Woody Allen Discusses "Match Point"

By Cole Smithey

In Woody Allen’s decision to abandon his traditional Manhattan locations for the cobbled streets of London, Allen reinvents himself as an auteur with more than a few surprises left up his sleeve. "Match Point" follows the rapid leap across Britain’s social classes by Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Chris Wilton a former tennis pro whose operatic ambition and greed is predicated on lust. Upon marrying into a filthy rich family, Chris turns his amorous attention to Nola (Scarlett Johansson) the American actress girlfriend of his new brother-in-law Tom (Matthew Goode). Adultery turns to murder as Allen skillfully weaves together a dark tapestry of desire run amok. Lady luck plays heavily into the theme of "Match Point" which points out the fallibility of justice and the nature of punishment. At 70 years of age Woody Allen has found a new muse in Scarlett Johansson, and made a movie that is as rich in character as it is in passion. The following interview was given at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Q: Why did you choose to leave your trademark Manhattan digs to film "Match Point" in London?

WA: It has become harder and harder in the United States to make films unhampered by outside influences. I’ve always been able to steer clear of that and keep the business people out of my hair completely, but I found it was quite easy to do in London. So, I made the film there.

Q: Did you have the idea of setting the story in London before you wrote the screenplay?

WA: No, it was an idea that I had that could work in a number of places. When it became determined that we were going to film in London, I wrote it for London, but I could have written that same film to be made in New York or San Francisco or Paris as well.

Q: Were you aware when you were writing "Match Point" that it would be more of a drama than a comedy?

WA: As I’ve said many times in interviews, I write the idea that pops into my head at the time. Sometimes it’s a silly idea, sometime it’s a dramatic idea, but there is no particular plan to it. It just happened to be what came to me in the shower that day or when I was walking down the street and so I wrote it.

Q: You haven’t acted in your recent films. Will you ever appear in your films again?

WA: I’m working on a film in which I’m acting. Sometimes the ideas have a good role for me to act, and other ideas I have just don’t have a good part for me, but it’s just chance.

Q: What do like so much about Scarlett Johansson?

WA: I like everything about her – she’s beautiful, she’s a very gifted and wonderful actress. She’s a very fine dramatic actress and, as you will see after our next film together, a very talented comic actress. She’s a pleasure to work with, so for me it’s a privilege.

Q: Is it different for you to work with British actors as opposed to American actors?

WA: Well, it’s very interesting, to an American ear British actors all sound great. To us, they all sound wonderful. Maybe to another British person, they might be able to tell that there might be something wrong somewhere. So, from my perspective, every single person in the movie did it superbly because they’re speaking my dialogue in a way that I’ve never heard before and it’s very satisfying.

Q: How and why did you choose Jonathan Rhys Myers for the lead role in "Match Point"?

WA: I saw him in a movie and I thought this is exactly the person I want to play this character. It just comes out of him automatically. The minute he shows up, he is the character, and I hired him and he justified my faith in him completely.

Q: He certainly doesn’t appear to be fulfilling any notion of an alter ego for you in this story.

WA: The truth of the matter is that I never have an alter ego in the movies. That’s a fiction that the press has made up over the years, and it’s fun to write that. It gives them something to write. I’ll hire actors as diverse as Will Ferrell, Kenneth Branagh, and John Cusack that bear no resemblance to me and bear no resemblance in performance or style but, because they’re playing the part that I would have played if I were younger, they think of them as alter egos. But, they’re not. None of them bear any remote resemblance to me really, but it’s a pleasant fiction so I don’t say anything.

Q: What qualities do actors have to have to be in a Woody Allen film?

WA: Naturalness; I don’t like theatrical actors and actresses. I like people that talk like real human beings. Very often when I’m looking at actors, they come into my room and they talk very naturally and they’re casual. And then I give them something to read and suddenly they talk completely differently. It’s totally artificial and theatrical, and all they have to do is talk like we’re talking now. But you’d be surprised at how many actors and actresses don’t do that, so I’m always looking for people that just sound like real human beings.

Q: You didn’t enter "Match Point" in the competition at Cannes, yet it turned out to be the critical darling of the festival. Why didn’t you enter it?

WA: I don’t believe in competition for artistic things. I just like the atmosphere of the Cannes festival. I don’t want to win anything or lose anything.

Q: There’s a cynical tone in the film toward crime and punishment.

What are your thoughts on the nature of people getting away with murder?

WA: I never think that I feel cynical in general. I always feel the cynicism is reality with maybe an alternate spelling or something because I feel that I have real perspective on this particular issue of punishment in society. I feel that it’s clear to every thinking person that there’s a gigantic amount of injustice and overt crimes in all walks of life that are perpetrated everyday, from emotional crimes to physical crimes to international crimes, that go absolutely unpunished and very often lavishly rewarded. So, I don’t think my point of view on it is cynical. I think it really is an accurate perspective.