YOU NEED HANS (1997)
from "THE FACE" July 1998
If you recognise 22-year old Hans Matheson, it will be from his wired performance as Kelly MacDonald's junkie boyfriend in Stella Does Tricks. But the role which is about to make his name is one which he has inhabited, on and off, for two years. He first played pubescent Fifties rocker Silver Johnny in the original stage production of Mojo, and has now climbed back into the glittery trousers and junior sized quiff for the film version, in which paedophile gangsters chop each other up just to get their paws on this spring chicken with Elvis hips. The film's writer-director, Jez Butterworth (who has called Matheson "his very own Harvey Keitel") has said that he wrote the part for Hans and the actor concedes to some similarities.
"Like Johnny, I've been through a lot of bad stuff." he says enigmatically. "And we both share that trait which you find in creative people, which is to be continually searching for answers and meanings. I'm not as desperate as I was when I first played him - I used to beat myself up over the slightest mistake. There have been times when I didn't know if I would last. I've done the drugs thing. I've been through all that. I'm not gonna preach just because I'm clean, but I don't think it's good for the soul. I couldn't go back to that now. This is the happiest I've ever been."
And the busiest. As well as Mojo, Hans has two other films poised for release: the comedy Still Crazy, in which he's the only young pup in a band that includes Jimmy Nail and Billy Connolly; and the (non-musical) film of Les Miserables, where he follows Leonardo Di Caprio's footsteps by wooing and winning Clare Danes.
from "THE FACE" July 1998
If you recognise 22-year old Hans Matheson, it will be from his wired performance as Kelly MacDonald's junkie boyfriend in Stella Does Tricks. But the role which is about to make his name is one which he has inhabited, on and off, for two years. He first played pubescent Fifties rocker Silver Johnny in the original stage production of Mojo, and has now climbed back into the glittery trousers and junior sized quiff for the film version, in which paedophile gangsters chop each other up just to get their paws on this spring chicken with Elvis hips. The film's writer-director, Jez Butterworth (who has called Matheson "his very own Harvey Keitel") has said that he wrote the part for Hans and the actor concedes to some similarities.
"Like Johnny, I've been through a lot of bad stuff." he says enigmatically. "And we both share that trait which you find in creative people, which is to be continually searching for answers and meanings. I'm not as desperate as I was when I first played him - I used to beat myself up over the slightest mistake. There have been times when I didn't know if I would last. I've done the drugs thing. I've been through all that. I'm not gonna preach just because I'm clean, but I don't think it's good for the soul. I couldn't go back to that now. This is the happiest I've ever been."
And the busiest. As well as Mojo, Hans has two other films poised for release: the comedy Still Crazy, in which he's the only young pup in a band that includes Jimmy Nail and Billy Connolly; and the (non-musical) film of Les Miserables, where he follows Leonardo Di Caprio's footsteps by wooing and winning Clare Danes.
