Matthew Montgomery and Steve Callahan Interview

We interview Matthew Montgomery and Steve Callahan about the new movie they star in "All Kinds Of Love"

What do you like about the story of All Kinds of Love?

STEVE: I think what I like about it is that it's all-inclusive and sort of speaks to many different types of relationships.

What were the most fun scenes to film?

STEVE: For me personally, the ones I like to film the most were the ones that I got to shoot with my husband. So, Matthew and I are married in real life, but in the movie we played a divorced couple. So, anytime I get to share screen time with him is always fun.

What do you like about acting in movies together?

STEVE: Well, we met on a movie. That's the way we met. So, the first night we met was on a movie set. So, you know, it's it feels natural to be there. Yeah, I mean, he's the best actor I've ever worked with. So, just anytime I get to work with him is a pleasure.

MATTHEW: Yeah, I have to agree that I just really like spending time with my husband, so getting a chance to work with him. And I think he's so talented. So, being able to be a part of that is like I just love having that experience.

Do you have a favorite genre?

MATTHEW: For me, it's thrillers. Thrillers are probably my favorite genre.

STEVE: I agree. I like thrillers, horror movies. When we're looking for a movie, sitting at home trying to find something that's the first go to genre, we go to horror and thrillers.

Do you have a preference between playing straight or gay characters and why?

STEVE: No, I wouldn't say that there's necessarily a preference.

STEVE: I don't think I have a preference, but I definitely like playing gay characters for sure.

Which actors inspire you?

STEVE: That's a good question. There are so many. WOW.

MATTHEW: I think, for me, a lot of like classic actors come to mind. Like when I when I think of that question, like the actors that come to my mind are like James Stewart, you know, Clark Gable. So, I think I sort of like kind of go back to sort of much older actors. But what about you?

STEVE: I get inspired by a lot of different performances. Like I'm inspired by, like when you watch soap operas, how quickly they're moving on a set and with such little time, and they can turn in a great performance. So, honestly, I watch so much TV that I find performances inspiring every time I flip the channel.

What do you like about acting?

MATTHEW: I think for me, what I like about acting is the chance to connect with a character that might be different from me and and empathize with their situation in life and their surroundings. So, I think for me, that's probably what I like about it.

STEVE: You know, with this movie, All Kinds of Love, the script was so good. I love the script that David Lewis wrote. So, it was just filled with all these wonderful characters. So, when you find a script like that, it's always nice just to dive in and make the most you can with it.

Aside from the casting, as I know, Steve was a casting director, did you guys have any other input into this movie?

MATTHEW: I don't know that I would necessarily say that we had input creatively. We definitely as David was continuing to work on some certain elements of the script, like I know that he would come to - Steve would give really great story notes a lot of times, but but I feel like David had already had his very strong vision about how he saw this movie and these characters and their relationships. So, that was, yeah, which was great.

STEVE: We did a few Zoom readings of the script over a year or so before the movie was shot with various actors who were just donating their time to do it. And when David would hear the words out loud, that would make him change certain things or add things or subtract things. So, it was fun to watch the whole evolution of the script from the beginning.

What movies or TV shows would you like to see remade with a gay couple?

STEVE: Oh, that's a good question. Maybe like a gay Pretty Woman.

MATTHEW: Oh, yeah.

STEVE: That would be that would be kind of fun. Any of the any of the classic rom coms, you know, switch it up, have two guys or two women. It'd be fun.

Regarding gay themed movies, what do filmmakers do well and not so well?

STEVE: Well, I think that one thing that David did really well with this script was, you know, a lot of times the gay movies that are coming out are very heavy. And he, you know, told this story of all these different ways that you can fall in love within the community and treated them with respect and just had fun with the characters and kept it sort of light but also had something to say with the script. I thought that was really smart.

Steve, you were a casting director. Do you find that work easy or difficult? And what's involved with that?

STEVE: I loved it. I've known David since David directed Matthew in a movie called Redwoods. And so David had come to Matthew about this movie and they had been talking about for a long time. So, Matthew was always attached from the beginning as playing the role of Max. And after a while, David came to me and asked if I was interested in being the casting director. He had known that I was a casting director for a movie that Matt directed called Devil's Path and liked the the actors that I found for that. So, I was very excited to be up for the challenge. We had so much fun, David, and I, just, you know, reading lots of different actors, trying to find the right people, and I think we found a great cast. But I had a lot of fun with it. I was really, really proud of the cast we put together for it.

How many auditioned for the role of Conrad and why was Cody Duke chosen?

STEVE: There were a lot of people. So, the way it worked was we first put out a casting breakdown for that role, just that role alone, Conrad. As I said, Matthew was always attached from the beginning, and we knew that, because Matthew was such a good actor, that we had to have someone playing Conrad who could play opposite him and really match him scene for scene, because Matt's great. So, David and I said, “We have to find a really good Conrad, and once that's in place, then we can start worrying about all the other smaller roles.” So, we cast Conrad about three months before we cast everything else. We put out a casting breakdown, and thousands of people submit for it. So, we went through all of those and looked who could possibly physically be Conrad. We looked at everyone's tapes that they sent in, and from there we probably auditioned maybe 50 or so people. Then, from there, we picked about the best seven or eight. Then, they did an in-person chemistry test with Matthew, and Matthew got to read opposite all of them. But Cody just came in, and he was so perfect. He was what David was looking for. When David described that role, he wanted somebody who was cute, looked young and innocent, but smart and intelligent, and had this naivety to him. He just walked in with such a sweet guy and so nice and just, you know, played opposite Matt. And he was from Arizona. The auditions were in Los Angeles, and he came from Arizona to LA for the auditions, which showed that he was really dedicated and wanted the role. Yeah, the first time they read together, we sort of knew that we had found our Conrad.

Matthew, do you plan to write any more productions and do you have any ideas relating to this?

MATTHEW: I definitely have ideas that I'm working on for films that I've written screenplays for. So, those are probably in the early stages of revisions right now, yeah.

Where can people follow you?

MATTHEW: Steve and I have a joint Instagram account called matthewandsteve.