On life during the quarantine, Walton said, “I have been okay. I have been busier than I expected to be, frankly. I ended up setting up a green screen studio in my garage. Fortunately, my studio is still up and running and I have been jobs from my garage. The quarantine hasn’t obliterated my career.”
He opened up about being an actor in the digital age. “The digital age is as great as it is awful. It’s a double-edged sword,” he said.
One Life to Live
Regarding his experience in the defunct ABC daytime drama One Life to Live, where he played Eli, he said, “That was the best acting job I’ve ever had.” “That is the hardest form of acting in the world,” he said. “Exposition in any movie is the hardest to act and the hardest to watch. Soap opera lines were perpetual exposition. You are always explaining what just happened, so it’s incredibly challenging to make real and to watch. It was always designed for people that may have just tuned in.”
Walton continued, “Growing up, my mom was a big One Life to Live fan because of the Buchanan family, so to hang out with Bob Woods was a real treat. The great thing about this career is that you get to work with some of the people that you got into the business because of.”
“Before the show ended, I do hold the world record of the most murders in the history of soap opera, by one man, with 37,” he added.
He had nothing but the greatest remarks about working with co-star David A. Gregory, who played Ford, in One Life to Life. “David is probably one of the most beautiful men I have ever seen in my life, clothes on and off, and also, one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met in my life. There is no ego with him, and he had a ‘Cameron Mathison’ thing going for him, and I thought he would be the Cameron Mathison equivalent of One Life to Life,” he said.
Walton also complimented Kassie DePaiva, who played his on-screen wife Blair on the show. “Working with Kassie was the best. I’ve always thought that she is one of the most gorgeous women on TV,” he exclaimed. “We have been good friends ever since. She’s fantastic and most of the actors on that show were great. The people that have been there for a long time are good people.”
Advice for young and aspiring actors
For young and aspiring performers, he remarked, “You don’t have to be good when you start. They don’t expect you to be good when you start. You have to be capable, calm, and realistic. You don’t have to be attractive or have a perfect body. You should be who you are.”
“There are no rules and no consequences anymore,” he added. “Say ‘yes’ to everything and ‘no’ to anything. Don’t box yourself in to scripted material such as plays, movies, and TV. If I had a crystal ball in high school, I would have apprenticed with a building contractor because if I could make houses today, I would have my own show on HGTV and be just fine with it. You have no idea what is going to hit when.”
“When I was young, the idea of putting myself on a moving picture and being able to get that moving picture in front of people’s faces was a Herculean task,” he said. “Now, there are no excuses. These days, kids in high school, theater groups, and college should be making their own short films. If it’s good, it will be seen. It will be seen if it’s interesting and it will be seen if it’s weird and gross. There is a lot of content being made.”
“Actors are colors of crayons,” he said. “The director and the producer are the ones with the coloring book. Your job is to either write your own coloring book and color it the way you want or be the boldest and brightest color that you are, and wait for somebody who wants that color for their picture. If you are red, be the redest red that you can be.”
“I would tell aspiring actors to utilize the tools that the moment has given you,” he added.
Walton defined the word success as “keep making content, putting all on the line and you challenge yourself.”
To learn more about actor Matt Walton, check out his official website and his IMDb page, and follow him on Twitter.
