[SPEAKER_02]: Matt Wilkis is on that's a gay ass podcast and I want to thank you personally for wearing a tank top to a gay ass pod.
[SPEAKER_02]: That really means a lot.
[SPEAKER_02]: Very hot in New York right now.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what I hear.
[SPEAKER_02]: How is your emotional state doing with all of the humidity today?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's weird.
[SPEAKER_00]: My apartment stays really cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I only noticed it if I go outside and I've gone outside twice now and it's really brutal.
[SPEAKER_00]: It feels like like a hellscape.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: The buildings are radiating the heat.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like an oven.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's really really intense.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I am somehow both sympathetic and also evenly thrilled and not belittling in the York right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: LA gets bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've lived in LA and it gets like just as awful as New York, I just say.
[SPEAKER_00]: We think it doesn't, but it does.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I haven't really done the New York verse LA debate on this podcast, but I think we're just starting.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think we should get into a huge fight right now at the top.
[SPEAKER_02]: I actually disagree.
[SPEAKER_02]: I actually love it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think LA's worse is New York's best.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sorry.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, that's fair.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is like, listen, it is a civilized city.
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys live like in a place where you can do your laundry in your home.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can drive places.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's civilized.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now we're going to now.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm going to butter your biscuit in New York by saying, yes, LA is quality of life is 50 times easier.
[SPEAKER_02]: But of course, you've got the best Broadway shows.
[SPEAKER_02]: You've got incredible culture.
[SPEAKER_02]: You've got incredible hot man and listen, I love New York.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I love.
[SPEAKER_02]: Brodway, which Matt Wilk is, you yourself has a herstery of being on Broadway, which we are going to talk about.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, for anybody that does not know Matt Wilk is his lore.
[SPEAKER_02]: He is not only a handsome, a stashy old man, but he's acted in many, a big proj.
[SPEAKER_02]: He was recently on Order S.V.U.
[SPEAKER_02]: He did so help me Todd with gay icon, Marcia Gay, Harden, who starred in the Gay Phenomenon Gaby.
[SPEAKER_02]: You were in writer Doyle's amazing bonding.
[SPEAKER_02]: You've done modern family, bros.
[SPEAKER_02]: Many other screen credits.
[SPEAKER_02]: I saw you last year.
[SPEAKER_02]: One of my favorites.
[SPEAKER_02]: off Broadway shows ever gender twin Z's by friend of the podcast Kevin Zach.
[SPEAKER_02]: You did silence the musical off Broadway.
[SPEAKER_02]: The infamous Spider-Man turned off the dark on Broadway.
[SPEAKER_02]: You've worked in the biggest theaters across the country.
[SPEAKER_02]: You and my dear friend Daniel have an incredible sketch series on Matt and Dan.
[SPEAKER_02]: As a gay astronautist, my first hard-hitting question for you is, what's the most annoying question people ask you about Spider-Man?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, the funny thing that people ask, and it's annoying to you, I guess, is how many people died.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, no one, no one died.
[SPEAKER_00]: But people don't close.
[SPEAKER_00]: People got very close to dying.
[SPEAKER_02]: They told the life of crossing to the other side.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: We almost died.
[SPEAKER_00]: No one died.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what kind of reminds me of is that drag race, Derek Barry meme of no one, no
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, but that sounds right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, she just is exposing not knowing anything.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, she's talking about stone.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, people died and I think Willie's like no one, no one died.
[SPEAKER_02]: No one died.
[SPEAKER_02]: So much like that stone wall.
[SPEAKER_02]: Spider man turned off the dark.
[SPEAKER_02]: No one died.
[SPEAKER_02]: Another hard-hitting journalist a question that I would like to ask you, are the rumors true that your birthday is 420?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, well, you do research.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I remember this for 20.
[SPEAKER_02]: Matt, well, because I do my research.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, how do you feel about the connection to marijuana?
[SPEAKER_00]: I used to think I felt more aligned with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's just my relationship to marijuana goes in and out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I sometimes I love it and sometimes it makes me feel like I'm losing my mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I get really anxious around it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it depends on I think my like the state of my life.
