(Part 1) Matt Pascua: Navigating the Emotional Acting Landscape, his work in Independent Film and Life in NYC

THIS IS PART ONE.  PART TWO WILL BE RELEASED IN A FEW DAYS.

:00
Introduction and Background
02:47
Journey into Acting
05:37
Navigating the Acting Industry
08:28
Life in New York vs. LA
11:25
Travel and Personal Life
14:07
Finding Love and Relationships
16:54
Coming Out and Identity
19:39
Family Dynamics and Support
20:33
Exploring Sexuality and Identity
23:21
The Making of 'Say Yes'
27:53
Character Reflections and Personal Connections

SUMMARY
In this conversation, Matt Pascua shares his journey from a Midwest upbringing to becoming an actor in New York City. He discusses the challenges and joys of navigating the acting world, the competitive nature of LA and New York, and his experiences with love and identity. Matt reflects on his coming out journey, the support from his family, and how he relates to his character in the independent film 'Say Yes.' The conversation highlights themes of self-discovery, emotional honesty, and the importance of community.

TAKEAWAYS
Matt Pascua grew up outside of Chicago and didn't pursue acting until later in life.
He found his passion for acting while studying at Ithaca College.
Matt emphasizes the importance of emotional honesty in acting.
He believes there is no correct trajectory in an acting career.
Self-assessment is crucial for artists to ensure they find joy in their work.
Matt's journey of coming out was supported by his younger brother, who is also gay.
He values the growth and learning that comes with family dynamics.
Matt identified as bisexual and acknowledged his late exploration of this part of his identity. He now simply identifies as Queer.
He shares a positive experience of finding love through Grindr during the pandemic.
Matt relates deeply to his character Caden in 'Say Yes,' infusing personal experiences into his performance.

BIO
MATT PASCUA is an actor based in New York City. After studying at the Neighborhood Playhouse, he began working in commercials and on stage, including an earlier, regional production of Matthew Spangler's "The Kite Runner," an adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's best-selling novel of the same name. His television work includes appearances on "Grey's Anatomy," "Castle," "Rosewood," "Insecure," "Dynasty," "Fantasy Island," "Mayor of Kingstown," and "FBI: Most Wanted." Through 2024, Matt recurred as Ben Perez on "Walker," The CW's family drama-reboot of "Walker, Texas Ranger." On film, he can be seen in Jean-Marc Vallée's "Wild" and in Stewart Wade's "Say Yes" and "Baby Steps," amongst several other independent releases. In 2019, two projects he headlined, Lise Johnson's "Other Loving" and Anthony Meindl's "Where We Go From Here," screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Matt is also an alum of the ABC Discovers Talent Showcase, which takes pride in Chadwick Boseman, Lupita Nyong’o, and Gina Rodriguez, among many others, as some of its previously selected artists.

Matt's IG/:  https://www.instagram.com/pattmascua/

Contact Wilkinson: BecomingWilkinson@gmail.com

Transcript

Wilkinson (00:01)
Who is this guy? Matt, yeah, Matt Pasqua. I met you on a movie about two years ago, me watching your movie. And the movie was Say Yes. I think it really is my favorite movie and on a lot of levels. But anyway, then we almost got together in New York, what, a year and a half ago? And then you had to get a

Matt Pascua (00:04)
Who me?

Are we bad?

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Wilkinson (00:31)
I won't, can't swear, it's early.

Matt Pascua (00:31)
I know, I was just about to catch you. I

was actually gonna yell it, but then I'm like, ooh, we're still a little shy. ⁓

Wilkinson (00:36)
No, no, no. Yeah.

Yeah. So anyway, you had an audition, which is what you do. So that's fine. And, ⁓ yeah. And we were just talking about it, that things happen when they're supposed to happen. So it's happening now. So it's good. So well, welcome, welcome, welcome. And, ⁓ say hi to my own, peeps. Yeah. Okay.

