AN INTERVIEW WITH MATTHEW MAHER
BY CHRIS GRAVES
1. For those who do not know, what is your background and how were you introduced to the world of View Askew and Kevin Smith?
I auditioned for Vulgar out of an ad in Backstage Magazine. My career at that point was essentially just off-off Broadway plays and that’s it. Theater has always been my main focus, pretty much, but at that time I had nothing in the way of film, no experience at all, and I knew that wouldn’t do, so I saw the ad and drove out to Red Bank. I read the script and thought it was good, really funny, but also thought, “Well, there’s no way this’ll get made.” I just wasn’t sure there was a market for a movie based around the issue of clown-rape. I didn’t realize until the callbacks that View Askew was making it, that it actually was a serious enterprise—and what’s more I got on really well with Bryan Johnson (the director), and found out that Ethan Suplee was in it too, who I thought was great in the other VA stuff I’d seen…anyway, I was excited to be cast. This was all ten years ago, but it’s still probably the most fun I’ve had on a film set. Bryan let Ethan and I improvise, come up with weird details and absurd back-stories for our characters. I know it sounds weird, but it never really bothered me, having to portray such a depraved and awful person. Despite the fact that we’re here acting out this horrible rape scene, the main difficulty was not cracking each other up on camera. From my perspective, Gino was just a 12 year-old child, fighting with his younger brother over who’s turn it was to play on the swing set. The fact that Gino was in fact in his mid twenties, and the swing set in question was a half-naked Brian O’Halloran, was entirely incidental. Good times.
2. Did you always want to be an actor? Any formal training?
I did plays in high school, but mainly to just to go to the cast parties, spend time around pretty girls even if I didn’t have the courage to ask them out, run with the cool crowd–that sort of thing. But I found I really enjoyed acting and stage work….and then after studying Literature in college, along with more acting classes and such, I started to come around to the idea that it was something I could actually do for a living.
3. How did you become involved with the film Dogma? Do you have any anecdotes about the behind the scenes action(or lack of) from Dogma? What was it like working with the great Jason Lee?
Kevin cast me from my work in Vulgar. No audition—Scott(Mosier) just called me up, which was great. The same thing happened with Jersey Girl, and with the Clerks series. I had gotten along well with everybody on Vulgar, and Kevin seems to like to stick with people he knows and trusts as much as possible. I think back then it also helped that I’m old friends with Ben Affleck–something I actually didn’t tell them until after I was cast in Vulgar. I had a chip on my shoulder back then about not using connections to get work, that it had to be solely based on my merit, no nepotism ever….whatever. It’s not an insecurity I have anymore. But anyway, I don’t think Ben ever tried to influence Kevin on my behalf—I don’t think he had to—but I do think my friendship with him made it all the more easy and natural to let me into the View Askew family, as it were.
Dogma was fun but a little nerve-racking, just because it was my first big-budget feature film and I didn’t want to blow it. Kevin, Scott, Jason…everybody was really nice and relaxed and they put me at ease–made me feel like a pro among pros. The one moment of true fear was when I was actually “shot”. They spent about four hours lining my chest with squibs, which are basically firecrackers with with blood packs in them—so when someone off camera presses a button all these mini explosions would go off on my chest. Since it was so time consuming getting the things on and wiring them up, they wanted to do it all in one take, with two cameras running simultaneously (three, if you count Jay Mewes off to the side with his camcorder) so there was no room for fuck-ups or anything, and at the very last minute, when I’m all set up behind the bar—there’s a mattress next to me for me to fall on, the cameras are focused, everyone’s ready—the special effects guy runs up me and says, “So when you feel these little bumps on your chest, be sure to throw your face and arms back, away from the popping, or else you’ll probably get third degree burns everywhere—okay, so ready? Good. Let’s do this!”
I must say, I’ve done lots of film and TV since then, to say nothing of performing large roles in classic plays—sometimes even to some acclaim—but in terms of actual recognition, all of that put together couldn’t equal the amount of notoriety I have achieved by being the guy that Jason Lee’s character shoots towards the end of that movie. I could win an academy award, cure AIDS, but still my obituary would read that I was best known as the Holy Bartender from Dogma. In literally every town and city I’ve ever visited since then, big or small, some counter guy will spot me a cup of coffee, or some kid will ride by me on his skateboard and shout “Dude! Holy Bartender!” I’m in Imperial Beach, California at the moment, which is this tiny little surfing town south of San Diego—on location for a TV series. So just a few days ago, it’s late at night and I’m smoking outside my trailer and a small crowd of Mexican teen-agers roll up on me, and before I even have a chance to get nervous one of the kids is like, “Yo man, can you settle a bet?” And without them saying anything more I know what’s coming. “You in Dogma?” he asks, and when I say yes, it’s like “Oh, shit! Holy Bartender! Oh shit man! Kevin Smith? You know Kevin Smith? Jason Lee shot you, dog! Seriously, but—seriously? That’s fuckin’ awesome, man. Hey man—seriously. Do you want to come get wasted with us?” Episodes like this cease to surprise me, but I do marvel at Kevin’s hold on the young minds of America.
