Actor Matt Smith stands for a portrait during the"Implicit Tensions: Mapplethorpe Now" exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum on Feb. 14 in New York City.
“Karen’s amazing,” Smith says. “She’s going to end up ruling the world. I can’t tell you her exact advice to me — I’d have to kill you. But she told me that she really likes it, making those movies. That was enough for me. Once he had transitioned the role of Prince Philip over to Tobias Menzies, who will play the royal in Seasons 3 and 4 opposite recent Oscar winner Olivia Colman, Smith jumped ship for New York City, where “Mapplethorpe” was shot in only 19 days in summer 2017. The movie, directed by documentary filmmaker Ondi Timoner, was an immensely intense experience Smith describes as “fraught,” because he had to achieve so much in so little time.
“It wasn’t easy,” Smith admits of stepping into the iconic photographer’s shoes for the movie, which follows Mapplethorpe over the course of his career. “That shoot was taxing, for a number of reasons, but that’s OK. I don’t think it should be easy, the artistic experience. Smith, who stands more than 6 feet tall, is equally aware that he’s not the most obvious choice to play Manson. “I’m too tall,” he says, shrugging. “I’m not American. I don’t look like him. I mean, it’s terrible casting in many respects. But I did it because I sort of had to. I really like Mary, but I did it because of the real people that I’ve played, like Robert Mapplethorpe or Prince Philip or Christopher Isherwood. I’ve come away from those people having a sense of who they are.
Gifted actor