Matt Pascua (00:43)
Tis the name of the game, yes. Yeah.

Yeah. And I'm so grateful. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Hey guys, thanks for tuning in and thanks for loving Wilkinson. He's the man.

Wilkinson (01:05)
Where are we gonna start? I wanna talk about your movies a bit, but let's do that later. Let's talk about you first. So tell me how you grew up, where you're from, what's been your life's journey, blah, blah, blah. Tell me some of that stuff. And I'll interrupt you and say, me more about this or that. Yeah.

Matt Pascua (01:06)
You're in charge here, my man.

Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, of course, redirect us as necessary. I ⁓

grew up in the Midwest, I grew up outside of Chicago. Yeah, you know, I'm an actor and I always love to share my story, if you will, because I wasn't one of those people who was doing theater at a young age. I mean, of course I did my fair share of like school, elementary school shows and such. ⁓ But yeah, it's not like I always knew that

Wilkinson (01:52)
Right, right, right.

Matt Pascua (01:55)
This was what I wanted to do. I think there was something about it that perhaps I was curious about, but it was nothing I really invested in or explored until I was in my undergrad. I ended up doing a communications program in upstate New York at Ithaca College, which took me away from the Midwest. I... did you really? right on. Yeah, yeah, you know the Tundra well.

Wilkinson (02:13)
I grew up in Buffalo, by the way. Yeah, anyway, continue. So you're at Ithaca.

Matt Pascua (02:20)
Yeah, I was at Ithaca ⁓ thinking I wanted to be a filmmaker, thinking I wanted to direct. And I finally had the opportunity to do that at the student level and I realized I hate this. Like I hate, yeah, I hate trying to keep my eye on so many different things. And I hate, I actually hate being in charge. I'm happy to be a leader, but I've never sort of hungered or craved, hungered for or craved.

I know, power. So I simultaneously was taking a theater class where I was working with actors and I was just watching sort of the minutia of their work and I was very much fascinated by it. So yeah, as everyone else, we were finishing up undergrad, everyone else was looking for jobs and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do and I got into an acting program here in the city at the neighborhood playhouse and it changed my life.

Wilkinson (03:15)
That's in New York. So you went from Ithaca to New York at some point. Yeah, yeah.

Matt Pascua (03:16)
Yeah, that's here in New York. Yeah, yeah,

yeah. New York had been calling me for a while as it was, so.

Wilkinson (03:25)
So then what?

Matt Pascua (03:26)
No.

Yeah, then I did, you know, I had to like learn or pretty much unlearn so much about life while I was in acting school. Like I think not in a bad way, but you you realize as an artist that you've been conditioned to kind of restrict or restrain your emotions in just very courteous and polite ways as you move through the world. And so it's sort of learning how to

access your emotions and how to become more honest with yourself and how to move through the world more honestly. And again, kind of like a wake up call for me. And then, yeah, you know, I did a little theater regionally off off-Broadway, off-Broadway. At the time I was coming up or first starting out as an actor, was like, like viral videos were happening. Like, I don't know if you remember college humor and all that. Yeah, so I did a lot of that. And then,

Wilkinson (04:15)
Right? Yeah.

Matt Pascua (04:19)
Yeah, ultimately made the jump, moved out to LA for a little bit and worked in filming TV or, you know, aspired to and then was very fortunate to make some strides on that run. Yeah, yeah. So it's been a good run. I'm pretty grateful. We'll see what's next. As always, you never know what's ahead, but I think I enjoy the adventure of that.

Wilkinson (04:29)
Hmm.

You're going to stick with us though, right?

Matt Pascua (04:42)
Yeah, it feels right. And I, you know what I always say to other artists or young actors even is, is that there's no correct trajectory. Like we believe that it's like this project opens doors to the next project. and, I, that is certainly true, but you just never know what, what kind of projects follow one another. And that's the best thing about doing all this is it is an adventure again, but also you, you have full control to like,

Wilkinson (04:56)
Right.

