Category: Interviews

Film3Sixty has posted a new interview with Matt where he chats about The Rise, among other things.

Film3Sixty: What attracted you to The Rise?
Matt Lewis: I read it in half an hour and thought this is brilliant! Immediately the attraction was that it was very clever, cool, the dialogue was very real.

F3S:  You have worked in film, TV and Theatre, both big and small budget, is there a medium or a way of working that you prefer?
ML: There is a long list for pro and cons of all three of those mediums. Harry Potter was incredible, but it was a big production. Whereas The Rise had a smaller budget, but we were all involved at every level. They’ve all got their little pros and cons, and I like them all for different reasons.

F3S: Is there one that you would like to do more of?
ML: I would like to do more films that are like The Rise. I absolutely love making movies, and I love being involved from beginning to end. I even went in when I was doing my ADR for The Rise and I was sat down talking to Rowan about scenes and the editing process.

F3S: How do you feel about the next movie that JK Rowling is going to be working on?
ML: I don’t know much about it. I haven’t read the book, and I’ve only glanced at the story for a moment but yeah why not? It was such a vivid world that she created, and there was so much there to explore. It was such a massive universe. I think the fans would welcome any new addition to the world. Star Wars has done it for nearly 40 years, with all their spin-offs because that the world was equally vivid. I’m sure I will see it.

In another new interview with the Belfast Telegraph, Matt discusses the differences between filming on a big production like Potter compared to smaller films, like The Rise.

“It was hard work. We filmed it in about five weeks – we didn’t have the budget or the money for more. It was a new experience for me,” he said. “On Potter, we never had time constraints. We would spend days doing the same thing again and again, but on this, we couldn’t do that so we had to be on it and get it right quickly. It was close quarters and people stood on each other’s toes but everyone pulled through together.”

We sat around in the pub having a discussion about the title, music, cinematography and editing – stuff I never would have got involved in on Potter. I loved it. Doing a movie like Potter is fun and there is nothing like it, but sometimes you do feel like a small cog in a big machine.”

He also talked about the difficulty of night shoots:

“The long days were tough but the night shoots were the worst,” the actor admitted. In one scene, he had to punch someone. “It was tough. The sun was setting and we had 40 minutes max. Everyone was getting more stressed, and I had to work with the stuntman to punch him without punching him. I actually punched him in the nose three times and kneed him in the balls twice,” he said.