Glamour: Aside from acting, you direct, write, illustrate, perform magic... What on earth do you list as your occupation at the DMV?
Matthew: Yeah, it's tough. [Laughs] I'm a storyteller. That's what I am. Whether it's pictures I draw or things I direct, I'm just trying to tell a story and make people's lives hopefully more enchanting.
Glamour: Speaking of making something, you just designed these totes for the American Red Cross.
Matthew: In my quest to do every single thing imaginable, I love making shirts and stickers and buttons, and the totes were just…a lot of bummers are going on in the world, and the Red Cross helps everyone, and I just wanted to do something to spread some cheer. So I made a "I love the universe" picture and figured I could give the proceeds to that. I'm also making these blankets for kids who are either sick or orphans, and I think I'll have them done in January or February. Every blanket sold, one will be given to a kid in need. I like the idea of giving things to people in need.
Glamour: You were born in Las Vegas. When did the acting bug hit?
Matthew: It's all I've ever wanted to do. I have a crazy memory, and I remember being two years old at someone's party and thinking, "This party is boring! I better spruce it up!" I got up and tried to do this really dumb dance that I saw Winnie the Pooh do, and I remember falling over and thinking, "This is what it's all about."
Glamour: What did your parents think? Did they realize what they hand on their hands?
Matthew: They are the most lovely, encouraging parents a kid could ever ask for. I've been lavished with nothing but encouragement—probably too much!
Glamour: Your mom, Marilyn, is a rancher and a political consultant. What does that mean exactly?
Matthew: She's a rancher, a jack of all trades, a brilliant real-estate mind, and most of all, just the most loveliest mom. She's a beautiful force of nature. She runs a ranch and is on horseback a lot of the day, and she's just the greatest.
Glamour: And dad, John, is an attorney, right?
Matthew: Yes. He's the closest thing to Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. He's a wonderful pillar of sincerity and honesty. He's like Abe Lincoln meets Atticus Finch, and he dresses like that too. I have the greatest parents in the world.
Glamour: You recently posted a photo of yourself at a Beach Boys concert at age 11. Explain who you were at that age.
Matthew: Yes! I've been wearing fedoras since I was six years old until I wore that hat to the Beach Boys concert. My idols growing up were Harry Anderson, who was an obscure magician/comic from Night Court, Penn and Teller, and Harry Houdini. I looked like a 1920s gangster. I feel an affinity to that kid Manny on Modern Family. That guy really speaks to my youth. And I wore these glasses that floated on my head. They were called floaters. They had a fishing line that attached around my ear because I kind of got bullied a lot, so it was easier to repair those than glasses that had bands. They are probably the ugliest glasses you've ever seen in your entire life, but very practical.
