Matthew Beard: The name of the game

It’s the latest Benedict Cumberbatch-starrer to hit our screens and the Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game is not failing to disappoint. Winning over audiences and critics with its cerebral plot centring on a group of British geniuses trying to crack the Enigma code, Nazi Germany’s communication system during the Second World War. Though, this picture may have Cumberbatch’s Turing and the appalling way he was treated after the conflict at the centre, it is an ensemble piece, as was the wartime efforts of that group of scientific heroes, which it is estimated brought about the end of the war two years early.

We spoke to Matthew Beard who plays mathematician Peter Hilton while he was at DIFF on Wednesday.

At what point do you know you’re on to a winning film?

I don’t think you ever know. I used to think it was at the script reading level. But sometimes you can read an amazing script and it turns out to go wrong. I felt more confident about this because not only is it an incredible true story, I also knew Benedict was playing Alan Turing and that made perfect sense in my head. Weirdly for me, I was concerned whether it was going to be any good, I just wanted to be part of a project that tells the story of a man that must be known. I had a moral responsibility.

Were you aware of the story before the script came through?

I’d heard of Enigma and Alan Turing, but I had no idea what happened to him afterwards. Part of it was because it was under the Official Secrets Act, but I think maybe we (the British) were very embarrassed about how we’d treated this war hero.

Was playing a real person more pressure on you?

It’s a blessing in one way because the back-story is there for you. But on the other hand you have to be respectful to the person and tell an entertaining story. From what I have heard we have succeeded. Are you any good at maths?

I’m not bad, but nowhere near as good as I’d have to be to do this for real. We all tried very hard to get it. Even the experts at Bletchley Park (where this wartime project was housed in Buckinghamshire. Now a museum.) don’t seem to totally get it. It was so far advanced even today. It was by far the most exciting project I have ever researched. Not only were these people geniuses, but you put them all in a room with all their quirks and it’s a very interesting scenario.

(david@khaleejtimes.com)