Matt McGorry on Juggling "Orange Is The New Black" & "How To Get Away With Murder"

I'm Ole, at the Young Hollywood Sofa, joined by this extremely talented man. Matt, how are you?

I'm wonderful. How are you doing?

Yeah? All exasperated?

Yeah. I think maybe it's just the nerves of meeting you as well. It's a big deal.

Oh, come on. Look, it's understandable. I mean, I was very nervous meeting you too, but you thankfully, this has sort of been stressful. Thank you. Georgia isn't nervous. She's just gone straight down to the, she's fine.

No, she has. She's sort of the, uh, the, the, uh, the mediator between us. That's it. That's it. She knows how to deal with women. That's right. Patting the bellies, mostly. Careful, Georgia. It gets people pregnant very easily. It's true. Maybe we should come over here, Georgia. It's true.

Um, but yes, John Bennet. Yeah. Extremely popular character this guy. Not gonna lie, when I mentioned, like, you know, interviewing people every day, people seem to get really excited about this one. Really? Even my own mom and dad.

Wow, no way. That's awesome.

That is true. But it is, Orange is the New Black is just a show that's just appealing to everyone, like every age. People seem to people seem to really like it.

Yeah. It's cool. It's, I mean, you know, I think I I think it's interesting because I can definitely pick out, I think, when I'm just walking by, like, equal people like, who watches it. Right. Um, and not always right, but sometimes there are people who in a demographic that come up and I'm a little surprised that they do. But usually, I feel like, usually, I can sort of tell. But it's interesting that I think there is such a wide range. Even with social media, though, it's not like, like my parents aren't on Twitter, Right. so I wouldn't be hearing from people in their age range. Right. Uh, tend to hear from, you know, people in a certain bracket, but.

It's a good thing that your parents aren't on Twitter.

I think so. What, you know, to be honest, my mom goes onto social media and like, looks through my stuff. Because she she's a proud Jewish mother. She likes to I mean, despite the asinine comments that sometimes I get, she really enjoys just seeing what I'm up to. Right. And how many weird things people want to do to me.

Proud parents, it's a good thing. Yeah, people do on social media. I've seen that. They want to do some weird things to you.

They really do.

What's what's been the craziest thing that's stuck out in your mind now?

Um, people like to wanna do stuff with my prosthetic leg. Right. Right. Uh, you know, that, I mean, hey, everyone has their own thing. Um, and uh, I just get, it's just like weird stuff that I don't know, I don't know, I don't understand why anyone would want that. From anyone.

Okay. Okay. We're learning a lot about the world. Yeah. Through social media.

Yeah. We sure. We sure are.

But you do engage, which is nice as well. You're quite engaging with your fans on social media.

I like to. I think it's a lot of fun.

And proposals. Some proposals.

Yeah. Proposals. Yeah.

No temptation to say yes.

Every day, every proposal, you know, I just like, I just wanna I just think about it, you know?

There you go. So, guys, you're not wasting your tweet.

Exactly.

You're not wasting your tweet. That does consider marrying you. Please keep that in mind. Just saying, you know.

Exactly.

But uh, How to Get Away With Murder, Viola Davis. Yeah. I had the pleasure of interviewing her. She's amazing.

Oh, yeah. Amazing. Amazing. So cool.

How is it working with her?

She's terrible. Yeah, yeah, she's terrible for sure. Just doesn't know her lines. Terrible person.

Exactly what I'd expect. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. No, she's she's really incredible, and what we I think we all know that from seeing her work, but I think the thing that always like is so wonderful and surprising to me is what a good down-to-earth person she is, you know? And great sense of humor, like, really fun. Makes me laugh, like, on a daily basis. Uh, and just, you know, has no, like, air of superiority and all that stuff, and that's just makes the experience of working with her so much all that much better, you know? But the premise of the show, How to Get Away With Murder, is, uh, Viola is the professor of this, you're students at the law school, and she's trying to teach you how to get away with murder. Just basically, yeah. Yeah. It's pretty pretty dark. It's pretty dark stuff. I'm actually there's stuff in there. I'm I'm I'm surprised for for network television that that you're gonna see. Um, it really sort of pushes the the boundaries in ways that I I think that you don't get to see very often. Um, and yeah, she's leading, she's at the helm of it, you know?

And you're you're you're an extremely busy man now.

I'm pretty busy, yeah.

Not that I knew you, you know, years ago, but. Right. You're a magician. You were a magician to begin with.

I was a magician, yeah. I really was.

That's pretty impressive when I read that. But not just like a kid that was just doing magic for a laugh. You were in a, like a Yeah. I was a proper. A legitimate magician.

I was a proper magician. Um, what was the first trick that you ever learned? I mean, probably a simple, like, coin trick, making a coin disappear. And then I went, you know, as far as going to magic camp and like, you know, buying these like big illusions and doing street magic and joining the International Brotherhood of Magicians. And when I get into something, I get very into it. Right. You know.

You commit.

I commit.

That's very like your character. When you get into something, you get very into it. That's true. I have found out. That's true.

Yeah, and sometimes it's too much.

Yeah. A little bit too much. Too much. Um, can you give us any scoops on season three? Any exciting stuff? Probably not.

No, I can't really. No.

Tell us everything.

Okay. I'll tell you everything. Well, it starts, episode one, uh, starts with Piper saying, no. Yeah. Two people die.

Exactly, two people die. I'm one of them. That's brilliant. That's brilliant. Being on two shows is a big I mean, not many actors can say that at one time. Yeah. Juggling the two shows as well. The two roles, specifically.

Yeah. It's it's it's really incredible, and the roles are so different, which to me is so fun because on on Orange I play the kind of sweet, nice, empathetic blue-collar guy. And on the show, and How to Get Away With Murder, I play the like, rich, entitled douchebag. Right. Basically.

Which one do you enjoy most?

You know, it's really fun being the douchebag. Okay. It's a lot of fun because you you, you know, I feel like, uh, on Orange I have an obligation to, like, make you wanna like me and, you know, and still be likable. And I think when you're the douchebag, you just let it all hang out. Like literally, I think Yeah, literally, just, I mean, and network television, so it's surprising. I mean, they blur out a lot, but, you know. Um, No, I just feel like I just

They blur out a lot. You gave away a little bit. Not all of them, though.

Exactly. Um, but I feel like you just get to open the floodgates as to the parts of you that maybe wanna make offensive, do offensive things, that you're not supposed to do, and you just get to like, let go of that, and it's it feels like I'm, uh, like I'm just driving, you know? Being a douchebag is.

Yeah. Now it makes sense why there's a lot of that.

Exactly. It's enjoyable to be. Enjoyable to be.

Um, Matt, thank you for stopping in. Check him out on Orange Is the New Black, How to Get Away With Murder, and lots of other stuff that this guy will carry on doing 'cause everyone just loves you.

Oh, thank you.

You're welcome. How are you, caught?

Oh, great.