Matthew Goode has said he was told “don’t read” the crime novel series Department Q before taking on a Netflix show based on the books.
The British actor, 47, known for fantasy show A Discovery Of Witches, and thriller Stoker, is playing a new version of Carl Morck, who was created by the Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen.
In the adaptation of the Nordic noir novels, the action moves from Copenhagen to the Scottish capital Edinburgh, and is directed and written by multiaward-winning Scott Frank, known for Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit and superhero film Logan.
Carl is a former top-rated detective, who is full of “guilt” after his partner is paralysed and another policeman dies in an attack, before being given a cold case.
At a special screening of Netflix’s Dept. Q at the Ham Yard Hotel in Soho, central London on Tuesday, Goode told the PA news agency that Frank “really freed me up” having it based in Scotland, rather than Denmark.
He added: “I don’t think (making it in Denmark) would have fit this particularly well, it worked for (Swedish noir) Wallander (with Sir Kenneth Branagh).
“He (Scott) said to me, ‘don’t read the novels’, because he also made me English, which made him (Carl) an outsider, and so I was able to develop with Scott a really brilliant sort of socio-political, economic, sort of history of what we thought this English version of Morck would be.”
Goode, who previously worked with Frank on crime show The Lookout, said the creator and executive producer of the new show “treats the audience like they are as intelligent as he is, which is staggeringly intelligent”.
He added: “It’s a very taut, very dark, brilliant crime thriller with also a lot of levity. It’s also very amusing, and one of Scott’s pet hates is any kind of sentimentality. So it’s a slow burn, but it unfurls itself beautifully.”
Adler-Olsen’s books about a cold case unit have been previously adapted into films including the 2010 Danish movies The Keeper Of Lost Causes, A Conspiracy Of Faith and The Absent One.
When asked about the Netflix experience compared with the ones that have come before, the author said the previous movies were “terrible, terrible in so many ways”.
He said: “It’s all about screenwriting. It’s all about manuscripts, and the manuscripts of the former films were like amateurs.
“So now we have the best writer in the world, that makes a difference so that’s why I wasn’t that happy about (it before).”
Adler-Olsen also said he was “looking forward” to seeing how the show changes, after moving to Edinburgh.
Speaking about what he had seen so far, the author said: “I’m astonished how in the world is the story turning this way, I can’t believe it.”
The cast also includes Scottish stars Shirley Henderson, known for playing Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter films and being in Bridget Jones’s Diary, Mark Bonnar, who has been in detective shows Guilt and Shetland, as well as Swedish actor Alexej Manvelov.
Dept. Q comes to Netflix on Thursday.
