PZO: At what point in your life were you absolutely positive that acting was what you'd like to pursue?
Matt: I was living in Arizona for a time and acted quite a bit there. Then we moved to North Carolina when I was thirteen and I did a lot of theatre and things. I knew I enjoyed acting and I knew I really really liked it. I had talent, but I didn't know for sure that's what I wanted to do; actually when I went to college I decided I was going to go into broadcasting and then after my freshmen year in college I had to change schools and once that happened I decided to get a degree in theatre and be an actor full time. So that's probably when I knew.
PZO: And your family and friends were supportive?
Matt: Yes. Yeah, they've always been very supportive. My family is a huge fan of me being an actor.

PZO: Which do you prefer doing: movies or television shows and why?
Matt: Umm..well, I mean I can't say I've had equal opportunities to do both. I would probably say that right now I want to continue doing film probably more than I would want to do TV just because the opportunities are better, the exposure is better, and so probably film. Although the opportunities to do
TV shows, you know, to do a lead role in a TV show; which of course I wouldn't turn that down.


PZO: Did you do your own stunt in A Walk to Remember?
Matt: <laughs> No, I did not. I had a stunt double for that.
PZO: I heard there were eels in the water, is that true?
Matt: <laughs> Umm...that was the rumor. I heard that as well. They kind of told us that, but I don't know if there actually were. But they said that there were and I heard that on the DVD as well.


PZO: What was the best and worst thing about doing A Walk to Remember?
Matt: Umm..gosh there was so many great things about it. It's hard to say what was the best part. Hmm..best part..well, I mean the fact that it was my first film I mean just made everything so like, so exciting and so new. Probably the best part was that I got to film it in kind of what I consider my hometown. I consider Wilmington, North Carolina kind of my hometown, well one of my hometowns. I've been from a lot of places, but I lived in Wilmington, North Carolina for the last five years. I finished my last, well, last four years I guess. I finished my last three years of college there. So my senior year of
college is when I filmed A Walk To Remember and just the fact that I was able to do that in the town that I really love and a town that I really care about is just really neat. That was probably one of the greatest things. I can't say what the worst thing was. I don't even know. I don't think of anything about
that experience being bad, so I don't believe I can say that there was a worst thing. Umm...<laughs>maybe having to be in that cold water. That water was pretty chilly, actually it was kind of a chilly night.It was probably in the 60s and then you know to actually get in water and then have to get out was pretty miserable at times, but I mean it was still so amazing for a movie so it wasn't even that bad.

PZO: Is there anything about your acting that you feel insecure about and would like to improve, like an emotion, accent, or timing?
Matt: That's a good question. Umm..yeah, definitely. There are things I am constantly working on and things that I will do from time to time that, "Oh, that's not that great" and "That could be better" Umm..probably you know the ability to...I guess to make it really simple. Sometimes I'll see an actor who can cry really wellor cry very easily and they're very connected, connected very well to their own emotions or at least they can act like it or they're convincing it. You know making you think that that's the case. I think I would like to be more connected emotionally. I guess one of the really strong teachings of good acting teachers is that the best actors are very well connected to their own emotions, so that you can use your own emotions to...for your characters. Meaning I, Matt would use my own sad memories to help me cry in a scene and I don't believe that I do that very well. I would like to maybe be you know cry easily because I can use my own memory instead of having to just fake it, you know?
PZO: Yeah.


PZO: Many actors have trademark roles, whether they always play a criminal or a troubled kid, do you have a trademark role or are you pretty open to what comes your way?
Matt: <laughs> Well, I haven't done enough probably to have a trademark role yet.
PZO: Yeah, but in your mind do you have one that you'd like to set out for?
Matt: Well, I don't know that I have anything that I would necessarily go for. I personally would like to stay open to all different kinds of roles, but as far as my look and kind of where I am right now I imagine I will continue to play roles similiar to Clay Gephardt kind of the clean cut, young, all american kid kind of roles, you know, the good guy. I don't really see myself getting cast as a bad guy at least in the near future. Maybe when I'm older I could pull it off, but I think right now considering who I am and what I look like and even who I am in real life I think I will always at least in the near future play that same kind of character. So that might be my trademark role, I don't know.

PZO: Is there any actor that you admire so much that you must see all of their films?
Matt: <laughs> Well, I don't get obesessed to the point of having to see all of their films, but Edward Norton is a personal favorite. I think that his work is always or at least almost always some of the best quality work
that you see coming from actors especially younger actors these days...you know who he is?
PZO: Yeah.
Matt: Yeah, he's one of my favorites. Umm...John Turturro also is a favorite actor of mine. He was in a lot of Coen's brothers movies. He was in O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Big Lebowski and Quiz Show. He's
extremely versatile. He can do anything. Oh, he was just in Mr. Deeds with Adam Sandler. He played the butler and he's extremely versatile. He can do anything and it just amazes me how he can just go from different role
to different role. I really like him a lot.