Matt Pascua (05:10)
take care of yourself throughout it. I think it's really easy to almost attach yourself to the identity of being an actor or being an artist. And I think it's really important to constantly be doing sort of a reassessment or a self-assessment of is this giving me joy? Is this chase? Is this lifestyle of constantly looking for work or constantly trying to share the truth? Like, is it working for you? Does it fill you?

And if my argument has always been, or my thought process has always been, if I'm coming to a point where I'm not enjoying this process, or it's not filling me in, it's me acting out of an attachment to this idea of being an actor, then yeah, we gotta bounce. We gotta make some shifts. Yeah.

Wilkinson (05:56)
Well,

in our pre-recording chat, which I always do with my guests, I told you I was in real estate. What I always said was, real estate is looking for a job every day of your life. And I imagine acting is pretty much the same thing, isn't it? Yeah.

Matt Pascua (06:01)
Yeah.

Absolutely, absolutely.

I imagine when you were working in real estate as well, you kind of just accept that as the norm. It just becomes, you know, by rote. And I want to say maybe a couple years ago, my brother was looking for a new job and he was just like on that grind of sending all these applications out and interviewing and such. he was like, damn, do you do this? Is this your life? And I had to kind of think about it. I was like, yeah, I guess it is. Yeah.

Wilkinson (06:17)
Right.

How, so you're in LA and you're in New York. Are they the two top most competitive areas in the States for acting?

Matt Pascua (06:46)
Yeah, think that, yes. I mean, I just feel like there are the markets for all the work, although that is kind of evolving quite aggressively now. I feel like there's so much that's filming outside of the Tri-State area, of course, but then also outside of LA. Like, I think there's a real fear right now amongst many industry people that there isn't work or as much work actually filming in LA as there has been for generations.

Wilkinson (06:51)
you

Matt Pascua (07:15)
So hopefully it remains as the center for at least film and TV for not only actors, but just for all the craftspeople. There's so many disciplines that that industry serves on a really magical level. But yeah, mean, know, they're two very different cities on a lifestyle level. They're just great fun. I just I think I mean, I'm very much a city kid. I grew up in the suburbs. And I think I was saying to you in our pre-chat.

Like I just had always felt this calling to New York to some degree. I think when I was a kid, I was a big Madonna fan growing up, which says a lot, was prefacing quite a bit. I mean, naturally. But then I remember reading like maybe like a biography of her that I found in like our school's library when I was seven or something. And just this story of her coming to New York with like 35 bucks in her pocket. And I'm like, I don't know. I just love like the journey of artists or people in...

Wilkinson (07:50)
Hahaha

Matt Pascua (08:10)
in New York. mean, certainly in LA and other cities, but there's just something really dynamic about getting your life going in this city, which is such chaos and beauty and stress and inspiration. It's just like a ball of so much here.

Wilkinson (08:11)
Right.

Yeah. Well,

you know, when I, when we first chatted like a year and a half ago, I mean, I was actually looking at a condo or a co-op at that point in, in, in New York, cause, cause I thought, you know, I always wanted to live in New York for at least a year or two, but then I came to the conclusion, well, besides co-ops are out of the question, there's too many rules and it's craziness. So I'm not going to get into that telling you what to do with your own space. But, but the, just the energy, yes, the energy energizes me.

Matt Pascua (08:35)
really? Wow.

Yeah.

Right.

Wilkinson (08:57)
But I don't think I could do that all the time. I just can't.

Matt Pascua (08:57)
Yeah.

Yeah, well, mean, listen, California

space in general is really lovely. it's something you to be real. feel like I very much treasure space now, especially as an adult living here when I was younger or just starting out and living here. It's also a very different experience when you're. Yeah. When you do you have less means, you have less comfort. You're a little bit more open to that. But yeah, being a proper adult.

Wilkinson (09:12)
Right.

