The Goode Life

matthew Goode has enjoyed success starring in films including The Imitation Game, opposite his friend Benedict Cumberbatch. Best known for playing posh types, his latest role sees him as a cockney robber in The Hatton Garden Job. The Devon-born star is also in The Sense Of An Ending. matthew, 39, lives with his wife Sophie and their daughters, matilda, eight, Teddie, four, and son Ralph, one.

I’m not posh, not in the slightest. my parents spent some money on my education, but i wasn’t born to the purple. my dad was a geologist and my mum was a nurse who directed amateur theatrics. my mum was an orphan, and she always had it in her head that she was really Laurence olivier’s love child!

I live in the middle of deepest, darkest Kent. no one in my village even knows who i am – i don’t even know who i am! it’s not like i’m on that level. otherwise i’d work more!

Some actors go, ‘Bing!’ and suddenly they’re being paid huge sums. me, i seem to get screwed every time. People have this odd idea that i must be a millionaire who swans around accepting roles whenever i care to. i’m very much a jobbing actor.

once I did a telesales job where you coldcall people. i did it for about two hours and then i was like, ‘i’ve got to get out of here!’ So i produced this fake phone call, pretending my agent had said that i had got the part in a Steven Spielberg movie. i had this sense of euphoria and then thought, ‘i haven’t got any money!’ Luckily a few days later, i did get a job.

I’d love to be in the Downton movie, because I have children and I don’t want to be in far-flung corners of the world. and also, you get to hang out with Hugh Bonneville and the rest of them.

✱ The Hatton Garden Job and The Sense Of An Ending are both released on 14 april