My acting career began at age six when I landed my first role playing Christopher Robin in a community theater production of Winnie-the-Pooh. Thus began a love affair with acting that lasted through my sophomore year in college and then ended abruptly one day when I suddenly lost all interest in being on stage and decided to take up songwriting and fiction.
The highlight of my acting career came the summer between high school and college, when I was cast in a minor role in an NBC miniseries called A Matter of Justice starring Martin Sheen and Patty Duke as the parents of a young man whose crazed wife (and mother of his child) has him murdered by her crazed boyfriend. Have I lost you yet? Patty Duke then kidnaps the child from the crazed, murderous mother and flees. Drama ensues.
I played a young man named Matt, cousin of the soon-to-be murdered protagonist (played by Jason London of Dazed and Confused fame). As the movie opens, I am being rescued by my cousin, who is protecting me from a bully that is about to beat the crap out of me. Thus do I serve as important exposition—to establish that my cousin is a good and likable guy who does not deserve to be murdered. Here I am while the fight is going on.
Here I am in my cousin’s truck afterward, apologizing for being such a pansy who can’t do his own fighting.
And here I am, standing by the side of the road after he has sternly told me that this is the “last time” that he’ll help me out of such a scrape. Can you see the abjection?
My three lines come in the first minute of the film. I appear 5-6 more times throughout the next four hours in various family scenes, but just in passing. Which is to say, that I’m long forgotten by the time the viewer has actually settled in on the couch for a fun-filled evening of child custody high jinks.
Alas, it wasn’t a very good movie, I think. It earned only 6.1 stars on IMDB. But it was fun to get a first-hand look at how movie gets made. I got to spend a week on set, had my own trailer, got to meet Martin Sheen and talk about Bob Dylan, with whom he is good friends, apparently. And I have an IMDB profile, such as it is. According to my STARmeter, my popularity is down 71% this week. As you can imagine, I’m crushed.
I am reminded of this strange passage in my life because I was teased about it mercilessly by a colleague last Friday. After scouring low and high, she managed to track down a YouTube clip of the movie’s opening minutes (the source of these dramatic screen shots). So if you care to see me almost get beat up and then apologize to a soon-to-be-murdered good guy, here’s your golden opportunity.
I had no idea you had such dramatic talents, Matthew. Very impressive.
Could this be the miniseries that my neighbor and our former classmate Andrew mentioned seeing you in while he was on his honeymoon?
Also, I am bitterly disappointed that this movie is not available on Netflix.
Funny…from these younger shots, I see that Kato looks just like you!
Well done. You won’t get me making jabs at the quality of the work or the movie. ;-)
said it once, saying it again: YOU ARE AWESOME.
Wow, Matthew! You are soooooo talented. That’s very cool!
Between high school and college … I know where you went to college. Where did you go to high school?
OMG, whoever found this deserves a medal! I haven’t seen this since I caught it on Lifetime (channel for women) back when you were just a fresh burger. LOVE.
Burger Queen: Thanks for making it abundantly clear that Lifetime is a channel for women. This does wonders for my self esteem.
Jenifer: I am a proud graduate of Shawnee Mission South High School in Overland Park, Kansas.
Stella: Robbi was falling so far behind in the cool boyfriend derby that she insisted I post on my only bona fide. Alas, I’m still no JH.
Jessica: I am sorry that you are disappointed, but I think we have to respect Netflix for having good taste in choosing what not to include in its collection.
That pose in the last shot is a perfect Charlie Brown pose. Well done.
Don: I so often feel like Charlie Brown. Robbi is always snatching my football at the last second.
Think of me as the trusted friend, Linus. Instead of a blanket, though, I have home made scarves.
I totally remember watching this and then talking about it with friends at school the next day. You are a real star. Do you still a member of the Screen Actors Guild?
Oh my God I’ve met a Hollywood celebrity!
you are UP 277% in popularity this week on IMDB!!
I like the upbeat music during the car chase … really conveys the light-heartedness of gun control.