Matt Czuchry
Throughout his twenty-two-year career, Matt Czuchry has been a part of some of television’s most popular and celebrated shows. His portrayal of “Cary Agos” on seven seasons of the hit drama “The Good Wife” led him to win the Entertainment Weekly Best Supporting Actor EWwy Award and receive nominations for three consecutive Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. He is equally well known for his role as “Logan Huntzberger” on “Gilmore Girls.” This role earned him three Teen Choice Awards. In 2016, he returned to the beloved series for its reboot, “Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life.”
At present, he stars as the lead character of “Conrad Hawkins” on “The Resident,” which is airing its fifth season. Critics have praised his performance on that show. For example, Samantha Mimi Nguyen of “The Laterals” stated that his portrayal of Dr. Conrad Hawkins “is brave, quick-witted, and pure, utter genius.”
Because of his contributions to television and film, Czuchry received an honorary doctorate from the College of Charleston in 2018. Additionally, in February 2020, he was recognized with the Savannah College of Art and Design TV Fest Maverick Award.
(Please note that some of these answers include spoilers if you have not seen this season of “The Resident.”)
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How does it feel to be in the fifth season of “The Resident?”
I was just talking about this the other day with our cast and crew. To reflect on all of the ups and downs is quite emotional. So much life and work has happened for all of us dating from when the pilot was shot in 2017 through filming our current season five in 2022. We uprooted from our respective homes and moved to Atlanta, have been through a Disney merger, a once in 100-year pandemic that is still ongoing, social justice movements, individuals who are connected to this show have passed away, multiple cast and crew members have had children and those kids are now in various stages of schooling, and by this season’s end we will have filmed countless scenes and completed close to 100 episodes. In some respects, it feels like a long, challenging, and beautiful journey. In other respects, it feels like a blink of an eye. Time is so confounding that way. I am incredibly grateful for every second, the tough stuff and the good stuff, that I have experienced being a part of this deeply special production.
How do you connect with your character, Conrad?
My mom was a nurse. In 2015, I was with my dear friend on his last day. That same year, one of my best friends lost her mother unexpectedly. All of this informed my decision to say “yes” to “The Resident” in 2017. The questions of life and death, taking care of one another, are universal for all of us. And because of that, Conrad believes the world and all of its people are interconnected. I have always seen the world that way--interconnected. I have always been empathetic in that way, even when I was a child. I have always done my best to show kindness and love to everyone I meet, to everyone in my life, because in one way or another as human beings, we all suffer. So, I connect to this character’s need to be a doctor, to “first, do no harm” and help anyone who walks through those hospital doors. I connect to his need to stick up for others, to fight against wrongs, and to take risks because life can only be lived in the present moment and the great equalizer is that one day we all shall pass.
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How do you think you have changed as an actor or person since the show’s beginning?
I embrace the unknown more. I embrace the unknown in my personal life, and on set between action and cut as an actor. I feel mindfulness and meditation, which are new to me since I started this show, have really impacted my positive growth both in my life and as an actor. This is why I became and actor: 1) To impact individuals in a positive and inspirational way through storytelling. That gives me a sense of purpose. 2) As I learn about myself more, naturally I grow personally. As I continue to work hard on this show, naturally I become a better actor. And I love this about the profession of acting. Those elements of self and my work are not mutually exclusive; because, as I grow as a person I grow as actor, and visa versa. No parts of my life are separated in terms of obstacles or growth, they are interconnected so that the new discoveries in life and work multiply indefinitely on top of one another.
What does a day in your life on set look like? How would you describe the cast dynamic on set?
I love the people on “The Resident.” I really do. I love this group. That is my favorite part of this entire five-year run. The cast, the crew, directors, background artists, our stand ins, guest stars, the producers, the writers, the entire production. So many of us have been together for a good chunk of our lives, five years. I love how we come together to overcome obstacles in an effort to achieve a unified goal, to make stories that impact others whom we most likely will never meet. I really dislike after work, driving home in my car very frustrated as I run through scenes and moments of the day where I feel like I did not perform up to my standards, but that is also the best part about this job--picking yourself back up after you have been punched in the face. Showing up the next day, not living in the frustrations of the past days, but rather striving for something new, better, different in the present moment. The dynamic on set is one of “collaboration.” Everyone’s ideas are welcomed and fostered. We take our work seriously, and the work is often intense and challenging with our medical scenes in terms of the action combined with the medical dialogue. Our scenes are often highly emotional as we celebrate life and loss through the eyes of our characters. However, we do not take ourselves too seriously. Off camera we will talk about deep subjects impacting our lives, and then quickly flip to telling crappy dad jokes. So much so that I was given a dad joke calendar from a friend. And I pester the entire cast and crew with those jokes constantly.
