The following quote comes from the London Telegraph from which I could have made the headline “Matthew Goode auditioned for The Hobbit,” but instead his comments on the incredibly loathsome Leap Year are far more interesting:
“It’s turgid. I just know that there are a lot of people who will say it is the worst film of 2010. [The location] was the main reason I took it – so that I could come home at the weekends. It wasn’t because of the script, trust me. I was told it was going to be like The Quiet Man with a Vaughan Williams soundtrack, but in the end it turned out to have pop music all over it. … Was it a bad job? Yes, it was. But, you know, I had a nice time and I got paid.”
Yes Matthew, the film is turgid. It was a bad job. Will it be the worst of 2010? I can say it is the worst I’ve seen so far (perhaps only a notch below Valentine’s Day).
My question, though, is whether or not actors owe the audience anything?
Matthew Goode was spectacular in A Single Man. Amy Adams has done terrific work in films such as Sunshine Cleaning, Doubt and Enchanted. Such quality would lead audience members to assume they wouldn’t choose a “turgid” or “bad” film only in an effort to get paid, but who among us hasn’t taken a bad job because we needed to make sure we have food on the table? The only difference, of course, is when most people take a bad job there isn’t a multi-million dollar marketing campaign trying to convince us otherwise. Had Goode said these things about Leap Year during the promotion I could certainly fault him even less, but I’m sure the studio wouldn’t have appreciated it much.
The “Telegraph” article references Goode’s 10-month-old daughter. Can we really blame him for taking a film that allowed him to stay close to home and make a little money on the side? It certainly doesn’t make the film any better, but it does put an interesting slant on the choices actors make.
Thanks to The Vulture for the heads up.