[SPEAKER_02]: Listen, I fully can get down with that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've found a way to maneuver any state of my life into loving weed, but that's just where I am personally because I Not an alcohol girl.
[SPEAKER_02]: It makes me too anxious to depressed.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I really I go between edible between joint between maybe a long and a blitz if you will
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so since we're already getting into Matt Wilkes' lore, I know that we're sort of jumping around, but if we zoom out for a second, I'm genuinely thrilled you're doing this podcast because I've followed you for many years, I've loved both your work as an actor, but also the energy you've put out into the universe as a Harry King.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we're going to get into a lot of your herstery personally and professionally, and of course, we're going to go over to the close friends side of the pod on substacks, so I can ask you sort of
[SPEAKER_02]: are behind the scenes, horny saucy questions, but let's get into the famous gay ass podcast question Matt Wilcus and that question is, who's fault is it that you're gay?
[SPEAKER_00]: Who do we blame they?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, I knew this was coming and I actually thought about it and I think it was like a lead in this and I think it's um
[SPEAKER_00]: whoever was the model or demo guy in the Beauflex commercials.
[SPEAKER_00]: On television, I was a child of the child.
[SPEAKER_00]: I, um, I'm so sorry.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a John Scary answer, Matt, because I have not heard the words.
[SPEAKER_02]: North thought of the words, both legs since the year by Lord 1998.
[SPEAKER_00]: It changed me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It changed my DNA.
[SPEAKER_00]: I made me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I made me who I am today.
[SPEAKER_00]: I also called the 800 number and ordered the demo, um, VHS to be delivered and I used that VHS often and I didn't use it.
[SPEAKER_00]: to exercise with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I used it as inspiration for inspiration.
[SPEAKER_02]: You really put your heart into your art and I did find that to be so beautiful.
[SPEAKER_02]: While you were calling V1-800 number for both legs for the demo VHS, I was calling for the VHS of Stage Door Man or the musical feeder summer camp that my parents did not want to pay for.
[SPEAKER_00]: I went to walnut hill.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like I did go to
[SPEAKER_02]: Wait, Wana Hill is definitely one of the greatest.
[SPEAKER_02]: I went for two summers in a row.
[SPEAKER_02]: What age were you at?
[SPEAKER_00]: Wana Hill as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: 15 and 16.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's huge.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I was going to wait to substact to ask about your first boy boy kiss.
[SPEAKER_02]: But now I can't help myself.
[SPEAKER_02]: Was your first boy boy kiss at Wana Hill?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I was not out, which is incredibly stupid.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I was when I was.
[SPEAKER_02]: 19 19.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so we're going to definitely delve into the 19-year-old, but we're just with my granddaughter.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I can't fucking wait.
[SPEAKER_02]: I myself was also closeted at theater camp.
[SPEAKER_02]: I went to inner lock-in and fully, fully closeted.
[SPEAKER_02]: But when we go into the bowflex of it all, is this happening geographically in Camden, Maine?
[SPEAKER_02]: It is, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so you are a main man watching the Boflex VHS.
[SPEAKER_02]: Tell me, were you someone who was still a very faggy child despite being closeted or were you doing your best to sort of high your gay qualities?
[SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: I tried.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't try.
[SPEAKER_00]: I barely tried.
[SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I was really little, I looked like a girl.
[SPEAKER_00]: People thought I was, they misgendered me all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I actually, remember that very vividly, it was like really upsetting to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that I just was very other and different and creative and weird and
[SPEAKER_00]: made fun of a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got called Faggot a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had all my friends with girls.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did not fit in with the boys at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, I mean, like that's
[SPEAKER_02]: I think a lot of people's story, but of course, but I think the difference with your story is the misgendering, what was so feminine about your looks as a kid?
[SPEAKER_00]: I just looked extremely androgynous.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that I don't, I don't, and it happened all the time and also my voice was really high.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know I was a soprano until I was like 12.
[SPEAKER_02]: a very high voiced gentle, very gentle voiced kid, which is funny to me now because he present as a little bit of Tom Affinlin kind of giving like he has been to the gym and continues to go.
[SPEAKER_02]: Was this a bit of a reaction do you think out of being misgendered as a young person?
