Matthew Goode On New Detective Show ‘Dept Q’, His “Favorite Day Ever” With Maggie Smith On ‘Downton Abbey’ & If He’d Do A Spinoff

With Netflix series Dept Q., Matthew Goode stars as DCI Carl Morck, a curmudgeonly cop afflicted by PTSD and almost Sherlock-level powers of deduction. Based on the novels by Jussi Adler-Olsen, which have also been made into a series of Danish-language films, the Netflix series is developed by and partially directed by Scott Frank, of The Queen’s Gambit fame. Frank moves the action to Scotland, with Goode starring as the English outsider alongside such Scottish favorites as Kelly Macdonald, Chloe Pirrie, Mark Bonnar, Shirley Henderson and Kate Dickie.

As Morck reels from an incident that almost killed him and paralyzed his colleague DI Hardy (Jamie Sives) he finds himself sidelined to a ‘lost cause’ basement cold case unit with his sidekicks Akram (Alexei Manvelov) and Rose (Leah Birne). Here, in a Zoom chat from his home in the U.K. with his wife and children making excellent background appearances, Goode reveals how Morck’s mindset might have “infected” him, a favorite memory of working with the late, great Maggie Smith on Downton Abbey, and how he felt about his Robert Evans role in the making-of-The Godfather limited series The Offer, when not everyone loved that version of the story—least of all Coppola.

DEADLINE: When I heard about this show, I was beyond excited because I’ve read every book. I’ve seen all the films. I know you were told not to do that, but —

GOODE: We weren’t told. No, we weren’t dictated to in that way. Scott [Frank] said, “I just think you’ll find it more freeing not to be bound to something that sort of doesn’t make any more sense because we’ve now brought it to Edinburgh and made you English.” But I met [the author] Jussi [Adler-Olsen] the other day for the first time.

DEADLINE: What was that like?

GOODE: He’s charming. Lovely. I was quite scared, obviously, because I’ve done something probably not hugely different. But anyway, he loves it. He’s thrilled with it. What a relief. Obviously Jussi gave Scott license to go ahead and change things in bits and bobs, which he really has, I suppose.

DEADLINE: Carl Morck is just one of my favorite characters. I’m addicted to any kind of detective story, but Carl really got me.

GOODE: So is there a big difference between what I did and the guy before?

DEADLINE: When I started watching I did wonder how you would do it, because in the original he’s so Danish. That Scandinavian noir vibe is so central to the books and films, or so I had thought. But, seeing this version, there’s a way about him that’s also so British. So, I think it’s like you’re cousins in the way you do Carl, and nothing is lost and so much is gained by the Britishness. It’s different, but in the right ways.

GOODE: This is such a wonderful company of actors. Even though I was the only English one, and they could have easily hated me, obviously with that lovely Scottish-English situation, it wasn’t the case. And such great personalities, such great talent. And obviously I’m central to the story, so I get to work with everyone. I’d wanted to work with Shirley Henderson—‘Shenderson’—for years. And Kelly Mcdonald, and then this fairly relatively new actress, Leah Byrne, who is a revelation in this show. It’s very difficult to be talking about some of the things that she has to talk about and make them hilarious. It’s quite a staggering… Well, it’s writing and talent, where they meet, I suppose. I love them all. That’s why we’re desperate to do a second season.

DEADLINE: I have zero doubts that you’re going to get a second season, if not more. Would you do more than two?

GOODE: I don’t know. There’s 10 books now.

DEADLINE: When you sign on to something like this, there’s always a future that could go on for quite a long time. Do you talk about that up front? I’m just wondering how long you’re thinking.

GOODE: It is quite a modern phenomenon, really, as an actor, that you would get to sit in something for time. And now I think I’m at the right age that I’d like to have a character that I can come back to that has great, exciting, dark, hopefully funny stuff happening within the story, but also, how’s this man going to change? Is he going to change? What will be something that will change him? Even if it’s by minutia, there will be certain changes. Even if it’s just my hair color or the girth of my beard.

DEADLINE: Yeah, the beard.

GOODE: Will I come back with a sheepskin jacket again?

DEADLINE: I love that jacket.

