“From really good to really shit”: the actor who crumbled in the presence of Robert De Niro
If you’ve ever experienced the phenomenon of doing something brilliant when you’re on your own, like maybe 50 keepy-ups in a row or reciting the alphabet backwards, only for you to run and get your mum and dad to watch before utterly failing to replicate it, then today’s story about Robert De Niro will probably resonate with you completely.
It entails the Succession star Matthew Macfadyen, who is undoubtedly a very, very good actor indeed given he has won three Baftas, two Emmys and a Golden Globe for his work in TV over the years, and more specifically what happened when he auditioned in the presence of Robert De Niro, which in acting terms must be a bit like trying to cook your dinner while Gordon Ramsay looks over your shoulder taking notes and saying things like ‘Fuck me. Wow’, and not in a good way.
To be fair to MacFadyen, his run-in with Italian-American acting royalty came some 20 years ago, a long time before he had gleaming trophies on his mantelpiece, and just after he had begun to get some attention not just for his performances on the BBC series Spooks but also for the Joe Wright period drama Pride and Prejudice as Mr Darcy with his iconic hand flex.
MacFadyen recalled his experience back then to Backstage, saying, “I auditioned for Robert De Niro. It’s not really a horror story, but I auditioned for him in London for a film called The Good Shepherd. The first time around was really good, and I got called back the same day, and it was really bad. It’s a lot to go into, but it was really excruciating. It went from really good to really shit.”
While he missed out on a place in the cast for the 2006 CIA thriller, many of the best Hollywood had to offer did not, as they lined up to appear for the director De Niro, including Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin, Joe Pesci, Angelina Jolie, Eddie Redmayne and a host of others. It told the tale of a counterintelligence agent, played by Damon, and his journey from early days at Yale to key involvement in the nuclear crisis at the start of the 1960s involving the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Despite the all-star cast and De Niro behind the camera, the film faced a mixed reception on release, although it did make a small profit at the box office.
Macfadyen didn’t let the disappointment derail him for long, however, and made several hit movies over the following five years, including Robin Hood, Frost/Nixon and Anna Karenina.
Most recently, he has been focusing on TV, with a part in the Netflix historical drama Death by Lightning with Michael Shannon and Nick Offerman, and this month in The Miniature Wife with Elizabeth Banks, a comedy in which his character is a scientist who shrinks his other half to about six inches tall.
He’s also currently filming another miniseries, this time The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, with Charlie Hunnam, an adaptation of the John Le Carre Cold War classic, which is also currently a stage show on London’s West End. Made by the BBC and MGM, the series is part of a wider planned franchise of Le Carre stories called Legacy of Spies.