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think it's a reaction.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's more like a, that thing where you, I wanted, I started working out when I was 16.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I, you know, it was turned on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I said, the Boflex guy, I wanted to be that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it is that it's that like mooness song.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be her is that what it is like a way way pause for a second.
[SPEAKER_02]: Can we see the hat?
[SPEAKER_02]: Can we see that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, but you know the song I'm talking about.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to be a different song.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the new new album anyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm attracted to that, but I also want to be that.
[SPEAKER_02]: which is very much something I identify with as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think it's partly why not to get to buttering of your biscuit.
[SPEAKER_02]: But when I first started following you years ago and saw you being like a proud Harry King, I was at a point in my life where I was still like embarrassed to have body hair.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I remember being like, you know, this guy's like,
[SPEAKER_02]: not embarrassed and I that was my moon I want to be moment if you will and I and so I I find that to be very inspiring but I also find that your theater work is so interesting to me because you've crossed over and from doing theater into these big TV jobs but I always love to ask on this gay ass pod did you have any like thrilling high school theater roles that
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I really, I played Chablevara really well in a Vita, which is never going to happen, but those folks are so fun to sing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I, I tip in, of course, you know, like, uh, corner of the sky.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sure your corner of the sky was pinging as hell.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it was the first, it was that was the first thing, Peter thing I ever did when I was 12 years old.
[SPEAKER_02]: So.
[SPEAKER_02]: and you really got to weaponize your big, big range.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like, it was a key.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it definitely like raised the key for all the songs.
[SPEAKER_00]: obviously.
[SPEAKER_02]: Which again is a brag.
[SPEAKER_02]: I always would be frustrated by the idea that Broadway productions didn't really give the option to change keys.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I remember trying to sing Bobby Strong in your entail when I was in high school.
[SPEAKER_02]: And what's that song in this guy?
[SPEAKER_02]: I remember there was a song I was like, if there was only a step lower, I could probably kill it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But you had the opposite problem.
[SPEAKER_02]: They were fucking doubling cheese for you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, really, huge.
[SPEAKER_02]: Did you then when you were on Broadway in Spider-Man, did you feel like you were living the gay dream?
[SPEAKER_02]: Was everything you wanted it to be on Broadway?
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a very anxious.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a very ache or I have been in my life very anxious at success, I think, and I think I'm often like, do I deserve this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Should I be doing this?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've grown to be much better at, you know, owning what I like.
[SPEAKER_00]: deserve.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think it was like a really tricky one because it was really scary.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was I was covering Peter Parker to and I eventually took over for the Matt and A Peter Parker and I had to learn that
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not very good at covering.
[SPEAKER_00]: I should never understand anything because it's I'm such an anxious person that the idea that I might have to go on and do a thing that barely rehearses like enough to like keep me awake at night.
[SPEAKER_00]: night and again.
[SPEAKER_02]: Matt, that is a so relatable eye in the exact it's funny because the idea of a swing on Broadway and if anybody doesn't know, these people are covering like up to like 10 to 12 different tracks in a show.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I myself am very much on an SSRI.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm a very anxious person.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the only time I understood it was I did the Grinch musicals national tour.
[SPEAKER_02]: and I covered Papa who and thank God that man that called out, because I didn't know it, I didn't know it, I was like, I'll learn it when he calls out, which is one of the dumb, but it's just like, you know, we put things off because of our own anxiety and like perfectionism.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and then like with Spider-Man on top of all of it, I was, you know, while I was playing a part, I was playing a part in the show.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was the high school bully who like he sings a song about bullying and then to cover Peter Parker, I had to learn all of his flights.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I was playing this part that was very like chill and was all like singing and like hanging out, but the Peter Parker part was like,
[SPEAKER_00]: acrobatics that I never really got to fully become excellent at.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Reeve Carney got to go and and the others got to go to like Las Vegas and study this for like what pink does in her tours.
[SPEAKER_00]: They studied that for like like a month in like a big giant tent.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like did it like six times and then was like here you go do it now on in front of
[SPEAKER_02]: That's, and that's, do you still have nightmares about it?