Matt Pascua (09:26)
in the city, I feel like I very much value space and clean air and all these things that I kind of had a little bit more at the ready living in California than I do here. But yeah, I never thought I was coming back. you know, I love when life surprises you.

Wilkinson (09:43)
It seems like you travel a lot though, is that true? It seems like every time I see something you're somewhere.

Matt Pascua (09:46)
I do, or we try to.

Oh, that,

I mean, that paints me out to be like this smooth jet setter type, which I love, but I more so dream of really becoming, no, we try to, I, that I want to say a year or two ago, my partner and I had sort of, um, committed to, trying to do some more international travel, like maybe twice a year possible, like setting aside like two trips if we can. And that might mean both of us love to travel and

Yeah, it's just kind of staying open with whatever presents itself on the work front too.

Wilkinson (10:23)
Well, after I came out in 99, that was my goal. in 99 and two, yeah, 99 and 2000, I went to, Europe and I was going to go every year. And then nine 11 happened and, I haven't been back. It's like crazy. like life has taken over. so.

Matt Pascua (10:26)
to travel.

goodness.

to Europe.

Yeah, yeah, that's

okay. I mean, I share that I recently went to London and it took me a moment to sort of reconnect with the last time I was there. went as a teenager and I was like, wow, I haven't been to London in 23 years. so yeah, was just a complete, I mean, I was a kid and you know, even in the last 10 years, so much has changed in my life. And yeah, it's great. I highly recommend getting out there if you can, when time permits.

Wilkinson (10:54)
Yeah.

Well,

I'm gonna, and I had actually thought, even though I'd never been there, I'd studied the place for two years, but I was gonna go to Portugal and move. You know, with all of the craziness going on here. Well, they don't really, it's getting tougher because so many people have moved there. I cannot tell you how many guys from Palm Springs have moved there. It's like insane. yeah.

Matt Pascua (11:11)
my- it's- yes. ⁓ my gosh, it's the perfect place to move to. It's beautiful.

Really? Even

if you could go visit, I feel like you would love it. Yeah, it's a pretty spectacular place.

Wilkinson (11:30)
⁓ I'm definitely, I'm definitely going to do that. My, right. Yeah. My middle

son is near Boston. So my plan is go see him for a while and then do the next leg over there instead of California to there. That that's a lot of flying. So, well, you said you have a boyfriend. His name is Isaac. And where'd you meet?

Matt Pascua (11:42)
Yeah. yeah. Yeah. No, that's perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Break it up.

I do, yes I do. His name is Isaac, yeah.

We met, mean, he's gonna, we can talk about it, yeah. I mean, he's gonna hate that I'm sharing this, but we met on Grindr. I always say this with a lot of pride and a lot of joy because at least I was not very much looking for a relationship or anything along those lines. But yeah, I just, I remember when we met on Grindr and we'd sort of really,

Wilkinson (11:59)
Can we talk about it?

Matt Pascua (12:22)
hit it off and connected beyond just the physical. And it was kind of a delight to meet someone and have this really filling and positive experience and then to be able to build all from an app. In my mind, that felt so unrealistic. And I always said that, yeah, we had this little Grindr romance. We had a little Grindr love story. And I'm really grateful for it.

Wilkinson (12:38)
Right.

Matt Pascua (12:48)
He's much more polished and formal than I am. So he's always kind of gauging the room with sharing that. And I respect that, even though I'm sharing this on a podcast. Yeah.

Wilkinson (12:59)
Well that

just that just flew out the window.

Matt Pascua (13:06)
It's

old news at this point.

Wilkinson (13:09)
So from day one meeting, and basically a hookup, right, with him, to the next day and how long.

Matt Pascua (13:11)
⁓ Well, no.

⁓ Well, so it was interesting. The way it sort of unfolded was during the pandemic, I'd come here to New York. There wasn't any work in LA. And I had heard that a close girlfriend of mine had said that there was more work available here, but because of COVID, you had to be here. And I just had the time. So I was like, I guess I'll come out to New York. within the first couple

Wilkinson (13:24)
Right.

