Matthew Berry (aka “The Talented Mr. Roto”), ESPN’s senior director of fantasy sports, proves there’s room for a new jokester on ONE LIFE TO LIVE as he gives Tina a run for her money!
The great jewelry debacle continues this week on ONE LIFE TO LIVE when ESPN fantasy sports analyst Matthew Berry appears as Neil, a jewelry appraiser, in the midst of Tina and Cain’s doggie/dazzler battle. But when he showed up to tape the scenes, he was in for quite a surprise! “It was harder than I thought!” he exclaims about his Wednesday, November 5, and Thursday, November 6, appearances. “I wasn’t sure what to expect, but there was acting involved! I thought they were going to give me a ‘Hey, how are ya?’ kind of scene, but I was actually a big part of it.”
So does he have any previous acting experience that helped him out? “Certainly my high school plays, or if you count trying to get out of speeding tickets!” he jokes. “But it was great fun; they took care of me. I sort of flew by the seat of my pants a little bit, but Andrea [Evans, Tina] and Christopher [Cousins, Cain] were very encouraging. When I flubbed a line or something, I was like, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!’ And they were like, ‘Dude, don’t worry about it!’”
Though you’ll just have to tune in to see what kind of trouble Neil, Tina and Cain get themselves into, Berry says the scenes were “very exciting” and that he couldn’t have asked for better scene partners. “Chris is like a big ham, and Andrea is a soap opera diva in the best sense of the word,” he says. “I took some photos of her and I and put them on my Facebook page, and I can’t tell you how many people E-mailed me and were like, ‘Oh my God! She was on PASSIONS; I love her,’ or ‘She’s my favorite character on OLTL!’ She’s got a huge following, and I found that out very quickly; I had no idea all my friends were closet soap fans!”
Berry encourages fans to give him feedback on the scenes, so be sure to tell him what you thought on our message boards or on his page at ESPN.com. “I desperately hope I’m not the fourth worst actor in the scene,” he jokes. “It’s Cain, Tina, me and David Vickers the dog, and that is one cute dog!”
Matthew Berry
