My Casting Story: Matthew Cornwell on ‘Buried in Barstow’
We recently spoke with Atlanta resident Matthew Cornwell regarding his advice for how to become an actor in “The ATL.” With 20 years of experience working in the market and credits that range from features such as Christian Gudegast’s Den of Thieves and F. Gary Gray’s The Fate of the Furious to series like AMC’s The Walking Dead, Cornwell was the right actor for the job. It also turned out that he had a fantastic casting story behind his role on the recent, Angie Harmon-led Lifetime movie Buried in Barstow. Keep reading for a look into how Cornwell booked the gig, which included a strong sense of self that would make Socrates — and Ted Lasso — proud.
It’s great to virtually see you again, Matthew. Before we dive into your casting story, I’d love to hear how you’d sum up your character of Willy on Buried in Barstow.
Sure. The movie takes place in Barstow, California for the most part. The lead — played by Angie Harmon — was essentially a contract killer in a former life. But she left that all behind and bought a small, roadside diner in Barstow where she could protect her daughter from her past. The premise is set up for a very dramatic arc for Harmon’s character, Hazel, when Hazel’s past does catch up with her. As for my role, Willy is one of three truck drivers who are regulars at her diner. It’s basically a stop on their route, and they eat there just about every day. Angie Harmon was also the executive producer on this project, and she was really looking for these three characters to provide some comedic relief when they periodically show up throughout the film. All three of us — and especially Willy — are unaware of just how annoying it is for Hazel to listen to our incessant deliberations over what we want to order at her diner. We always land on pretty much the same thing, but we just endlessly question her about items on the menu each time before finally deciding on our orders. Plus, Willy is just constantly asking Hazel out on a date. The truck drivers, collectively, serve as a sort of obstacle that slows her down at work, gives her a headache, and provides the audience with a good laugh along the way.
From L-R: Angie Harmon, Exie Booker, Brendan Patrick Connor, and Matthew Cornwell in ‘Buried in Barstow.’ Courtesy of Lifetime.
It sounds like it would be a fun role to play. And what can you tell us about the process of booking it?
The audition came across my inbox as a self tape request, which has been the norm for most everyone throughout the pandemic and pretty standard in the southeast for about the last 10 years. I happened to be in Savannah shooting another project at the time, but I had brought some equipment with me. Luckily, my hotel room had a built-in divider curtain between the bed and the couch that was a deep shade of blue and made for the perfect backdrop. From there, I just needed to figure out when I had a long enough break from filming the project I was working on so I could tape the audition and get it submitted before the deadline. I was also reading for all three truck driver roles, which meant I had to prepare and tape the scenes for the other two characters, as well. But the biggest challenge I faced was not having a fellow actor in Savannah that I could ask to read with me for the audition. But my wife, Brooke Jaye Taylor, is also a professional actor who actually runs our self taping service in Atlanta with me. The issue was that our schedules didn’t line up to where she could virtually read for me over Zoom while I recorded myself doing the audition scene with her in real-time. But, we’d experienced that situation before and already had a work-around that we’d used in the past.
What’s that?
Brooke recorded herself saying the reader’s lines for the scene, leaving gaps for where my lines fit into it. She emailed me that audio file, and from there, I had to decide between two options. I could try and perfectly time saying my lines around the pauses she’d left for them or put myself on camera just with my dialogue. For the latter option, I would be filming myself saying my lines and trying to appropriately time the silences I left between them while imagining and reacting to what the other characters in the scene were supposed to be saying. And then I’d have to edit in Brooke reading those other characters’ lines in post.
So you didn’t have anyone actually saying the other lines in the audition scene while you were filming yourself doing it?
That’s correct — I chose the latter option. I probably made it more complicated than was necessary, to be quite honest. [Laughs] Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment, but with my engineering background, I do love those types of challenges. There are services out there like WeAudition that allow you to hire a virtual reader, but at the end of the day, I really wanted Brooke to do it because I trust her reading skills. And I was confident in my editing abilities, knowing that I could piece it all together so that you’d never know Brooke wasn’t reading live with me. That meant editing the tape so that it didn’t seem like I was pausing too long between the other characters’ lines or waiting for something to happen. I was grateful I was able to overcome all the technical challenges that come with doing a self tape from a hotel room while working on location. And even though I was outside my comfort zone with the circumstances, I was able to give a performance that I felt good about submitting.
Matthew Cornwell in ‘Buried in Barstow.’ Courtesy of Lifetime.
How’d you do that?
Well first, I love comedy — it’s my wheelhouse. And secondly, I’ve come to learn how I’m perceived from the moment I show up on screen. You would think that acting is the one career with professionals who understand themselves deeply, as well as understand how they’re perceived by people watching them. I’ve found that isn’t often the case with actors, though, and I’ve only arrived at knowing myself that way through the Sam Christensen Image Process. I took the workshop back in 2011 — it’s not actually an acting class. It’s a learning experience for any human who is interested in understanding the difference between how they perceive themselves and how the world sees them. I think it’s an important thing to know, regardless of your profession. It would come in handy to understand that dynamic if you’re going out on a first date, for example. But within the context of acting, it allows you to get more in touch with who you are as a person, which sets you up for being able to give authentic reads during auditions. Sometimes auditioning can cause actors distress, but going through that process back in 2011 gave me peace of mind about it. As long as I feel like I know the script and have done whatever research I can on the project, I’m able to just let go and do the scene. I don’t have to over-scrutinize what I think casting wants. Rather, I can just let my authenticity navigate the audition in a way that allows me to walk away from it feeling just fine about the process. That’s what I did for Buried in Barstow, and it was great receiving the call that I’d booked it.
Before the interview wrapped, we asked Cornwell if he could share a little bit about his filming experience. “It is so true that the number one on the call sheet sets the tone,” the actor noted. “Angie had this very down-to-earth quality about her that was just contagious and created a relaxed and collaborative environment on set.” Cornwell added that the executive producer and star of Buried in Barstow even approached him on set to offer some feedback about his self tape. “Angie told me that as soon as she saw me utter my first line of dialogue, she just knew I was Willy,” he recalled. “That was nice to hear, and the entire filming experience — from soup to nuts — was such a delight, which also points back to Angie.” Those interested in keeping up with Cornwell’s career journey post-Buried in Barstow can find him on Instagram, where he frequently posts about projects and which also includes a linktr.ee to related acting endeavors.
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This interview has been edited and condensed.
