Matt Borlenghi, who is known to daytime fans for his All My Children run as Brian Bodine (1990-93; 1996), as Bold and Beautiful‘s Ziggy Deadmarsh in 2002 and Salem Mayor Anthony Marino on Days of our Lives in 2008, plays a pivotal role in the Lifetime biopic Can You Feel The Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story, which premieres on Saturday, February 1 at 8 p.m./ET.
For The Record
Borlenghi was invited to audition for the role of Barry Conner, a record executive, by the movie’s casting director, Leslie M. Greene. He shares, “I had worked with Leslie before on a couple of other projects. She said to me, ‘You know, I don’t know if this will work or not, but what do you think of this idea?’ ” Greene filled him in on the details of the telefilm, which tells the story of young Lisa Velez and her rise to fame with her band, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam. “I remember ‘All Cried Out’ and ‘Can You Feel The Beat’ and all those songs. But at first, when I heard it was a Lifetime movie, I mean, how can you not think of their standard fare like My Ex Poisoned My Dog or something like that [laughs]? So I wasn’t immediately keen on it.”
Borlenghi’s mind soon changed “when I heard it was part of a series of movies on women in music — there’s one on Lisa Lisa, one on Mary J. Blige, one on Gloria Gaynor. They’re calling it ‘Voices of a Lifetime,’ and it’s focusing on all these visionary women. Then I was really interested. I thought, ‘This is a really good opportunity to be part of a biopic where the subject matter, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, was part of my life as well.’ ” From there, “I auditioned for it, and I had a really specific take on the guy. I went through the network approval process and they signed off on me, and the next thing you know, we were doing table reads.”
When it came to creating his character, “I had to walk kind of a tightrope because Barry, the character I play, is the record label executive who launched Lisa, Lisa & Cult Jam, who introduced them, and her, to the world, at the age of 15. I play it very manipulative and two-faced, and I was given room to change certain language and make it more the way I felt like he would talk, you know? No one calls someone ‘Darling,’ like, ‘Oh, Darling, you’re so fantastic.’ That doesn’t ring true for me. So they gave me free reign [with his dialogue] — but at the same time I had to be kind of careful with it because, it’s based on a real guy. They changed the name of the guy, who died several years ago, and so out of respect for his family and memory and all that, I didn’t want to be a total piece of s–. And while all the experiences relayed in the story are Lisa Velez’s true memories, when I would go to her and say, ‘Hey, would it be all right if I kind of put this little twist on it?’ or, ‘Can I give it this little type of nuance?,’ she would say, ‘Absolutely, yes. That’s great. Anything you want to do, just do it.’ ”
Borlenghi says that he took “the honor of playing a real person and hopefully doing it justice” seriously. “On Can You Feel The Beat, I really had to kind of remind myself sometimes, ‘Hey, let’s not be too over the top.’ I mean, yes, it’s dramatic, but it’s all based on Lisa’s memories and [Velez’s best friend] Toni’s memories, so we’ve got to give them truth, but, you know, ‘Let’s not make him 100 percent irredeemable, with no redeeming value.’ I am sure his surviving family will be interested in how the story is told, and I hope they walk away saying, ‘Okay, he didn’t totally wreck Dad,’ or, ‘He didn’t totally wreck his memory.’ ”
Getting to collaborate with the actual people who lived out the story told in the biopic was a particular treat for Borlenghi. “It was really cool to work with the real Lisa, and with Jearnest [Corchado], who plays Lisa in the film, but Lisa and Toni were kind of reliving the things that they went through as they were watching the monitors [during filming], as we were watching Jearnest play Lisa going through chemo treatments and all the things that Lisa and Toni had to go through in their journey, and the life that Toni had to overcome, growing up in the projects surrounded by drugs and violence, and both of these women having a dream and being able to realize those dreams and still, to this day, being best friends. That was really powerful.”
He was also impressed by Empire alum Bre-Z (ex-Freda Gatz), who plays the role of Toni. “She was just awesome! A couple of times, I had to wonder, ‘Wait, does she hate me in real life, too?’ Getting to work with such a cool group of people like that, you can’t ask for anything more.”
Except, perhaps, his wife’s seal of approval. “I actually showed my wife the trailer and she was like, ‘That looks good!’ ” the actor reports with a chuckle. “The last thing that my wife saw that she really liked that I’ve done was The Bobby DeBarge Story. We went to the premiere and when we walked out, my wife said, ‘You know what? That’s my favorite thing that you’ve ever done.’ And I said, ‘You used to watch me on All My Children [laughs]!’ But my wife made sure to schedule this Saturday for movie night for us to watch this, because this is another one of those movies that she thinks she’s gonna like watching me in. I’m kind of on the fence sometimes about seeming myself [on screen], but I am really curious to see how this film comes out and if it ends up playing as powerfully as I imagine it will.”
Also coming up soon for the actor is the sixth and final season of Cobra Kai, which drops on Netflix on February 13. Throughout the series’ run, Borlenghi has played the fan-favorite supporting role of Lyle, aka The Pawnshop Guy. “I do appear somewhere in these final five episodes,” he grins. “But I can’t give away any details.”
Check out the trailer for Can You Feel The Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story below.
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