Matthew MacCaull first came to my attention earlier this year when he was in the Jason Bourque film (who is an absolutely phenomenal director) Heart Felt. Following that, I watched Matt in When Calls the Heart, Tomorrowland (I had to buy the DVD after interviewing him), and I remember when it came across my Twitter feed that he was cast in season two of Legends of Tomorrow. Now, I admit I’d never seen the show, but I decided it was high time to ask Matt for a second interview. Quite happily, he agreed to answer a few questions about what has kept him occupied since we last chatted. As a side note, I just adore second interviews, and when it’s someone as gracious and well-spoken as Matt, it’s a veritable treat!
RH: I know since we last chatted, you have had quite a lot going on. Of course, everyone got to see your character in When Calls the Heart.
Matthew MacCaull (Wade)
MM: Yes, absolutely. There have been a few discussions generated from that. It was pretty fun and really interesting. A lot of really great fans connected with that show.
I think a lot of people suspected your character of being a bit shady from the beginning.
{laughs} I guess I have to blame myself for the acting of that then.
Also, last time we talked, Stranger in the House hadn’t come out yet.
Yeah, I think it was just about to.
I was just looking at that, and I hadn’t realized you had been nominated for a Leo Award for that.
I was, yeah. I was nominated for this past year–2016. It ended up going to another fantastic actor.
That is one movie I missed out on seeing, and I am looking for the next time it airs. That’s the nice thing about Lifetime.
Well, I was definitely the murderer in that one. {or was he?}
We are going to get to Legends of Tomorrow, but I was then glad to find out that your film Black Fly is now available for purchase. It is one of those films I kept watching out for. I remember last time we spent some time talking about it, and it wasn’t available anywhere, and now it is.
Oh really? That’s news to me. I knew it was on iTunes, but I didn’t hear anything further than that.
I was doing some research, and I found it on Amazon. I wanted to make sure to put a plug in for it. I have not seen it yet, but I want to.
Well, great! That would definitely be a good Halloween watch. A few chills and thrills.
And it’s very popular on Amazon as it said it was almost out of stock when I looked.
That’s good. It’s getting pretty good reviews, too, I think. So that’s also good news.
So you are in all thirteen episodes of Legends of Tomorrow?
Um, I can’t say.
On IMDB, it says you’re in thirteen episodes.
Right. {laughs}
So I don’t know if they’re just saying that. I know I’ve had that happen before.
Sometimes IMDB is right; sometimes it’s wrong. And in this case, I can’t say.
Well, at least we know you’re in Legends of Tomorrow. That much we know.
Oh, absolutely. I appear at the end of the first episode. And the big introduction episode is episode two {which airs this Thursday, October 20}.
I know I set it up to my DVR. Actually, I did not watch it last season. But I do plan to get caught up. {pause} Is there anything you can say about your character?
Oh, absolutely. My character–his name is Hank Heywood, and his superhero alias is Commander Steele. He appears in the Justice Society of America. That is a forerunner of the Justice League of America. How they’ve done that is Legends of Tomorrow is a show about time-traveling heroes. The heroes travel back to 1942, and that’s how we all initially meet. My character is one of these no-nonsense, ultra-typical man’s man of the 1940’s. He’s involved in the war efforts. His super powers are that he has steel bones all throughout his body. But he doesn’t fly. He doesn’t shoot fire. To play him, all I needed was that very masculine, macho persona and a shotgun. Which was fantastic. {laughs}
With the CW shows, they have such a fantastic fan following. It seems like if a fan is following one show, they tend to follow them all.
Exactly. There’s a lot of crossover that happens.
I was thinking how lucky you were to get on this show.
Yes, it’s fantastic to be involved with something like this.
So how did you happen to get this role? Is there a story behind the audition?
No, it was so funny. Much like Tomorrowland, it was really just go in and read for the casting director–no producer, no director–and {laughs] well, the story is actually… I went in for the audition, and I read the character. I had sort of prepared this character and thought about this character in a certain kind of way. And as I read for the casting director, it was like, “No, I think it’s a little different than that.” I was asked to try it in a more subdued, very understated way. And I was like, “Oh, okay.” And so we shot another take, and that was the character. I’m on the show in a large part thanks to the casting director {laughs}
What was the on-set filming experience like for Legends?
You know, it was basically bottled chaos. It’s one of these shows that has a huge cast, a huge shot list of action shots. And they also have their dramatic moments and the interpersonal moments. It’s really just well-managed chaos. You just make sure that you do your best to make sure that you’re helping everybody out. People were working a minimum of fifteen hours a day on this show to get all the shots that they need, and we even had to go back and do reshots and things they just ran out of time to get. All the regular cast–they’ve got their whole characters down. They know what they’re doing and where they’re going within the world of the set. It was absolutely fun. It’s a total blast. But compared to a lot of other shows that I’ve done, it’s just so much more chaotic, just ’cause there’s so much more going on and so much more involved.
