TROUBLE DENIM... MADDEN’S AD FEAR
RICHARD FIGHTS SELF-DOUBT DESPITE MARVEL-OUS GIGS
E STARRED in Games of Thrones, Bodyguard and Rocketman... but Richard Madden fears fragrance acting in double denim could be his downfall.
The Scot follows Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt in posing for colognes but he is unconvinced by his blue steel for Calvin Klein’s Defy campaign.
Admitting career paranoia, the LAbased actor confessed to ‘constantly feeling this might be the last time you’re doing anything’ as he battles never feeling ‘good enough’.
He said: ‘You’re always wondering if this is your last job, trying to be better and just only doing things that I feel I can fail in, like the fragrance campaign. I’m a working-class guy from Scotland in double denim doing a very American brand. Can I pull this off?’
Madden, 35, reckons ‘modelling and stuff’ is not his strong point, adding: ‘I become hyper-selfconscious. So again, I suppose that’s part of me challenging myself. How do I pull these (looks) off to get the best out of their vision when it goes against all my instincts, which is like, “you’re a little guy from Scotland who’s not good enough to do this?”’
Despite his self-doubt, Madden is set to enter the Marvel Universe as Ikaris, across from fellow GoT star Kit Harington, plus Gemma Chan, Salma Hayek and Angelina Jolie.
But it’s left him keen to try out something lighter. ‘There was a lot of time on wires, which was just physically f***ing draining,’ he said. ‘I’m dying to do more comedy, I want to do something fun. I feel like I end up playing a lot of serious things.’
He also dreads disappointing Marvel comic fans. ‘I have a huge responsibility because a lot of these fans have owned the characters before you,’ the actor shared. ‘You don’t want to f*** it up for them.’
But if he does, he has the perfect place in his homeland to lie low.
‘I managed to get up and just hide out in the middle of nowhere in the countryside with some friends,’ he said. ‘It’s stunning up there. It really kind of f***s with your head because it’s so out of this world. I love it.’ Read the full interview in the new issue of Wonderland
magazine.