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Of all the casting choices in WATCHMEN, the one that bugs me the most is Matthew Goode as Ozymandias. And it has nothing to do with acting talent or anything like that (in other words, no disrespect to Matt Goode), it has to do with a mismatch between character and actor.
You see, Ozymandias differs from pretty much every other character in WATCHMEN (except for Sally Jupiter, I guess) in that he revels in the attention he gets as a superhero. The other characters are introverted, depressed, withdrawn, and/or misanthropic loners who are hiding from the public. Ozymandias, on the other hand, is a freaking rock star. He’s a celebrity, and he loves it. He hangs out with musicians, he has a TV show, he makes action figures of himself – he’s as big as it gets.
Over the years, a number of equally big names have been considered for the role, most notably Jude Law and Tom Cruise. Basically, the idea was to cast a celebrity as a celebrity – which I think works perfectly.
Instead, however, we have indie darling Matthew Goode filling the very big purple boots. Now, from what I’ve seen of Goode (which is admittedly very little) he’s a talented guy, but he still doesn’t seem right to play the world’s biggest superstar. He a little too quiet and reserved for a man with an ego the size of Manhattan (literally…) In short, I have a really hard time believing that this guy would be accepted amongst the ranks of American socialites.
Also, I have the same issue with his age that I have with a number of the other WATCHMEN actors. Ozymandias is supposed to be in his 40s, and Goode is about ten years shy. I’ll say it again, age is incredibly important to WATCHMEN, and Goode doesn’t have the experienced, wizened look needed to play a believable Ozymandias.
Who would I cast? I think they should have done whatever it took to get Tom Cruise. The man truly is perfect for the role. Basically imagine if Cruise had been a superhero before he became an actor and you have Ozymandias.
And for the record, I could have made a “not Goode enough” pun, but I refrained.
I’m extremly glad no big Hollywood names are in Watchmen. I’m getting sick of the usual self-obsessed narcisist superstar crowd.
I agree after seeing the movie that he was not the best cast he came off more humble than an self-obsessed attention whore, however after thinking of Jude Law playing the part I think he would have been a great cast. Jude Law comes off to me as a self-obsessive attention monger which I think would have filled the role perfectly.
I’m personally very glad that a big celebrity name wasn’t cast for Ozymandias, or for any of the Watchmen characters when it comes to that. I believe that this makes them much more unique in our minds and I find it much more refreshing to see some new faces.
I find the casting of Matthew Goode odd for the role, but not necessarily for the same reasons. The age is one thing that bothered me too. However, what bothered me the most is the huge difference between the first impression both of these characters make. The graphic novel version is literally and metaphorically so golden and shiny and perfect that as a contrast, the ending comes as much more of a shock. The movie version of the character projects something dark from the beginning so it’s not as much of a surprise and the effect is much weaker.
I didn’t perceive the graphic novel one as particularly seeking the attention he gets for other reasons then what it allows him to do as a result of being popular. The man is so intelligent, he probably knows how to play the pieces to win everytime. In that sense, I would’ve thought that he gets his gratification from winning, not necessarily directly from his popularity.
I love the way Matthew Goode portrayed Ozymandias, but I see it as an alternate version of the character; based on the same concept but with so many changes that you can no longer directly associate him with the graphic novel version.
Sorry for the long reply and thanks for sharing your thoughts on the subject