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Matt dillon interview - 2005 galway film fleadh

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Interview courtesy of Radio Telefis na hÉireann.

about matt dillon

Matt Dillon - Saturday July 9th 2005 | Town Hall Main | 16.00

Born in New Rochelle, New York in 1964, Matt Dillon began his acting career in elementary school and at the age of 14 was chanced upon by Warner Brothers talent scouts while wandering in the halls of his high school. This accidental meeting was to be the start of a long and illustrious career for the 17-year-old Dillon, landing him his first film role. Although originally establishing himself as a teen idol, winning parts based on his heart-throb good looks, he soon made the transition from pubescent star to adult actor, based on his versatile and adept performances in a wide range of roles.

Matt Dillon's first film role was in Jonathan Kaplan's teenage drama, Over the Edge (1979). This part launched his career, but it also led to him being typecast as a "troubled youth" in other similar teen films such as My Bodyguard (1980) and Little Darlings (1980). However, these roles cemented his presence firmly in the public's consciousness and he proved his worth as an actor in the adaptation of the S E Hinton novel, The Outsiders (1983). In this film, Dillon was part of a stellar young cast including Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze and Emilio Estevez. By the mid 1980s, Dillon was looking to move beyond the teen market and take on more challenging roles. His chance came with his stark and uncompromising portrayal of a junkie trying to come clean in Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy (1989). His nuanced performance came as a shock to many who had written him off from the beginning as "a one trick pony", but critics and audiences alike were won over by Dillon's gritty performance, which won him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead in 1990. This film established Matt Dillon as an adult performer; he had made the transition from teen star to credible actor. He has worked with a broad range of Hollywood stars, such as Kevin Kline in In And Out (1997), Nicole Kidman in the black comedy To Die For (1998) and Cameron Diaz and Ben Stiller in the hit comedy There's Something About Mary (1998). In 2002, Matt Dillon turned in yet another direction when he wrote, directed and starred in City of Ghosts, a thriller about a young man under suspicion of insurance fraud, shot on location in Cambodia.

Matt Dillon's career, spanning three decades, has seen him play a variety of roles, from a teen bully (My Bodyguard) to an ambitious psychopath (A Kiss Before Dying) proving himself as one of today's most talented and sought after actors, breaking the mould into which he was first cast as a young teen idol and emerging as a credible and well-respected actor.

The public interview is hosted by Myles Dungan, presenter of Rattlebag on RTÉ Radio 1.