Scott Speedman says his You character is 'deeply flawed'
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Scott Speedman is joining the You family.
When You's third season premieres, Joe (Penn Badgley) and Love (Victoria Pedretti) will find themselves in a new life — one with marriage, a kid, and lots of nosey neighbors. One of those neighbors is Speedman's Matthew, a father, husband, and very successful businessman who quickly becomes suspicious of his neighborhood's newest additions.
EW spoke with Speedman about joining the series and what to expect from Matthew.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was your introduction to the show?
SCOTT SPEEDMAN: I didn't know about the book, but my girlfriend was obsessed with the show. I'd walk upstairs and she was always watching it. And I would always be like, kind of looking over her shoulder. But what I noticed right away was how well it was shot, and that's always interesting to me, especially on television because I feel like that's really challenging to do given the time constraints we usually have. That was exciting to me. Then I got the offer not too long after that and read it and was really excited about it. It was a cool character, so I was into it.
The show is such an interesting concept on its own and then you're coming in during a real shift, it feels like. Joe's trying his hand at a new life.
He's in suburbia, yeah. I think it's a really interesting thing to do to that character — to stick him with a family and see how he survives that or doesn't survive that. That's what's interesting to me, for him, anyway.
With your character, it's a bit of a guessing game if he's a good guy or a bad guy or how exactly he'll play into things. How was Matthew described to you?
He was described as sort of a typical guy. I like to think of him as being from my father's generation, sort of cold and distant, emotionally distant, removed, unavailable, in that kind of way, especially to his son and they have this difficult relationship. I was interested through that point of view. I actually wasn't totally sure where the turns were coming, but just on instinct I had an idea that there was going to be an evolution of the character and that interested me.
JOHN P. FLEENOR/NETFLIX Scott Speedman in 'You.'
Right, because when we first meet him, he just seems like this super successful guy who has his life together.
Yeah, and that was fun because at the beginning he's such a buttoned up guy and totally in control. And through circumstances, he sort of unravels, and that's always fun to watch for an audience and for me as an actor. I was like, "Well, how far will they let me take this?"
How much of his journey did you know going into this? Or did you find out as it went along?
I knew some stuff but not a ton. All I really knew was as this progresses, you're going to get to know this character more and he's going to completely unravel. That was enough for me to jump off the cliff with him and sort of get going with it.
You mentioned maybe he's more like your father's generation. Did you have any inspiration for this character?
No. It was tech entrepreneur. I mean, I have trouble turning on my iPhone, so that was a stretch. [Laughs] Yeah, all that stuff was a bit of a stretch. Especially with something like this where it's sort of a secondary character in a way, what you wrap your hands around as an actor are the relationships and where he is emotionally and that I was able to key into and go into pretty easily. When you read something it's sort of this instinctual thing: Can I do this? Is this landing with me or not? And this definitely did. That's all I need to know.
Do you enjoy playing the mysterious, darker kind of guy versus the more standard good guy?
For me, having been doing this for so long, when you're not trapped by having to be likable all the time, I am more comfortable in those characters. When it's a flawed man, deeply flawed, interesting man, that's more fun for me.
You season 3 hits Netflix Oct. 15.
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