Chapter 5:
Struggling to Survive

On Matt's application to Harvard University, he stated he wanted to become an actor. Problem was Harvard has long been  known for teaching the best of future doctors and lawyers and does not have a huge acting program.  So, after three years at the university, in Matt's junior year, he dropped out to pursue his acting career full time.

Projects did not come easily, nor did they come in great amounts. Scraping for rent at times, Matt was frustrated and disappointed again and again.  Finally, a role came that he thought would give him his big break.  That movie was Courage Under Fire (starring Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan).  Playing a heroin addict, he wanted to make the character as convincing as possible, but at the time he wasn't a big enough "name" for the studio to hire him a professional nutritionist.  He then took on the responsibilities of preparing for the role  upon himself.   Having lost nearly 40 pounds, Matt later said it was the biggest mistake of his life because he got so incredibly sick and had to take medicated pills for years to get his metabolism back to normal.