By Katy Burley [1]
BELLEVILLE – Canadian actor, Matthew Bennett, and television personality, Matt Wells, visited Loyalist College last Wednesday to promote their new movie Straight Kill [2].
Not only were the two men promoting their film at the college, they were also looking for potential talent. The two TV stars met a few months ago, and decided they would find a way to get unknown actors and musicians noticed.
“We’re obviously trying to make a movie. Two, we’re trying to really help people cut through some of the doors that are placed in front of anyone’s way who wants to get in the entertainment business,” said Bennett. “It’s a very, very difficult system to negotiate.”
Straight Kill is about two people from different worlds, who are both on the hook for family debt. They meet each other at a party, and decide to come together to hit the underground gambling circuit in Toronto to help them with their financial problems. Things spiral out of control from there.
Wells told QNet News the story of how he got involved in the television industry. He said he started his career in a metal band on the east coast. He said he dropped out of university to put everything he had into his band because he thought that’s what he would be doing for the rest of his life. The show Going Coastal was playing their videos, and Wells became friends with the host, Mike Campbell.
When Campbell left the show, he told Wells he could host. Wells said he had no aspirations of being in television and that he had never even thought about it, but Campbell pushed for him to get in, and he later became the host of the show. Wells said that without that help from a friend he would not have ended up in television.
He has since worked in television for 12 years. He said he then moved to Toronto and worked for Much Music, MTV, Much More Music, where he got to interview all the artists and bands that he had looked up to.
Wells said he and Bennett are trying to do something similar with the casting for Straight Kill.
“We wanted to try to find a way to, not just make a movie, but use it to go back to these things we connected on, which is knowing that we wouldn’t have got to the places we were in our careers without someone giving us an opportunity,” Wells said. “We know how important that is.”
Bennett and Wells created a website for any possible talent to audition for their movie. People are able to audition for roles in the movie, as well as send musical submissions for the soundtrack. The duo are asking anyone who is interested in auditioning for the film Straight Kill to submit their tapes or tracks to their website.