A new interview with Collider (see Press Archive for 2025 for more) hints at a new role (or two?) –
Do you guys each know what you’re going to be doing next?
GOODE: For me, one of them hasn’t been announced yet. There’s something quite exciting coming up, which is good. And then, there was a project that went down, earlier this year. It’s a thing with Zoe Saldaña and a really lovely script, by the same gentleman who wrote Birdman. So, that may happen. I don’t know. But the next thing that is definite, I can’t even speak about.
Matthew says: “I didn’t know a huge amount about the story behind The Colour Room. I knew the name as I think my Aunty Eileen, who was my mother’s stepmother, had a teapot in her kitchen that was by Clarice. I remember the pattern but I didn’t know how influential she’d been on potteries and indeed in design, so it was quite thrilling to be a part of this. We’re very much in a time, thankfully, that things are changing for women in general: we suddenly have this poster child from the past. It’s very inspiring. I didn’t know anything about Colley Shorter, obviously, but that’s quite nice that he’s behind the scenes – it gives me slightly more leeway with how we wanted to go about portraying him.
“So, there were two brothers, Guy and Colley and they had taken over their father’s business, which was Wilkinson’s, and they owned several factories. They had come to prominence, and their father was sort of a self-made man in the mid-nineteenth century when he started [the factory] and the boys took it over with varying degrees of success. Colley, my character, he’s about being bold and wants to take chances and risks because that’s how you grow a company, and Guy wasn’t, so they were at loggerheads. And when we join the film, a lot of factories are being closed down, the potteries are in trouble, and if you’re losing money, surely, you should concentrate on the old stuff that you know makes money.
“Colley was very eccentric. Combustible and eccentric. A wonderful combination. So, he often would be found wearing this fox fur that he’d given his wife. I think, the fox fur – this is my [explanation] because it’s never been explained. I was like, “Why would he do that?” – maybe he might have killed the fox because he obviously loved that sport because I felt he had that sense of adventure. It wasn’t seen as a reprehensible thing back then. It was just seen as entertainment and fun.”
The initial response to this movie showing at Sundance seems positive. A full review has been added to the press archive. Screendaily highlighted Matthew’s performance as journalist Peter Beaumont: –
Official Secrets spends much of its first half focusing on the reporters’ investigation into this leak, and Smith and Goode make an enjoyable onscreen combo.
![We saw Official Secrets last Thursday and I haven’t got around to doing a review until now. Bit hectic here. We both thought it was goode [even tho’ leaving new baby Flo was traumatic but she told us to get a grip - quite advanced for 1 month old! ]....](https://66.media.tumblr.com/fb30b1a16e9849eb4eff8307107b0bcf/3dac985106eaba5a-c9/s640x960/2071758a229048a57d0de4d6b1329b2e33aae4bc.png)
