Kyle XY is ABC's sci-fi steeped drama that takes a twist from the classic outsider comes to town premise. The show happens outside Seattle, Washington as teenage Kyle appears mysteriously with no memory of his life up until that point, and is taken in by the Trager family.
11/28/2007 - KYLE XY cast: Matt Dallas, Chris Olivero, April Matson, Jaimie Alexander and Bruce Thomas - The 9th Annual Family Television Awards - Arrivals - The Beverly Hilton Hotel - Beverly Hills, California USA © Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos
The series follows Kyle and the Trager family as Kyle develops socially and searches for answers to his past. We had a chance to speak with one of the actors of the series, April Matson, who plays Lori Trager.
The show is a balancing act between genres, and dips into the realm of science fiction. I asked April what it was about the show and the genre that she enjoyed most.
"I’m not that involved with the whole science fiction part of it, and I didn’t necessarily grow up being a fan of any specific type of thing, but I always loved shows like X-Files. I think what I like about our show is it’s not science fiction like there’s not these random monsters and aliens running around. "
Matson continued. "That’s something I’ve never been drawn to, necessarily, but I like that there’s a mystery of a possibility of things that are – I guess that are sort of possible. Even the way all the mysteries about Kyle, in a weird way you almost could believe that it could be true...as far as other science fiction, I would say X-Files, which is kind of what I like about the science fiction part of our show is there’s that kind of element to it. …really see the freaky stuff, but it’s explained in a way that you kind of could believe it."
Kenn Gold of Media Boulevard asked April if she would comment on the character of Lori and kind of where they took her the first half of the second season - and if we’re going to get back to the Lori that we all love.
"That’s so interesting because I never really thought about it that way of … Lori got mean. I mean she definitely got angry. I agree with you. The thing I love about Lori is that she sort of has a way of being bigger than everything else and being right and moving on and bucking up. That was definitely a lot of episodes of being really angry and going through everything.
But definitely in the second part of the season, what you’re about to see starting on January 14th, she sort of makes peace with everything, and she does sort of – I don’t know. She does definitely work it out and gets back to her sort of … moving on, songwriting again, more drama with Declan and just she lets go of all that anger, so definitely I think we’ll get back to the Lori that we all love."
Matson added: "It’s so funny. I didn’t realize how much that came off as – how different that was for the character. But I don’t think she was mean, though, but I guess very, very angry and bitter about everything going on, so it will change."
Wendi Moore from KyleXY.Net asked if there was a way that fans can contact her?
"I do have the MySpace, and I actually only have it for fans. That’s the only reason I have a MySpace because there was somebody on there for a long time that was pretending to be me, so I had to make my own to sort of kick them off. And I do get a lot of sort of fan mail comments and messages. I don’t respond to them. I don’t have a dialog with fans online, but I do post a blog every once in a while just to sort of update everybody. And I do read every single comment and I see everything everyone says. It’s really sweet.
I really love it because people write in and are so sweet and encouraging. I do have that, and it’s just me, April Matson, on the MySpace," Matson added, "then I do have a Web site, aprilmatson.com, that’s sort of under construction, but there is a way to contact me through that too. That sort of just has a few pictures and what I’ve been doing. But it’s about to be reconstructed, so it’s a lot more fan friendly. But you can now contact through that as well."
Sandie Sahakinas from Zaemon’s TV asked if there was a love interest planned for the future of Lori or maybe a reunion with Declan?
"There’s kind of a little bit of both," replied Matson. "There’s definitely a new guy in the picture that is a possibility. His name is Mark, and he’s played by Josh Zuckerman, who is such a breath of fresh air. He is so fun to work with and so good on the show. I think everyone is going to love his character. We have a really great chemistry together, so you can look forward to that."
"There is definitely some back and forth with Declan as well that becomes a possibility. Declan and Lori sort of talk about it and are sort of exploring that road again. I don’t want to give away what ends up happening, but at the end of … Lori … does what she does best for herself.
I have to say that is one of the things that I love about her the most is that she loves Declan, but she loves herself more, and she sort of just does what she needs to do. She really makes the choice that’s best for herself, and I love that…that young girls that are watching the show get that, because in my life at 26, and being in the dating world and having to make decisions about guys and some guys that might have some kind of hold over you.
