Matthew Broome Interview

“Excitable, happy and manic” are the words 24-year-old actor Matthew Broome would use to describe himself as he joins me from his London flat on a somewhat gloomy, spring Tuesday. He says so, fully gleaming with dimples on full show. It’s a trait we didn’t quite get to see in his recent stint as bad-boy Nick for Amazon Prime’s My Fault: London film, a part of the global franchise.

In what feels like no time, Matthew went from a whisper to a shout—from Gus Thwarte on Apple TV’s The Buccaneers to his latest role. Even he admits he wasn’t quite prepared for the leap. This is all (mostly) new to him, and yet he’s taking it in his stride as best as he can. “I try not to take myself too seriously,” he says. “But when it comes to the work, I am a lot more [serious]. When it comes to a day on set, when I'm actually working, I'm a lot more grounded and relaxed.” It seems that this is a switch he’s always been able to flick on at his discretion, much to the surprise of others…well, at least his former classmates. 

The Northampton native, a twang in his tone which ebbs through when he speaks, reminisces cheerily on his upbringing, particularly as a young boy falling in love with drama for the first time. “It was interesting because, in all of my other lessons, I was very cheeky and confident and chatty, because I just didn't care,” he laughs. “But then, in my drama class, I was quite shy and just a real good boy. I knew that they thought highly of me in it—and they knew that I knew that. They knew that I cared a lot, so I didn't want to mess up.” This subtle pressure quickly ignited a fervent passion for the art form, so much so that it stopped him in his tracks on the way home from school at the prime deadline time for picking your GCSEs. "I was walking home, and this was post the deadline, and I just literally had an epiphany, and I was like, 'What am I doing?’, ‘Why am I picking Computing?',” he says, palming his face in his hands. “And I ran back to school, ran to the office, and I asked them to change my computing subject to drama." From there, the rest was set in stone, and thus, began his pursuit of an acting career.

This was no easy feat, however. It came with an internal wrestle: a small-town boy headed for a career that would inevitably lead him to a big city and quickly grow him into a young man—a young actor at that. “Where I'm from, my school, and in my year especially, there weren’t many of us who wanted to go into this industry, seriously,” he says. “And at the time, I had the idea of going to uni and having the uni life was exciting to me and seemed like fun, and I didn't want to miss out. I had a massive problem with FOMO back then, and the idea of not doing that with everyone else was a bit daunting.” Regardless, that massive problem seemed to quickly reside through his heightened desire to go for the thing that was just that bit (a lot) more “daunting.” So, as most people would strive to do, he drafted a plan.

“The plan was to just audition for three – my top three – because people say you don't get in right at 18 [years old]. You need life experience, all this stuff. I didn't expect to get in, and then, the plan was either to take a year out or to go to uni and have a uni life,” he says. “But I managed to get into two of them, and I picked Guildhall and moved [to London].” The contrast was one that required adapting. Having grown up in the same house his whole life, journeying through youth with the same friends, uprooting to London felt sudden. “And I’m around so many people, a whole school of people who want the same thing and are driven in the same thing, and they're all different ages and different levels of life experience,” he says. “I really felt like I'd come from living under a rock, in a way, I really hadn't experienced much in coming to drama school.” Still, nothing could really prepare him for the experience of a drama school…one of the best in the country, in fact.

“Actors are very loud,” he laughs. “Usually, it's quite a lot, so that was definitely a big transition to get used to but also so lovely because for the first time in my life, I used to try and hide the fact that I love drama. I used to be a bit ashamed of it. I used to sneak into after-school clubs in secret because – not that I was bullied for it – but it was just the butt of the joke that I was a ‘drama boy’.” A stark contrast to the environment he then steeped into where “everyone loved it, and everyone was going for the same thing.” Though it was [also] quite overwhelming, he was also able to learn so much about everything to do with the craft and the industry.

“I feel like in leaving school, my life experience is happening now as I'm working,” he explains. “I've done the opposite: I've trained, and now I'm having the life experience, and I'm a sponge as I move about in the world. It's [about] using it all—I suppose that's how everyone's journey is different.”

He dives deep into his ‘creative process’ as an actor and how much of himself he pours into coming across as the best (work) version of himself. “One of the biggest lessons I learned, and was actually taught to me in my audition to get into drama school, was to learn to talk from myself and not to perform as such,” he says fondly. “It's a lot of introspection: ‘How would this make me feel?’, ‘How would I react in this situation?’ So, what is truthful for me, and how can I access that truth so that when I bring it to a character, there are aspects of me that won't be helpful, and there will be things that are helpful? How do I walk that line between that? And that is truthful. I think the centre of that is just talking from myself.”

