Subtle actor takes on larger-than-life role
‘The Offer’s’ Evans ‘definitely different’ than anything else Goode has done
Even in the cocaineand-creativity-fueled orgiastic landscape of Hollywood in the 1960s and ’70s, Robert Evans stood out.
From behind an extensive selection of oversize glasses, the preternaturally tanned actor-turned-studio executive saw brilliance in scripts and actors where no one else did. In fewer than 10 years, he took the neardead Paramount Pictures to No. 1 by launching a string of film classics, including “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Love Story,” “The Godfather” and “Chinatown,” all while maintaining a “This is Hollywood, baby” lifestyle that earned him the title “the playboy peacock of Paramount.”
He was, in a phrase, larger than life. And nothing is tougher to play than “larger than life.”
Unless, perhaps, you are an actor better known for enigmatic subtlety than joyous scenery chewing.
In Paramount+’s “The Offer,” which chronicles the epic “almost didn’t happen” journey of “The Godfather” from book to screen, Matthew Goode takes on the role of Evans, who fought for (and sometimes against) Francis Ford Coppola’s iconic vision — and what seems to be a marriage of opposites turns out to be, as such marriages often are, a perfect match.
Goode has built a career on playing the less showy parts in very showy stories: the responsible if smitten bodyguard in “Chasing Liberty,” Charles Ryder in “Brideshead Revisited,” Colin Firth’s dead lover in “A Single Man,” Finn Polmar in “The Good Wife.” He has played more than one creepy villain but is cast more often in romantic roles. Paired with Vanessa Kirby’s Princess Margaret, Goode’s wildly seductive Tony Armstrongjones brought sex appeal to “The Crown” just as his Henry Talbot had, a couple of years earlier, taught Michelle Dockery’s Lady Mary to love again on “Downton Abbey.” (And to answer “Downton” fans’ most pressing Gooderelated question, he does not appear in the upcoming film, “Downton Abbey: A New Era,” and does not know if his character is alive or dead.)
But even when playing a brooding vampire in forbidden love with a witch, as he did in the recently concluded “A Discovery of Witches,” Goode tends to conjure his characters’ intensity from restraint. Few actors get more out of a secondslong stare or a quirked smile than Goode.
Evans was not a man known for restraint.
With a singular presence and a deeply personal cadence, he preened and strode, quipped, opined, demanded and screamed into many, many telephones. Not an obvious role for a soft-spoken Brit. And no one was more surprised than Goode when he was cast.
“Originally, they sent me scripts for another role,” he said during a recent interview, “and I thought, ‘Any day now they’ll be phoning for an audition or a meet for this role.’ And it just never materialized. I thought, ‘Well, I guess it’s going to be someone famous and someone really good, and I’ll watch it anyway.’ Because,” he adds, laughing, “sometimes you don’t watch it because you feel really wounded.”
Then, one day, his phone rang. It was a transatlantic call with all his agents. “I wondered, ‘What have I done? I’m in real trouble.’ And they said, ‘You’ve got the job, you’ve got Bob Evans.’ I was like, ‘What are you talking about? I haven’t met with anyone, haven’t talked to anyone.’ But my agent said, ‘We said yes on your behalf.’ ”
It wasn’t until he spoke with director Dexter Fletcher that he actually believed he’d been cast. “(Producer) Nikki (Toscano) said I was the only one they had considered, and I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, which big star dropped out at the last minute,’ but I didn’t want to question it.”
This was well after the scandal-plagued Armie Hammer dropped out as “Godfather” producer Al Ruddy, to be replaced by Miles Teller.
“The Offer” is based in large part on Ruddy’s memory of events and is told from his perspective; it will no doubt spark the sort of debate common to scripted retellings of famous recent events. Coppola, for example, had by many accounts a much more antagonistic relationship with Evans than the series portrays.
Goode says the series, now streaming, was thoroughly fact-checked, though “as Bob would say, there’s your version and my version and somewhere in between is the truth.”
Evans was “definitely different than anything
I’ve done,” he said. Since he starred in the swoony teen romance “Chasing Liberty,” Goode has done romance, mystery, fantasy, lots of period dramas and even the superhero genre — he played Ozymandias in the 2009 film “Watchmen.” Caught somewhere between romantic lead and character actor, Goode has
become one of those reliable, ubiquitous performers whose quiet force often allows others to shine more brightly.
His role in “Downton” came about while he was shooting “Self/less,” a film in which he co-starred with Dockery. “She said, ‘Why don’t you come and play my husband,’ ” Goode said. “So I was cast by Michelle Dockery.”
He is not upset, by the way, that he is not in the new “Downton” movie. “I tend to end series rather than start them, and the ‘Downton’ family is very close. And there are so many actors that it seems impossible they were able
to schedule the ones who are in it.”
Also, he had something else to do. It’s tough for even a terrific series to stand out in today’s wildly overpopulated television landscape, but given its subject matter, and the fact that it heralds the
50th anniversary of “The Godfather” “The Offer” has a better chance than most at getting the attention it deserves.
As does Goode, who, despite starring in films and series that have won many awards, has few of his own. With any luck, his portrayal of Evans will change that. Taking us through, as Goode says,
the best and worst of the man, it captures the highwire thrill of moviemaking. Goode’s Evans doesn’t just swing big, he swings big with confidence and joy. He is larger than life because he believes that movies make life larger than itself, and Goode makes us believe that too.
At the end of filming on “The Offer,” the real Ruddy gave each cast member an inscribed glass horse head. “That’s something I’ll be able to treasure,” Goode said. “My mantle isn’t too cluttered, so I should be able to fit that up there.”
Perhaps next year, it will be a little more cluttered than it was.