PZO: Do you have any guilty pleasures as far as television shows go?
Matt: <laughs> "American Idol"!
<laughter>
Matt: It's so sad, I've never---It's funny that you should ask that 'cause I was obsessed about watching it last night and I was telling my friends I was just like, "I just got hooked in the last few weeks and I've never been this way about a TV show". For awhile there I was watching "Dawson's Creek" pretty consistenly, but that was because it was filmed again in my hometown Wilmington, North Carolina. I had worked on that show before, so I knew everybody on the show knew all the settings and things, so that's why I wanted to watch it every week. But right now, "American Idol".


PZO: If you had a chance to appear in a major classic movie, which would you have been in?
Matt: Oohh, gosh. Umm...one of my favorites is North By Northwest by Alfred Hitchcock. The classic scene where Cary Grant is running through the corn field. He's being chased by that huge plane. He's trying to basically run him over from the sky and I just think it's a brilliant film. I would probably say North By Northwest.


PZO: What were you like in high school?
Matt: <laughs> What was I like in high school. Probably not much different than I am now. I think I probably have a little better style and probably look a little better just 'cause I work more at it now. Well, maybe 'cause I work less at it now than I did in high school I think. I don't know, but...what was I like in high school...I was kind of the over achiever that's probably the best way to say it. I mean I was involved in everything. I was junior class president,
student body vice president my senior year, I ran cross country, so I played sports and I was in all the different clubs and did drama and did chorus and was just an all around American kid. I was the kid that did everything. That kind of annoying kid who had his hands in everything he could, just so he could get into a good college. Well, it was more than that. I really wanted to be involved, but it really helped you know on college applications and I knew that.

PZO: What is something that people would be surprised to know about you?
Matt: Something that people would be surprised to know about me. Umm...well, I'm..I don't know as far as relating to A Walk To Remember I personally am probably pretty similiar to Jamie, Mandy Moore's character. I wasn't an outcast inhigh school, but I am a Christian and that's very important to me. My faith is very important to me. It's always the first priority for me. So umm that may not surprise people; the fact that I would relate to Mandy's character in the film.


PZO: What is the most romantic thing you have ever done?
Matt: <laughs> Uhh...gosh, I don't know. What is the most romantic thing I've ever done. <silence> Let me think. I haven't been in any relationships that have been super serious. I think...this is pretty romantic. I was dating a girl
and--this was in North Carolina where they filmed "Dawson's Creek" and this girl that I was dating her parents had a really really big house in Wilmington. A house that was chosen to have an episode of "Dawson's Creek" filmed there and it wasan episode of Dawson's where they-- it was like a study episode. They were studying for a big exam and so they spent the the entire episode at this one guy's house and then a particular part of the episode they had umm Michelle Williams character was in a hot tub with another guy and so "Dawson's Creek" had actually bought a hot tub and brought it to this house and then installed it in, Laurie was my girlfriends name, and installed it in Laurie's backyard. And after the show was finished filming there for like a week, after they were done they ended up just leaving this hot tub at Laurie's house. So we <laughs> Laurie and I ended up like having a nice dinner one night and then we ended up going in the backyard and just hung out in this hot tub. It was just crazy 'cause it belonged to "Dawson's Creek". It was like, "Oh, my gosh."
PZO: Do they still have it?
Matt: No, they actually ended up getting rid of it. They didn't really want it. Her parents didn't really want it, but we spent a nice evening in the "Dawson's Creek" hot tub. That was pretty romantic.


PZO: If you could be one of America's "most wanted" because of some skill you have, what great skill would you possess?
Matt: Well, I mean I'd like to say you know maybe my talent as an actor or my ability as a performer or whatever, but probably more than that I'd want to be known as a good person as a person who is really honest, and genuine and truthful. I don't want to be known as just another actor who's self obsessed and who never could really care about anybody else. I hope people in all vasts of my life see that. Not only people who know me as an actor, but my family, my friends, the people I am closest to, my co-workers so...


PZO: If you were given the chance what would you write on a bathroom wall?
Matt: <laughs> I don't know. Uh..<laughs> I probably wouldn't take that chance to write on a bathroom wall, but what would I write. <silence> Hmm...there would be nothing. I wouldn't write anything.