The time then came to take on the role of Nick in My Fault: London alongside co-star Asha Banks, who plays his love interest and stepsister Noah (did someone say forbidden love? Yikes.) “I’m not a bad boy,” he disclaims. “So, there are definitely aspects that I wanted to find where I could seep closeness to me through [him] because I'm not that. I'm not these things, and that makes my job easier in those moments because I don't have to act as much. Essentially, that's the best part: the moments where you don't have to do your job – and you don't have to act – are the best moments. The worst moments are when you feel like you're acting.” It was the complexity of this young man who is a little bit of a family hero to some degree, a mummy and sister’s boy, to a playful, social tyrant amongst his friends and peers, and then a dominant racer in the underground drag racing sphere that drew Matthew to this role. That, and the opportunity to ride in some pretty sick vehicles. “Seeing that the stereotype is wrong, my immediate judgement is wrong, and he is complex, and there is depth – there was so much to sink my teeth into as an actor,” he says vivaciously. “Also, I get to do cool fucking shit! It was gonna be fun, and I was gonna feel badass while I was playing it.” 

In My Fault: London, the capital becomes a character in itself — a dizzying backdrop pulsing with contradictions: neon-lit backstreets where underground races screech into the night; abandoned warehouses doubling as street fighting arenas; glittering ballrooms filled with high society and heavy secrets. “It’s not the London we see every day,” Matthew reflects, describing the heightened, high-stakes world self-inflicted social chameleon Nick moves through. “I’ve lived here for what feels like 556 years, so I’m used to it now—but when I first arrived, the city felt overwhelming. Nick slips between those worlds so effortlessly; he’s someone who’s almost at the top of his game in all of them. He’s a multi-millionaire, which I’m definitely not,” Matthew laughs. “It’s always fun to experience and reap those rewards.” But it seems the real challenge was staying rooted in the truth of who Nick was, no matter the environment. This was a key takeaway that the 24-year-old applied to his own life. “I think he's a very grounded individual,” he says, admiringly of his character. “He doesn't say much, he thinks before he speaks, and he's more of an observer. And even though he's the centre of attention, he's not the loudest one. I think there's something to learn and take away from that: to be comfortable in saying less and listening more.”

It’s a contrast to his role as charming yet slightly deceptive (for good reason) Guy in The Buccaneers— “my first job,” he interjects excitedly. The period drama based on Edith Wharton’s incomplete posthumous novel puts the romantic futures of a cluster of excited young women into the hands of their dashing male suitors. It’s sexy, sumptuous and slightly sinister…and Matthew’s character is at the crux of it all. 

Guy finds himself in a situation that's so above him and is the one tasked with solving it. His mother's just died, and now he needs to marry rich to save the family from all their debts—that’s the plan. “In doing that, which is the most honourable thing to do, he falls in love with the girl and now has to navigate that all,” he says. “I think that's really interesting. It's, yet again, a situation I'll never be in, hopefully, but as an actor, it’s great stuff to get stuck into.” In season two, this, and well, everything is taken up a notch. “He really becomes a man,” he says adamantly. “In season two, he's in a position where he has even more responsibility – life and death responsibility – and a huge sacrifice, not for his own benefit, but [it’s] complete selflessness he has to exercise, even though everyone has a want to be and a need to be selfish at times. You have to fight against that if you're in that position. Ultimately, [that] makes him more of a man. He really has to step up.”

But it’s not all gloom; the beauty of period dramas is just how majestic they are—on and off screen. “Everything is magical,” he says. “The streets have been relayed with stones and gravel, there's horse and carriages walking around, there's little fruit stands, and there's people (extras) in costumes. It all comes to life, and you're in this world that you would never be in. I'm astonished by the production design and the costumes, and just the magic of it, the magic of movie-making. That's the best part.”

What may not be “the best part” is the period drama acting in itself, Matthew warns. “You don't want to do period drama acting,” he says, a slight chuckle following. “You don't want to act like you're in a different period because you don't really know how they acted back then—we weren't there. But luckily, we're a show. The whole point of our show was to have a contemporary feel to it. I don't think we were so strict on the rules of period drama, for example, the music in our show is modern music, so we weren't married to it, which was freeing. You don't want to get in your head, but this is all part of it. There was definitely learning to do for the correct way to eat, the correct way to hold yourself, the etiquette of stuff, but we didn't bog ourselves down too much on that.”

Back in the present, the young actor reiterates how full circle this whole experience has been and how he’s been able to fully embrace the learning and the challenges of it all. Fortunately, he’s played two complex characters that really pull that training out of him, tracing all the way back to those GCSE drama days. “I will play characters that are so far removed from me, and I'll have to make big leaps and bounds,” he says. “But with this, it's been a lot of exploration inside myself and how I connect with the roles.”

So, it’s clear that Matthew Broome isn't just doing his job and performing characters; he's exploring human complexity with a genuine curiosity that transcends traditional acting. His final words capture his essence perfectly: "I'm just so at the start of my career...I'm excited to do well." In an industry often characterised by carefully managed personas, Matthew offers something refreshingly different: pure, unfiltered authenticity. What emerges is a portrait of an actor who is simultaneously ambitious and grounded, passionate and reflective. And in a climate where everyone’s trying to be seen, Matthew is doing something rarer: he’s learning to see himself. And honestly? That might just be the realest kind of star power.