Matt Smith has given the British public some of the most iconic roles in recent years — from the 11th Doctor in Doctor Who, a young Prince Phillip in The Crown alongside Claire Foy, Daemon Targaryen in House of Dragons, he’s versatile (and brilliant) to say the least.
Then you’ve got Darren Aranofsky, who has done the almost-impossible: become a director that the public know by name, joining the likes of Greta Gerwig, Steven Spielberg and Danny Boyle. Put the two together along with Austin Butler, Zoe Kravitz, Regina King, some gun-wielding gangster Orthodox Jews and a viciously lime green mohawk, you get an addictive new film, Caught Stealing.
The film follows Hank Thompson (played by Austin Butler) who was a high-school baseball phenom but due to an injury works in a bar in the city.
When his punk-rock neighbour Russ (Matt Smith) asks him to take care of his cat for a few days, Hank suddenly finds himself caught in the middle of a motley crew of threatening gangsters. They all want a piece of him; the problem is he has no idea why.
As Hank attempts to evade their ever-tightening grip, he’s got to use all his hustle to stay alive long enough to find out…
Ahead of their new film landing in cinemas on Friday 29th August, we caught up with Matt Smith and Darren Aranofsky plus a very special guest, Bobby — Matt’s dog who, if we’re being honest, 100 percent stole the show.
From that lime-green-yellow mohawk to whether Bobby could be the first Hollywood nepo fur baby, we packed as much chat in as we could...
Shortlist: [Obsessing over Bobby instead of the interview] One of the main characters in Caught Stealing is Russ [Matt Smith’s character’s] cat, now we feel like it should have been a dog instead. Would you ever try and cast Bobby in a film?
Matt Smith: I’ve been trying to get him into something for years. I’d love to get him in a film but I don’t want to impress him on the acting world
Darren Aronofsky: Don’t want to damage him
MS: Exactly!
SL: It’s like when actors don’t want their kids to go into the industry
MS: Yeah, try and protect them.
SL: Bobby, the first nepo baby dog. Anyway! Caught Stealing, great film but we have to ask: the mohawk, Matt’s whole punk-look, talk us through it — how did it get decided, how much did you love it?
MS: Look man, I came in with like long dark brown hair...
DA: Beautiful hair! Look at that.
MS: I was in the room one day and John Carter, our brilliant hair designer explained the look. There was a degree of reluctance at first — they cleared the room and Darren and John just went, 'eventually, you’re going to end up with a mohawk. We can take it slowly, and build up to it, but you are gonna end up with one'.
At the beginning it looked like a flock of seagulls! But this was only like the second day and I was trying to make a good impression, thinking ‘It’s Darren Aronofsky!’ and just kind of went ‘yeah, yeah, sure.’
DA: I had quite a strong hand — and generally I'm not a strong hand director, I’m usually the friend. But I was like, yeah, this is happening. But hair is a very sensitive thing so we wanted to be careful with it.
MS: And it was fucking green and yellow — that was another conversation. I was like can it be pink or black or something? And John, to his credit, had really thought about it and planned it, but said to me, “I really think this should be lime green”.
DA: I had faith in his vision — at the end of the day we backed him up and it was a leap of faith. And it worked out well — I mean, how long did you keep it, Matt?
MS: Oh I kept it for like four or five months afterwards. One day my mum and friends were over and went 'Smithy, you know that looks shit, right?' Cause I had to braid it too, because otherwise it just looked mad.
SL: How long did it take to braid it?!
MS: I found an amazing lady in New York that I used to go to out there, but I was spending about 300 quid a week — it was about 50, 60 quid each time, going four times a week. But I went to go and see her, when I was in New York last week I popped in [even without the mohawk] and went, “yes mate!”
SL: Even with the normal hair? She must have been heartbroken!
MS: [Laughing] Yeah.
SL: Caught Stealing — and Matt, especially your character — has such strong punk sort of origins and energy (as well as looks-wise). Did you have any music that came into your head with the look, or listen to particular songs to get you into character?
MS: Do you know what it was funny... [remembering we’re journalists] you know what, I'm not prepared to talk about it on camera because it’s really naff music. Interestingly, I found myself listening to the complete antithesis of what he [Russ] would listen to. Strangely it wasn’t listening to lots of punk music, I was listening to sort of, I’ll tell you off camera cause I’ll never live it down. I was also listening to a lot of rap music and some punk because when I’m in New York, I just walk and listen to music.
DA: Oh that’s a great thing to do.
MS: Best city in the world for that.
SL: We’re imagining sort of ABBA greatest hits album whilst you’re dressed in the full leather, spikes, boots, mohawk...
MS: To be honest, it’s on par.
SL: So we’re in the right ballpark?
MS: Yeah.
DA: It’s funny someone asked yesterday what I do after shooting, and my honest answer is that I watch really shitty TV. Just to clear my head and relax — I don’t really want to watch great filmmaking, I just want to stop and not apply that critical lens that I use when I’m shooting. I just want to sort of Temptation-Island myself (I’ve never seen it), but that is my ABBA in this context!
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