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French actor Mathieu Amalric talks about his role
as the villainous Dominic Greene in the 22nd James
Bond film "Quantum of Solace"...
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Mathieu Amalric Q+A
23rd March 2009
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How do you think Quantum
Of Solace is different from other
Bond films?
This has to deal with feelings. James Bond is almost a broken heart in this
film and he has the good and the bad that are almost struggling inside himself.
Sometimes we were trying to forget that we were doing a Bond film.
What’s your take on Dominic
Greene?
Marc Forster told me, “Your eyes are enough to be a villain.” So
you try to find moments in your life where you’re a monster. And as there
is in this film something about a relationship with a woman, that helped to
find moments where you get crazy and that can explain then why you need power.
You have to find intimate stuff, not just that I want to conquer. Power is
not enough – it doesn’t help you to act. If you need the power,
it’s because you have a problem.
How did you find Marc Forster as a director?
Marc’s always trying to grab things that you’re not conscious of,
doing two takes in a row which is a technique to make the actor unaware of
what he’s doing. He wants things to happen in the moment on set. He just
wanted my face – no scars, no metal jaw, no white cat, no accessories,
nothing. I just had my face. With Marc, you always work on the moment. |
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Above: Mathieu Amalric as Dominic
Greene
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You said you tried to forget you were making
a Bond film – how
do you mean?
Sometimes it was nice to forget that it was a Bond
film because it’s a way of avoiding clichés. If I know I’m
the villain, I’m going to act like a villain so sometimes
it’s better to not even think I’m a villain. And
sometimes that’s what happens in our real life. We think
we are nice guys and then one night your wife tells you that
she never felt so alone and that you didn’t do this, you
didn’t do that, you’re a bastard. And you didn’t
even know it.
Did you see him as a lunatic?
There’s something missing
in his mind – he’s
crazy. I tried to bring something crazy and we feel this craziness
at the end with the physical fight. It’s just wild. We
tried to do something very savage. You try and search things
that you’re not allowed to do in real life. I love to do
those things. And with Daniel, we had to be very, very precise.
Were you worried about injuring Daniel, or him injuring you?
You
have to abandon yourself completely. You can’t just
take the piece of metal and slam with all your hate and stop
just before. I had to hit him. So I had to see with Daniel, How
much could I hit him? And he had to hit me too because you feel
it. So that’s where there’s a big intimacy and respect
for the other actor. It was very precise.
They don’t hold back, that’s
for sure…
Usually there was something in the Bonds with James Bond and
the villain usually have a sort of gentlemen relationship and
they spend quite a lot of time together drinking tea. In this
one, it’s not that at all because Bond has to find where
is the danger coming from. And once he find that, he doesn’t
even know what the guy’s looking for. We don’t have
that many scenes together, we just hit, we just fight.