Matt Pascua (13:42)
weeks, honestly days, probably hours. I already knew that I felt like I was going to move back. And then at a certain point I was like, I should probably get a rental instead of crashing with my friend. I should explore like, what does the job market look like out here? What is dating going to look like? And so I just hopped on to Grindr we met and I think I maybe had like a week or two until I was leaving to go back to LA. So we kind of...

Wilkinson (13:53)
Right.

Matt Pascua (14:08)
had this whirlwind of a romance where within that week or two that I was still here, we saw each other, took each other out to dinner and for drinks. yeah, it was pretty, it felt very, yeah, it felt like a movie romance. Yeah, yeah.

Wilkinson (14:28)
then you went back to LA and then.

Matt Pascua (14:30)
I went back to LA. I knew I was making the move back out to New York, but he'd actually come to visit me in LA within that span of time that I was, I was back and just kind of in transition, I suppose. And then, yeah, when I came back here, you know, we reconnected and started to build. We took some time apart amidst that as well. Just both of us, he was very busy amidst a project and I was also kind of just getting settled in and I think it was an appropriate time for us to sort of.

see or not even like see where we were at, almost like tend to ourselves. Yeah, then we found our way back to each other. Yeah, shortly after that. This is, I suppose so. Yeah, this is like 2021 post. Yeah, that's still COVID. Yeah, yeah, that's still COVID. So yeah, I mean, again, none of this I wasn't really looking for. I always find that some of the best things in life are

Wilkinson (15:04)
Right.

That was during COVID, right?

That's still COVID. ⁓

Matt Pascua (15:25)
It's an amazing feeling when you set out to accomplish something and you do so, or you put together that project that you've been talking about and you realize it. But I also just love being ready and available and staying open to whatever can unfold for you. And this one was certainly the greatest gift for me in terms of that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, now we live together.

Ha! Yeah.

Yeah, I'm living a gay life. I mean, I also said earlier, I kind of prefer the all-encompassing umbrella of queer. I also love the reclamation of that term in a positive and prideful sense. But yeah, I I identify as bi because I hadn't come out until I hadn't really sort of acknowledged this within myself and explored this and then more formally.

Wilkinson (16:15)
Right.

Matt Pascua (16:28)
come out until I was maybe 29 or 30. So it was, I say I'm a little bit of a late bloomer on that front, but I, yeah, I was very much attracted to women and in love with women, but I think that there was a part of me that at that point, I mean, looking back at it now, I mean, certainly a very important part of me that I hadn't explored yet. I hadn't uncovered for myself.

Wilkinson (16:28)
Right.

Huh. Talk about growing up. was your situation? Family, blah, blah, blah. And then you said you came out when you were around 29. You came out to them at that point.

Matt Pascua (16:56)
Growing up.

like

Yeah, I came out to my folks around, yeah, I think I was 29 or 30, or maybe even 31. Sorry, I'm like jogging my memory for it all. I do, and so our story is really special, I think. My brother is also gay, and he had come out, yeah, he had come out when he was a teenager. And so when he really like understood that he was gay,

Wilkinson (17:15)
Yeah. And you said you have one brother?

really?

Matt Pascua (17:34)
I feel like I was very happy to be a very joyful support system for him or encouraging support system for him. And so when I was coming out, like as an adult, I think it surprised him a little bit, but he was like the big brother to me in my process, I suppose, which was really special to be able to sort of reciprocate that for each other.

Wilkinson (17:54)
Wow.

How much older is he? he's a younger big brother. Okay, gotcha.

Matt Pascua (18:00)
He's younger, so he's, four years. Yes, yes, he played the role of big brother, taking care

of me as I was coming out and sort of navigating those woes with family, but also just like with self, you I think there's, you're sort of dismantling a lot of, or my process. Yeah, I was dismantling a lot of what I thought I was or who I thought I was and how I was presenting to the world.

