PinkPaper: Let's not beat around the bush. How was getting intimate with Colin Firth?
Matthew Goode: “I really enjoyed it. As kisses with fellas go, it was right up there. We only had to do it a few times and he was very tender.”
Nicholas Hoult: “One of the most intimate moments at George’s house happened on the first day of filming - which was being thrown in the deep end - but it’s always a peculiar feeling when they call cut at the end of a take and you're naked in front of 150 people. It suddenly seems very unnatural!”
PP: But, Nicholas, you must've done that a lot on Channel 4's Skins?
NH: "Yeah, they put us through the ringer on that."
MG:"Literally!"
NH: "Euw..."
MG: "As a Brit actor, you rarely get your arse out, but it's good fun when you do.”
PP: Why wasn't there any full-on sexual contact in the film?
MG: "It wasn’t in the script. It's funny, but that's part of what I liked about it. What was beautiful about the script - apart from dying on page one - was that I didn’t have anything very dramatic to do, yet there was a real beauty in the banality. Firth’s character isn’t remembering a sweaty clinch on the beach, it was the complete normality of sitting on the sofa with someone that had him. The fact that we were filming it while Prop 8 was going on was also interesting. It's not a statement about it, but it shows that there is a universality in love. People with prejudices who go and see the film will realise that these [gay] relationships are as normal as any other."
PP: Was working for Tom Ford a bitch?
NH: "No, haha, he’s a brilliant director. The first time I met him we had dinner and sat down to talk about the script. He’d clearly invested so much in it, which was personal to him, and he had a great idea about each of the characters. He made it very easy. And considering it was shot in 21 days we never felt rushed."
MG: "The script supervisor had never worked with someone who was more prepared, which probably came from his time in the fashion world: he is probably used to managing swathes of people to achieve his vision. His micro-managing meant that you just stepped into a photograph, but he is very free in how he lets you get on with it. Maybe the casting was just perfect? He was as quick as Woody Allen - not many takes."
PP: But there must've been fashion perks, right?
NH: "The suits were very kind perks, but it clearly showed a lack of trust on his part about how we were going to turn up on set."
PP: The film is based on Christopher Isherwood's novella. What do you think he'd make of the adaptation?
MG: "Tom [Ford] new Chris back in the day, he was very friendly with both of them - Chris and Don [Bachardy - Isherwood's partner]. Don gave the rights to it and appears in it, so he was happy and loved it. There are some differences to the book - Julianne’s character wasn’t glamorous in the book, but Tom based the screen version on someone he knew. And it worked."
PP: How good are Colin's BAFTA and Oscar chances?
MG: "Good. It’s nice that this has happened further down the line of his career, but it’s not a huge surprise. It’s great that he’s finally getting recognition for someone who can do more than wear a wet shirt or be a fat Texan’s beau. He deserves all of the praise - and Julianne too, yet she is yet to win an Oscar. For Colin, his career could go in a way which may even scare him."
PP: Nicholas, how did working on A Single Man compare to About A Boy?
NH: "It was another relationship with an older man, so I’m getting my fair share of those. When you’re so young on set it’s all a blur and you don’t understand it, but as you get older you grow wiser to your responsibilities. And you’re treated like a kid less! I still had to sit at the kiddies’ table at lunch though and wasn’t allowed to speak with the proper grown-ups..."
MG: "And you realised that rohypnol isn't a vitamin." [Cue: awkward silence, then them bursting into laughter]
PP: How was it working with two male heartthrob leads [Firth and Grant]?
NH: "They’re very charming, sincere and witty. Firthy is funnier than he thinks. What’s great is that he serves the script - he isn’t worried about sharing screen time - which is a very British thing. He gets on with the job and doesn’t worry about the rest of that shit."
PP: Are you getting good feedback from America?
MG: "They don't really know me that well yet."
NH: "My agent was here earlier and said that everyone in LA was saying how much they loved you!"
MG: "That’s because she had lunch with *my* agent! I’m not sure. Nobody really knows what I’ve done over there, but the industry has been kind because they haven’t pinned me down yet."
PP: But Matthew, Watchmen did well - at least with geeks.
MG: "Nobody was particularly happy with my casting - or the final result. But people were pleasantly surprised with The Lookout, which is good. Even I was surprised to get that job! But it’s a long way to go when you fail. It would be nice to get back to the days when there was a lot more happening over here, but it’s so expensive."
PP: And you also have Leap Year coming out?
MG: "Yep, err....yep [sheepishly]. It was great fun filming with Amy Adams. I love the director, too. Anand [Tucker, director of the acclaimed Hilary and Jackie, Shopgirl and When Did You Last See You Father?] is impossibly nice and it turned out OK. Unfortunately Leap Year doesn’t match up to any of those. It did alright in America, but I did it to do something which didn’t take itself too seriously...although I’m getting alot of criticism for it."
PP: Nicholas, give us the dirt on Clash of the Titans.
NH: "I’ve only got a small part, but I was there for the entire filming and it was fascinating. It was filmed in Tenerife and, err, Wales [cue more laughter] - even though it’s meant to be the Stygian mountains. It looks fantastic."
PP: And Mad Max?
NH: "Hopefully it’s all going ahead this summer. Charlize Theron is my leading lady. I’m looking forward to working with her, but the script is full-on. George Miller the director, who did the original, did a four-hour work session audition and he was fantastic - very giving. And I’ve watched the boxset of the originals."
MG: "Bring back Tina Turner!"
NH: [Singing] "I can’t stand the rain..."
PP: Do you read your own reviews? If you do, you must be having a field day now...
MG: "I’ve stopped now. At the beginning, it’s hard not to because you want positive feedback, but then positive feedback can be just as damning. It means that in interview situations like this it becomes uncomfortable because you know it’s all going into black and white print...I just want to keep working. Only occasionally do I look, but it’s like a reformed drug addict having a re-lapse."
NH: "I try to avoid them as much as possible, but when one goes past on a bus it’s hard to avoid it! Matthew likes to inform me of my good reviews, but thankfully not the bad ones - yet."
MG: "I haven’t seen any. I’ve been fucking looking though!
PP: How well do you rate Julianne’s British accent in A Single Man?
MG: "A lot of people think it’s neither one thing or the other, but that’s often what happens with accents when people live in different places - we pick up accents from the muscularity of how our mouth works. It sounds trans-Atlanticcy, which I love. She based it on Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, which is an interesting choice...
NH: "And she shot her scenes in just two nights - and still lights up the screen!"
PP: Do you have any good backstage stories of your time doing A Single Man?
MG: "How I met Firthy was funny. Because we were playing English men who’d meant to be living in California for a while, we had to look the part. When I got to the hotel I was told that I was needed in his room, but when I got there a woman told me to take of our trousers and stand in the bath. Thankfully, it was only for a spray-tan, but standing there with him, semi-naked for 40 minutes and drinking martinis, is exactly how British guys work.”