Benedict Cumberbatch is justifiably getting most of the attention for his performance as Enigma Code breaker Alan Turing in The Imitation Game. But he gets solid support from some of the UK’s best actors, many of whom play other cryptologists working in secret at Bletchley Park to crack the code and thus help end the Second World War.
For Matthew Goode, who plays Hugh Alexander, a world-class chess champion brought in to lead the Bletchley team, the role posed a challenge. How do you create a real character when so much about the man is still classified information?
“Most of us struggled to find stuff out about our characters,” says Goode during the film’s busy press day at TIFF.
“Benedict had more to draw upon, because there’s more stuff written down, but I didn’t find out a huge amount about Hugh. The remaining people who had worked at Bletchley didn’t want to talk about it. That’s amazing, because they weren’t military people; they were civilians who gave up huge amounts of time and effort in their lives. Seventy years later, there’s still this spirit of its being a national secret.”
Goode’s suave, flirtatious Alexander is very different from the asocial, nearly autistic Turing, and the actor – who comes across as an extrovert in conversation – enjoyed that contrast.
ABC: Matthew Goode Talks ‘The Good Wife,’ ‘The Imitation Game’ and Golden Globes
Elle: Margaritas and Cumberlove With Matthew Goode
When Matthew Goode, who stars as Benedict Cumberbatch’s dapper rival in The Imitation Game, suggests that we get an 11 A.M. drink at The Egg Shop on New York’s Lower East Side, I’m impressed. Rarely, if ever, do the guys we feature in this column select the establishment. And a pre-noon cocktail hour? Also noteworthy.
And rarer yet is the subject who, upon your arrival, is found hunched over a plate of sunny side ups at the bar. If it weren’t for the shockingly blue eyes peeking out from behind a pair of smart lenses, I might have easily mistaken him for a handsome regular. And no wonder: Not only does Goode live nearby with his family—actress Sophie Dymoke and daughters Matilda, 5, and Teddy, 14 months—the establishment’s proprietor also introduced the actor to his wife. So, aside from a pub in Hampstead where he likes to hole up with famous buds ranging from Benedict Cumberbatch to Dominic West, this is about as close to home turf as one can get.
Toward the end of the drink, our mouths newly aflame from the homemade hot sauce in our early bird beverages, I ask him what the deal is with British guys being noticeably standoffish in social settings, anyway. He pauses a moment to think and then narrows his eyes, which have started to pick up flecks of the early winter sun flooding in through the tiny shop’s glass doors. “What British women have figured out is that we lower our standards when we’re drunk,” he says. “So some women just go, ‘Oh. He’s mine!’ And we just go, ‘Okay!'” I hold myself back, but everything in my being is going, He’sminehe’sminehe’sminehe’smine.
Continue reading “Elle: Margaritas and Cumberlove With Matthew Goode”
Matthew joins Downton Abbey
After months flitting between two eligible bachelors, fans of Downton Abbey may have hoped Lady Mary was about to finally settle down to find true love.
But it appears another handsome gentleman is soon to waltz into her life, as actor Matthew Goode joins the cast for a Christmas special.
Goode, who has already starred in period dramas including Dancing on the Edge and Death Comes to Pemberley, is expected to play a potential new beau for Lady Mary, after her long dalliance with aristocrats Charles Blake and Lord Gillingham.
The final episode of this series appeared to be leading up to a decision between the two, after storylines involving pre-marital sex and a love rival.
The Christmas special, however, promises yet further twists to the Crawley family’s love lives, with new arrival Goode, who is rumoured to have been spotted in filming already.
Goode has just starred with Downton’s Allen Leech, who plays character Tom Branson, in The Imitation Game, the Alan Turing biopic featuring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightly.
A spokesman for Downton has now confirmed: “Matthew Goode will appear in the Christmas episode as a guest character.”
This week, ITV finally confirmed the much-anticipated sixth series of the show will go ahead, suggesting Sunday’s finale will leave running storylines far from neatly tied up.
Aside from Lady Mary’s love triangle, fans of the show are waiting for the resolution of dilemmas from Lady Edith’s secret child to the murder investigation shining a spotlight on Anna and Mr Bates.
Preview pictures from the show capture the married couple behind bars, with Anna in a police line-up, while Tom makes up his mind whether to flee Downton to make a fresh start in America.
Lord Fellowes, the creator and writer of the drama, has already begun plotting the next series, which will start filming next year.
