Star of Downton Abbey, The Crown and the 2008 adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, Matthew Goode is quite simply Mr English-Period-Drama-Smooth-Operator. Yet, of course, there is more to the dashing cad that put the glint in the eye of Henry Talbot, Tony Armstrong-Jones and Charles Ryder than just being a handsome rake. For proud members of the nerd herd, Goode will always be the man who brought life to Adrian Veidt, AKA Ozymandias, in Zack Snyder’s Watchmen.
This stunning 2009 adaptation of Alan Moore’s ground-breaking graphic novel saw Goode come to the fore as a young actor – shining as a sci-fi villain and doing complete justice to one of the comic-book world’s most sacred characters. From there, the only way was up for our main man Matthew, with Goode bagging roles in Cemetery Junction, The Hatton Garden Job, and the absolutely outstanding The Imitation Game, before joining the cast of Downton. Succeeding Dan Stevens admirably as a silky second true love for Lady Mary, Goode’s dashing driver set hearts across the land aflutter and his performance was applauded – hearts that continued to beat when the series ended as, thankfully, handsome Henry did not come to the same sticky end as his predecessor, despite his chosen vocation.
It’s good to be Goode, but sometimes it’s great – like when you get to star opposite one of our finest national treasures and statesmen of the silver screen. With Matthew Goode and Sir Anthony Hopkins front and centre, Freud’s La.
