Matthew-Lewis.com

Matthew’s play Our Boys, which just finished it’s West End run last night, has been nominated as the Most Inspiring West End Show in the West End Frame Awards. It is up against some pretty tough competition so make sure to vote via the West End Frame website!! As of the time of this post, Our Boys is in 3rd place with 10% of the vote. From the website:

Voting for Most Inspiring West End Show is only open for 12 days as voting must close on Saturday 22nd December 2012 at 5pm. The result will be announced shortly after voting closes on our Twitter and Facebook pages. The result can be previewed until Wednesday 19th December 2012.

Matthew Lewis’ play Our Boys has been nominated for two What’s on Stage Awards for 2013! It has been nominated for the following:

The IMAIL Best Ensemble Performance

Chariots of Fire – at Hampstead & the Gielgud
Let It Be – at the Prince of Wales
Our Boys – at the Duchess
Richard III & Twelfth Night – at Shakespeare’s Globe & the Apollo
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – at the National, Cottesloe
The Ladykillers – at the Gielgud

Best Play Revival

A Doll’s House – at the Young Vic
Abigail’s Party – at the Menier Chocolate Factory & Wyndham’s
Long Day’s Journey into Night – at the Apollo
Our Boys – at the Duchess
She Stoops to Conquer – at the National, Olivier
The Judas Kiss – at Hampstead

You can vote, starting today, on the What’sOnStage website, voting closes on January 31st. The awards will be presented on February 17th.  You can buy tickets to the Awards Concert via this page.

In a new interview with Mirror Online, Matthew talks about Our Boys and his life post-Harry Potter and how he still disagrees when people call hima “hunk” and more. Of his reaction to the recent obsession with his looks he says:

“It was just a few good camera angles in New York,” he says. “I wasn’t attractive when I was growing up and I don’t think I am now. It was never something I associated with me, ever, so it came as a shock. It was never, like, ‘Let me take these ears off then you’ll see’.”

He says: “Julia Roberts says it in Notting Hill. ‘Eventually, people will realise that I can’t act and I’m not that good-looking’ and stuff. You’re just thinking, ‘Tomorrow they’re going to figure it out.’ […] It was very nice to hear it said about me – very humbling, you know – it’s just a lot of pressure.”

In the interview he discusses Our Boys and how his character Mick, has some similarities with Neville:

There are a lot of similarities between my character Mick and Neville – he’s the butt of a lot of jokes. He’s a soldier, talking about sex and being overtly racist and sexist because he doesn’t know any better. Potter fans won’t expect that but hopefully he’s not too far detached that they get upset about it.”

The play is set in a military hospital and the central theme is the camaraderie between the sick soldiers. “The research was meticulous,” says Matt. “We had a lecture from an officer about the army of 1984 – it was a peacetime army. Lads were in Germany or sunbathing in Cyprus. But it’s also about the boredom of the 80s. People only had three TV channels, Betamax and a Walkman. They have to entertain themselves by playing pranks on people.”

He also talks about some of his jobs when he was first starting out:

“The fact that I was in Sharpe – for one scene as ‘boy in workplace’ – that is the pinnacle of my career to him because I was with the King of Yorkshire, Sean Bean. [see a photo here]

“I was the face of Warburton’s when I was little too. That’s a close second.”

Read the full interview at the link above or in the press archive.

Today, November 16th, Matthew was a guest on ITV’s This Morning to talk about his play Our Boys currently showing on the West End. It is now available on the ITV website for those fans living in the UK. Unfortunately I haven’t found a version for those of us not in the UK, this post will be updated when I do.

The description of the episode is as follows:

A preview of the weekend’s X Factor, the latest news from I’m a Celebrity, Omid Djalili talks about his tour, and Matthew Lewis aka Neville Longbottom in Harry Potter pops in.

If anyone is able to capture the video please send it in! (webmiss[at]magical-menagerie.com)

Matthew Hemley, of The Stage, recently interviewed Matthew Lewis. In the interview the Matt’s talked about Our Boys, life Post-Potter and much more! Some snippets may be read below:

“I am fortunate that I get sent scripts and get to meet people I would never have met had I not done Harry Potter,” he admits. “But I feel I had to come out of that show and prove that I am not a one trick pony and can do other stuff. I have to start at the bottom really. I am fortunate that it opened doors but now I have to step through them.”

He adds: “I did feel immediately after it, when I went to auditions, that the worst thing I could hear was the director saying, ‘I am a big Harry Potter fan’, as immediately you think, shit, I have to convince them I am not Neville Longbottom before I can convince them of anything else. It was the hardest thing. But since then, I have realised you can’t think negatively. You do the best you can do and if it’s what they’re after it’s what they’re after, and if it’s not it’s not. Simple as that. And you’ve just got to get on with it.”

[..]

“To be honest I was not interested in doing anything again so quickly after [Verdict],” he says. “But then my agent gave me a call and said there was this play called Our Boys and asked if I would like to go in for a meeting about it. I was apprehensive, given it was the West End, as I was not sure I was ready to go and do that. But then I read the script, and it’s one of those scripts that you can immediately picture and see on stage. I thought, ‘Okay, I want to go into this. I doubt they will cast me but it will be a good laugh to go in for it’.”

[…]

Our Boys, directed by David Grindley, is based on Jonathan Lewis’ own experiences of being a soldier in hospital. It is described as a “comic and moving testament to the men Jonathan shared his hospital bay with”. Lewis describes his character, Mick, as a “really good guy.” “He loves the army, it’s his life,” he says. “He loves everything about it – the discipline, the uniform. And he’s not afraid to stand up for it when it comes into question.”

[..]

Our Boys also stars Laurence Fox and Arthur Darvill. Lewis says he has enjoyed the rehearsal period with the other members of the cast, admitting that rehearsing is an alien concept to him, given his background in film. “You don’t get time to rehearse in film and TV at all,” he says. “Even on Potter, where we had this huge budget and time, we did not rehearse. So it’s nice to go into a rehearsal room and just play around with ideas in front of a director. And you get to create a fuller character, which I am really enjoying. Every time I do a new job I learn a little bit more.”

[…]

And what of future work offers? Does he find himself being particularly choosy about parts that come his way now? “I have turned down some stuff,” he admits. “If I don’t think I will enjoy something I won’t do it just to make money. I want to enjoy what I am doing.” He adds: “If I am going to be away from home so long, then I want to make sure I am not depressed. Because if you’re not happy with what you’re doing you will only give a shit performance.”