[SPEAKER_00]: I actually had a, I had a nightmare last night about not getting through a quick change in time to go on stage and I have no idea why that, because I'm not in a show right now, but it was, and I actually woke up before the moment where I actually missed my cue.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I like forced myself away a week because I didn't want to experience the,
[SPEAKER_02]: which you know at every game of year because nightmare missing the cute.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I am.
[SPEAKER_02]: I still, I did a musical called Elf the Musical and I played Buddy and I had a nightmare three nights ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: It I don't think really first stops for some of us anxious gaze with a dream.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it must be related to something that's going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I'm going to province town tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe it's about like packing today and making sure I'm ready and all the things I have to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I related to acting.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, good.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm good Easter egg because I want to ask about a P town of it all because that's such a great gay tradition.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I might wait until the subside portion for that because my questions will be sort of beneath the hips, if you will.
[SPEAKER_02]: Speaking of controversial shows, in addition to Spider-Man, which a lot of people died I heard.
[SPEAKER_02]: You did another controversial role in just like that, and I promise this has not got to turn the lizard.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I need, if I'm in front of Matt Wilkes, I need to ask him about the role he played, and for people who don't remember.
[SPEAKER_02]: And just like that, have a very brief scene where Mario Cantone brings his date that he's very excited about to Charlottes' sharpest dinner.
[SPEAKER_02]: They arrive at the dinner at Charlottes' home.
[SPEAKER_02]: Charlottes mentions a halla, then your character asks, is this a Jewish dinner?
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you say, you know the halla cost is a hoax, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Anthony Mario can tell got out now as a duet myself.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was shocked Yeah, when I watched it when I watched that scene play out before I say anything about my experience Were you nervous before the episode came out like what was people's reaction to me like oh my god You're on one of the most the biggest HBO shows and then you're a Holocaust an honor.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know I can't remember how I thought I definitely
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me, like, I'm going to preclude this by saying, so I did, I did that show AJ in the Queen, that Michael Patrick King wrote and asked.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that had come out just before the pandemic, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, just before the pandemic.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the pandemic hit and, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: I was supposed to be doing bros and then like pinned them again nothing like was happening for a long time and then and took that was one of those shows that started to film Right after we were allowed to start working and I reached out to Michael Patrick King and I was like, hey, I really just want to work so like can you just like throw me into any part in
[SPEAKER_00]: famous last week too, but he gives me this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, okay, either this is just like payment for asking for what for to work or wait.
[SPEAKER_02]: By the way, Michael Patrick King is, you know, a god to us and I have so much love and respect.
[SPEAKER_02]: But do you think it was shady?
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think so.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean,
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that humor depends on Mario as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mario was so brilliant.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, I also love Mario and No Mario, and it was like really fun to work with him and just like for this like one moment and it was also like an iconic and believable experience to be on that set and I can only imagine my costume fitting for just this small part I was in the costume designer, you know, for and just like that, who is the costume designer for sex in the city and like it was just full of
[SPEAKER_00]: all of the looks.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like this museum of carries clothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was so cool just to get your, my fitted in that room.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it was all around a cool experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: And how did I, how did I, I don't think I worried too much about how people were very active.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think like people know who I am and they can know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, people, people, people think I am that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then,
[SPEAKER_00]: They need to shut up.
[SPEAKER_02]: And now we said it, Matt.
[SPEAKER_02]: And now we said it.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I don't think you have an anti-Semitic bone in your body.
[SPEAKER_02]: I do.
[SPEAKER_02]: I did fine-washing it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was like, you know what?
[SPEAKER_02]: They are.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love that sex in the city.
[SPEAKER_02]: Did have those moments of shock humor.
[SPEAKER_02]: That one was even more shocking than I thought they would go.
[SPEAKER_02]: that that and I I had literally forgotten about it until I was looking up all of your past roles and then when that came up I was like oh my god I forgot that that happened I forgot that that was you and I genuinely think it is such a crazy part of your memoir whenever it comes out I cannot wait to read the chapter about the time you have played a problem with that
[SPEAKER_02]: Y'all, I'm sorry to interrupt, but we have a gay emergency.