I just love that she’s not desperate and she knows that she doesn’t need someone else to make her happy. I don’t know. I just think it’s really mature of her because I feel like, as like someone who is almost a decade older … learning that right now. I’m learning that from her.
Anyway, I went off a little bit, but the point is there’s some … and Declan steps up. He’s definitely charming and America is falling in love with him. Any time Lori doesn’t sort of go back to him, I think is always going to be disappointing, because he really is so, so charming in the last half of the season."
Linda Craddock from Slice of SciFi, asked if April wanted to play Lori for several more seasons?
"You know what, I think about that a lot, and I feel like if something were to happen and God forbid the show was cancelled, it wouldn’t necessarily be bad news either way for me as an actor because there’s always an opportunity to do something else.
But I love the character and when you’re an actor on a show, especially with everything going on right now with the strike, it’s like I just feel so lucky that I’m on a show and that I’m on a show that I like to work on and that I like to play the character. It’s definitely different than doing a film or a play because … develop a character over so much time that you know so well and you learn from. You get more in depth into the character than if you would if you worked on something for a couple of months.
I would love to play Lori for several more seasons, but if something happened and there are other opportunities, obviously it's always nice to do other things. Even now, I’m going back to class because … is tomorrow and I’m like I just need to break out of it. I need to do something else. I know her so well, it’s getting so easy, so I want to keep my muscles strong, and I want to be able to stay versatile as an actor."
Jenna Bensoussan from Aced Magazine asked which episode was April's favorite to film and why, and which one was your favorite to watch.
"I haven’t actually seen any of the final cuts of the upcoming ones, I don’t think. But to film would probably be the last episode, the season finale, because even though it was such a pain, it was a prom episode, and so there was, like, I had to camera test eight prom dresses and there was all this back and forth about what Lori should wear to the prom. I don’t know why for some reason it was more of a project for me than anyone else.
But even some of the other girls, they had dresses made and some of them were … I mean it was like such a disaster. It was pouring rain and we had to keep going in and out of this gym of this high school, so there was mud everywhere. We’re all dressed up, so from my trailer to the thing, they had to practically wrap me up in saran wrap just to keep me dry. So it was difficult to shoot, and we all sort of hated it, but it was so fun because it was our last episode to shoot. It was like eight or nine months of shooting, and all the guys are in their tuxes and the girls are all dressed up. There were tons of extras, and it was really complicated shots.
But we were just sort of all dressed up and, in between shots, celebrating such a great season, so that was probably definitely my favorite, even though I hated it while we were doing it. There were so many complicated. It was some of my best memories were shooting that because we just had so much fun celebrating the whole season and all the work that we had done and how far we’d come, and taking pictures to remember the season. It felt like prom. It was weird. It felt like we were graduating or something.
To watch, I don’t know. I don’t know because I haven’t seen any of them. But definitely the first couple back, like 14 and 15, like the first couple, there’s a lot of cool stuff that happens, so I do remember that being really exciting. Fourteen and fifteen are really exciting."
Nadine Rajabi from TVGASM.com asked if April felt like she was reliving her past and doing things that she wasn't able to do, as her character Lori?
"Definitely in ways. I mean because I’m an adult now, sometimes I’m sort of like, okay, it would be nice to play somebody – you know what I mean, like a grown woman with maturity and who is complicated. I think about that, but it is really therapeutic because I’m sort of working out unresolved issues through Lori.
I had a Declan. I think almost every girl has had a Declan, like that guy that just gets under their skin, and it’s back and forth, and they make good friends, but they want to be more. And it’s confusing. I definitely had a Declan, and so in a weird way, this helps me resolve a lot of what that was all about to be an adult sort of going through it again through her.
Like I said before, I learn from her too in the weirdest way, like through the writing, but also just through what I find with she’s really become this other person that I love. I know that sounds weird, but I discover so many things while shooting that she’s like a girl that I would want to be friends with. I always tell people that Lori Trager is so much cooler than I am. It does come through the writing, but she just comes through in a weird way and teaches me lessons.
I do like that part of it because I feel like I’m not necessarily going backwards to this immature place, but I’m learning from this young woman, this character that I play. She’s mature and she has a mind of her own and I’m really getting a lot out of it."
April shared her favorite charitable causes.
