I want to know your reaction when you’re sitting there in Vancouver and you finally read the book and you’re like…are you like holy shit, I’m involved with this fucking movie or…? 

Matthew: Abso-fucking-loutly.  I mean it’s just like holy shit.  I’ve always wanted to work with Billy Crudup and now I get to see him in pajamas with dots all over his face and Patrick’s brilliant and I think he cast it really interestingly and obviously….back in the day it was meant to be Jude Law and whoever.  That would have been a brilliant fucking movie but a very expensive one because there are expensive people you’re utilizing in that thing and I think it’s kind of brave of him and I think it also fits the bill a little easier for us to be more interesting as well if it isn’t Tom Hanks and Kevin Costner.  I think that might have…where they’d be brilliant acting it might have put off from the believability factor of it.  It might have taken us away from the story and that’s what happens when you get big movie stars in there.

I actually completely agree and that’s one of the reasons I think that…

Matthew: Well, Tom Cruise as Ozymandias might have worked, you don’t know.  You don’t know.  You’ll never know.

I don’t think it would have worked now.  Tom is a whole thing right now with a lot of people, you know?  I think the casting is really good.  I really do.  But I was curious what was it like working with Billy as Dr. Manhattan and that stuff at the end?

Matthew: It takes a while to get used to looking at him without laughing because obviously he is covered in dots, but by the time that I say this that was the last stuff I filmed so by the time we got there we were….it was crucial to get the stuff at Carnac and to find the right levels of performance.  There was one stunt scene where I told my meniscus so my knee was fucking agony and doing these long sorts of stunts and blah, blah, blah, it was hard but so rewarding, ultimately.  And hopefully the stuff in the film will look good and we had a lot of amazing stuntmen so maybe they’ll just use their stuff instead of mine because I’m sure it looks better.

I remember when we were talking on-set, you mentioned that there were many days that you weren’t filming and there were days you were filming a lot.  Can you talk a little bit about what you do in Vancouver when you’re …?

Matthew: Yeah, the down time.  I played a lot of golf on my own.  A lot of the American actors, you know, they got to come for 2 weeks and go away and I was in weather cover quite a bit and also it gets very expensive to fly back to England a lot so I had some…I think I filmed for like 40 days or something and the whole shoot was 6 months so that’s lot of hanging around to do.  But the power of the DVD—I watched a lot of stuff on the box and it rains a huge amount in Vancouver but I go out and play some golf in the rain and it’s a question of how many units of the day can you just find something to do because I’m not great at spending time on my own, but they had cinemas there so I watched everything that was out.

So what do you think—jumping back to Comic-Con for a second—you were there last year.  Where you there on the stage?

Matthew: No it was just Malin, Zack and Jackie.

Oh that’s right.

Matthew: They are used to it.

So this is your first time going?

Matthew: I’ve never been.  First time going so I really don’t know what to expect yet.  I’ve had people sort of jokingly say it’s 80,000 people wandering around in Batman costumes, but it sounds like it’ll be fun.

It’s 130,000 people and it’s basically all sold-out now and not everyone is in costume.

Matthew: Okay.

So you don’t have to stress about that, but I will say that a lot of people are talking… “Watchmen” is the big gun of Comic-Con.  It’s like just…FYI. 

Matthew: That’s fucking amazing, because also the repercussions of making even as I say just half of that crowd, if you can feed some of the anticipation and also not upset them with anything they do see, then we’re winning a battle because they talk and they want to promote something that they like.

Exactly.  Zack told me that he’s showing 3 to 4 minutes of footage from the movie, maybe 5, I don’t know what the number is.

Matthew: Isn’t that great.  I haven’t seen any.

So is he going to show it to you before you go or do you have to watch it on the screen with everyone else?

Matthew: I’m on this press tour…I will be seeing it for the first time with you guys.  I mean, I don’t even know…when does “Dark Knight” come out because the trailer goes out with that.

Someone just reviewed the trailer.  I just got sent an email.  The trailer’s on Thursday night.  It’s in theatres.

Matthew: Oh wow, and what did they say about the trailer?

I literally just clicked on the article. We can…hold on…you ready…

Matthew: Yeah.

Hold on.

Matthew: Are you kidding me? Yes.

I just saw the trailer for “Watchmen” in 15 seconds….I can tell you right now I enjoyed it a lot.  You get to see plenty of Dr. Manhattan. Rorschach looks fantastic as does Night Owl’s ship as it emerges from the water—blah, blah, blah. I’m wondering if we’ll see the full-frontal Doctor…the final shot of the trailer…well, let’s just say crystal palace on Mars is do-able.

Matthew: Fucking great.  Oh my God. 

So there you go.

Matthew: So that sounds good.  That’s just a little teaser trailer, isn’t it?

It’s Zack’s special trailer for “Dark Knight”, so whatever it is.  So jumping off “Watchmen” for a second because I’m sure they’re going to be real pissy if I spend 20 minutes doing this.  What was it…as an actor you went from…you got a lot of good mentions in “The Lookout” and now you’ve done “Brideshead” which you’re obviously you’re really good in it and “Watchmen”.  As for your career, are you sort of amazed at the way it’s been twisting and turning? 

Matthew: Oh, constantly because as you know, we’ve talked about it before, everyone’s under the assumption that you get to choose and it’s like as a person I choose what I’m interested in or it chooses me, you read it and you go that’s good.  I’d like to be involved in it and then you go through the audition process and I’ve been fucking lucky.  And let’s be honest.  I’ve been so fucking lucky and in a way I don’t know…I don’t know what the hell’s next.  I have no idea what’s going to be next, but it’s not from me going okay, now I need to do something completely different again.  You know, sort of I think I’ve got good taste and it’s taste and luck really and I think I’m probably going to get back on the stage next. To take away from having to worry about getting something and new again now but as an actor you want to continually do…you want to show a little bit of range, for sure, but mainly it’s just if you read something and if it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up then you want to do it.

A lot of people talk about how TV right now is so good with the characters that are on the different networks.  Right now you’re on this great run with movies, but could you ever see yourself doing a character on TV and playing that for years?

Matthew: In some ways as long it’s sort of…I don’t know...I have a problem with being away from home a lot because of missing friends and family and having a girlfriend who just got back from New York now to be with me, so that’s not good otherwise being away.  But there would be something quite comforting about playing the same role, I think, day in and day out for awhile.  I think I would quite like that but at the same time it’s nice to try on other clothes.  Do you know what I mean?  If you had the keys to the best wardrobe of suits, you don’t want to wear just one.  So, I don’t know.  It depends.  It could be the world’s greatest TV series and you wouldn’t be able to say no.  If something like “West Wing” came up.

You mention “West Wing” a lot.  Are you like an addict of this?

Matthew: Yeah, I am. I love it.  I don’t know what it is about it.  I just think it’s so intelligent and the level of the acting and obviously when the music comes in (music sounds) you’re like pathos crazy.  But, at the same time, I just think that Bradley Whitford and Rich Schiff, the whole entire cast are just perfect and happens from day one.  The very first opening scene you’re like all the relationships are set and it just sort of pulls you in.

So you’re saying that Aaron Sorkin could….

Matthew: Allison fucking Janney is amazing.

So you’re saying Aaron Sorkin could pull you to TV possibly?

Matthew: If there was anyone who’s going to do it, it would be Aaron Sorkin.

Just thinking.

Matthew: Mission statement.