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Watchmen: Billy Crudup and Matthew Goode interview
LF: Billy, you’ve got your clothes on! Billy Crudup: So far. Let’s see how the day goes. [Laughs] LF: What did you think when you first read the graphic novel? BC: It was one of those humbling moments. I was so surprised that there was this kind of sophistication and subversion in this genre. I’d been missing this whole possible avenue of provocative entertainment for some time. So it was a real discovery for me. LF: Have you got a taste for comic books now? BC: Watchmen for sure. It’s hard to have that as an introduction, because it’s just so rich and dynamic. But yeah, I’d love to read more. LF: Matthew, how did you feel about being cast as a superhero? MG: I had certain reservations. I’d just been sent two scenes and asked to put them on tape. My preconceived notions of the comic book world had been, “Oh, it’s nothing that I need to worry about.” But when I finally got to read the thing, I was like, “Argh!” you know? It’s incredibly sophisticated material. I just said, “Where do I sign up?” But then again, you see how it is drawn and my major considerations were, “He’s wearing a skirt!” and also, “He’s massive!” I knew the start date and that I wouldn’t have time to go and bulk up, so I knew I was going to come in for some stick, and fairly rightly so, because it is hallowed turf and this material has been waiting to be made into a film for a good 20-odd years. My brother took great pleasure in the pressure. On the first day on set he called me and was like, “I’ve just checked it out online and no one likes your casting and they’re worried you’re going to ruin the movie.” LF: Do you feel pressure not only to please fans of the comic book, but also to please people who haven’t read it? BC: It’s a good question. Quite frankly nobody’s really gone to see my movies before, so I’ll be psyched either way! MG: I second that motion! But also I think that’s something Zack was very clever at doing. You know, Bob Dylan comes on and Zack suddenly retells American history taking you into this alternate 80s reality where Nixon is serving his fifth term and we’re on the verge of a nuclear holocaust. That, just in five minutes, helps people who aren’t au fait with the original material.
BC: It’s a great little segment too. That thing’s worth the price of the admission, I’m telling you. LF: Billy, is it harder doing what you do wearing a motion capture suit? BC: You know, it was such a novel experience. One that I’m sure that I’ll never get the opportunity to do again, so I welcomed every bit of it. It was harder in terms of the practical, daily exercise of your imagination. When you’re playing in a kitchen sink drama, all you have to do is, for the 800th time, forget there’s a camera there. You have a sink there, you have the clothes that your character wears and probably the person opposite you looks like they’re going to look like when the movie comes out, but with this… MG: You don’t daytrip to Mars in a kitchen sink drama! [Laughs] BC: But for this, everything that I was wearing was the opposite of the six foot four, 240 pound master of all matter. I’m a 40-year-old short jackass! [Laughs] LF: Matthew, bearing that in mind, was it difficult for you to act with Billy? MG: I wasn’t alone! I mean, we laughed all the way through. BC: We were always walking that rope of, “This is hard to take seriously. Alright let’s focus here and get this part right.” And, you know, we’d break down for a little bit. LF: Did either of you take anything from the film as a memento? MG: Just an awkward operation on my knee because I split my meniscus doing a stunt, which kind of sucked and hurt for a while. LF: Did you do a lot of your own stunts? MG: Yeah. I came to it quite late so the first fight scene is a lot of my god-like stunt double, but there’s as much as there can be of me. LF: What was it like working with Zack Snyder? MG: Zack is full of beans. I’ve never seen someone with such enthusiasm. He’s also a kind of shock-absorber for the pressure from the fan readership. BC: Zack is incredibly confident, expert at his craft and you don’t get any sense that this is his third movie at all. He brings a kind of dexterity and confidence and gentleness and a real levity too. That’s the fun for us. I was excited to go into work. 90% of the directors you work with, because there is so much pressure typically placed on their shoulders, the environment becomes a real… What do you call it? Pressure cooker.
MG: You know, he’s been working 20-hour days for six months and had been for the six months before we started filming. And what was incredible is any given moment that there was a break, most directors would be having a little scream at somebody or just waving axes around saying, “Look, I’ll deal with this question in a second” and he always had time for you and always had time for his family. He’s got six kids as well! BC: We worked two hours this morning and I’m already sore! Helen Cowley Click here to read the first part of our interview: Zack and Deborah Snyder. Click here to read the second part of our interview: Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jackie Earle Haley. Titles related to this articleRelated/similar articles
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In the third and final part of our 
