Matt Barr Talks Life and Death on Harper’s Island
Steve Barton
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If you missed out on watching “Harper’s Island” (review here) during its television run, shame on you. Now that the show is available on DVD, you have no more excuses. Recently we sat down with one of the series’ stars, Matt Barr, who played “Sully”, to talk about what it was like living and dying on the now infamous slasher vacation spot.
“You know, I didn’t think I’d last more than a few episodes, but somehow I kept breathing,” Barr tells us. “We never knew when our numbers would be up. We just had no clue. Every week we’d [the cast] get the scripts on like a Sunday night, and we’d anxiously read them wondering who would be the one to get the axe. It was especially nerve-wracking as an actor; we felt that if we didn’t nail our scenes, we’d totally be the next to go!” Matt jokes. “That really kept us on our toes though. Just like the characters in the show, we never knew what our fate was going to be. They’re stuck in this situation living moment-to-moment, trying to survive, and as actors we got to play off of that, so the peril really serves us all.”
**SPOILERS FOLLOW** – Proceed with caution
“We never knew who the killer was going to be either,” Barr continues. “There was a point later in the show when the cast had minimized and there was just a handful of people left, and I thought to myself, ‘You know, Sully can be involved in this somehow. Maybe I’m the killer!’ Then people started making comparisons about how Callum Keith Rennie, who played John Wakefield, and I sort of looked alike, and that really planted a seed in my head. Maybe there was some kind of father/son thing, and I was like, ‘Shit! Maybe I am one of the killers!’ It’s funny that it did after all end up being a father/son thing. Just not with me.”
“For the longest time I thought the killer was going to end up being Cal. You know, this British guy who doesn’t really fit, and what’s Chloe doing with him anyway?” says Barr. “It didn’t make sense to me. I thought I was the big dog and had it all figured out. I even tried getting the producers drunk one night to see if they would spill it. But … yeah, I was wrong. We were coming back from Christmas break to shoot the last two episodes, and I was at LAX airport sitting next to Chris Gorham, who played Henry, and he kept looking at me funny. He had this little evil grin on his face, and I was like ‘What?! Is your bagel not good?’ And he kind of just kept smiling and nodding his head, and then I finally put it together. I connected the dots and asked ‘Nooooo…. is it you?’ and he grinned and said ‘Yeah, it’s me, and I’m gonna end up killing you.’ So I just lost it! I think I was screaming out loud calling him a liar!” laughs Barr. “So don’t ever trust Chris Gorham. He’s a LIAR! He’s a father of three … but he’s still a liar!”
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