Don’t pay attention to common wisdom. You should meet your heroes, actor Matthew Goode says.
Cast opposite Anthony Hopkins in “Freud’s Last Session,” Goode was unsure how the two-time Oscar winner would receive him. Since Hopkins had already played C.S. Lewis (Goode’s role), “this could be a very intimidating job,” he remembered thinking. “He’s one of the greatest actors of all time.
"Luckily, I had a great experience. He was amazing.”
Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins, left, and Matthew Goode star in "Freud's Last Session," a "what if" between Sigmund Freud and author C.S. Lewis.
Hopkins, as you may guess, stars as Sigmund Freud, the acclaimed psychoanalyst. The film suggests what might have happened had the two met and discussed their views of religion.
To make the visit flow, director Matthew Brown filmed “Last Session” chronologically, using sets that were informed by experts at the Freud Museum.
“We were doing seven pages a day, which is a lot,” Brown said.
Shot in Dublin at the Ardmore Studios, the production was designed to give the two actors time together before other scenes (which fleshed out the story) were filmed. “It was pretty amazing because it was an opportunity for Matthew and Tony to really go to work uninterrupted by all these other scenes,” Brown said. “We were able to shoot it somewhat chronologically as well.”
While the two actors had plenty of discussions during the shoot, they didn’t side with Team Lewis or Team Freud.
Matthew Goode plays C.S. Lewis in "Freud's Last Session."
It’s incredibly complicated,” Goode said of the “what if?” storyline. “You’ve got two of the greatest minds of the 20th century and, by the end of it, you’re still not sure what’s right.”
Lewis’ “trilemma,” Goode said, boils down to this: “If you actually read the Bible, there are only three decisions that can be made (about Jesus): One, that he’s mad. One, that he’s bad. And one, that he’s actually God or the son of God. You’re just trying to strike them off.
“You go, ‘Well, it doesn’t seem like he’s a deceitful person trying to get money out of people. He seems quite lucid and he seems slightly far out.’ But I don’t really like to let people know what I think about anything.”
Goode and Hopkins, however, were of one mind about the experience. They enjoyed working with each other. According to press information, Hopkins said it was easy to work with Goode: “He’s so smart and subtle and superb.”
Both did their homework – researching the characters before they started memorizing the script.
“I’m not well-versed in psychoanalysis, but I am fascinated by psychology. I’m intrigued by Freud and all these strange parts of life that seem mystical because to me, it’s all a mystery,” Hopkins said.
Two-time Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins plays Sigmund Freud in "Freud's Last Session."
Having played Lewis in “Shadowlands,” Hopkins had an edge over Goode. Both, however, had access to a series of lectures Dr. Armond M. Nicholi Jr. gave at Harvard on the atheist theories of Freud and the teachings of Lewis. The seminar was called, “The Question of God.”
Those lectures were used as the basis for Mark St. Germain’s play, “Freud’s Last Session.”
Brown expanded the debate to include important moments in their lives and Freud’s relationship with his daughter, Anna. The film, as a result, includes fantasy sequences and flashbacks. A meeting between the two? It didn’t happen, even though they were contemporaries.
"Freud's Last Session," however, lets them play in the same sandbox, making a case for their beliefs.
On the set, Brown said, "we had a really safe space. We kept a lot of people out and the two (were able to dig into the debate). It was a beautiful thing for a couple of weeks."
Anthony Hopkins plays Sigmund Freud in "Freud's Last Session."
