Josh Horowitz?

  You broke it.

• 52:48Speaker 03

  So when I'm into the phone, it's this, it's amazing. Honestly, it looks like a painting. I took it in Cornwall on the beach. I was with a dog. Like, it's just perfect. Like, the the composition, the bit, the bit, the water looks blue and it was, it's just amazing. Um, total accent, obviously. Um, so that's that one. And then, and then the kids and my wife, uh, it changes every time it comes up.

• 53:09Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, pictures of your golf clubs, your favorite golf clubs that you just want to look at.

• 53:11Speaker 03

  Yes, of course. Yeah, all the, all of the Mizuno blades that I love.

• 53:15Josh Horowitz?

  You're true pride and joy. And what's the worst note a director has ever given you, Matthew?

• 53:25Speaker 03

  That's a brilliant question. What, what's the worst note? Oh, okay. Okay. Now I've got to be very careful, yeah.

• 53:35Josh Horowitz?

  No names. Okay.

• 53:37Speaker 03

  Because I once worked with, I worked with a director who was having, he was, he couldn't be asked to go to set because he was having his lunch. And he just said, as he, and he was, he berated, can't you see I'm fucking eating? Was what he said to the first day of the year when he came and said, uh, we're ready to go. And I was like, okay, so you do it. So I went out and he, and as I was going to set, he said, just make it look fucking cool, yeah?

• 54:07Speaker 03

  Right? Frankly, I didn't need a lot of direction from him. Um.

• 54:12Josh Horowitz?

  Oh, my God. That's, I mean, good, good advice for life generally. Just make it look fucking cool, Matthew. Just come on.

• 54:19Speaker 03

  Yeah, okay. I mean, yes, I mean, in real life, I mean, I suppose that is one way to go.

• 54:24Josh Horowitz?

  Oh, God. That's amazing.

• 54:25Speaker 03

  Anyway, anyway, but, uh, but.

• 54:28Josh Horowitz?

  It worked out. It's all fine. You're here. You're standing tall. Department Q, ruling the roost. You're all good.

• 54:34Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's, well, I think it's a number one in the UK, which is pretty cool.

• 54:39Josh Horowitz?

  Congratulations. Well deserved. You and Scott Frank, we need to keep the magic going. Hopefully more seasons to come.

• 54:45Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah. Love it. I'd like to work with Scott on something else eventually as well, you know?

• 54:50Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, don't let him cut you out. Don't let Steven Soderbergh see any cuts of his stuff.

• 54:53Speaker 03

  Because you're gonna get those jealousies where like, because I was playing golf with, I was playing golf with Jack O'Connell in Dallas for reasons why I can't remember. And I was, I literally was like, so what are you up to at the moment? He's like, I'm just about to play, I'm playing a cowboy, basically, in Scott Frank's Western. I was like, excuse me? There's a lead in the-

• 55:13Josh Horowitz?

  That's my world. What are you talking about?

• 55:15Speaker 03

  Well, the film, he's like, it was a film. It was, I was like, I know this script. He told me he wanted to make it. And he's made it into a, into a television series? And you're gonna be doing it for six months? And you need to learn how to be on a horse and do all this stuff? That's so fucking cool. And your character name is Jack Good?

• 55:31Speaker 03

  And it's spelt the same as me? Mm-hmm. Why would I be jealous?

• 55:37Josh Horowitz?

  You, you, you got what you deserved in the end. You got your department queue. You're back.

• 55:41Speaker 03

  I'm only kidding. I was, I'm only kidding. I literally phoned him up and he said, I'm so pleased you're making a Western. Also, Jack is a phenomenal actor. Yeah. He's someone I'm always like, oh, we're gonna work together at some point.

• 55:54Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, he just, he popped up. I just saw 28 years later. He pops up in that and he's big in the sequel. I'm very excited.

• 56:00Speaker 03

  That's what I heard. He's gonna be in the next one. But he also pops up in recent- Yeah, which I haven't seen yet, but everyone keeps saying is great.

• 56:08Josh Horowitz?

  Highly recommend.

• 56:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna go and do that. But he's, he's, he brings a bit of danger with, with him, which I love.

• 56:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, he's a really sweet guy.

• 56:17Josh Horowitz?

  As do you. A little danger from Matthew Good, always. Everybody check out, if they haven't already, check out Department Q. You kill it in this man. Congratulations.

• 56:26Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 56:27Josh Horowitz?

  And this was such a blast. Thank you so much for the time today. Appreciate it.

• 56:30Speaker 03

  Josh, I've been told, I've been told you could get a good interview with you and it's absolutely true.

• 56:35Josh Horowitz?

  We did it. We nailed it.

• 56:37Speaker 03

  I'm sorry, it was on the iPhone.

• 56:38Josh Horowitz?

  It's okay. Next time in person, perhaps.

• 56:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, that would be great. Yeah, I'd love that.

• 56:44Speaker 04

  And so ends another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley and I definitely wasn't supposed to do this by Josh.

• 57:03Speaker 04

  You've got your favorite blanket, a freshly poured drink, and a cold case burning a hole in your streaming queue. You're not just watching true crime, you're running the investigation from the comfort of your couch. Welcome to Murder She Watched, the podcast where we recap, dissect, and slightly overanalyze some of the best and craziest true crime documentaries on our favorite streamers. Did the spouse do it? Why is the shady neighbor wearing leather gloves in July? Why did this guy agree to be interviewed in this documentary? We ask the tough questions that you're often just screaming at your TV. So every week, we break down the twists, red herrings, and absurd documentaries that

• 57:46Speaker 04

  have kept you up all night. It's high drama, cozy vibes, and absolute couch detective energy. Grab your throw blanket and hit subscribe. Search Murder She Watched wherever you listen to podcasts, and let's solve this thing together.