(Photo Credit belongs to DIANA BEZANSKI)
Playing the ‘not-so-innocent’ son Jake to Toni Collette’s protagonist on the thrilling new show Hostages, 14-year-old actor Mateus Ward is a precocious, worldly and young man with an impressive resume already to show. After the daunting task of portraying a more grown-up version of little Stevie on the two-part series finale of Weeds (showing up at a series end to portray a much-loved member of the family–now that’s what we call acting!), Mateus has made a place for himself on Disney XD’s Lab Rats with a recurring guest starring role.
But Hostages is his true claim to fame as of now. “Everyone is so incredibly talented. It’s been amazing!” he gushes. When asked what his favorite part of the journey has been so far, he is quick to replay. “It’s gotta be being on set with this amazing group of talent.” And quite a group it is, from Academy Award nominee Collette to Dylan McDermott to Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. “I’ve gotten really lucky with the actors Ive got – what better acting school is there?”
About his character in particular, Mateus plays Jake Sanders, the secretive son to Donovan’s character Brian. “He’s so different from me,” Mateus speculated. “I just try to put myself in his shoes and try to see how he’s thinking, to make it real.” Good approach.
But making a hostage situation seem real can be dangerous–in one scene early on in the series, Jake gets beat up pretty terribly by the perpetrators, but Mateus did not flinch at the prospect of filming it one bit: “I really loved seeing how a scene like that was shot. I asked Nico [actor Alexander Cendese] to really kick me, but the stunt team said no.” We’re quite happy they did. “The scene looked so real!”
For the future, we can of course expect a lot of action in relation to Jake’s storyline. “It’s going to be a wild ride,” is all Mateus can really share. “There will be a lot of reality checks for him, some danger, some rule breaking, and lots of growing up in the process. I do not doubt that the writers will send this character in some amazing directions.”
As for Mateus’s dreams for the future beyond Hostages: “I would love to start doing films, and be able to explore as many interesting characters as possible,” he shares. Interestingly, he is drawn to the underdog character, or perhaps the sidekick–when asked which iconic role from the past he would have loved to play, his two answers were Ponyboy from The Outsiders and Robin in Batman!
Hostages airs on Monday nights on CBS.
–DH
For the future, we can of course expect a lot of action in relation to Jake’s storyline. “It’s going to be a wild ride,” is all Mateus can really share. “There will be a lot of reality checks for him, some danger, some rule breaking, and lots of growing up in the process. I do not doubt that the writers will send this character in some amazing directions.”