"I support whatever I can, like any time that I ever hear about an AIDs walk or a breast cancer … I’ve done some breast cancer 5Ks. I would support – I obviously want to support everything, but I do have sort of a new special interest in kids with autism because I have recently found out that my nephew has sort of a mild form of it. We think it’s Asperger’s, but that’s got me more interested in all the research about it and what they’re doing.
There are so many different theories on how it’s developed or if it’s hereditary and all these things, and there are so many different kinds of treatment and therapy. It’s been really, really interesting to see him change and become a kid who can function, go to school, and be at a party and not freak out. So that’s definitely something that I’m interested in. I want to get more involved in that.
And animals, anything with an animal rescue – I’ve rescued a lot of animals, and I used to be a vet tech. If I weren’t an actor, I would probably be in vet school. I love animals, and I have a lot of friends that work with animal rescue groups that I try to help as much as I can."
April discussed her music and the crossover of her talents on Kyle XY, and that her music something she wanted to pursue in the future.
"I do sing again in the show. They recorded it actually just a couple of weeks ago. On the season finale, there is a new Lori Trager song. It was written, and then I sort of worked with another songwriter, Brandon James, who is amazing, talented, and you will see him out very soon. But we sort of collaborated to rewrite a little bit just to make it a little more personal to Lori’s experience. There were a lot of people involved in writing this song, and it turned out to be something that I was really proud of.
Actually, Brandon James was playing at The Mint in L.A. two nights ago, and he called me up on stage during his show and made me sing the song with him, and I was so mad at him, but I was so in love with him at the same time because he was like, you need to get over it. You can sing. I’m still struggling with live performance singing, and it’s something I want to do so bad, and so he did that.
Then he busted out, Will You Remember Me, the first song, and I sang that. I, like, played a gig. It was so funny. I was like calling my parents. Yes. I did a gig last night. They were like, what? Who are you? What do you think you’re doing? I’m definitely going to pursue it more, and that was really exciting, and I felt like a big breakthrough for me that I sang live for a bunch of people at this show.
I started taking voice lessons since I’ve been back in L.A. and have been working with Brandon James writing a couple new songs for fun, but we want to write and record together an EP or something, like five or six songs. I’ve written a couple outside of the show, so it’s definitely something I’m pursuing.
I never thought I was going to be able to do it. It’s really, really exciting to just, I guess, get over a fear and something that you tell yourself you can’t do, and you limit yourself for so long. Then you realize, wait a second. I really can do anything I want to do. Why do I limit myself and tell myself I can’t do that? People do it all the time. Why can’t I do it? And so I just sort of just did it, and I don’t know. Hopefully I’ll stick with it and continue to grow. It’ll be just another art form, another way to be creative and say something to the world."
April quashed the incorrect information on her IMDB page that is listed, saying that Hilary Duff is her favorite actress and other erroneous posts.
"I have no idea where that (information) came from. Hilary Duff is lovely, and the movie is really cute, but I have no idea where that came from. I think they got it from my fake MySpacer that was on there, like a couple of years ago. That was on the thing, so I think they got it off of that, but I don’t know. I’m not sure where that came from.
If I had a favorite, I mean there’s so many actors that I love and respect, but I’m a huge fan of Kate Winslet and I love Rachel Weisz. I love Cate Blanchett. Those are a couple biggies that I respect and admire a lot.
Favorite movie, it’s so hard to pick a favorite movie. Of course I can’t think of any right now. Then randomly I’ll be thinking, I love that movie. When people ask me that, I’m going to say that’s my favorite movie, and I can’t. I have no idea. I loved Steel Magnolias. Girlie movies, I don’t know. I can’t correct that one because I can’t think of what my favorite movie is right now, but it’s not necessarily a Cinderella Story, not that I have anything against the film. But I don’t know where that came from."
Does she have other facts she wanted to correct?
"I know it has my birthday wrong. It says it’s June 5, 1985 or something. My birthday is actually March 13, 1981. I have no idea why my birthday is wrong. People think I’m lying about that all the time, but it’s March 13, 1981."
I asked if April had any insight to the MadaCorp "MadaCorp is people" mystery, and if there was a Soylent Green connection and if Adam Baylin was somehow connected.
