Matthewisms

A compilation of some quotes and bits that have been reported about Matthew Macfadyen that make him such a special person

• Today he orders a double espresso and asks that we move tables so that he can 'have a ciggie'
• 'great fun playing a spy'
• He's always been one for spy novels and his favourite writer is John le Carré.
• we talk about 24. Macfadyen is a big fan.
• 'Actually, I lived in Indonesia for a time,' he announces, lighting up another cigarette. 'Yeah, I lived in Jakarta for a few years -- my dad worked for an oil company.'
• I was born in Norfolk
• 'We did live in Scotland for a while -- Aberdeen and Dundee,'
• 'What I do remember is my teacher at school, I went to Robert Gordon. Her name was Mrs Wire. It was the equivalent of someone being called Mrs Strict or Mrs Knife or something. She scared the life out of me. We used to sit there drinking our milk, our little lips trembling.'
• he says he doesn't know much about politics
• 'But I try to avoid being typecast,' he says. 'You get offered roles that are like what you've just played. But it's not as interesting to do that.'
• I'm quite a placid boy, really,'
• I couldn't sing ...'
• 'I read a lot actually.
• 'he describes as his 'plump face'.
• home along the Thames in Twickenham
• I just think it's a bit funny how because of the TV series I keep getting cast as these very serious blokes when in fact I'm a big clown and I relish doing comedy.
• Actor who most inspires: "It's probably cliche but I worship Lawrence Olivier."
• Consideration in choosing a role: "Does it give me butterflies?"
• So, would you work out of LA? I'd love to if it was something good.
• I miss theatre now.
• When he was a teenager, he devoured actors' biographies and the Rada section of his copy of Kenneth Branagh's book Beginnings was dogeared within a week. When he met Branagh recently for a script reading, he wanted to tell him how inspirational it had been. But he said nothing. "I would have felt such a dork, you know."
• Obviously I’m brilliant at riding horses, I was born in the saddle. [laughs]
• "I don't think I look particularly attractive as Darcy."
• Macfadyen is yet to be sucked into Hollywood. Would he consider a part in a vast, silly blockbuster? "Er, yeah, I guess. But I don't get excited by the whole zhooshiness factor....Apart from earning an awful lot of money, why would you want to go to LA and try to bag a film regardless of how crap it is, when you could be struggling with such a challenge? It's bullshit."
• ...fierce admiration he felt for the actors he admired as a teenager - Laurence Olivier, Kenneth Branagh, his present co-star Michael Gambon.
• after spending time as a child in the Far East, he was sent to boarding school in the Midlands
• So acting for him is essentially all about storytelling
• 'It's a real skill to be able to publicise yourself,' he says, with a sigh, and leaves the rest of the thought unspoken.
• 'I've always been unable to resist reading my reviews. It's masochistic.
• He talks enthusiastically about architecture (he's a fan of the Swiss Re building)
• "I don't like doing Q&As. I turned into a stuttering idiot."
• 'It's very sexy being married."
• 'The point of being an actor,' he continues with great conviction, 'the whole idea of being an actor is that people don't know who you are.' He pauses and begins to become invisible again. 'If they know who you are you can't do it,' he says simply. 'You're f***ed.'
• I see my big face and my funny hair and I think, "Pudding head!"' He bursts out laughing. Does he see himself as good-looking? 'Um. No. Not classically good-looking.' Could he pull women when he was single? 'No! I wasn't chatty-uppy.' Why not? He gives a faint, wry smile. 'Not confident enough.'
• I tell him Keeley had said recently that he wasn't very romantic, and he gives a great bark of laughter. 'Did she? Because my vanity is I'm terribly romantic!' He grins.
• He says he is much happier 'cooking and faffing round' at home than going out. When I ask him to describe his perfect day he paints a domestic picture: 'Wake up, have a bowl of porridge, play with the kids. I would surprise Keeley and take her somewhere, very quickly.'
• I would hate not to do a play every couple of years. I think it's not me. I did four or five years in telly, and by the end of it was drained. I was a bit sick of myself. I didn't feel like an actor anymore. That sounds silly, but when you're doing a play you're using different muscles, and it blew all the cobwebs away.
• "I don't feel like a romantic lead; I guess I feel more like a character actor,"
• Q: When you see what Keira has accomplished by 19, do you ever say ‘What was I doing at that age?' MacFadyen: I was here. I was at BAM, doing a play. Q: The Brooklyn Academy of Music? Do you see a difference between American and English audiences? MacFadyen: Yes. Much more generous, much more savvy than the West End.
• Yes! You'll see me smile...although I don't smile that much... it'll be different. (About his role in Death at a Funeral)
• He has the accent of a public schoolboy and the charming manner of an Evelyn Waugh character, slightly bewildered by it all.
