Matt Dellapina’s show ADULT ED. premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. The show tells the story of a disgraced former teacher (Matt Dellapina) as he starts tutoring fellow failures around New York City while coming to grips with the toughest lesson of his life: fatherhood.
In April 2019, NOIAFT founder, Taylor Taglianetti, had the opportunity to speak with Matt about his show and career.
Tell us a little bit about your Italian American upbringing.
Yes! So, I’m an Italian American from the Bronx so it’s important to me to keep those voices part of the conversation. Notwithstanding the amazing filmmaker heritage we have, I think it’s good to help identify that with other filmmakers from similar backgrounds.
So you grew up in the Bronx and now you’re living in Brooklyn?
Yes, I live in Brooklyn now.
Awesome! I’m actually from Brooklyn and went to school in Park Slope so I loved watching your show. So, what’s your personal connection to the story? Do you have any?
Yeah, absolutely. I mean it came out of a personal connection. After college, my main, sort of, survival job while trying to make it as an actor was being a tutor for a year all through the boroughs, across economic backgrounds, across age limits or lack thereof. So that was my main bag. At a certain point though, and at the same time, when I was thinking about another project to develop – my friend and I made a feature film a few years ago – I wanted to do something smaller. And I thought there’d be a really good anthology, kind of episodic nature to this guy and a series of tutoring clients. When I started writing it – and my wife was very, very pregnant at the time – I saw myself going through this where I was like tutoring people on the side and trying to impart this wisdom or, you know, ways of being and discipline, when, at the same time, I myself was pretty at sea as far as the way I was going to raise my own child. That’s a very different story than educating someone else’s. I just thought those dynamics were interesting and it was just, obviously, very personal to me so the writing came easy and with a very specific voice too; it was kind of lifting from themes and thoughts that I was having myself. There’s very much a personal connection to it.
So did you always know that you were going to make this pilot for online distribution or were you thinking about going to a network?
So I set out to write it as a – we had filmed a 25 minute pilot and what you’re seeing is actually with a different kind of cut and pasting of a few other episodes together. We filmed six so the initial three, one of which was the one you saw featuring Campbell Scott, that was part of a 25 minute spec pilot. I just decided rather than writing, I just wanted to film a thing and get it around. And there was some interest; it was in Los Angeles for a year and there was some interest from developers, but it was tough to get through the gatekeepers to a level of taking me seriously when I didn’t have a big track record as a creator beforehand. So then I decided to cut it up into a web series and submit it to a few festivals. Then Tribeca happened and, now, that got us motivated to film a few more cuts to have ready to go. My dream would be for it to live somewhere on a streaming platform, which is now actually seeming to move more into short-form digital work. Hopefully the timing of things could work out well here.
So you started your career as an actor then?
Yeah, I started as an actor. I came up doing a lot of theater regionally around the country and then in New York: a lot of Off Broadway for about a decade. My way into all of this was as an actor. When I started writing more seriously about five to ten years ago, my main objective was to give myself interesting parts, lines, themes, dynamics, and relationships that I wanted to act in, to spread my wings, and also showcase more of what I could do. That is what really kicks me in the butt to do more writing.
I also read that you were a sports analyst. Is that right? What does that have to do with your creative side?
For a little while, I worked for the Elias Sports Bureau as a part-time job. They analyze and research stats to provide for ESPN or whatever local Yankees games are going on that night. That was awesome and was a great survival job. I think it folds really well for the math brain I have. When I tutored, it was typically for math, as most people needed help with math. In terms of sports and statistical research – I know it’s really not typical for most actors or artists to have a side job doing math or stats but, for me, it was my skillset.
That’s really neat that you can combine the two, the creative and the more analytical side.
Yes! There’s something to be said for looking at numbers, that’s cool…but can you create a story out of it? What is compelling about these numbers? How does it create a historic moment for what you’re watching? There is definitely storytelling as far as the stats game. One hundred percent.
Would you ever do a sports film?
Yeah of course, one hundred percent! I mean, I was reared on Fields of Dream and Bill Durham. I would love to do a sports film.
What’s something that you really want to do that you haven’t done yet?
My partner Sean Lewis and I are trying to develop a situation where a character takes you through a particular situation- I was watching the show Killing Eve recently. Are you familiar with it? It’s on BBC America.
Yeah, I’ve heard of the show for sure.
It’s excellent. I really recommend it. The main character in the show is kind of like a chameleon. So we’re trying to cultivate a story where I get to flex the acting muscles a little bit more and find a way narratively to have somebody play different characters throughout a season of television. In each episode, they’re thrust into a different milieu of the world or the city where they have to take on different roles like, say, a yoga instructor and then the next episode, they could be the equipment manager for the New York Mets. We’re trying to shape a narrative where that would work. I very much wanted to create ideas for myself to act. I was never one to think, “oh I want to play Hamlet one day or I want to do Long Day’s Journey Into Night on Broadway” That would be great, but I never thought of myself as wanting to play all of the great roles. To me, that just feels redundant.
So you want to create your own roles for yourself.
Exactly. I think the stuff you end up remembering is that. The stuff that really makes an impact is original stuff.
Right. So, in your opinion, what makes a film or a show great?
That’s a good question. I think what it is for me is that the scenes take a surprising turn. You think you’re watching one kind of a scene, but then it ends up becoming something different. I love when some episode or a film can string together several scenes that take interesting turns, surprising turns. If that’s the case, then I know I’ve remembered that show or that movie. If there’s a few surprising moments, those surprises, and not just shock surprise, but I just didn’t see it going that way…I feel like those surprising moments can really stick in the mind.
We definitely saw some of those surprising turns in your pilot. So, who are some of your artistic influences?
At the moment, it’s hard not to say the Duplass brothers. One of my favorite shows is Togetherness that was on HBO for a couple years. I think they brought a cool lo-fi quality to film and TV that evokes a more realistic vibe. I also love the show Barry on HBO. I think that’s a great show as far as offering surprise in every scene and offering a smashing up of genre. You don’t really know what kind of show that you’re watching the whole time and I love that. Those are the two things that are really inspiring me now.
We have a lot of members who are living in New York. What’s your advice on filming and being an actor in New York?
That’s a really good question. As far as filming in New York, I would say to call on every favor possible. What I’ve realized is finding interesting locations can be tough. For the recent three episodes, our objective was to find stuff that wasn’t just someone’s apartment or something you could get for free. If you do have to spend a lot of money to rent a space, maybe try to find a way to pull a favor through a friend. You’re really putting this together through credits cards and volunteering friends on crew and cash for the most part. As far as filming in New York, shoot what you can but I would also say to leave town and shoot upstate or out on Long Island because people are more accommodating to filmmakers not in the city. People can be suspicious of you in town, but once you leave and are an hour or so out, people are so much more forgiving.
Is there anything else you want people to know about your show or about yourself?
My friend Sean Lewis, the director of ADULT ED., and I just launched a production company about a week ago, in anticipation for the festival, called Little Ark Films. In addition to doing all of this, we have a lot of cool things in the hopper that we’re really excited about.
You can check out Matt’s production company website here: https://www.littlearkfilms.com/