Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#1425
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Matthew Goode works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Matthew Goode appears in 25 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Matthew. The Imitation Game is the clearest case: a film rated 8.2 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for adventure, family, animation. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Paloma Baeza, Roger Michell and others, Matthew Goode helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
The Imitation Game (2014) as Hugh Alexander · Spiked (2025) as Walter / Sir Balderdash (voice) · Imagine Me & You (2006) as Heck
Career snapshot
Ranked #1425 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
25
2005–2025
Career length
20 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.2
The Imitation Game
Average Nutevio score
6.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
Spiked
Most frequent director
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Matt Bettinelli-Olpin
Most common genre
Drama
18 titles
Average runtime
1h 50m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.2
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.6
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
2000s
7.0 average MV
The 2000s are where the work and the material meet. Watchmen, A Single Man, Brideshead Revisited — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2000s
7.0
Across 7 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2010s
7.0
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
2000s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Watchmen, A Single Man, Brideshead Revisited.
Most productive era
2010s
9 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.06 films | 7.17 films | 6.75 films |
| Action | 7.41 film | 6.62 films | 6.82 films |
| Thriller | 7.12 films | 7.05 films | 6.72 films |
| Comedy | 7.61 film | 6.72 films | 6.74 films |
| Crime | 6.71 film | — | — |
| Romance | 7.24 films | 7.03 films | — |
| Horror | — | 6.61 film | 6.53 films |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
2005Match Point
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Tom Hewett.
Highest rated performance
8.2 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak · Most recent film
2025Spiked
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once. The current state of the argument, as Walter / Sir Balderdash (voice).
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
25 of 25 films
as Hugh Alexander
Directed by Morten Tyldum
as Heck
Directed by Unknown
as Sidney Stark
Directed by Mike Newell
as Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias
Directed by Zack Snyder
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
Walter / Sir Balderdash (voice)
Spiked (2025)
Performance score8.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Walter / Sir Balderdash (voice) gives Matthew Goode a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Hugh Alexander
The Imitation Game (2014)
Performance score8.4
The Imitation Game asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Hugh Alexander is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Heck
Imagine Me & You (2006)
Performance score7.9
Imagine Me & You asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Heck is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Sidney Stark
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)
Performance score7.7
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Sidney Stark is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Walter / Sir Balderdash (voice)
Start here. Spiked is the clearest statement of what Matthew Goode does — accessible, 85 minutes, and rated 8.0 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Matthew at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Imagine Me & You (2006)
Same director as Spiked, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Watchmen (2009)
A deliberate change of key after Imagine Me & You — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Imitation Game (2014)
A deliberate change of key after Watchmen — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)
Keeps the drama register of The Imitation Game but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably Match Point
Agnieszka Holland
Director
1 film together
Notably Copying Beethoven
Scott Frank
Director
1 film together
Notably The Lookout
Julian Jarrold
Director
1 film together
Notably Brideshead Revisited
Tom Ford
Director
1 film together
Notably A Single Man
Zack Snyder
Director
1 film together
Notably Watchmen
Anand Tucker
Director
1 film together
Notably Leap Year
Ricky Gervais
Director
1 film together
Notably Cemetery Junction
Amma Asante
Director
1 film together
Notably Belle
Park Chan-wook
Director
1 film together
Notably Stoker
Morten Tyldum
Director
1 film together
Notably The Imitation Game
Tarsem Singh
Director
1 film together
Notably Self/less
Robert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together
Notably Allied
Mike Newell
Director
1 film together
Notably The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society
Gavin Hood
Director
1 film together
Notably Official Secrets
Matthew Vaughn
Director
1 film together
Notably The King's Man
Roger Michell
Director
1 film together
Notably The Duke
Paloma Baeza
Director
1 film together
Notably The House
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin
Director
1 film together
Notably Abigail
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Morten Tyldum
Director
1 film together · 8.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Imitation GameMike Newell
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie SocietyZack Snyder
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
WatchmenWoody Allen
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Match PointTom Ford
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Single ManGavin Hood
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Official SecretsAmma Asante
Director
1 film together · 7.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BellePaloma Baeza
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The HouseRoger Michell
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The DukeAnand Tucker
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Leap YearRobert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AlliedMatt Bettinelli-Olpin
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AbigailMatthew Vaughn
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The King's ManScott Frank
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The LookoutPark Chan-wook
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
StokerRicky Gervais
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cemetery JunctionAgnieszka Holland
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Copying BeethovenTarsem Singh
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Self/lessJulian Jarrold
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Brideshead RevisitedSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
The Imitation Game
as Hugh Alexander
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society
as Sidney Stark
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
The Imitation Game
as Hugh Alexander
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Belle
as Captain Sir John Lindsay
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Spiked
as Walter / Sir Balderdash (voice)
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Matthew Goode has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
20 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
18 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
The Imitation Game
as Hugh Alexander
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Watchmen
as Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Official Secrets
as Peter Beaumont
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Watchmen
as Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Spiked
as Walter / Sir Balderdash (voice)
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The King's Man
as Morton
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The House
as Raymond (voice)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Imitation Game
as Hugh Alexander
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
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Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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