It's no secret that I hobnob with the best and the brightest, the hottest and the hippest. So it will also come as no surprise to you that I am actual friends with someone who was in The Dark Knight. And not just anyone; I'm talking about the guy who played a young Gotham PD cop named Berg. (The one riding in the back of the van with Gary Oldman? Yes, that one.) His name is Matt Shallenberger, and you may also recognize him from those Coors commercials. But even back when he carried my dead body down from the roof of a fake 7-11 in our college's staging of the play Suburbia, I knew he was going places. Recently I had the chance to interview Matt about the movie, his stint as a Blue Man, and his photography. He's pretty much a genius, so consider yourself warned, Christian Bale. SS: Describe your role in The Dark Knight - without being spoily of course. MS: Don't worry, I'm legally obliged to not be spoily. I play a young Gotham PD cop named Berg...who, like a lot of the characters in the movie, is forced to make a morally tough decision. I happen to spend most of my screen time sweating in a van. Just as I typed that, I figured out that "sweating in a van" is not as unique an activity as you might think in this movie. SS: In the movie, you were in a scene with Gary Oldman. What was it like acting with him? Did you ask him about The Fifth Element, i.e. one of the greatest films ever made? MS: He was an incredibly sweet and gracious guy. Our second day working together, we were towed around in a van behind a truck for the better part of a day without all of the hoopla going on outside, which was nice. We spent most of the time telling stories about people with funny accents and he taught me a bunch of cockney rhyming slang that I've been waiting desperately to use. I didn't ask him anything about The Fifth Element, though I did make some jokes about the movie JFK, forgetting until months later that he was in it. The lesson is to, when talking to Gary Oldman about movies, assume he was in all of them...better yet, when talking to any human about JFK assume they were in it. That's mathmatically more appropriate. Read about Matt's close encounters with Heath Ledger and Christian Bale, after the jump! SS: Your scene also included a car crash. Was that scary? Did you perform your own stunts? MS: No one but the drivers were in the car for that crash. Unfortunately, I was working somewhere else and couldn't watch it. My only stunt work was some in-car wrestling with Gary, who's real tough for a skinny guy in a suit and kept unavoidably kneeing me in the groin. Had I the audacity level commensurate with my excitement level, my answering machine would say "Hi this is Gary Oldman. Matt is unavailable, as I kicked him in the groin." Can you still buy an 'answering machine'? SS: As a pop culture blogger I feel it is my duty to ask you if you saw, touched, smelled, or in any way came into contact with Heath Ledger while you were on set. So.....did you? MS: He and I didn't work together. I met him at the wrap party. He seemed like a nice quiet guy having fun. SS: As a woman I feel it is my duty to ask you if you saw, touched, smelled, or in any way came into contact with Christian Bale while you were on set. So....? MS: He and I are in a scene that got cut down a bit for the movie. I saw, touched, and unavoidably (but not regrettably) smelled him. It is also mildly intimidating to have him in the makeup chair next to yours. Makes you feel like you got something in your teeth, you should work out more, and your haircut sucks. That hair has an ENERGY or something...it's mesmerizing...and up close...it's like trying to look inside an IDEA or something. SS: When you got the part, did you sh*t your pants, knowing you were going to be in one of the biggest, record-breaky blockbuster films of all time? MS: I didn't shit until about a week ago. I carry less than the standard amount of anxiety I think, but I reserve all of it for wondering whether or not I somehow got cut out of something. So not until I saw it did I shit, and even then it looked to me like I had shot the footage myself and snuck it in to the movie. SS: Do you mean it was sh*tty cinematography or that you couldn't believe anyone would actually edit you into a film? MS: I have no issues with the cinematography whatsoever. Wally Pfister is a f*cking genius. It was SO disconcerting to see my head 50 feet tall, that my mind convinced myself that it was a prank. SS: Did you go to the premiere in New York City? MS: No, I was working in L.A., but I went to the first screening in L.A., which is fun. It's essentially the same clientele as a midnight showing somewhere else: all the people who have really been dying to see it. These ones just happen to know someone at the newspaper or something. They still dress up and clap and giggle and lose their shit. The famous people we got were Larry King and some girl who I'm told is on The Hills. I just looked her up. It was Lauren. SS: [after regaining consciousness] You were once a member of the Blue Man Group in Chicago. I realize no one has ever asked you this before, so forgive me if this seems like it's coming from left field, but garsh, what was it like wearing all that blue makeup on your face every single night!?! MS: Lame. But after a while you seriously forget what it feels like and worry right before the show that you forgot to put it on. Worser still is, six weeks after you quit, and you are at Blockbuster Video and the woman renting Walking With Dinosaurs to you asks if you have a skin condition and you realize it never really goes away. SS: Now that you've broken into film, will we be seeing you on the big screen again anytime soon? MS: Let's hope, right? I've haven't done any film in a while. Stuff has been pretty slow out here between an actual strike and another potential one. Hopefully everything will pick up soon. You'll see me on TV peddling beer, tacos, and mouthwash in the meantime. SS: You are also pursuing a career in photography, and I think everyone would agree that your pictures are really snazzy. Can you describe your point of view a little bit? MS: A friend of mine told me that my pictures looked "lonely" and that stuck. I shoot mostly landscape in between suburbia and rural industrial places. I like empty places with some small element of design or purpose or history or future to them because it forces you to write a lot of the story of that place yourself. I'm also told I take a lot of pictures of people with fanny packs worn in the front. SS: If you were going to do a portrait of me, what would it be like? MS: The blog equivalent of the book jacket back flap: self indulgent in a really oblivious palatable way, like reading your own blog. And you'd be wearing your "writing shirt": an actual costume piece from Elizabeth: The Golden Age that you spent your whole advance check on. Seeeee, I told you we were friends! He knows me SO well! I know him well too: He's originally from Hawaii, currently lives in Los Angeles with a 7-year-old French bulldog named Otto. He's 6' 160 lbs., has brown hair, brown eyes, is single, is an organ donor, likes ice cream but not pie, and thinks 'The Strangers' was really f*cking terrifying. Anyway, you can find more about Matt's photography at www.mattshallenberger.com.

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