You are Griffin Matthews unveil Rocky’s inspiration on Teddy as soon as possible

Griffin Matthews Entered a scene-stealing version as a Teddy Lockwood YouThe last season but his inspiration for the fan’s favorite character came from an unexpected place.

“The first thing I did when I got the job is that I made a Pinterest board and it was all Rocky as soon as possible. I saw Asap Rocky in a Gucci advertisement and I had something like: ‘This is what is so interesting, this guy is Harlem at the top and Gucci on the bottom,’ ‘Matthews, 42, remembered during an exclusive interview with American Weekly. “I loved that image of this black man in New York City, which is part of this billionaire, white and half British family.”

Matthews was intrigued by the way Teddy offered ‘another version of reality’, and noticed: ‘I wanted to try not to play as a good guy. I spoke so much with the show runners about how I didn’t want Teddy to be a good guy. I wanted him to be authentic and I didn’t want the audience to know if he was a good guy. “

Youwho originally debuted about Lifetime in 2018, introduced Penn badgley As a serial killer whose obsession grew to frightening heights for a girl. Based on books by Caroline KepnesThe series found greater success after it had moved to Netflix for his second season. Since then, a new love stake for Joe and new characters – who did not always survive every season.

“I knew the show and I didn’t know if I was going to live or die when I signed up. I had no idea of ​​episode to episode. I just told the show runners:” Please don’t just kill me first. ” But I wanted to create a world in which a question about Teddy was that we didn’t know what his motives were and we didn’t know where he would land, “Matthews said Us. “Because from week to week we never knew who would live there and it would die, you do your best work to try to create a world in which you not only know, but the audience doesn’t know. That’s the best part of photographing a show like this.”

A large part of the participation You? The fact that Matthews was already a big fan of the show before he auditioned for the role of Joe’s (Badgley) Snarky but loyal brother -in -law.

“This is the first show I’ve ever done where I was a huge fan. I had seen every episode of every season before I did an audition and when I did my screen test with Charlotte [Ritchie]who played my sister. We were on a hem and I was so afraid of her, “the actor joked.” Because of who she is in the show, I didn’t know if she would be cold. Of course Charlotte became so beautiful and we talked and had a great audition. “

Matthews admitted that it was “so weird” to be on set after viewing the show. “It was a very surreal experience to participate,” he added. “It was perhaps one of my biggest career performance.”

As a viewer, Matthews first understood the importance of certain parts of the show – including Joe’s notorious cage.

“I didn’t want to go into the cage because I knew that when I went into the cage, I didn’t come out. But there was a day when we shot the promo and we all had to get into the cage and it was fantastic. It was actually scary to go into the cage,” Matthews revealed to Us. “The best way to be afraid – as an actor – is to be really scared. When I shot the scene in which Joe tried to kill me, I was actually afraid that I didn’t have to pretend I was terrified. So stepping in the cage and stood in a handle with Joe aka -pin was. I want to do it again.”

The performance of Badgley as Joe was perhaps spooky, but Matthews could not be more grateful for the band he formed with his Costar. “It turns out that Penn is completely different. Funny enough, Penn is a father [with wife Domino Kirke]. I am a father [with husband Matt Gould]”He explained.” So in our downtime we spent a lot of time talking about our children and showing photos. I went to Penn’s house for lunch and met his children and his family. Penn between Takes was also meditation in his trailer. So I had something like: “Who is this guy?” “

Matthews continued: “What is amazing about his performance is that Penn brings a very specific humanity for Joe Goldberg. That is also the reason why that character is so successful because Penn himself is focused on humanity. He was able to really bring Joe to life because he found a way to show us on a set of truth.”

While speaking to UsIt was clear that Matthews brought just as much work to bringing Teddy to life.

“We had a lot of phone calls with our show runners. Charlotte and I spent a lot of time outside the screen together. The show runners gave me a lot of freedom to ensure that Teddy felt authentic. I had the space to say:” I think that in this specific scenario a black person will be tackled in 2024, “we had to remember.” I wanted people who looked out if I looked the show and recognized themselves on the screen. So I was lucky that our show runners were so open to conversations. “

Matthews pointed to Teddy’s appearance as a good example and added: “We did a whole conversation about her. I spent more time in the hairstyle than one of the women in our show: four hours. We went to take a look hours and hours a day because Teddy starts with an afro and then when the season is progressing, he finally makes the end.

There were also conversations about the personal life of Teddy.

“I have played many gay men on television and I have never had a black boyfriend or husband. So when I found out that Teddy had a husband and a son, I said: ‘It can be interesting if we cast another black actor and perhaps a black child. Because it says something about who teddy was not in this specific world.” Really, very special and beautiful ways have implemented. “

You is currently streaming on Netflix.