SOMA Magazine
March 2001
Peering
into a dark corner of the lobby at Chateau Marmont off Sunset
Boulevard, I spot Matt Schulze relaxing in an armchair among the cool
shadows. He looks like a film actor should: spiky hair, rumpled black
suit, white shirt casually unbuttoned, and a large turquoise and
silver bracelet on his wrist hiding an inch-wide Native American
tattoo. Although he's just breaking into big budget productions, I
immediately sense that Schulze is anything but a naive newcomer. The St. Louis native arrived in Los Angeles ten years ago with the intention of becoming a studio
musician, and, akin to one of those
Hollywood fairytales, he landed a Levi's modeling gig on his first day
in town. Now, at the ripe age of 28, Schulze is embarking on a career
as an actor. This month, he will co-star with Vin
Diesel, Paul Walker,
and Michelle Rodriguez in The Fast and the Furious, a film about an
adrenaline-filled drag-racing gang. Schulze plays Vince, a tough-guy
racer and Diesel's best friend. Moving to the courtyard of the Marmont
to enjoy the sunny day, I take the opportunity to get a better read on
the actor. Schulze surprises, unlike most up-and-comers in the
industry, there's no star-struck wonder or gushing about how lucky he
is. Instead, he carries himself with a quiet confidence, an
austerity-he's prepared to fight the pretty boy stereotypes and
refusals to take his acting seriously. Schulze explains that, for him, acting is a hobby. In part, his level of commitment comes from years of trying to land a breakout role. He is frank about the maturing he's done since his arrival in LA. "I think I'll be better now as a man, than I would have been as the boy I was when I first got here," reveals Schulze.
He admits to having lived through his wild child days. "I got arrested a few times," he says, carefully walking the line between embarrassment at his youthful indiscretions and pride in his background. But Schulze was also a gifted musician at a very young age, and he used his talents to leave his roots behind for the Atlanta Institute of Music, where he studied guitar and viola. By age 17 he taught lessons to upwards of 60 students. Still an avid musician, he continues to write songs and recently played with '80s bad boys Guns 'n' Roses.
Schulze is no shrinking violet when it comes to ambition and does not intend to limit himself to music and acting. He talks of taking control behind the camera. Disappointed by many of the films currently being made in Hollywood, he is greatly influenced by the work of earlier directors like Sam Peckinpah. Schulze waxes lyrical about the impact made by the absence of audio in the opening scene and enthuses that it is unconventional techniques such as this that would be employed in his own films.
And then there's painting. Like Ed Harris, Schulze has a thing for Jackson Pollock, not just for his paintings but for his life as a whole. Rooting around the library, Schulze studied up on Pollock's life, and he admires the way the revolutionary artist lived. "Just painting all day and then going out in the middle of a field with a bottle of whisky," says Schulze with a smile.
Walking away from the interview, I feel like I never got settled. It's as if Schulze never really let me put my finger on his true nature. Is he a tough guy, a brooding artist or is it all just an act? In Hollywood, does it really matter?
Article by Audrey Diehl
Photo by Amanda Friedman