PZO: What do you hope to accomplish in your life by the end of this year?
Matt: By the end of this year?
PZO: Mhmm.
Matt: You mean by the end of 2002?
PZO: Yeah.
Matt: Well, that's not a lot of time. Umm..I just well, I would like to have another movie role or maybe a TV series. I'd like to be cast maybe in something else. I certainly don't think I would have any Oscar nominations by the end of the year, so I'm not going to worry about that.
PZO: <laughs>
Matt: I don't know. I did just finish working on another film with Steve Martin and Queen Latifah called Bring Down The Houze by the same director who did A Walk To Remember Adam Shankman. That should be in theatres in March, so by the end of this year I guess I will just be kind of getting ready for that to come out and seeing kind of what that does. Again that's not a huge
role. It's probably about the size of the role from A Walk To Remember. But it's another film, so hopefully by the end of this yearI will be working on something else. I might just still be working waiting tables which is what I am doing now. So I might still be doing that and hopefully whatever I will be doing I will be content. That's the biggest thing.


PZO: Would you ever refuse a major role over moral issues? If yes, what kind of role?
Matt: Yeah, absolutely. Definitely not out of question. Again just because of my faith and because of where I stand on certain things. There are definitely lines that I hope that I won't cross in the future. I hope it would never come to the point of having to entirely flat out refuse a role if it is offered to me, but usually I can see if a role is going to be a problem during the audition process. Hopefully I would be able to decide against taking that role at that point so I wouldn't have to go all the way to the point of having the role offered to me. I think that would be pretty foolish and pretty risky if that were the case. Maybe put some things in jeopardy for me and for others. My moral beliefs and things I believe in that's number one. That's more important to me than acting, so yeah that could definitely be an issue.


PZO: A lot of actors are now jumping into the music scene by starting their own bands, would you ever consider becoming a crossover actor into music sometime in the future?
Matt: Definitely, definitely. I actually started...I was singing long before I was really acting. I was singing at like the age of 5. I was recording things not on my own, but with other people that I knew doing some albums, doing backup for kids albums things like that when I was like five years old. So I've been known as a singer my whole life and I've only really been acting since probably maybe my first acting role was 12 or 13, so I would definitely definitely love to sing. I think I may even audition for "American Idol II".
<laughter>
PZO: Do you play anything?
Matt: Well, I play piano a bit, but I would be predominantly be just a singer. I don't think I posess enough skill to be a pianist and a singer as well. I would write songs. I would write songs too.


PZO: Tell us about your upcoming film, Bringing Down the Houze.
Matt: Well, again it's a comedy with Steve Martin and Queen Latifah. It's directed by Adam Shankman who directed A Walk To Remember and The Wedding Planner with Jennifer Lopez. It's really funny. My character's name is Aaron Blair and he is basically the boyfriend of Steve Martin's teenage daughter who is played by Kimberly J. Brown. She was--probably her most
famous role was in an independent film called "Thumbleweeds" that was nominated for some Academy Awards 2 or 3 years ago. She played a young daughter to umm it was a mother/daughter kind of road trip picture. They kind of go on the road across the United States looking for you know basically love in all the wrong places. My character is not a lot of screen time. Basically, you see Steve Martin's daughter. You kind of get the picture that she is this kind of perfect daughter and she makesstraight A's and kind of behind her father's back she is sneaking out of the house and going to kind of probably college parties and she's still in high school. In one scene she invites me to come meet her dad to kind of pose as her boyfriend is really what I really am. But I'm not really her boyfriend, but I pose as her boyfriend and I come meet her dad and I think she gets me come meet her dad 'cause I am like the rich again all American you know apple-cheeked kid. So I come to the door and introduce myself to Steve Martin and we have a whole scene together. That was really cool and then later you see us all at a wild party and you see that my character is you know kind of he's probably a little more wild than you think at first. He's with another girl and we're kissing. Of course that's a very minor minor part of the major story. The story is about a woman who is in prison, who's Queen Latifah's character, who meets Steve Martin's character on the internet while she's in prison. Of course he doesn't know she's in prison and he thinks she's a beautiful blonde lawyer. She actually breaks out of prison and comes to find him because she believes that he's the only one that can help her with her case 'cause she is claiming to have been wrongfully inprisoned. So she comes in and basically comes to find him and reaks havac on his life and he of course doesn't want to have anything to do with her. It's really funny.

PZO: What is one question you would like an interviewer or anyone for the matter to ask you and could you answer it for us?
Matt: <laughs> Oh, wow...I think I would like you to ask me what is one question you would like for me to ask you and would you please answer it?
<laughter>
Matt: Okay, umm what is one question that I would like to be asked. What's my dog's name and what kind of dog is she? She's a yellow labrador retriever and her name is Blossom. She lives with my family in North Carolina and I miss her.