Q: What sort of research and prep did you do in order to convincingly portray a Secret Service agent escorting the President of the United States into a highly volatile public area?

MATTHEW: I didn’t get to do as much as Dennis because I was shooting another film right before “Vantage Point” and I had less than 24 hours between those two films. It was kind of a mad schedule for me that summer working on “Lost” then doing these two films in the same hiatus. They had to compress my schedule ‘cause I was doing 6 days a week. I was talking to Pete and it was very important for me to get the logistics of these guys. The way they would choreograph this entrance. Where weapons were carried. The way communications were conducted, the positional reference around the President at any given time. So we get the mechanics on an outward level of the secret service guys best we could. Obviously you spend a lot of time talking about the relationship between the Barnes and Taylor character.

Q: Does it give you an appreciation for what these Secret Service men do?

MATTHEW: Absolutely. In the end they’re asked to make the ultimate sacrifice in service to that position, and I have a great deal of respect for that. It’s hard to fathom.

Q: What do you think drives them to make that sacrifice as an occupational hazard?

MATTHEW: I don’t know. In my situation in the film I was coming at it from a different angle, so I wasn’t actually asking that specific question because he had other things in mind all along.

Q: We don’t want to spoil the film, but did you approach Taylor as two different characters?

MATTHEW: Sure. One of them is a complete façade, so yes. Then there’s a moment of real liberation for him at a certain point in the film.

Q: Was it hard not to show your hand too soon to the audience, so to speak?

MATTHEW: It’s a huge reveal in the film, so that was the challenge, to not give anything away, but at the same time in the playback of the audience’s mind and in the actual playback of the film in retrospect you see that he’s doing something that’s different from the first time around. [Director] Pete [Travis] and I really talked about pushing those little moments of appearing to be helping someone but when really he’s setting him up.

Q: How hard was it to keep recreating the same moments with emphasis placed on different actors at different times?

MATTHEW: I think we all knew going into the movie that telling this 20-minutes of time from eight different perspectives was going to require certain sequences to be done over and over again. That podium sequence we did sooo many times. I remember running over William Hurt as the President being shot and falling, and every single take no matter where the perspective was coming from, no matter where the cameras were, no matter how deep in the background we were, he was in it and alive in it and that kind of professionalism I respect a great deal.

Q: So, “Speed Racer”…

MATTHEW: I just got a phone call. They screened the movie and I really wanted to be there very badly, screened it for friends and family in LA yesterday. Christina Ricci just called me and… we’ve all been so excited about this project from the first day we got involved in it. It was something I was dying to do, I pursued it. I really pursued it. The experience in Berlin was just a fantastic summer. It’s gonna be like nothing you’ve ever seen before, it’s a new way of making films. The way the film moves, traditional editing is pretty much gone. (laughs) It’s gonna be amazing, I’m very very excited about it.

Q: Traditional editing is gone?

MATTHEW: It’s just the way the movie moves, the depth of field of the movie, the way images are layered, it’s gonna be different from anything you’ve seen.

Q: Was there a lot of driving?

MATTHEW: There was a lot of driving on a gimbal. The cars are built around you in CGI. There was a practical Shooting Star built, it’s beautiful, because there are a couple scenes in the film where Emil and I have to get in and out of the car so you have to have a practical car to transition. Most of the time we’re in a gimbal that’s on a hydraulic system that’s taking you through the actual race sequences and then cameras are moving all around that as we’re in movement. It made it very easy ‘cause all you had to do was get in there and react to what the car is doing. It was fun! There were days where I was bruised. It’s pretty intense. They had it really dialed up and I wanted it dialed up ‘cause Racer X is supposed to be an ass kicker. (laughs)

Q: Did it feel like being in a video game?

MATTHEW: Parts of it. That’s what I loved about it, just the challenge of trying to figure out the world the Wachowski’s were creating. It wasn’t too difficult at times, because so much of the background imagery was already there. They had sent satellites units out all over the world to take digital imagery that they were using as actual sets within the computers. So while you were shooting on the green screen, standing out there with nothing but green around you and some other actors, you could walk over to the computer and see what the world looks like. It was phenomenal.

Q: The trailer has been out for awhile, and a lot of people have been shocked by how poppy and colorful it looks, and also that the tone seems to be aiming for a “kid audience”. Will there be something for adults as well?

MATTHEW: It’s the WACHOWSKI BROTHERS, trust me, it’s got some very subversive, philosophical ideas in it. Yeah, it looks very different from anything they’ve done before, but they always want to raise the bar on themselves and do different things and that’s what makes it exciting for them, not being sure if they can pull off this idea in their head and figuring out how to get it all done. That’s really an enjoyable ride for them.

“Vantage Point” is now playing everywhere.