Watchmen Star Reveals His One Regret About the Iconic DC Movie

Matthew Goode felt the pressure when he was cast as Adrian Veidt, a.k.a. Ozymandias in Watchmen nearly two decades ago now. The all-important role nearly went to some A-list actors including Jude Law and Tom Cruise, and Goode did not take it for granted when he snatched it away from them at a young age. However, in a new interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Goode admitted that he has one big regret about his performance — his accent. His dual voices for Veidt were not universally beloved by fans, and they were not easy for Goode to pull off consistently, either. He told host Josh Hurwitz that in hindsight, he wishes he had kept it simple in that regard.

“I wish I hadn’t overthought it,” Goode said. “I mean, I wish I hadn’t tried to give him a kind of German accent when he’s, you know, full American in public and then a kind of soft-ish German-American accent… I could have just made it easier on myself, because then people go, “He couldn’t hold his accent.’ You’re like, ‘Uh, okay, that’s like, I understand why you might think that.’”

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“But it was a wonderful experience, again, really great actors — Patty Wilson, Billy Crudup’s still a great friend of mine. The laughter I had working with Billy Crudup! He’s quintessentially one of the finest actors around, I mean seriously,” he concluded. In the same interview, Goode reflected on his mindset when he got the job and all the buzz about more established actors taking it instead.

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“I walked into my costuem fitting, and Jude Law’s face was on all the things,” he recalled. “I didn’t mind, honestly, I couldn’t believe that they’d given me this job. I think [Zack Snyder] had seen The Lookout or something, good knows why he made the jump. But yeah, I mean, Tom Cruise would have been amazing in that film, but it would have cost them n arm and a leg.”

Goode had more praise for Snyder, his other co-stars, and the experience in general. When the movie was released, he told Ain’t It Cool News that he chose to give Veidt a partial German accent based on the background described for him in the graphic novel — Veidt’s parents were wealthy immigrants from Germany, but Veidt gave away his inheritance to become wealthy from scratch on his own. He reasoned that Veidt would also want to hide his parentage in order to better embody the American dream, and that allowing it to peak out in private moments would emphasize the duality of the character.

Watchmen is streaming now on HBO Max.