And he was just this, yeah, this pretty amazing support system throughout it all.

Wilkinson (18:30)
Are you pretty close from now?

Matt Pascua (18:32)
yeah, I'm very, very close with my family. I'm so grateful for sort of our journey together. You know, my parents have two kids, two queer kids, and I'm so lucky to have parents who, you know, it's been a journey for them as well. Like it wasn't just a simple process, but I think it's really incredible when you see that everyone's kind of growing and learning and figuring out life together.

Wilkinson (18:56)
Right. Right.

Matt Pascua (18:56)
⁓ And

now I see them, not that this wasn't the case beforehand, but they're very much these parents who are so proud to have two queer kids, to have these children who have taken control of their lives and know who they are and take ownership over their lives. It's pretty special, so I'm very grateful for them.

Wilkinson (19:08)
Wow.

So

they never went through the, my God, did we do wrong, phase?

Matt Pascua (19:17)
of course they did. I mean, I don't want to speak for them, but from, yeah, I mean, I think it was two very different experiences as well. Like I think, you know, for my brother, it's so much a part of his identity or a part of almost like growing up and finding himself. And he did this in his teens, right? So I think by the time, once he had come out, my parents started to really see him.

Wilkinson (19:21)
Yeah.

Matt Pascua (19:39)
Like he really was able to be his fullest self, whereas on my end, it was a little bit later. And I, yeah, not to say that it isn't an important part of my identity, it certainly is, but it is in all of my identity. So it was something that I discovered a little bit later on. And I think for my parents, was sort of like, I want to say that they were trying to understand if I was just lying.

Wilkinson (19:42)
Wow.

Matt Pascua (20:05)
previously, all these, you know, like my college girlfriend was that real, my high school girlfriend was that real, and it was all real. It's just, again, that process of continuing to grow and learn more about myself and who I am and what I want to need.

Wilkinson (20:21)
So you said that you loved women, you obviously dated them. So when was that moment when you go, I love women, I've dated them, but huh. When did that, how did that happen?

Matt Pascua (20:32)
I don't know

Yeah, I think I had this moment where I'd been sort of dating around aimlessly and I

Wilkinson (20:43)
Was this

all women you were dating with that way? Okay. Okay. Okay.

Matt Pascua (20:46)
Yeah, this was just women at the time.

Yeah. And I had been, I had like experimented with men in the past, but I never, I guess the singular time that I had previously, it just didn't really resonate with me. But then I kind of opened myself up to that again. I think just, yeah, being a little bit older, knowing yourself, kind of not giving a fuck about anyone else or.

Wilkinson (21:10)
Right.

Right.

Matt Pascua (21:13)
what the world thinks and being able to exist like that. Yeah, I was like, there's real joy here now. Yeah, that's how it happened for me. I, yeah, I also, you know, I consider myself a pretty open-minded and progressive person that none of the, when I was doing this, by the time that I'd sort of realized that maybe this is something I need to,

reconnect with or reopen for myself. None of it was like, none of it was hard for me. Like I didn't have any, there weren't challenges for myself like in my mind about any of it. So I wasn't even against the idea, you know, I think there are sometimes people, people can isolate sex versus a proper partnership or relationship. And for me, it was honestly the same movement.

Wilkinson (22:00)
Right.

Matt Pascua (22:04)
as when I was dating women where I was open to the physicality of it all, but I was also open to if there's a match that feels appropriate, why wouldn't I explore that? No.

Wilkinson (22:16)
Right.

Just hearing you, you seem like such a, in a way, in ways, reflection of Kate, your character, and say yes. So you've touched on so many things in that, those few minutes that, you know, yeah, at the scene where he's with the bow character at the table, for example, toward the end, where he's, you know, he's saying,

Matt Pascua (22:25)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that feel very Caden. Yeah.