[SPEAKER_02]: I brought my husband Matt Lumis to help us with the gay emergency.
[SPEAKER_02]: Matt, will you say hi to these listeners?
[SPEAKER_02]: Hi!
[SPEAKER_02]: The emergency is that every gay guy with taste that we know has seen this movie called the invite.
[SPEAKER_02]: Matthew, we just watched the trailer.
[SPEAKER_02]: What did you think?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gagging.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, thank you for your honesty and the thing that's so funny about it is that Olivia Wilde is a queen.
[SPEAKER_02]: She directed it.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's Seth Rogan, my pot head daddy, Edward Norton, Penelope Cruz, which by the way, Matt, would you say in this trailer she's giving character actress with that Bob?
[SPEAKER_01]: Hello, character actress.
[SPEAKER_02]: It really is character actress and we did have a quick debate that I wanted to bring to the pod.
[SPEAKER_02]: could we even invite our neighbors over for a dinner party like do we even have neighbors we would want to swing with that's a kind of tough one those missionaries down the hallway how will you have to be on a mission yeah we do have some cute moment boys in our building and the rest are like 95 year old abuelita's who are truly our saviourers we all have straight couple next
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what's crazy about this movie is that apparently Olivia Wilde worked with Esther Perrell who Matt, tell the listeners who just referred to Esther Perrell in a conversation recently.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my gosh, our couple's therapist was just talking about her.
[SPEAKER_02]: I literally, I love Esther Perrell, but I also love what she says about long-term relationships.
[SPEAKER_02]: In fact, Matt, we've been together 13 years.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm somebody who works, sorry, you're right, almost 13 years.
[SPEAKER_02]: If someone were to tell you how have we stayed together and not gotten a divorce or kill each other, what would you say?
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say a couple therapy and shout out, shout out, shout out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And having a dog really is kept us together.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have a fantasy of us having a dinner party.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's like, I don't know, a little flirty.
[SPEAKER_02]: So tell me, we've set the mood light.
[SPEAKER_02]: You've created a gorgeous meal.
[SPEAKER_02]: What are you serving food wise, Matt?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it has to be something light if you're trying to have a sexy little dinner party.
[SPEAKER_01]: So like, maybe a dainty little salad.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, you're doing my bottom.
[SPEAKER_02]: Bottoms, brunch, jeez.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look, for hosting, no dairy, no spicy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some seaweed, you're not gonna feel bloated.
[SPEAKER_02]: People think I'm the bigger slut, and here you are, talking about some spicy dinner party.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you said, we are giving these bottoms celery.
[SPEAKER_01]: If they're good, we'll have a nice heavy dessert.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I hope everybody joins us in seeing the invite because this trailer is fucking nuts and I want to be one of those gay people with gorgeous tastes to sing gorgeous films Matt, are you going to come with me to see it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know I'm there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Back to this episode with the very hot Matt Wilkes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks Matt for coming here for this gay emergency.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're welcome, Eric.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anytime.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, since we only have a few more minutes before we cross over to the sub-stack side, I want to make sure we mention your amazing art and just congratulate you on doing something that is
[SPEAKER_02]: So creative, that's also outside of the performance part of your herstery.
[SPEAKER_02]: For anybody who doesn't know, you have Emloka's art studio.
[SPEAKER_02]: You have these really, really great tree toppers that one of them, the paper mache, one of them is an everything bagel, which really speaks to me and my inner faith home, as a Jew, maybe huge Christmas celebrator.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're also doing these custom murals that are genuinely gorgeous.
[SPEAKER_02]: You just posted one with all these like hairy arms and legs.
