Hello,

I’m an actor based out of Los Angeles, CA. Ever since I began acting professionally I have dreamed of playing legendary actor James Stewart in a biopic about his incredible life.

For the last three years I have been working toward make this dream a reality.

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My name is Matt Christian

I'm an actor, writer and improviser in Los Angeles California and for 3 years I have been working toward playing legendary actor James Stewart in a biopic about his incredible life.

Ever since I started acting back in 2015 I’ve felt this pull to play Jimmy Stewart and tell his story - which is interesting because at the time, I hadn't seen any of his movies except for two; It's a Wonderful Life and The Shop Around the Corner. As time went on and I began to train as an actor and book jobs, the impulse just wouldn't go away, so I started studying his movies and even visited the Jimmy Stewart Museum in his hometown of Indiana Pennsylvania to try and understand this man I knew so little about and why I felt such a strong connection to him.

I ended up moving to Los Angeles two years later to further train and pursue my acting career, but the desire to portray Jimmy never left.

Then came the pandemic which shut down Hollywood. No one was making anything and my career, like many others, was at a standstill.

Cut to 2022 on a flight back to LA from Cleveland, I happened to have a biography of Jimmy in my bag that I pulled out to read on the plane. Within the first chapter, my jaw hit the floor. I was blown away by the similarities between Jimmy's lived experience and my own. It was on that flight that I made the decision to begin the work of preparing to play Jimmy, since roles of that size are rarely given to an actor unless they have already proven themselves capable.

I began to study his films and history extensively and with a new intensity, as well as his voice, mannerisms, vocal placements and physicality. I especially spent long amounts of time honing and perfecting his voice because everyone does a Jimmy Stewart impression, but I wanted to make sure to portray his voice with equal parts accuracy and groundedness. I didn't want to sound like a Jimmy Stewart impression, I wanted to sound like a real person who happened to speak with the familiar drawl we all know and love, but in a believable and non-distracting way. I planned on putting together a short screen test in which I recreated scenes from It's a Wonderful Life, The Shop Around the Corner and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to showcase my abilities.

After several months, I began to think of how to go about finding a script of Jimmy's story and, even though I didn't think I was a strong enough writer to write one myself, I didn't think I had any other options. I started storyboarding several different portions of Jimmy's life to potentially try my hand at writing about while doing research on whether any scripts already existed out there.

I ended up finding a self-published stage play titled "Jimmy Stewart Goes to Hollywood" by the wonderful Mahonri Stewart (no relation to the actor himself) that told Jimmy's story. I ordered it immediately and when it arrived I read in the forward that this play had originally been a screenplay until Mahonri retooled the script for the stage.

I tracked down Mahonri and told him about what I was working on. I asked if he felt comfortable sharing his script and potentially working together to try and get his script off the ground with myself playing Jimmy. He wrote back and said he loved the screen test idea, but wasn't able to send his script since there were some filmmakers who were potentially interested in it. What he could do however, is send them my footage when I had it filmed. I thanked him and got right back to work. 

I figured if I actually had a shot at getting my work seen by a team of producers interested in telling Jimmy's story, I should put my best foot forward with the footage I delivered. I ended up recreating the three scenes from Jimmy's movies (and added the original footage for side by side comparison), along with two radio spots, three interviews and a World War II PSA. The final screen test came in at over 13 minutes.

At this point I continued to feel that this project wasn't done with me, but I didn't know what direction to take next. So I continued to trust, study and hone until February of 2024 when I read in Deadline that a biopic about Jimmy's life was actually and officially in the works. I was so excited!

I pulled a few strings and was able to connect with several members of the crew producing the movie and sent them the footage that I had put together. Their response was incredibly positive and I am so grateful to them for taking the time to watch what I had been working on for so many years!

Today I am continuing to recreate footage from the archives of Jimmy's life and only grow more and more fascinated by the man that he was and his tremendous level of talent.

I am putting it out there that playing Jimmy would be the honor of a lifetime and I truly believe that there is not another person in Hollywood who could play him with the level of authenticity, accuracy, love and admiration that I bring to the table.

We could all use a little more Jimmy Stewart in our world today. I hope this screen test serves as an audition for myself, a tribute to Jimmy and a reminder for all of us of everything he stood for.