"It’s definitely all connected. It always is with Kyle XY. It is all sort of connected. It’s not what it was necessarily – I don’t – I think that MadaCorp. turned out to be a company that was not what Adam Baylin intended the whole thing to be. I don’t know. It’s definitely connected to…. I don’t know … Mada Corp. … people. I know what you’re talking about. I remember that being on the thing, but I don’t really have any insight to what all that means. I just know that it’s basically the company that sort of backed up the whole experiment.
But there’s more revealed about that in the first couple episodes, I’m pretty sure, and what the connection is with Visix, which is more of a society or like a secret club, I think. But I don’t know. It’s complicated.
When I watch the episodes, especially because I haven’t seen these ones that are about to air, but when I watch it, I learn so much about the show because eating, breathing the scripts sometimes, I’m like, what. I don’t understand what’s going on. Then I watch it, and I get – Matt, actually, Matt Dallas, he laughs at me because we’ll watch an episode together and I’ll be like, no way. I didn’t know that guy was bad. He’s like, you’re in the show. You read the scripts. What’s wrong with you?
I know, but I forget, and I’m focused on sort of my story line, and I read the scripts, but I don’t really, really sometimes get what’s happening until I watch it, which is actually kind of fun because it makes me sort of enjoy the show. It’s like I’m watching a different show than the one I’m in because I’m not involved with that whole part of it. Yes. I don’t know. I can’t really give you any more insight than that."
April discussed the Kyle-Lori relationship dynamic.
"I have to say, I feel like it’s pretty consistent. I feel like everything remains mostly as it was between Kyle and Lori. They have the same brother/sister bond where they give each other advice and help each other out. He’s very consoling, wise, and they still have that same sort of connection.
Some of my favorite scenes to shoot are the ones with Kyle and Lori on Lori’s bed talking about whatever drama is going on in her life or what is he going to do about Amanda and all that. I feel like, even after everything that happens, they have a pretty consistent bond, and once she decided to love him and let him in the family, he is her brother, and she just sticks by him. If anything, they probably get closer because there’s not this weird mystery. There’s not this, why are you hiding, and why are you going after Jessie? She feels very betrayed, but I feel like once everything is revealed, that definitely helps them to get closer.
April discussed the dynamics of the family unit of characters on the show as they changed with the arrival of Jessie XX.
"She caused all kinds of problems, so yes. It definitely – any time somebody like that comes in and is – and I don’t want to say that she’s evil because I feel like one of the things that one of our writers say that I love is she always says nobody on Kyle XY is really ever evil, and nobody is really ever dead either.
You have to remember that it can go back. That’s the thing about Jessie. I feel like, is she evil? Is she…? But she never really caused problems, and any time there’s ever someone that comes in that’s deceitful or not completely truthful or hurtful or anything, it always sort of spreads throughout a group of people, even if they’re people that love each other. It definitely, I think, messes with relationships.
But it also ends up making them stronger because a lot is learned through Jessie coming into their lives. I feel like … because she gets abused and then has to deal with that and has to deal with do you forgive someone that does something like that to you, and how long can you hold onto anger. One of the lessons I learned, especially through this is when you stay angry at someone for something, the only one who suffers is you. I feel like that’s something that the whole family kind of learns. You’re not punishing the person you’re angry at by being angry at them. You’re hurting yourself. That, among learning about the relationships with each other, I feel like a lot of growth comes out of it.
Kenn Gold of Media Boulevard asked about the writers’ strike, and if there was a full season.
"We have been picked up for ten that we start shooting in March. The writer, our writers are supposed to go back to work this month. If nothing is resolved in the next few weeks, we might have to postpone, but we’re definitely going to have a season three at some point, and hopefully, if everything is resolved, we’ll be able to stay pretty close to our shooting schedule. We were lucky. We were on hiatus anyway. So it hasn’t really affected us, but if nothing happens in the next couple of weeks, then it might postpone things a little bit. But that would probably be the worst of it for us.
We finished shooting those the end of October, so anything that is about to air is done. It was definitely difficult the last couple episodes doing post production because a lot of our producers were writers, and they were like really, really dedicated to the cause. And they weren’t even commenting on episodes until it was like they need to get these approved because of all the post stuff and the music, so I know that was really, really hard for a lot of our post production people. That might have affected the way that a few of them turn out, but you’ll still get to see them all."
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