Pop-Culturalist.com

Actor-producer Mateus Ward is doing double duty for his latest film, Relish. Set as a modern-day Breakfast Club, Relish tells the story of five teenage outcasts who escape a private treatment facility in hopes of attending a popular music festival. Led by rebellious transgender male, Kai (Tyler DiChiara), Aspen (Hana Hayes), a social media influencer; Levi (Mateus Ward), a football player addicted to opioids; Theo (Rio Mangini), a young man who suffers from bipolar disorder; and Sawyer (Chelsea Zhang), an alien obsessed nerd, embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

It’s a project that’s near and dear to Mateus and his father, Justin Ward (director-writer), who set out to create a story that broke boundaries and any preconceived ideas of who a person should be. Pop Culturalist had the pleasure of speaking with Mateus about this must-see film.

PC: Tell us about Relish, your character, and what drew you to this project.
Mateus: My dad directed Relish. We’ve worked together in the past on The Meanest Man in Texas, and we’ve been trying to come up with ideas for future projects to work on. We wanted to make a film that was real and fun, but also tackled some relevant issues. Then, Terry Nardozzi (producer) came in to help produce it. We’ve had this idea for a long time—we wanted to do a road trip film where you could go along with these characters on a journey.

That idea evolved into what Relish is now. It was a process with a lot of different scripts, but we were always drawn to having a trans character play a pivotal role. As filmmakers, we want to explore different worlds, mindsets, and people.

I have a lot of friends in the LGBTQ+ community. We’ve had a lot of conversations about how there’s this stigma in film and television where trans characters are there to be the trans character or to play the victim. It’s sad. When we were writing Relish, there wasn’t a strong trans character that was able to stand alone if you never mentioned the subject of their gender identity. We wanted to create a character that was iconic, cool, and flawed, with their identity being an important aspect but not the only reason they were there.

I think that’s a habit that people get into with film: compartmentalizing characters into these boxes. I know my dad’s goal as a filmmaker is to abandon the idea of these boxes that people put you in and how you have to fit into their preconceived idea of what a person should be.

This film tackles the idea of stereotypes in an interesting way. We had the idea of introducing all of the characters as the most stereotypical version of themselves when we first meet them. Then over the course of the film, we peel back the layers to say, “Look, there’s more to a person than what you see on the surface. There’s more to that. There’s something deeper. There’s a reason for everything you see and some of the things that you see aren’t the truth.”

PC: Walk us through the casting process.
Mateus: I was fortunate enough to be in the development process from the beginning. We did everything over tape and my mom, who also worked on The Meanest Man in Texas, helped with the casting. We went through countless amounts of tapes and I was also able to use a few of my connections to get people that I knew and had worked with before to come help us out and play a role in the film. We were fortunate enough to get Angel Parker from Runaways because I worked with her on Lab Rats and we’ve kept in touch since. She’s phenomenal in the film.

I worked with Hana Hayes before and we’ve gone to the same acting class. The main focus during casting was finding our Kai. Unfortunately, most trans-actors haven’t had the opportunity to create a name for themselves and break into the industry yet. We really had to look and find the most authentic version of Kai that we could find. We looked everywhere, including YouTube—that’s where we found Tyler DiChiara, who’s incredible and so real and raw in the film. We knew he was our Kai.

From there, we worked with him on Skype. He’s a theatre actor, and there’s a strong difference between film and theatre acting. There’s an energy, boldness, and largeness to theatre that needs to be toned down for film and TV. So, I worked with him on that, but everything we were looking for in Kai was present in his tapes. All of his choices were phenomenal.

PC: In the film, each character is dealing with their own demons. How did you prepare to tackle Levi’s?
Mateus: Levi was a really interesting character because I am the least athletic/sporty person you’ll ever meet. I know nothing about sports. His life is heavily influenced by his background as a football player, but I wanted to explore the psychological effects that sort of pressure puts on someone.

We introduce him as this stereotypical jock who’s a bully and kind of a meathead. He fumbles through whatever problem he sees, but there’s a vulnerability to him. He has an openness over the course of the film to question what he’s known all his life. It was interesting to play a character like this because he’s far from me as a person. I think he has one of the most drastic arcs in the film.