Wilkinson (22:42)
I let a guy fuck me once. That line and all that stuff. Yeah, the ice cream scene. What kind of ice cream was that?

Matt Pascua (22:43)
yeah, the ice cream, the ice cream scene. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love that sequence. It's really great.

my gosh, I think it was butter pecan. I think so, yeah. Which I used to hate as a child. That's my dad's favorite flavor, but I'm slowly becoming my dad and I love.

Wilkinson (22:53)
It really was. Okay.

you

Cause

that is the flavor in the movie. And I wondered if it was really, are they, yeah, okay, you kept it real. ⁓

Matt Pascua (23:04)
Yeah. yeah, we keep it ⁓ Yeah, of course,

of course. Authentic.

Wilkinson (23:11)
Let's talk about that movie a bit. We talked just for my listeners. So I discovered this. It's basically an independent film by Stewart Wade, right? Which is not his, his name changes, because that's really not his last name anyway, but I know for his stage name. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Matt Pascua (23:13)
Surely.

Yeah.

Right. It's stage name, if you will. His artist name. Yeah. Yeah.

Wilkinson (23:34)
He's a great guy. He was on my podcast a while ago. So how'd end up getting that part?

Matt Pascua (23:35)
He's a great guy.

I think it was just a very old school sort of traditional route. I'd seen a casting notice for it. I think the timing in terms of alignment, yet again, Wilkinson, I think I was shortly after, or I'd seen that shortly after all of these discoveries for myself and beginning to identify as by and exploring new kind of dynamics with men. I was shortly.

Wilkinson (24:02)
Right.

Matt Pascua (24:07)
or amidst that rather, but maybe a year into that. And I saw this log line of a project that felt kind of bizarre and crazy, but I thought the character was fascinating. And yeah, I came in to read for them and it seemed like how I viewed him aligned with how Stuart and Alan, our producer, viewed Caden. Yeah, and then hopefully came together well since then. Yeah.

Wilkinson (24:34)
It did.

Matt Pascua (24:36)
That means the world. Thank you.

Wilkinson (24:36)
Yeah. Yeah. I love that movie. It probably is my favorite movie. told you in our pre-chat. So, so in the last few years, I've had a lot of house guests and I make them all see that I don't make them, but I say, why don't you watch this movie? I encourage them to watch this movie with me. So yeah, he was great. I do have a question though, and I should have asked, um, I should have asked Stewart, where, where is the house? And he told me that was their house. Actually you filmed that.

Matt Pascua (24:43)
Take care.

Yeah.

You encourage. Yeah. ⁓ that means the world. Thank you. Thank you.

Yeah. Yeah.

Wilkinson (25:03)
Right?

So, ⁓ where was that? never asked him what town I was trying to figure out what town that's in.

Matt Pascua (25:08)
Yeah,

it's in Los Angeles. It's in this neighborhood in Northeast LA called Highland Park. It's actually really blown up as this pretty hipster, trendy, fun neighborhood, yeah.

Wilkinson (25:12)
Okay, all right. Okay.

Right. Yeah. And as you,

as you're probably know, he sold that after the second movie and moved to Oregon. ⁓

Matt Pascua (25:22)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I know there was, when we filmed Baby Steps, is the sequel to Say Yes, it was interesting because both Patrick and I had actually left for the East Coast. Yeah, and so we were back for that. then Stuart and his partner Ruben were on their way out as well. Like think maybe a couple months after we'd wrapped.

Wilkinson (25:30)
Right.

Matt Pascua (25:45)
They moved up the coast.

Wilkinson (25:47)
Oh. It was funny because I talked to him a little bit. I don't know if it's on the podcast or in our pre-chat, obviously it's an independent film. I mean, we all know that, right? So, I mean, there's a couple of things here and there, again, I love the film. I found the costuming very interesting. And I think he said that you guys brought your, you wore your own clothes sometimes.

Matt Pascua (25:57)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

yeah?

