Movies - TV
Matt Berry's Path To Acting Was Perfectly Matt Berry
By ANDREW HOUSMAN
Comedic actor, Matt Berry, known for his trademark epic, booming voice, learned to embrace his unique persona very early on in his career, which started in improvisational theatre. While Berry may sound like a formally trained thespian, he’s had a more unorthodox path to becoming the Matt Berry we love today.
Berry's first true acting gig was at the London Dungeon, an interactive tourist attraction consisting of shows where costumed actors recreate scenes from the gorier side of British history, with a darkly comedic twist. Berry’s time there allowed him to improvise for a live audience and resulted in him learning a lot.
Later, when opening for Noel Fielding at the Hen and Chickens Theatre, Berry began to add surreal, dark comedy to his musical performances. Some of his darker bits included pretending to be a songwriter who accidentally kills himself with pills at the beginning of his song, and a serial killer who sang about hiding his victims' bodies.
As Berry once humorously explained: "The thing that attracted me was getting the audience to assume I would sing some songs and that would be it. And then I would f**k with it." These experiences led Berry to embrace his own eccentricities and use his ultra-dramatic delivery to subvert expectations.