GOODE: I know. But you know what happens to me at the end, so we’re unsure. Or does he go out and splurge and get another one?

DEADLINE: I don’t know. Because I saw that jacket and I thought that jacket is probably about 800 pounds minimum. So I’m like, has he bought it from a vintage store or more likely, did his wife get it for him when they were together? And I think it’s the last one.

GOODE: By the way, you’re absolutely bang on. That was exactly I was thinking, because she’s the one with the nice flat.

DEADLINE: He would never buy himself that coat ever. The beard thing I was really interested in, because it fits with Carl wanting to retreat, right? He wants to have this layer between him and everyone else.

GOODE: My wife hates it.

DEADLINE: Well, I was going to ask because the men that I’ve known that wear beards that always have that personality trait where they’d like to be left alone a little bit.

GOODE: Oh OK. So in the opening scene, it would’ve been possibly interesting to have him clean shaven.

DEADLINE: Right. Before things go so very wrong for him.

GOODE: He is someone that screams, “Don’t come near me.” And my wife didn’t come near me for six months because she hates beards. Absolutely hates them.

DEADLINE: Were you a bit infected by Carl’s personality?

GOODE: I’m that person already, can’t you tell? No. So basically, the job is going to do that to you anyway in the little ways when you are working that many hours. And also, you don’t stop for six months because it’s always a huge amount of dialogue to learn. So, you start off and you’re two or three weeks ahead, I learned the first two scripts. I had those in. That was great. And then you’ve got to just keep learning. But you’re filming through the day. So, then you get home, you’re up at 3 in the morning. My routine was up at 3, run bath, get in bath, bath is cold because at 3 in the morning the heating hasn’t come on. Awesome. Still getting in it. And I’m going learn my day’s lines and then I’m going to go through and make sure that the next three weeks are still in there as well [one of his kids interrupts to hug him]. I’ve lost my train of thought. Oh and then make massive cafetiere of coffee which 12 people normally have. And my treat is Ken Burns documentaries. So, I started with baseball. [His wife Sophie Dymoke interrupts to hug him, then the conversation digresses to skincare, fond talk of the children, best North London pubs and how “sickeningly” handsome Jude Law is.]

DEADLINE: So in terms of embodying Carl, I know you spoke to an old friend who was a murder investigator. What did they tell you?

GOODE: He was on the murder squad over here. He became my driver. He got out of [the force] and was driving me around for a while on a particular film that I was doing. And it was amazing. It was fascinating. He’d tell me these stories. One of his first days he was told to go to this house and check because the owner hadn’t been heard of for a while, as you can imagine. And he was like, “Oh, the curtains are closed.” And as he got up to the house, he was like, “Oh, those aren’t curtains. Those are flies.”There were a lot of stories. And so actually, in some ways, like anything, they have an interesting sense of humor, some of those people because it’s sort of a survival instinct.

DEADLINE: How did he specifically help you become Carl with his stories?

GOODE: Well, just the level of the detail that he would remember of a crime scene was what I always found fascinating. This is a guy who’s able to recall so much. So that’s part of it, the checklists that you go through as a detective. It’s a science it in its own way. But it’s the observation that needs to be done of any scene you come to. Then obviously, I then had to look into PTSD. I’ve had friends who’ve been in war zones. Some of them still. And f*cking terrifying jobs, some of these people have. But we’ve crossed paths, and we’ve remained in touch and I love them to death, but I wouldn’t want that job.

DEADLINE: I hate to tell you this, but just based on the books, Carl’s mental health does not really improve.

GOODE: Yeah, yeah. Well, I’m assuming he doesn’t change very quickly.

DEADLINE: Well, most men don’t, I find.

GOODE: Yeah. My wife’s been waiting for me to grow up for years.

DEADLINE: That’s a sidebar that we could talk about at length when your wife returns.

GOODE: I hope she doesn’t make it back in time.

DEADLINE: I was obsessed with The Offer and I know it was always meant to be a limited series, but if that ever came up again, would you want to do Bob Evans again? What was so interesting too, is that Coppola came out and said, “That’s not how it happened,” which might have felt quite scary to you?

