Matthew Goode - Best Supporting Actor?
When I read selflessdockers note about Matthew Goode getting their vote for Bond – it reminded me that I wrote this little stream of consciousness about his career ‘choices’. I just think it is interesting how some people perceive his choices of roles so far. I don’t have any special knowledge about this guy but I’ve read/seen a lot of interviews he’s done and I paid attention. So here is what I have learned from his own words.
Matthew is not well known enough to ‘open’ a film and be the ‘star’ (or the ‘protagonist’ as Ferraccia calls it – love that Ferraccia!) and he’s not bothered by that. He understands his ‘place’ and is happy with it. Unfortunately for him he has a lot of better known contemporaries that he is in competition with. If you want a classy Brit actor in your film – you go to Fassbender, Hiddleston, McAvoy, etc. They are not necessarily better actors but they do have a higher profile than Matthew – so they get the parts. Does he really mind that? He has admitted to being “the most competitive shit in the world”, but does he really want to be a ‘star’? I don’t think so.
I think that he doesn’t see himself as the star, he sees himself as the ‘Best Supporting Actor’. I may be wrong but in my opinion Matthew doesn’t want to be the star for a few reasons:-
1) He’s done that and didn’t like the scrutiny that came with it. ‘Leap Year’ may be a film I love, but it nearly killed his career. Since then he’s avoided too much exposure. ‘Burning Man’ was a lead role but it was ‘safe’ because it was tucked away in Australia. He likes the security of working in an ‘ensemble’, a small group of actors where he is not the star. ‘The Imitation Game’ was ideal for him – his role was to create a contrast to Benedict Cumberbatch as Turing and he did that beautifully. If you think about it – most of his roles have been ensemble pieces like ‘Dancing on the Edge’, ‘The Good Wife’, ‘Death Comes to Pemberley’, ‘Pressure’, ‘Imagine Me and You’, etc. Fundamentally he sees himself as a ‘jobbing actor’, so he’s more than happy doing smaller supporting roles where he can just do his bit and move on – like Self/Less, Belle, A Single Man, etc. As fans we might feel short changed by those smaller roles, because obviously we want to see more of him but he’s not affected by that either. He doesn’t use social media, a fan club or a big PR machine behind him to connect with fans, he just sees acting as a job that he gets on with and finds ‘fans’ a bit of an alien idea.
2) Some of his best friends are ‘stars’, for example Benedict Cumberbatch, and so has seen how this has changed their lives. He doesn’t like that much either. If he couldn’t go to the pub and have a quiet drink or take his kids out without being mobbed – he’s not interested. If he was a ‘star’ – the attention and press interest could damage his family and obviously he doesn’t want that to happen. He said this to Metro in answer to the question, ‘Do you like where you are at in the fame game? - “I’m not particularly well-known in England, which is great because I don’t have someone with a camera outside my front door every morning like some of my friends.” He likes being slightly under the radar but it’s a tricky balancing act to maintain. He needs to be well known enough to get good parts but not so much that he can’t have a normal life.
3) His family really does come first. His career choices are influenced by Sophie and his kids. He took the Good Wife job so Sophie could go back to New York for a while. He gave it up when Sophie got pregnant and his eldest daughter needed to get settled in school in England. It’s for the sake of his wife that he doesn’t want to do roles with sex scenes in anymore – sadly for us - he thinks Sophie has been put through enough of that. Just imagine how horrible it would be to see your man getting naked and touching another woman – in public! He said this to Herald Scotland – “Yeah, and I’ve had my arse out in a lot as well. I’m over it, trust me.” "I genuinely don’t like doing sex scenes. They’re so uncomfortable and so technical. If I never had to do another bloody sex scene in my entire life it would be great. And there are things now I won’t take because I wouldn’t put my missus through. Christian Grey? F*** off. …. I’m starting to think what’s best for my family much more often. It’s kind of a single man’s game, I think.“
He tries to choose roles where he can stay at home. It’s clear from interviews that he prefers to be with his family and would love to be able to work in the UK so he can commute home each night:-
“It’s easier if you have your family around you, because when you come home, you can recover: I’ll put Moo [Matilda] to bed. That’s why I like working in England. I like to hang up my suit at the end of the day and be dad and hubby.” (Globe and Mail 2013)
“I have never really liked being away from family. I went to Australia and that was tough. Three months away with the little one at home. I hated it. They did come out for two weeks and that was hell. Then I had a one-year old with jet lag, while I was working a 16-hour day! It was awful when they had to leave and go back to Britain but boy, did I sleep well. They are always the priority. I just wish that I could work in England more. But you do have to go where the job takes you. It is not like I can pick and choose”. (Syndicated interview 2013)
4) He doesn’t think he’s a good enough actor. He says this a lot in interviews but I don’t think it is just false modesty. All through his career he has believed he is on the point of being fired from each job and that he has only got parts because someone else has dropped out or just through dumb luck.