Yeah,

yeah, yeah. I we had, I think we had wardrobe to help sort of style things and keep things consistent. But yeah, I mean, this is, this is like a, like a hearty indie film, you know, like we weren't working with a studio budget. So a lot of, a lot of what we were wearing was, you know, all of us bringing like luggages of clothes, which, which, I mean, also, you know, it was, was, it was thoughtfully mapped out. I remember Stuart coming to my apartment at the time, like I was just going through the closet, which is

Wilkinson (26:28)
Right.

Matt Pascua (26:39)
There's a lot of interesting kind of building in that, a collaborative building to use your own wardrobe for your character's wardrobe. But yeah, I'm an indicative of it being a proper indie film.

Wilkinson (26:53)
So was it Stewart's, is blue his favorite color or what? There's a lot of blue. There's a lot, there's a lot of blue in that film.

Matt Pascua (26:58)
Maybe. I feel like there's a lot of blue. I know

the moment you said that I was like, there is a lot of blue. Like I'm recalling like a little bit of, yeah. ⁓

Wilkinson (27:05)
Yeah. Right. So

my, my two favorite scenes of you in that movie, number one, where you're in the blue, the blue outfit, you're standing in the living room and then you go in, you know, where the, check on Lily and she says, you know, the three of you are in bed. So that outfit. And then the one where your parents are leaving it toward the end, you're out by the car, that outfit. Very, very, very, very hot.

Matt Pascua (27:13)
boy.

⁓ yes. Yeah. Yeah.

yeah. ⁓

Wilkinson (27:35)
And I, and I, and I,

Matt Pascua (27:36)
Thank you Wilkinson, I'll take it.

Wilkinson (27:38)
and I was, and I was thinking that Patrick don't hate me, but I was like, Patrick, need some help here. Because his, he has, he has in those, he had a beautiful body, but it, didn't show in those, ⁓ those oversized shirts he was wearing and all that stuff. It was like, hello. But then in baby steps, I noticed things changed and he was, it was different. Did you help him with that or what happened?

Matt Pascua (27:44)
⁓ gosh.

Patrick's such a hottie, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, Patrick, the individual actually has very great style, but I think he and Stuart had sort of crafted that for Bo in Say Yes. Yeah, yeah, and he's also, you know, he's kind of like a a quieter, simpler straight man who's discovering something new about himself. So I think, yeah, by the time it's baby steps, you know, he's, he's, he's...

Wilkinson (28:04)
Ha

or he wanted to be the nerdy IT guy. Okay.

Matt Pascua (28:32)
Come a bit firms, he's come a bit of a way for himself. Yeah.

Wilkinson (28:36)
⁓

So what did you relate most to in say yes?

Matt Pascua (28:42)
With Kaiden, what did I relate most to? I mean, there's so much of Kaiden that is me, I think. Yeah, and I also find that this kind of work, even in the most sort of sinister of characters you play, it's our job as actors to reveal a little bit of ourselves in that and to find that sort of justification and

Wilkinson (28:43)
Yeah. Yeah.

Right, I absolutely see that, yeah.

Right.

Matt Pascua (29:10)
why people move the way they do or why they act and do these things. But yeah, with Kayden, I think so much of his mindset, again, for me, literally, maybe a year out of now or then, and now knowing myself as a queer man, I mean, that informed so much. I think I was able to infuse that kind of ease with it all because that's how my process, very fortunate.

Like I didn't have any doubts or questions about it in my discovery process and I feel like that transferred over hopefully pretty smoothly for the character of Kaden.

Wilkinson (29:45)
Right.

While the Kaden character is very spunky, is that you too?

Matt Pascua (29:54)
I like to believe so.

Matt Pascua (29:55)
Yeah, I think what happened was my Wi-Fi. Of course, I'm like, what the hell? This is so fucking bizarre. Of course, the Wi-Fi cut out. I'm like, that doesn't happen.