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, we have to shout out Harry Pit here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Matt is that Harry Lim mural in your home or someone else's it's my friend Jake Wilson He might love he and he has this all to Instagram account called Lulu it's his it's his name spell backwards and it's sell it's a celebration of Harry man and I just like took bits of that and I
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've put them on his wall because he wanted a mural because he just got a new apartment and I've been I've been painting like for a long this has been my psychic for truly like 25 years, but I just started to be like, you know what, why don't I show people because I have connections with interior designers who like, oh yeah, with over the years and I was actually probably try like promoting this and showing people and I can be I always thought I couldn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't allowed to be a multidisciplinary artist right why not like we think we can't we're not allowed to whenever someone tells me they're an actor writer painter I a part of me is still judging myself for being that as well I think and that was like I should change that
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I get it.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's also we sort of, um, I think are afraid to show people something outside of what we've been trying to show for so many years, like I think for me, I have this fear of our people going to think that I am either a fraud or is it embarrassing or there's like, you know, there's a lot of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think does come from growing up queer and growing up feeling other, um, but it's.
[SPEAKER_02]: A very very clear that you have the amazing talent, but I as a fellow creative that has had many a day job, say more about the day job part of it, what's like what I'm painting jobs has had you been doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, like over the years, I've worked for different interior designers and also different artists who, like, will hire me as their assistant or to go out and do their work for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like there's been many, really great designers and artists have worked for and like I've gotten to like travel like all over the world to do it like I.
[SPEAKER_00]: I spent a month in Bologna, Italy, painting these panels and some rich persons home or like, I've gone over, all over California, all over, you know, Nantucket, just different random, you know, places where rich people live and have beautiful homes where I get to sort of.
[SPEAKER_00]: be a little um Michelangelo in their home for a little while.
[SPEAKER_02]: What a great, great job, especially as it comes to like side gigs to be in a rich person's home in Italy or California and then be gay Michelangelo, I mean, come on.
[SPEAKER_02]: Matt, you've figured it out.
[SPEAKER_02]: They've also figured out how to have a beautiful relationship with friend of the pod, John Riddle.
[SPEAKER_02]: For anybody who might have forgotten, John is in Titanic on Broadway, one of the funniest belltiest shows that has ever been seen on the great white way.
[SPEAKER_02]: Over on the sub-sex side, I'm gonna ask how you and John Matt, give us some backstory BTS there.
[SPEAKER_02]: How many times have you seen Titanic?
[SPEAKER_00]: at eight times, but it's been since the, um, since the, uh, Christie these version, the off off shore.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you have seen it from basement to Broadway.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've always seen the Broadway one twice though.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going again in, um, later this month, mid-month.
[SPEAKER_00]: My sister's coming to town.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to go incredible.
[SPEAKER_02]: What a gay, what a gay July you're having, province time of the Titanic with your sister.
[SPEAKER_02]: Another famous, really, she's been a part of, of course, is with another friend of the podcast, Gus Kenworthy.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just realizing that I've interviewed so many people around Matt Wilkes, and I'm so thrilled that we're not going to the source.
[SPEAKER_02]: You are still friends with your
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do because I think that, um, maintaining a healthy relationship.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I'm better than you maintaining a healthy relationship with your ex.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like is healing and I'm not saying that you're not healed, but like it is like, um, it is a healing experience and I'm like proud of myself to have gotten there.
[SPEAKER_00]: It took me a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't like,
[SPEAKER_00]: But it has been a nice healing and I really love God so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to be in peace, too.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're also going to be, we're going to Amsterdam for Amsterdam Pride this summer.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it'll be there for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he's he'll be in my life forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have tattoos together, which is like, I'm not saying don't get a tattoo with your X now either.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can get tattoos with your X and not regret it or it was the with your boyfriend and they can become your X you there you go.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that was my so you got it while you were two together.
[SPEAKER_02]: You guys broke up and now you have not removed the tattoo.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I have not.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I do.
[SPEAKER_02]: I actually, I feel proud of you too, because it's very, very hard.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think to not only maintain a friendship, but then like a close one, like you two have, especially when a relationship like that is getting literal media coverage.
[SPEAKER_02]: That must have been kind of batshit when people magazine reported on you guys breaking up.
[SPEAKER_02]: What, what did that feel like?
