When you’re thinking about an ambassador for cult film, the first high-profile ambassador who comes to mind is probably someone like Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas), Mike Leigh (Secrets And Lies) or the much-missed Ken Russell (Women in Love).
It probably isn’t a clean-cut, gently-spoken actor who has made his name in a host of mainstream successes, mostly involving drawing- rooms, perfect china and love betrayals carried out between knocks of tennis and afternoon tea.
However, it turns out Matthew Goode (the well-behaved cuckold in Woody Allen’s Match Point, the troubled Charles Ryder in the big screen Brideshead Revisited, Colin Firth’s dewy-eyed lover in A Single Man) is a passionate advocate for independent and cult film, hence his position as ambassador for the Jameson Cult Film Club.
This club aims to build an appreciation for our favourite films through special viewings “staged to transport our members into the film’s universe” - for example, the most recent event was in Birmingham, where the film on offer was Marty McFly going Back to the Future, so the mind boggles (the next event is the big-screen adaptation of Jo Nesbo’sHeadhunters at London's Saatchi Gallery on Wedneday 21 March - click here for info).
As Goode says, "What’s great is the idea of taking yourself out of the cinema, finding something in it that’s beautiful, and building an experience out of it.”
The actor has recently wrapped on Stoker, a horror drama co-starring Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska and Dermot Mulroney - “very dark, unlike anything I’ve done before."
He adds, “I like to think that the films I’ve been in, will make their way onto the Cult Film Club list one day.”
Everyone has strong opinions when it comes to film - what’s Matthew Goode’s favourite? He's completely clear on this:
The first time I experienced a cult film, was through my English teacher, who introduced me to the wonderful world of Withnail and I," he writes on the Jameson Cult Film Club blog.
"This is, I would say, the top British cult film of all time. I love the British-ness of it! The rain, the pubs, the tea room, the great British countryside, more rain…, Uncle Monty and his vegetables."