GOODE: A lot people of did. It really angered some people. I was like, “Oh, come on. It’s just a show. It’s an adaptation, whatever it is.” So listen, it was terrifying because I was just minding my own business. I’d originally gone up for a part in that. No, not even gone up. I was asked to read for another part. I won’t say which one. And I didn’t hear anything. I was like, “Oh, right. OK. Well it’s obviously going to be load of big stars, and blah, blah, blah and I’ll still watch it because it was really good scripts.” And then I was playing golf on a golf course during the pandemic, for the first time in ages, and it was p*ssing down rain. And I got a call from all my agents just saying, “Dexter Fletcher has offered you Bob Evans.” I said, “What? Why? That’s so weird.”

I loved it. I was proud of myself for getting for the job. Again, not mucking it up and people liking it, which was great. But then there’s a fear. Paramount’s been going through a whole load of structural change, with people going out and going in, so I think that time [for another season] might have passed and I don’t know if a series could take Bob being the center of it. I don’t know if he could, because obviously the author was Miles’ character [Albert Ruddy].

DEADLINE: I know why you are not doing the third Downton Abbey film. You had knee surgery and you’ve explained all that, but —

GOODE: It was a half-a-page scene.

DEADLINE: Were they going to kill you off?

GOODE: I spoke to Michelle [Dockery] at length about what we could possibly… I think we were going to try and ask for a slight rewrite or something or other. And then eventually it was just that they were moving ahead. It was a big racecourse day, so the thing was booked, and I was never going to be able to do it, which was a shame because I love that cast. To be on a set with Hugh [Bonneville] and Allen [Leech]. I’ve got great stories from those sets. We actually gave Maggie Smith one of the greatest days of her life, she said. She came off [set], and she said, “I think that might’ve been my favorite day on a set ever.”

DEADLINE: What did you do?

GOODE: It was the wedding of our characters, and we shot it out very secretively somewhere out in the countryside. I think in Oxford somewhere. And our green room for 20 actors was the garden of an ex-Concorde pilot. This is going to sound jolly unprofessional, and it is a bit unprofessional, but it’s f*cking funny. He came out with a bottle of rosé and just put it on the table, a bottle of Minuty, which was a nice Aix-en-Province rosé. And obviously all the other actors, they looked at it and they’re like, “No. Well, obviously we can’t do that.” I’m just a bit naughty. I don’t know if it’s coming across or not. And it was really hot, and it was looking at me and the perspiration was rolling down the bottle and I said, “I’ll have a glass, thank you so much.” And I sat and I quaffed it bloody quickly. And I said, “Is it OK if I have another one?” And then you started to see all the other actors, particularly the ones that didn’t have any lines that day, just a big ensemble piece, none of us had that much to do, really. So we all started drinking. We went through 22 bottles of rosé. No one was drunk. But my god, were we merry. And if you’ve made Maggie Smith happy, then it can’t be wrong. He was a gentleman and it was a gorgeous house and gorgeous garden as well. And also we gave them good stories because then suddenly they’ve got a ton of half-cut, quite famous people in their garden having great fun. So, they’ve got anecdotes for the rest of their life. I wouldn’t do it again though for any future producers listening.

DEADLINE: No, of course not. I know this is the final Downton film, but if there was a spinoff, would you ever do it?

GOODE: Ultimately, it’s a very difficult thing to balance. And if you think about Mary [Dockery] I was sad I wasn’t going to go and do it because it would’ve been a giggle. But when you think about it in the terms of she’s a modern feminist, a feminist icon, Lady Mary. Wouldn’t it be great if something surprising happened to her? I don’t know, I didn’t read the script. I only had the page that they sent me. So, let’s hope that someone from her past, the people who Downtonites adore, like a Charles Blake or someone like that. There are a lot of people that loved Charles Blake for her. If he comes back and scoops her up. Or, she doesn’t need a man. You know what I mean? Why does she need a man? Why can’t she just be Lady Mary? And why can’t she keep a harem of men? Use them for sex and then get back on the tractor?

DEADLINE: Right? That was who she was when we met her. She didn’t need a man.

GOODE: Yeah. She was killing men when we first met her.

Dept. Q is streaming on Netflix now.