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I think that we had to, for some reason, we actually had to, we had to make that happen because it was going to get leaked by someone else, someone like that we didn't want it to, so we were like, we have to make a formal, oh, it's so embarrassing being a,
[SPEAKER_00]: being a couple in the spotlight is a very embarrassing thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't know, no, no, no, let's make one thing clear.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not I think it's not embarrassing to be the couple in this spotlight.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's embarrassing that we live in a world where there's people threatening to leak personal information and then you have to get in front of other people's insanity.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's the embarrassing part of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Not that you're a public eye relationship, you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's true.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we also are relationship announcement like it the beginning of it was also a leak by I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't remember some like just Jared or something that was also kind of like a I role we were trying to but also it was a less it was a lesson I learned so.
[SPEAKER_00]: much in that experience of being with Gus about just myself and what never to do again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And also like yeah, we'll see our advice for people like us.
[SPEAKER_02]: Watching this who do want to be friends with our ex like how do you recommend like taking time apart after the break up What what would you say is a way to remain close with something you love so deeply?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you definitely well, I mean all the people experience.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you just definitely I definitely needed to have time away And that depends on like you in terms of what you need timing wise.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how long but
[SPEAKER_00]: You need time away, you need to not communicate for a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need to return to yourself, unlike remember who you are without that person.
[SPEAKER_00]: And know that you have value on your own without that person.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those are all important lessons.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think even in the healthiest of relationships, you
[SPEAKER_00]: there are compromises that you may, where you end up losing yourself just a little bit, little bits here and there, and I think sometimes people compromise too much and you lose all of yourself, and then you're like suddenly out of a relationship, you have no idea who you are or like end yours, and it's so scary.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's very well said about sort of feeling your own autonomy, and then when you do go back to the friendship you're showing up as someone who actually doesn't need to feel complete by the other person, but is like excited to see how to individuals who once loved each other can coexist in a different way.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm very much not speaking from experience.
[SPEAKER_02]: I-
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you recently broken up?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that worth it?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, I'm actually, I'm in a 13 year relationship.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm married, but I, but I do have exes that I would have liked to remain close with, but also I was in like my early 20s when we broke up.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I will say I lost my virginity to a guy who when I do see him, it is nothing but amazing and lovely and so nice.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm not a monster mad if that's a dress.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I also just don't I also think we don't have to be friends with your ex.
[SPEAKER_02]: I really was kind of kidding I don't think you have to if there's no you don't want to be friends with you You don't have time for everyone, you know that and that's true and that's true But there's there's yeah, there's two sides of the equation like there's the we do not need to be friends with our active Polymer exes, but also it is being nice to have the option
[SPEAKER_02]: And I, no, I think a lot of people can learn from you guys, especially because when you do have the public eye on you, it can sort of crank up the volume on the intensity of everything.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so yeah, it's just another like testament to the two of you really having a beautiful friendship, especially with all of your history and your lore.
[SPEAKER_02]: But speaking of lore, let's get into the final podcast questions so that
[SPEAKER_02]: cross over to Substack and hear about you and John Riddle.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to ask more about your feelings on body hair because how could I nod?
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll talk about your p-town sluddery, if there will be any, um, and more.
[SPEAKER_02]: But Matt Wilkes, the last podcast question for the main feet, is if the world was ending, you could only save one character at the tracks.
[SPEAKER_02]: Who would you say?
[SPEAKER_00]: Save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save, save
[SPEAKER_00]: But Parker Possey is the one that I have come up with.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think everybody is.
[SPEAKER_02]: We played the Senate.
[SPEAKER_02]: We played the Matt Wilkes' choice to Parker Possey.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know what Matt?
[SPEAKER_02]: It really does track for you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I find that there is sort of an energetic
[SPEAKER_02]: You and both Parker Posey have this sort of like, of appearance of Attractive put together toiveness, and then underneath it is sort of like a whack-a-do weirdo, and I love that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you very much.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, what's your, what's your Parker Posey?
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you have like a number one or two film that you just love so much of hers?
[SPEAKER_00]: Party girl might be number one and of course waiting for government.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that her turn in white lotus last season was so special and so spectacular and iconic, not that I like that word, but truly iconic.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it was.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I feel like it's quotable.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like all the things that you want.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're like favorite, very well, very well said.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think the fact that Parker Posey and the White Lotus can have a bunch of gay guys and girls with taste saying the name of a medication will rise up.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think that that is a very big sign of Parker Posey's iconerie.
