(oh for fuck's sake photobucket)
It’s been nearly six months since Matthew Crawley met his untimely end on the season finale of Downton Abbey, and because people don’t seem to be getting over it anytime soon (WHYYYYYYY?), actor Dan Stevens is doing a bit of better-late-than-never damage control.
“I am sorry about that!” Stevens told Radio Times magazine in excerpts posted online. “I think what emerged is that it’s an unwritten rule that you’re not supposed to die on British television on Christmas Day, and that, specifically, was not my doing. … I didn’t have any say in the manner in which he went. Ultimately, it was in the hands of Julian [Fellowes] and the producers.”
What is being left unsaid, of course, is that the only reason Fellowes and Co. had to write him off at all was because Stevens decided to leave the show— but at least his death means that fans will only have good memories of Mary and Matthew, as opposed to breaking them up to write Matthew off the show. “It was right that he didn’t run off and have an affair with somebody,” Stevens said. “I don’t think that would have been right for Matthew as a character.” [And THAT was the right ending for M/M after they danced around each other for like eight years?! GURL BYE]
This is the first time since leaving the show that Stevens has seemed to acknowledge the general angry sentiment of fans who were shocked to learn that one of the most beloved main characters was being killed off. ("Game of Thrones" fans, can you possibly imagine that feeling?) But Stevens will have plenty more time in the public eye to discuss. He’ll next be seen in The Fifth Estate, a film about WikiLeaks, opposite Benedict Cumberbatch.
Uh, wow, rude. Fellowes clearly said that the only reason he killed him rather than writing him out some other way is because Stovens refused to reduce his role or come back ever. Eternally SMH.
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Russell Crowe: That was one of its main attractions, you know? When I first read the script it was one of those things where that was how it was connecting with me, the question that Jor-El faces and the situation that he’s in. You can take the political situation with Krypton, the Civil War, the rescinding of the individual’s right to choose and all that sort of stuff. But really the biggest personal battle is to take your naturally born infant son and send him away, and the fact that if you don’t do it and if you don’t do it in this moment, then he dies along with the entire history of you planet as it exists. It was an interesting thing…. and there are a lot of metaphorical references to where we are with our treatment of the environment and stuff like that, I found it quite a profound read so I got involved.
Then such a beautiful Karmic circle, cut to twelve years later, in Naperville, Illinois, I’m working out next to this kid everyday, two or three times a day. I’m watching him deal with the pressures of doing what he’s doing, very graciously, and I see the effort that he’s putting in and I’m quietly impressed with how he’s getting about doing his business. And I had this thing in the back of my mind, I was like, “Do I know this guy from somewhere?” And so I asked the trainer, a great guy called Mark Twight, who’s a very enigmatic character at the best of times (laughs). I asked him, “Do I know this guy?” And he said, “Mmmmhmmmm.” And that’s all he said (laughs). So one day we were just standing there, and it was this particularly difficult day. He had being doing stuff on his side of the gym and I’d been doing stuff on my side of the gym – we were both getting our arses kicked by our trainers, you know (laughs)? We just had a little chat afterwards, in pools of sweat (laughs), and I said to him, “Do I know you?” And he said, “Do you remember going to Stowe School?” And I said, “Yeah.” He said, “Well, do you remember a kid coming up to you and talking to you?” I said, “I do….. you asked me about acting, that kid asked me about acting.” He goes, “Yes.” So I said, “What did I say?” He said, “Well, you said: you get treated like sh–, but they pay you pretty well.” And I said, “That’s exactly what I said,” (laughs). So it’s one of those beautiful Karmic moments that the job affords you sometimes.
He’s so playful, you know? I remember seeing him just gesturing wildly and him giving his vision of my character. We just began to throw ideas around, getting some ideas for the nature of her character. And what I liked about Zack, and I think I’m quite spoiled getting to work with him, is that he does keep it so light on set in-between takes. Shooting green screen and on stages can be very impersonal, but he would counterbalance that quite beautifully by telling jokes and talking about movies – he’s a pop culture junky. It was great to watch him and be around that.
Number two, he was talking about certain things that were sort of resonating in me. If he had asked John, John would have written a completely different score as well. This is a very different movie. Then came the whole thing, I was completely overwhelmed, number one, by the iconic nature of it, and number two, John Williams cast a huge and daunting shadow through his brilliance. There was a period of procrastination, plus I had Dark Knight Rises going on, and I kept saying to Chris,“Guys, don’t even talk to me about another movie with the world ‘man’ in it until we finish this one.” Foolishly there came a moment where I said I’m finished, and within fifteen minutes, it wasn’t even an afternoon, there was the phone call.“Get to work!” The only struggle was me. The only person who kept saving me from me was Zack. All my demons, like everybody’s, every artist has those; you don’t want to be compared. You cannot compare yourself to anybody because you’ll always end up on the losing side of things. It just became this thing of do honest work. Look at the movie. Serve the movie. Forget anything that’s happened before. We’re doing our autonomous Man of Steel, I still call it Superman.
ZIMMER: It was abbreviated because I just wouldn’t get started. All I kept thinking about — American icon, I’m going to ruin it for everybody. I had ideas. I had a palette, I had ideas, I knew what I wanted to write about. It’s just the fear of committing to the first few notes because it’s sort of forever. I kept thinking, you only get to do a Superman movie once in your lifetime. There was an artificial importance, being a fan, which came with it. One day Zack phoned and said, “Have you got anything yet?” I’m going, “Uh, uh, uh, I can describe it as little post-its you might be able to put on a fridge and some piano noodles.” And he goes, “Oh, I love piano noodles,” and he says, “You know what, I’m going to come down.” He came down, and I had the theme that was in the trailer, and it was literally me playing it live right in front of him, making mistakes and stuff. He’s a decent human being. He wasn’t going, “Oh my God, this is a disaster!” Because the whole point about it is it’s so simple. It’s unbelievably simple. There’s no great artfulness, there’s no great orchestration flying around, there’s no great whatever. It’s really, really, really, really simple. He’s going, “This is great, we’re off to a good start.”
