Matthews did some acting in Virginia before turning to music to fulfill his creative urges. But Matthews gets sent a lot of scripts and likes to keep his foot in the door when it comes to movies. Asked why he chose this particular role Matthews explained, "I was drawn to this project because I’m a big fan of Wayne Wang’s work. And I didn’t want to play a musician. I sing just a little bit in the picture, but I liked the chance to play an interesting role in a rich ensemble of characters."
INTERVIEW WITH DAVE MATTHEWS ('Otis'):
How weird was it walking a goat?
I feel a certain camaraderie with goats. I'm not sure what it is, dirty old goats. I think it's that you're a stinky old goat, there are versions of that sort of saying, and so I liked goats for some reason. That's how I feel on the inside sometimes, like a goat, a filthy beat up animal.
Was that old beat up guitar tough to play?
That was my guitar. They put makeup on my guitar. They gave it makeup.
So it’s not that old and beat up?
Well, there's a little part of it, just for me. Maybe eventually it'll look like Willie Nelson's guitar, where I've actually worn a substantial or at least the beginnings of a hole in it. But all the beat up edges, other than that one little beat up spot, they added with their fancy Hollywood muck.
Did the make-up affect the sound of it?
No. But then afterwards, I snuck in a couple of over-dubs to make sure that everything sounded just right. But the performance of the song in the movie, what you hear is what's happening. But yeah, it's a good guitar, a simple guitar. That's what it sounded like in a room full of beasts.
How did you end up in this film? Had you actively been looking for an acting role?
Well, for a long time I've had first a friend and then sort of an agent - or I guess simultaneously - she's been sending me scripts for years and years and years. But I haven't had any time to do any movies. There've been some interesting ones that I've read in the bathtub. And for some reason, one of the big reasons was that I have twin daughters, and so the idea of doing a film that they might find somewhat interesting at some point in the next few years was cool.
How old are your twins?
Three and a half. At this point, the movie is hard to get through five minutes of for them. If it doesn't fly really fast or if it's not “Peter Pan,” it's just not going to cut it. But also I thought that it was just a fun story. It's not something that I've been looking for, but I've been open to it for a long while on any level, I think. Also, my position in music is that I'm allowed to do the sort of things that I want. So I hope that I can follow my heart more often. I don't feel like I'm pursing a movie career.
You’re not going to move to Hollywood?
Oh, no, no. That's one of my first rules. I'm not going to Nashville or New York or Hollywood. That's not because I don't like them, but I like my little middleclass lifestyle.
Your co-star Jeff Daniels lives in Michigan.
Yeah. And I live in Seattle and central Virginia. Seattle because my wife is in school, and central Virginia. Yes, we clicked pretty quickly, the two of us. We stay far away from the belly.
Were you nervous your first day on the set?
Yeah. I expect the worse and so that necessarily isn't always comfortable. And so I was pretty, I guess, not terrified that I was going to be killed or anything, but I was afraid that I wasn't going to bring my share to the table, and afraid I might stink. I hope that I didn't stink too overtly. But Jeff was a huge help to me because one of the things that he said, which I may have thought of in the past, but the timing was perfect and that was, he said, “Don't act. Don't move. Don't act. Just say your lines. If you can do that you'll be fine.” So be honest, essentially, you could interpret that as.
He said, “The closer your camera gets to your face the less you want to act,” which I thought was good information for me. So I tried as best as I could, but sometimes it's really hard when a camera is on you not to pretend. But I did my best as soon as they said ‘action’ to not do anything.