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, another one of her quotes that made me feel seen as a young gay boy was when she goes and waiting for a government teacher teacher.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow and then when she falls out of the split, I truly my friends and I would quote.
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow and it was simply because Parker Posey was giving us another one of her quote,
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like where she pulls the plug out of life support for the drain out my log, but she forgot to do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: She has to remember just to go back to my log to pull it out just for me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have to go back to those deleted scenes because it's been a while since I have revisited it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I thank you for your service Matt Wilkes and giving us that.
[SPEAKER_02]: drop as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: Before we cross over into the close friend's conversation, will you tell these gorgeous listeners where to follow you and if there's anything you would like for them to know?
[SPEAKER_00]: Follow me at at and well-guess on Instagram or at and well-guess in New York on Instagram for my art.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hello, Fookin.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I have linked both in the description.
[SPEAKER_02]: So everybody go follow Matt.
[SPEAKER_02]: His art is genuinely beautiful and I hope you all continue to support him.
[SPEAKER_02]: But let's get into the other side of the episode where
[SPEAKER_02]: We just about put up a gorgeous paywall and have our BTS conversation um your first question I want to ask you is first boy boy kiss at 19 was this in college it was in college yeah I was I went to BU for acting and um and the guy that I
[SPEAKER_00]: kissed was going to the Boston Conservatory for dance.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, he ended up being in Paltailer Company, but we worked at the same restaurant.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were waiting to see it was the same restaurant.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this was in the 90s.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was, I would rollerblade everywhere in Boston.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like like they did in the 90s.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really did rollerblade everywhere and I would just have to get back in your pocket.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I wasn't a hockey sucker because that required a kind of coordination that I didn't have.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm never really good with balls or catching, sure, things that involve balls.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not the balls you're thinking of, but like yeah, anyway, but we, um, we would rollerblade together.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there was one day when we
[SPEAKER_00]: rollerblades all over the city and I don't even think I had my shoes with me and he was like why don't you come over and we climbed the two floors to his apartment and my rollerblades and we proceeded to like make out on his bed with our rollerblades on which was really beautiful.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just picturing this sort of clattering of the blades against each other as you're exploring each other's mouths.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I hope that's a scene in a short film soon.
[SPEAKER_02]: Whether we make it or not, I think that's really vivid.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, that's a beautiful snapshot.
[SPEAKER_02]: If we zoom out then, I asked you before the interview.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you have any memorable hookups or dating tales, do any come to mind that you can talk about that we're either super hot or formative or embarrassing or exciting?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the one that I think is just like the wildest one
[SPEAKER_00]: I lived in the village near NYU for a really long time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had this apartment there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would walk around the neighborhood just doing whatever it was day to day and there was this police officer who this was like in like 2006, let's say.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was his beat, my neighborhood was his beat.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he would sometimes like roll a buy with his car and he would always say, be careful.
[SPEAKER_00]: to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he had this long island accent too.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one time on the street, he was very who's really, really handsome, blonde, blue-eyed, long island accent, probably like 30.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he, uh, one time I was walking near Washington Square Park and he approached me and he said, you must live around here and I said, yeah, I live on bleak or insult, but he said, oh, that's my beat.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, and he said, hey, listen, if you, um, it could I like get your number and if I ever need to use the bathroom, I could come up and use your bathroom.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, it's cooler.
[SPEAKER_00]: But like, you know, and I didn't know,
[SPEAKER_00]: There was no way I couldn't know for sure if he was coming on to me or if he was in running fucking long island cop yeah you're at this point you're probably thinking about your safety not if he's yeah but also it was very very very very hot so anyway I did and then mumblehole like I don't I think is the next day he texted me and asked if he could use the bathroom and he came up in full like cop uniform
[SPEAKER_02]: For the rest of the interview, head to Substack, linked below where you will also find chats with Colin Braun, Rich Burns, Christopher Pattinson, Rosso, Tyler Varval, Sebastian Dino, Cody Silver, Johnny Sibly, Sam Altizer, and more.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's at substack.com slash at Eric Wills, and I will see you there for a gorgeous Harry Hornie time.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love you, bye!