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What are you excited for audiences to see in the rest of this season?
We are looking to do 23 episodes this season. In any year, that is a massive undertaking. With Covid, the challenge of producing that many episodes of television has been magnified exponentially for a variety of reasons. For one, our schedule has been deeply challenging this season. But, as a production we are not making any excuses as we still aim for our best work to show through every single episode no matter the obstacles. The audience deserves and demands that. And in terms of quality, I feel like we are hitting those high notes this season. We have had a lot of obstacles and challenges this season. And because of what we have overcome, for that reason, this is the most rewarding season for me in our five-year run. We started this season with Conrad losing his wife. Episode 503, when Conrad’s wife dies in a traumatic accident, which was the hardest episode I have ever had to film in my career. We have seen Conrad as a single dad with his daughter Gigi. That relationship thread with Gigi has been a completely new adventure for me as an actor. A piece of the end of this season will surround a thriller arc about the impact insurance fraud has on patients, the healthcare system, and on the doctors and nurses who deal with the fallout. There are also a couple of cool surprises, for several of our characters, towards the end of the season that I hope will make fans happy.
You went to college with the intent of becoming a lawyer. Tell us more about what made you change career paths and pick acting instead.
In the summer after my junior year, I did horribly on the Law School Admission Test. I mentioned that in my commencement address to the College of Charleston in 2018 as being a defining moment in my life. A negative that I was able to turn into a positive. My sophomore year in college, I was walking with my sister on the beach and she told me that I would become an actor. I was shocked when she said that. I majored in history and political science at CofC and graduated with those degrees. As a sophomore in college when my sister and I took that walk, I had absolutely no intention or even the slightest inkling of becoming an actor. But she was convinced during that walk in 1997. I did not grow up around anything connected to acting. I loved TV shows and movies as a kid and I would always create characters at home and my parents and brothers and sister always fostered my imagination in a beautiful and deeply important way. I owe so much to my brother, Mike, for the characters and stories we created together in our youth. In many ways he inspired me to be an actor. In fact, I have given him a secret shout out on “The Resident” in two episodes (214, 506). But even though as a kid I often created characters, I saw acting as something that other people do, and it was not something I could do. I was not “enough” to do that, it was for other people with “more” to do that. Once I tanked the LSAT test, I was really forced to examine how I wanted to live my life. And during that time my love of creating characters and embracing the joy and questions of life through storytelling started to keep coming up for me. So, after graduating college I created a plan to try and become an actor, I took the risk. I asked my sister years later after I was a working actor, “why did you tell me I was going to actor? How did you know?” She said, “whenever I saw you come up with a character, I believed you were that character. And most importantly, YOU believed that you were that character.” If it were not for my family, everyone in my family, I don’t think I would have seen what was there all along, that storytelling was an important piece of myself that I needed to share with others as a career.
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Shirt by Isaia
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Right:
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Shirt by Isaia
Shoes by Paul Smith
Tie by Hugo Boss
Social Media.
I have never had any. Any social media that claims to be me, is fake. Anybody who claims to be me and asks for money, it is fake. I created my website in 2012 ,and I dedicate a lot of time to adding content to it: https://mattczuchryofficial.com
CREW CREDITS:
Editor-In-Chief: Alison Hernon
Creative Director + Photographer + Producer: Mike Ruiz
Talent: Matt Czuchry
Fashion Stylist: Sharon Globerson
Groomer: Candace Corey using Clarins at Zenobia Agency, Inc.
Assistant Fashion Stylist: Lindsey Long
Tearsheets by Daniel López, Associate Art Director, PhotoBook Magazine
Interview by Flora Medina, Contributor, PhotoBook Magazine
*Special thanks to Demetre Daskalakis and Michael MacNeal
