LUCIDMEDIA

A Q&A with Matt Frewer

Written by Adam A. Donaldson Friday, 24 July 2009 14:41

Canadian actor Matt Frewer has made a career out of being “that guy.” He was the titular character on Max Headroom, he led a team of paranormal investigators on PSI Factor, did a guest shot on Star Trek The Next Generation, appeared in the films Honey I Shrunk the Kids, The Meaning of Life and the remake of Dawn of the Dead. He was the Trashcan Man in Stephen King’s The Stand and played Sherlock Holmes in several made-for-TV movies. His most recent role was that of Moloch the Mystic in Watchmen, a small but critical part, the type that Frewer likes best. During the recent Polaris Sci-Fi convention I got a chance to sit down with Frewer and talk to him about being a go-to man in sci-fi and other things.

Lucid Forge: Obviously when fans come to these cons one of the things that they get out of them is seeing people like you and getting your autograph and your picture, so what do you get out of coming to a sci-fi con?

Matt Frewer: Well, I was saying earlier on actually that it’s a great reminder about how much your work can mean to people and that’s a fantastic thing to be reminded of because sometimes it feels as though you’re working in a vacuum. And it’s actually great to be reminded that you can touch people. It’s cool.

LF: How many of these cons do you do in a year?

MF: Actually it’s my fourth con ever.

LF: So you don’t get out to these much.

MF: I don’t get out much, no. (Laughs) I’m too busy working to be talking about what I’m working on.

LF: Is there a lot of demand to have you do more?

MF: I do the ones I’m asked to come to and I’d like to do more. I think that it’s a great experience to come to these things and see the weird, wacky and wonderful, and some very sweet, interesting and enthusiastic people.

LF: Is there ever any one particular thing you’re asked about?

MF: Actually I was really surprised because [the Q&A] covered about 10 or 11 things that I’ve done. People are remarkably well informed to the point where you think ‘My God, this person’s been stalking me.’ But it’s great, I think I got corrected about my mother’s maiden name. (Laughs)

LF: Have you found that there’s ever been any typecasting having done so much genre and sci-fi work?

MF: No, I don’t think so. I seem to have been able to move fairly easily between sci-fi and stuff outside of the genre. I like to think I bring a certain level of reality to the stuff I do in the sci-fi area, so it’s an easier bridge to cross when you get outside of it. I think it’s fairly easy to marry yourself to one thing in particular, but I love doing all sorts of things because if you’re on your death bed, and hopefully that comes later than sooner, you can say that you’ve done a lot of interesting things.

LF: Reversely, what keeps you coming back to genre roles?

MF: I don’t actively seek them out, but they seek me out. I really like that in sci-fi, a character’s put in extreme circumstances. I think that’s an interesting thing and probably forces you to use your imagination more than in other genres.

LF: I wanted to talk about Watchmen obviously. You had a small part in that but a substantial one.

MF: I had worked with [director] Zack Snyder before in Dawn of the Dead and he called me in to sort of chat about the role and in the end of our conversation about the role, he threw the graphic novel at me and said ‘Here, read that.’ So for about a week I wasn’t sure if he offered me the part or not. (Laughs)

LF: He was just suggesting good reading material.

MF: Yeah, it’s like I have lots of stuff to read. (Laughs) But I was thrilled that he did. It was a real milestone book and it was neat to be part of the cinematic experience. He was always considering me for Moloch. I think everybody else had been cast and he said that they were having terrible problems casting Moloch. Then when I looked at the graphic novel I thought, ‘I kind of look like that but without the pointy ears.’ I think he was trying to make it look a lot like the graphic novel so it probably helped that I looked like a balding cancer victim. (Laughs)

LF: When you’re looking at a list of characters, what do you look for in a part?

MF: I probably look at what’s wrong with a character rather than what’s right. It somehow humanizes them, which is probably why I like playing characters that are either the villain or secondary to the hero because with the hero there’s a certain set of expectations that have to be met for the audience and with the villain, or a similar character, you can create your own parameters and push them out a bit; all bets are off. It’s sort of a blank canvas.

LF: A lot of sci-fi stuff is shot here in Canada, so I was wondering has there been something where you’ve wondered: I’m here, they’re here, why haven’t they called?

MF: I’ve always wondered why Parliament Hill hasn’t called. (Laughs)

LF: It’s pretty science fiction-y up there.
MF: Oh yeah! (Laughs) That $#!t’s freaky up there, I don’t know why I haven’t been called to that. It’s a whole sort of genre piece up in Ottawa.

LF: Let’s talk about Max Headroom, it’s one of those shows that hasn’t come out on DVD yet, which surprising because it can be seen in new and different ways now 20 years later. What are your impressions of that series looking back?

MF: Well you know it was such a short, sharp shock looking back. For ABC we only did 12 episodes and it made the cover of Newsweek, so it made a lot of news for a short period of time and I never really had a sense of it until after it was finished because I was working so hard playing both characters. I’d finish doing Edison Carter at about two in the afternoon and then I’d have to get into make-up as Max which would take two-and-a-half hours and then I’d play that character long after everyone else wrapped and went home.

LF: It’s interesting to look at now because with the news you have celebrity anchors and people in Hollywood that are just known for being famous.

MF: Yeah, it’s interesting that isn’t it? And that seems to have crept into the zeitgeist, that fame for fame’s sake. It’s not a side effect anymore, that seems to be the destination everyone’s after and the journey of being good at something is a side effect. It’s a different world than when I was growing up. There’re lots of untrained actors and untrained singers that are making a splash on whatever reality show and if they get well enough known they seem to be able to translate their 15 minutes into 16 minutes. It kind of undermines the vocation aspects acting.