My father and I believe that most forms of bigotry and hatred stem from the lack of knowledge. Levi is toxic masculinity incarnated. Once he comes into contact with a completely different world of people who express their emotions in a healthy way, it’s a hard thing for him to swallow. I think it’s great to have a character that has a slice of humble pie and slowly realizes the way he’s been acting.

For preparation, I mainly did research into different football players and their mindsets. Whenever I play a character, I make a playlist to listen to. I had “Sweet Home Alabama” and old middle-Americana rock to step into Levi’s mindset. He comes from such a different world than I do. I’m in such a bubble here in Los Angeles, and he’s not of that mindset of sharing your feelings, being vulnerable, and definitely doesn’t understanding other people’s point of views.

PC: You starred and co-produced the film. How challenging was it for you to have dual roles? What was the biggest takeaway from the experience?
Mateus: It’s interesting, most of my work on the production side has been during pre-production and post. I was fortunate that once I got on set, I was able to focus on being an actor. There wasn’t a huge challenge because things ran pretty smoothly once we got going. Everyone was really easy to work with.

As an actor, when you’re auditioning and working, you start to think that every reason you don’t get something is due to something that you did, but there’s a lot more at play once you’re on the other side. I think that was my biggest takeaway. When you’re on the other side, you see that there could be a completely random reason they did not pick you for something that has nothing to do with your performance. Most of the performances we saw were incredible, but there was a specific thing with each character that we wanted to capture, and a lot of it really has nothing to do with your talent or preparation. A lot of it is out of your control. A lot of it is business. As an actor, you never find out or hear why you were overlooked. The biggest takeaway was realizing how many of the decisions that are made about and for actors are so much more technical and business-related than I thought.

It also made me realize what I can do to help speed up production as an actor. When you’re on the other side, you realize things that you’ve done that made things difficult and certain things that you would’ve thought would make a person’s life easier actually don’t. I learned so much from the incredible people I got to work with on this film.

PC: There’s this really fantastic chemistry that comes off on screen between the cast. How did you all build that bond with the film being shot in nine days?
Mateus: [laughs] I think it’s because we shot the film in nine days. There’s a certain thing that happens when you feel like you’re in the trenches with the cast and crew. In most things I’ve worked on, there’s this natural divide between cast and crew, and because we were working on a set where everyone was giving it their all to make the best product, we were all on the same level. There was a camaraderie that naturally happens when you’re not given a lot of time or money to make a film. This is an important film about understanding and acceptance, and I think that message came across to everyone involved.

There was this openness to the way this film was made as well. I really admire my dad because he understands how an actor’s mind works. He’s been working with me for so long. He has his ideas for the characters and roles, but he’s also always says, “I’m open to whatever you want.” There was a lot of improvisation on set, which was really great because we all worked on the characters together.

Luckily, we had a good amount of rehearsal time before we started filming. We all just sat and talked about things and ran scenes together—we spit-balled all these ideas. My dad is also good about asking questions instead of telling people what he thinks. He knows what the answer is, but he also knows that the actors can come to a clearer idea of what the answer is for them.

That was also something interesting that I learned—I would love to direct in the future. It’s always been a goal of mine since I was a child. It was nice to be able to shadow a director when you have the ability to ask them questions and have such a strong working and creative bond.

PC: There are a lot of really powerful messages in the film. Which one resonated with you the most and what do you hope audiences walk away with?
Mateus: I think the most important message, which I think resonates with most people who’ve seen the film, is you never know what someone’s going through. You can assume as much as you want, but until you strip down the walls and barriers that people are trapped behind, you’ll never understand the motives for their actions and why they do what they do. I think the film is really about breaking down those barriers, becoming vulnerable with each other, and being open to learning from one another. That’s what I love about this film: the sense of understanding and acceptance of a person for who they really are. My dad and I hope that this film is a small glimpse into a community that is often underrepresented. I think it’s important to educate yourself on another person’s experience.

To keep up with Mateus, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Learn more about Relish by following the film on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.