British actor Matthew Goode has revealed to the U.K. Telegraph that he recently auditioned for the role of Bilbo Baggins in Guillermo Del Toro’s upcoming J.R.R. Tolkien adaptation of, “The Hobbit.”
Some say the actor is pretty much the poor man’s James McAvoy (an actor constantly linked to the Baggins role), but he recently evinced some real talents in his small role as Colin Firth lover in Tom Ford’s “A Single Man.” But, at the end of the day, does he have the chops to hold together a large scale two-part Del Toro epic? On the outside, possible not, but then again did Elijah Wood? Not many of the “Lord of The Rings” cast members were huge names at the time, but obviously Peter Jackson’s impressive world all turned them into stars (and people like Orlando Bloom were pretty much relative unknowns). Plus del Toro has said in the past, it’s about actors who fit the role first and foremost, not stars.
Goode’s biggest film to date was Zack Snyder’s “Watchmen” adaptation, a film which even he admits he was miscast in and since then he’s done the dead-on-arrival rom-com “Leap Year” (which he also slams as nothing more than “a nice time and I got paid”) and an upcoming cameo in Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant’s “Cemetery Junction.”
It’s wouldn’t be the worst choice, but either way perhaps Goode should do himself a bit of a favor by not shit talking his past movies. Is McAvoy really out of the picture? Will Goode get the role? Here’s the rule of thumb to remember: actors who generally are in line to get a part, generally don’t talk about it. Actors who usually have no shot, tend to prematurely flap their gums. Just sayin’. [via Movieline]