Obviously we know he is good enough – his performances in ‘Burning Man’, ‘Pressure’, etc. have shown us that. But he doesn’t believe it. Directors think he is underrated as well – Ron Scalpello (Director of Pressure) said this recently. “I really think Matthew Goode is one of the best actors in the British film industry. He tends to play lots of immoral characters, but there’s a huge range about Matthew that has been untapped, so when he got this opportunity to play a character you would not necessarily associate with him, he seized it. I think his performance might surprise some people.” Jonathan Teplitzky trusted Matthew to tell his own personal story of grief – “I really needed an actor who was gonna take the screenplay and the material by the neck and really go for it a hundred percent and Matthew really convinced me that he would. Apart from being a great actor and realising that, he brings a great charm and warmth and humour to everything that he does, and I thought that was really important too.”
Matthew consistently underrates himself and I’m afraid that some people in the business do too. Why? Collider said this in 2013 and I think they may have a point. ‘There’s just something eerie about Matthew Goode. It’s almost as if the poor guy is too damn good looking, his smile a little too perfect, his hair too evenly keeled and parted… There must surely be something wrong with him. If it is human instinct to weed out the proper characteristics of even the most undesirable of beings, then the opposite must also be true. One can’t help but search for any imperfection to poor ol’ Goode’s character. Behind that smile and hair, there must lurk something less.’ Too damned good looking for his own good – so maybe people don’t take him seriously because of that?
Unfortunately for Matthew, his good looks don’t do him any favours for the type of part he wants. Think about it. If you are the leading actor – the star – do you really want a better looking guy turning up to support you? His part in T.I.G. called for a ‘better looking friend’ – but there are not many parts like that. So – he puts on his glasses, grows a scruffy beard, makes himself look older and keeps slugging away at it.
Another reason for Matthew’s eclectic career choices is that he likes to do different work. He’s covered several different genres and he doesn’t like to repeat. Although he has had his fair share of the romantic interest roles – they don’t interest him. He said in an interview that he would rather have a long career as a character actor than a short career as a romantic lead. So even though fans like me love him in romantic roles, he’d much rather do films like Pressure, Self/less, etc. He told Metro, “I never get the war movies. I’d love to get the war movies so you’re just with guys, drinking for six months. I’m always off ferreting around in a car trying to get into some woman’s pants, which is fun but it’s not the same.”
He prefers to do characters that he hasn’t ‘done’ before. I would not be surprised to see him turn up in a Western, a musical or even in drag (women’s clothes – well Sean Bean and Eddie Redmayne have done it!). He wants to play a detective. At one point he talked about doing theatre work again if he could get over his nerves. But if he does take another ‘romantic lead’ role - that’s probably a bad thing - because he will just be doing it because he needs the money.
Having said all of the above I can understand why he has chosen each role he has. The one that really didn’t make any sense to me was Downton Abbey. Although I was delighted when he accepted the role in DA – part of me didn’t quite understand why he had. I get that it’s another ensemble role – not a starring role but it seemed to contradict the picture I have painted of him because it was potentially a high profile and yet another ‘romantic’ role. Then when I found out that DA was ending – which he knew when he signed – it all made sense. He’ll just do a few episodes so hopefully it will increase his profile a little – but not so much that he has the paparazzi on his doorstep.
As a fan I’d love to see him play Bond and some other high profile roles but in my heart I know that it probably wouldn’t make him happy and the exposure and strain on his family might be too much.
So I see Matthew’s career as a complicated balancing act – being high profile enough to get offered better parts but not so much that it destroys his family. I really hope he gets the parts to show off his acting skills and that he keeps the balance right for him and his family. Anyway – that’s my take on it for what it’s worth. What do you think?
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