I can imagine that, knowing what I know of those shows. Did you have to do any stunts and/or have a stunt person come in and do stunts for you?
Oh absolutely. A good friend of mine who actually has done stunts for me on a number of shows, including Tomorrowland. A gentleman by the name of Jason Bell. He’s played my stunt double a number of times, which is the reason we have a great personal relationship. I’ll basically do as many stunts as they will allow me to. There just comes a point where, you know, if I’m jumping off a ledge a few feet high onto a crash pad or something like that, that’s not really a big deal. But it’s still a stunt, and I’m happy to do stuff like that. I’m happy to do a lot more as well. One of the stunts they had my character do was a full rotation flip off of a seven-foot terrace. And I was just like, “Yeah, I should have some training for that.” And even if I did have training for it, if there’s a chance of me rolling my ankle or breaking a bone or something like that, the risk is just too high for the risk assessment of the show. They don’t want the actors getting hurt in the slightest, especially with all this action going on. So they would bring the stunt guy Jason in, and he would very happily do all of the stunts that were required of him.
I have gotten to interview some stunt people so that’s why I asked.
Oh, they are some amazing, amazing people, and they have some hard, hard days.
I think that’s great that you have someone who has done stunts for you a lot.
It is good, especially when you have that personal connection ’cause you can talk to them about character and about all the things I’ve prepared myself to help them in behaving like that character. They can’t just arbitrarily move how ever they want. It has to be in league with the character. So when you know someone well enough, you can tell them what you’ve done and what the character is based on. When you know someone, it just makes it that much easier to communicate all of that. And then they know my taste and the things I probably will go for. Even the projects I’ll say yes to. I’ve worked with a guy by the name of Matt Reimer–he worked with me mainly on iZombie— in addition to Jason quite often.
In addition to Legends of Tomorrow, is there anything else coming up that you can mention?
Yes, I guest-starred on an episode of Lucifer, and it recently aired, so you can check that out. And then on October 23, on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, Hailee Dean Mystery: Murder With Love premieres. I play Dr. Jonas in that.
Kellie Martin, Matthew MacCaull Credit: Copyright 2016 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Sergei Bachlakov
That’s right. I remember it was a When Calls the Heart fan that noticed you in the trailer for that film. I had almost forgotten.
I’m sure there are a lot of people who are really eager to see the film. It’s actually a very well-done murder mystery. I was very impressed with the script. Kellie Martin is the lead, and she is just a lovely, lovely person. Cindy Busby is fantastic–she’s in the cast. Jesse Moss. Giacamo Baesatto–he’s the main co-detective in the film with Kellie. I play the doctor/love interest.
So we get to see you on Hallmark again. That’s great.
Absolutely. And I’m neither killing nor the bad guy. {laughs}
Wow! Well, that’s really something! So now they will know that you can play a nice guy. I mean, I would know that, but for those who have only seen you on Hallmark, they might think that you always play the bad guy. Well, I am so glad that you are getting to do all this great stuff.
For sure. I am excited to be doing all these projects, and I’m looking forward to seeing them and getting fan feedback.
Honestly, Matt is such a pleasure to chat with as our conversation was much more “chit-chatty” than what I have put here. It means so much when an actor actually takes a vested interest in me as a person and is circumspect about thanking me for taking the time to support and promote them. Matt was one of my first interviews ever, and those are always the ones that hold a special place in my heart. Of course, with Matt, he is extraordinarily humble, but there is no denying his impeccable talent and steadfast dedication to his career. Furthermore, after this interview, I did check out Legends of Tomorrow, and I’m hooked now. I have no earthly idea how I missed this show all last season! I greatly anticipate seeing more of Matt’s character in this show (I really hope they don’t kill him off early or anything as I see IMDB has since updated the listing to reflect merely the two episodes in which we know he appears). Regardless, I will be watching Legends of Tomorrow Thursdays on the CW, so be sure to look it up. You just might be surprised how intriguing it is. Worried that you didn’t see last season? I had no trouble following the storyline, so just jump right in. Furthermore, be sure that you tune in on Sunday, October 23, to Hallmark Movies & Mysteries for the premiere of Hailey Dean Mystery. I can hardly wait to see Matt in another “nice” role as I haven’t seen him in a role like that since Heart Felt. I also entreat all of you to check out the links below (including the purchase link for Black Fly) and follow Matt via social media because after all, do you want to miss out on connecting with this phenomenally gifted, genuinely kind, and incredibly good-looking guy?
FOLLOW MATTHEW
If you are interested in purchasing Black Fly:
For more information, check out their Facebook page.