4. The ill fated Clerks animated series has become a huge deal on dvd and video. You provided a voice for an episode. Over all, was it a fun time? Have you seen the other episodes you weren’t a part of and if so, what did you think?
It was a great time. Just four hours in a sound studio goofing around with Kevin and Scott—I think Bryan was there, too. Hands down the easiest money ever made. I’ve never seen the episodes, though, I’m ashamed to say. They never aired and I never did figure out how to get my hands on them. Those who’ve seen them tell me they’re good, though. Why did ABC pull the plug, again?
5. What is your relationship like in terms of Ben Affleck? Obviously you were both in Dogma and Jersey Girl, but the two of you also appeared in the 2002 film The Third Wheel, as well as your being cast in his recent directorial debut, Gone,Baby,Gone. Are you both friends?
As I mentioned, yeah—we’ve known each other since we were little and have been friends for a while. He offered me a part in Gone Baby Gone and was actually kind of apologetic about it–not because the part’s small (it’s actually kind of a great role) but because the guy I have to play is such a completely awful human being. I don’t want to give away the plot too much, but I can say it’s based on a Dennis Lehane novel (the guy who wrote Mystic River) and I play, well, a child molester. The character’s similar to Gino in Vulgar, but transplanted to the real world—in other words not funny, not absurd, just very very dark and sad. It was a lot more difficult then Vulgar, because to do it right I really had to try and imagine the mind-set of someone saddled with these truly awful impulses. But Ben’s a great director to work with—really wonderful with actors—and the little I’ve seen of the movie, which also has Casey Affleck in it, and Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman—looks pretty amazing.
6. Being a huge fan of Martin Scorsese, I have to ask what it was like being directed by the man himself in the 1999 movie, Bringing Out The Dead? Did it ever get to be overwhelming being around the likes of Nic Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, and Ving Rhames?
Scorsese’s main direction to me was to stop acting. It was a short scene—a page or two—but it was packed with melodrama, and I could have easily started chewing the scenery. But he was like, “Let the situation speak for itself; you’re a homeless guy, surrounded by other homeless guys, on a freezing corner outside port authority, and one of your friends is dying; all you have to do is say, “I think my friend is dying” and the audience will see the direness of your situation without you, or rather, me, having to do anything else.” I took his advice as best I could, although they ended up shooting the whole scene in a wide shot, so the world will never really know if I was any good.
My scene was with Nicholas Cage and John Goodman but I didn’t interact with them much. It was late at night and and it was very cold and everybody just hustled back to their trailer when the cameras weren’t rolling.
7. Being involved with all three films (Dogma,Vulgar,and Jersey Girl), First: What was your reaction to the controversy surrounding Dogma? Second: The reaction to Vulgar, mainly Howard Stern’s, and Third: The paparazzi’s ambush of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez on the set of Jersey Girl?
My only reaction to the whole Ben and Jennifer paparazzi thing was that I felt bad for them. Whether they were ultimately right for each other or not, they weren’t being allowed to have a normal relationship.
The Dogma controversy thing was crazy to me. I mean, short of The Greatest Story Ever Told, I honestly don’t know of a more pro-Jesus movie than Dogma. The curse words and strippers aside, here was a movie that absolutely pre-supposed the existence of a loving, forgiving, yet all-powerful God—played by Alanis Morrisette, for heaven’s sake. What more of an endorsement can you give in the late nineties? Here’s the catholic church condemning the movie, when it’s clear to anyone who actually saw the movie that it’s about how to be a good catholic. It’s fucking advertisement for Catholicism, packed with Oscar winning movie stars, and the church freaked. I couldn’t understand it.
What to did Howard Stern say about Vulgar? I forget.
(Stern’s reaction involved watching only a small amount of the film and then throwing it in the trash, as well as ranting for weeks on air about how disgusting it was)
8. Do you have any new projects coming up?
I’m working right now on a new HBO show called John from Cincinnati, which is being created by David Milch–the same guy who did NYPD Blue and Deadwood. I have a supporting role that appears in episode six and continues on from there. I don’t know how much of the story I’m allowed to reveal, so I’ll keep my mouth shut–but I think it’s going to be pretty amazing. It premieres sometime in June.
9. What is your favorite View Askew/Kevin Smith flick (Dogma/ Vulgar/ Jersey Girl excluded)?
Since my part in Dogma is small, I feel I can still objectively say that that’s my favorite.
10. And finally, do you still keep in contact with anyone from View Askew?
I see Kevin and Scott in LA every once in a while. I haven’t seen Bryan for a long time, though, it feels like—Bryan, if you’re reading this, put down the porno mag and give me a ring.
As always we’d like to thank Chris for his insightful questions, and of course Matt for taking the time to answer.