• which actors he admires....he eventually admits uncomfortably to liking Sean Penn and Meryl Streep. The reason for this, he confesses later, is for fear of 'sounding like a dickhead'.
• He relished playing a fundamental preacher and, with the perfect accent, he has struck a chord with Ulster audiences. "People were saying I sounded just like Ian Paisley but I didn't know, I didn't base it on him."
• While his great grandfather was a prominent member of the Welsh church, there were no immediate family reference points for Matthew to draw on.
• he is endearingly unsure of himself
• Of his latest role, he says he hasn’t seen Middletown properly, and he doesn’t generally like watching himself on screen. “It’s always quite uncomfortable. You’re sort of thinking “well that’s not bad”, and then you’re appalled that you’re thinking that. It’s either rising panic or rising… delight.
• Acting’s quite simple, I think, and because it’s simple, it can be quite difficult.
• After a while it becomes clear that he’s surprised by his success
• his engineer grandfather was an enthusiastic member of an amateur dramatics society, and his mother trained as a drama teacher
• One of the things that puzzles him most about his career is that he frequently finds himself playing deep characters, at odds with themselves. “It’s odd really because I don’t think of myself as particularly conflicted at all, but I have been playing those types of roles.
• I would always cast myself in a funny part.
• Like I played that spy part in Spooks, and that made me so uncomfortable. Initially I felt “this is not me, it’s not working”. I just thought I’m being really ghastly, just wooden
• How would he describe his acting style?.. I’d like not to have a style.
• Returning to the thought that he is more suited to comedy, he tells me that one of his favourite parts was a humorous role as Felix Carbury
• Later I ask him if he has a philosophy for living, and he thinks hard. You know, I say, something that gets you through the day… “Yes” he erupts, “is it too early to have a glass of wine?”
• “I’m helping people understand their shitty lives and I’ll be able to shine a light...
• "I have very straight hair but, on The Way We Live Now, it was bouffed and curled to within an inch of its life. That made me very happy indeed,"
• He was horrified by his performance in the Ben Elton written and directed film Maybe Baby. "I was rubbish. I saw myself up on screen and nearly died," he says.
• He thinks that a childhood spent moving around gave him a certain "nous before my years".
• You can't sit in breeches like I'm sitting now, for instance. Well, you could but it would be quite uncomfortable. (Pride & Prejudice)
• Getting the accent right was challenging for Matthew, and he worked hard on an idiosyncratic Northern Ireland tone. (Middletown)
• "I had one really bad interview," he admits. "I hadn't even started rehearsing and the interviewer kept asking, 'How is your Darcy going to be different?' and I thought, 'Oh, f*** off !'."
• And Macfadyen had another good reason to be media wary. His relationship with Keeley Hawes,...
• though Matthew stayed in his bachelor pad in London's Shoreditch
• And Spencer and Matthew get on really well
• We went to the boutique Joseph beforehand and Matthew chose a brown 1940s-style dress for me
• "Matthew just came straight out with and said, "I love you," in the rain one day.
• Matthew and I met when Myles was just one and a half, so he got the practice in early with childcare - he's quite a relaxed daddy as a result."
• "He's very calm. I'm the fiery one, but when I start going off he just says, "Shut up" quite calmly,"
• Matthew has a lot of integrity in his work and his life, and that's stood him in good stead. He's a lovely, gentle man; I have faith in him, which makes for a very relaxed relationship
• And Matthew's definitely broody. (Matthew on the topic of having more children)
• Part of you wants to surprise people.
• Macfadyen has never been a particularly analytical actor....“I love the idea,” he says, “of actors chatting in the wings and strolling on and being in the moment.”
• “As an actor, you can’t really play feelings; you’re just playing actions."
• I got my first job was a ten-month tour, Cheek By Jowl, so I worked for long time on that, and then came back and had four months off. But basically I did three world tours on the trot when I left, so I was working all the time.
• But I try to be fussy about the parts I play. I think that’s quite prudent, it means you’re stretching different muscles, and you’re scaring yourself by doing something which is out of your comfort zone.
• "I can't bear the endless magazine articles, the camera following you down the road. . . I still love that image of the curtain coming down and the actor being anonymous."
• "Actors can be a bit snooty about TV, but I think this is a good example of how how important - and wonderful¬a medium television can be."
• "No, because I'm pleased with the way the story has been handled. As an actor, you can't judge your character. Otherwise you'd never play Macbeth. In the great mulch of human behaviour, people do terrible things and they do beautiful things. Either is good for an actor."
• There are no immediate plans to court Hollywood. "I hate the idea of touting myself," he says simply. "And I've been very lucky with work here."
• Publicity, however hateful, is part of the job. "The thing about acting," he offers, "is that you can't do it on your own. You're part of a process. You need other people. Other people need you. That's the heartbreaking thing about it."
• "I read the script in the bath..."
• "Women don't chase after me"