Matt McGorry Reveals His New Talent

While to some he might always be C.O. Bennett from Orange Is The New Black or Asher from How To Get Away With Murder , Matt McGorry is now taking on movies, thanks to the new film How He Fell In Love. Written and directed by Marc Meyers, the steamy flick tells the story of a struggling musician who falls in love with an older, married yoga instructor. In it, McGorry plays Travis, the singer-drifter at the heart of the film, a character who will pretty much rekindle that sweaty crush you had on your high school's resident guitar player. And while it might sound like a bit of a departure from his grittier roles, McGorry says that the new film fits right in with the work he typically pursues, albeit with a pretty different type of challenge: nudity. "There are many differences in terms of shooting a television show and an independent film like this," he tells Bustle. "Showing my ass and all of the anxiety that comes with that is definitely one of those things."

I told you guys: this movie is steamy. Yet the nude scenes and sexual nature of the film aren't there just to attract eyes, but to speak to the movie's deeper meaning. McGorry says that he found that filming the independent drama gave him ample time to find his character's different angles and push his own boundaries. "Marc was very interested in new readings of the script, playing around, and understanding what our interpretations of the characters were," McGorry says. "It really captured those nuances and human moments that for me are very exciting. There are a lot of deeply personal moments that felt pretty vulnerable."

McGorry believes that this distinct spirit of collaboration on the film's set allowed him to experiment in the role, a quality that proved especially helpful as he shot How He Fell In Love's musical scenes. While both of his half-brothers play instruments, his parents never pushed him to take piano lesson, and McGorry says he never saw himself fitting into the musical world. "I felt like I didn't look like the musician I had in my head, and I had never played an instrument in my life," he says about his role as Travis.

This dissonance, however, ended up helping him in the long run. "I tried to understand the internal life that a musician goes through when they play," he adds. "I guess that's the point of acting, to approximate these sorts of experiences."

McGorry's acting was tested, though, when the crew filmed a song in front of a packed house. "I was playing these three chords in a really sh*tty way in room full of actors and background people, and it was quiet," he recalls. "It was basically like doing your best karaoke in front of 30 or 40 people. I was the asshole making faces like he knew what he was doing. If I could do that, I could do anything."

Fortunately, his new role is more complex than three simple chords, and will undoubtedly help audiences fall in love with How He Fell In Love.

Image: Monument Releasing