An in-depth exclusive interview with actor MATTHEW DELAMATER talking THE TENDER BAR, Alchemy of the Spirit, Downeast, Oxbow Brewing Company (!!!), and more.
For me, 2021 was bookended by MATTHEW DELAMATER starting with his role in Steve Balderson’s Alchemy of the Spirit (making its world premiere at Santa Fe Film Festival 2022) which I had the privilege to screen early on. In July we saw Matthew in Joe Raffa’s Downeast, a tale of the underbelly of Maine blending crime and revenge with hope. And in December, the George Clooney-directed THE TENDER TRAP hit theatres with subsequent availability on Prime Video on January 7, 2022. Each role was as different as the next, with Matthew truly elevating his performance and screen time exponentially as “Joey D” in THE TENDER BAR.
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning author J.R. Moehringer’s memoir of the same name, THE TENDER BAR is the story of J.R., a fatherless boy growing up in the welcoming warmth and wonder of the local bar, The Dickens, owned by his Uncle Charlie. Under Uncle Charlie’s tutelage and guidance, as well as that of Charlie’s best friends and surrogate uncles Chief, Joey D, and Bobo, J.R. gets an education about life and love. With his mother determined for J.R. to have all the opportunities she never had and move upward in the world, we watch as J.R. grows up, heads to college, and out into the workforce filled with dreams of his own, while always staying grounded in The Dickens and the neverending love and support of Uncle Charlie and his friends. Directed by George Clooney with script by William Monahan based on J.R. Moehringer’s memoir, THE TENDER BAR also stars Ben Affleck, Daniel Ranieri, Tye Sheridan, Christoper Lloyd, Lily Rabe, Max Casella, Michael Braun, and Max Martini.
As Joey D, Matthew, together with fellow local best friends and barflies Chief (Max Casella) and Bobo (Michael Braun) to Ben Affleck’s Uncle Charlie, brings layers and texture of community, of life. When you talk about a local bar where everybody knows your name and you think about who “everybody” is, folks like Joey D, Chief and Max immediately come to mind. But one of the keys to Matthew’s performance as well as that of Casella, Braun, and Affleck, is the intelligence and street smarts that come together with three-dimensional characters who while fun-loving lifelong BFFs, are caring when it comes to community and J.R. Paternal notes ring true in all of their performances and in Matthew’s case, obviously attributable to his own role in life as a dad.
Making Matthew the perfect actor to play Joey D is his own real-life upbringing. A native of Western Maine and the New England area, he brings a wealth of life experience from which to draw for his performance. Formerly playing semi-pro football and working as a banker fresh out of college, Matthew had a lot of living under his belt before embracing his passion for acting in local community theatre, eventually finding his way to television and film. And along the way he also became one of the partners and CFO for Oxbow Brewing Company. Matthew Delamater is a true renaissance man!
One of the most enjoyable and thoughtful interviews I have had over my decades as a film critic, Matthew’s ease and thoughtful candor is welcoming and refreshing as we dive into not only THE TENDER BAR and his experiences of working with this ensemble, being directed by George Clooney, and being one of the first productions out of the box in 2020 to go into production with full pandemic protocols in place, but also his own journey as well as his approach to acting and beermaking. Fun, entertaining, and full of all things MATTHEW DELAMATER . . .
TAKE A LISTEN. . .
by debbie elias, exclusive interview 12/16/2021