Cast members will also appear in a charity special, and will be joined by Hollywood actor George Clooney for a sketch in which the Dowager Countess faints after receiving a kis
Source: Telegraph
Mr Porter’s ‘The Journal’
This year’s Toronto Film Festival has ended, but that doesn’t mean we’re over the slew of stylish stars that hit up the annual fest to promote their latest flicks (it is #ThrowbackThursday, after all). Luckily, we still have the chance to get to know them post-TIFF in Mr Porter’s recently redesigned weekly online magazine The Journal, with the latest portfolio titled “The Movie Set” that features a handsome crew of gifted actors and prolific programmers from the Canadian film fest.
Styled by Mr. Porter style director Dan May and photographed by Blair Getz Mezibov, the black-and-white photo spread features The Face of an Angel’s Daniel Bruhl, Love & Mercy‘s Paul Dano; The Imitation Game‘s Matthew Goode; The Riot Club‘s Sam Claflin, Max Irons and Douglas Booth; The Good Lie‘s Arnold Oceng and Ger Duany; and Thom Powers, documentary programmer of TIFF. Along with their portraits, the portfolio also includes Q&As with each gentleman.
For Duany, who will star opposite of Oceng and Reese Witherspoon in the drama The Good Lie, tells the e-zine that traveling to study in the U.S. was something “that everybody dreamed about in Sudan. It was the dream.” He adds: “Being able to make that happen felt like such a blessing, so everything else that came along, every opportunity that presented itself, I just took it.”
Meanwhile, Goode shares that he’d “fall in love with anyone that’s talented.”
“I’d be just as starstruck to see Michael Caine or Robert De Niro walk through the door right now as I would be if it were a relatively unknown golfer from the European tour, like, say, David Lynn. Or Danny Willett,” he says.
Well, if that’s the case, we hope Goode falls in love with us someday. Just saying.
Check out a few snapshots from the portfolio and see what everyone else had to say over at mrporter.com.
Captures: Dancing on the Edge 1& 2
I have started adding captures to the gallery at last. Episodes 1 & 2 of Dancing on the Edge have been added to the gallery which saw Matthew play the role of Stanley. I have also added a new interview i have found on the BBC website.
Plot:
The series follows a black jazz band’s experiences in London in the 1930s. Made up of talented musicians and managed by the compassionate yet short-tempered Wesley Holt, the band gets a gig at the Imperial Hotel, by the way of the cunning journalist, Stanley Mitchell. They prove to be a hit, and become a success at the hotel. Countless aristocrats—and the Royal Family—ask the band to play at parties. The media rush to interview and photograph the band—including the ambitious American businessman, Walter Masterson and his enthusiastic employee, Julian. The band’s success spirals, they’re being offered record deals. But tragedy strikes, setting off a chain of events that may wreck the band’s career.
Gallery Links:
kpopstarz: The Good Wife Season 6 Spoilers: Matthew Goode Staying
As “The Good Wife” goes on hiatus before season 6, spoilers regarding the status of its illustrious cast have surfaced.
After the exciting and somewhat traumstic season 5, “The Good Wife” executive producers Robert and Michelle King promise that season 6 will be just as exciting. One way they are going to do that, according to spoilers by E! Online, is to have Matthew Goode stay with the cast.
“We love what he’s doing. What’s nice is he’s a very different color to have on the show,” said Robert King. “It’s almost like a feature-like pacing in his acting…You’re very aware of it. You’re aware of these off-beat pauses that he brings to it. It’s very theatrical and very not Josh Charles, which is good too, so it doesn’t feel like we’re copying things.”
Another exciting change in “The Good Wife” season 6 is that Diane will join Florrick/Agos.
“Where we’re kind of heading is toward her taking on some of the characteristics of Will. In many ways, she didn’t have to be the tough fighter because she had Will. Without Will, she’s taking on some of his characteristics,” added Robert King.
Spoilers also confirm that Kalinda will go with Diane, which could possibly bring back the much-missed rekindling of Kalinda and Alicia’s friendship.
“The relationship between those two is just too pure and too great not to continue,” agreed Robert, regarding Diane and Kalinda leaving together.
Spoilers also confirm that “The Good Wife” season 6 will see the fallout of Cary and Kalinda’s rupture in their relationship.
“It’s too interesting to see how Cary, who thinks he’s disrespected by Kalinda and Kalinda now thinks Cary is pushing things in an odd direction with her, how they’re either going to make up or get worse,” said Robert King