An Inspired Chat with Matt Fowler

Matt Fowler shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Hi Matt, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: Have you stood up for someone when it cost you something?
I think the only time that standing up for someone has really cost me is when the person I was standing up for was myself. I’ve never had a negative repercussion from standing up for someone else. I’m a strong advocate for workers rights and fair pay in the workplace. On more than one occasion I have spoken up or stood my ground on payment issues with various companies and ended up not working with said companies in the future. I guess that cost me something in the short term, but in the long-term, I always consider it a gift when somebody shows you their true colors. And I’ve been really lucky in my life to work with artists and companies that for the most part treat their employees with dignity and respect.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m an actor, writer, and director living in Atlanta. My wife and I spent a decade working in Los Angeles before moving to the East Coast. I guess you could say I’m a jack of all trades, I’ve been fortunate enough to find success as an actor in front of the camera and behind the microphone, my writing career spawned from a desire to write roles that I wanted to originate as an actor or stories I wanted to see that I wasn’t finding on the screen. Being a director likewise came from my desire to tell original stories. I find the directing and acting are similar in a lot of ways as far as the emotional juice that you get while doing both. Right now, I’m a recurring voice on the anime series One Piece, I’m in post production on a short film that I wrote, acted in, and co-directed, and I’m in rewrites on my feature sci-fi film Europa Ascending and an original YA pilot.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
I had a number of positive influences growing up. My mother was steadfast that I would be the first of her children to attend college. From a very young age she instilled that confidence in me. I also had a few great teachers that identified my passions and pointed me toward them. Physically, my father gave me confidence at a young age. I can remember him telling me at one point in my early teens that I had the body frame to be a rugged individual. That stuck with me as I became a high school and then collegiate wrestler. I’ve also had a number of champions in the entertainment industry, people I’ve known since the beginning of my career that have always cheered me on and thrown me opportunities. Joy Hurwitz, Michael Hilf, Eric Connelly, my siblings, my in-laws, my wife. All of these people have been there through feast and famine. Lately, I’ve also met a number of artists in Atlanta, too many to name, who have been sharing their tables with me. I’m very lucky in that way.

What have been the defining wounds of your life—and how have you healed them?
I think the biggest wounds I’ve suffered in my life so far have been the loss of our second child during pregnancy and the loss of my father. The loss of a child… that one doesn’t really heal. I’m not even sure if it scabs. One thing that I try to do is talk about it when I can. According to the National Library of Medicine. Miscarriage is the most common complication of pregnancy in the United States, occurring in 15–20% of clinically-recognized pregnancies, or 750,000–1,000,000 cases annually. And nobody talks about it, unless it happens to you. It can traumatize mothers, destroy families, and it’s no ones fault. It just happens. To anyone out there reading this, if you’ve dealt with losing a child, you’re not alone. Talk to your friends and family about it, you might be surprised to learn you’re in like company. As for my Dad, what a guy. If there was ever a man I want my son to be like, it’s him. He was strong, kind, funny, tender, loving, patient, wise, and rowdy! I’ve found since losing him that I’ve become more keenly aware of all the lessons he instilled in me. Whether I’m on set, building a boat, playing with a baby, or watching a sunrise, he’s always with me, and I’m grateful for that.

I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
Family. Legacy. Doing the right thing. Helping other artists get a leg up. Fishing. Not necessarily in that order!

Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. How do you know when you’re out of your depth?
I usually don’t know that until I’m having to deal with the repercussions of some mistake. Luckily, I’ve always been a pretty good communicator so I tend to ask a lot of questions up front and during the process, so I find I’m able to sort of build myself a raft in that way. I love preproduction, and as someone who is stepping into the world of directing from acting, that has been a real saving grace for me. The prep has allowed me to put out fires before they start. But also, if you’re out of your depth, then you’re growing, right? It’s not always a bad thing to start before you’re ready. Because unlike the ocean, in life and business, you’re not really in any actual danger, it’s just perceived risk from growing up in a conformist society. So dive in!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3573347/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattfowlerig/?hl=en

Image Credits
Ric Lewis Photography for all images