Matty Cardarople Talks ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events,’ His First Roles

Actor Matty Cardarople is a familiar face to viewers of the Netflix original series, A Series of Unfortunate Events. As the Henchperson of Indeterminate Gender, he portrays one of the more unique characters in the storybook adventure of murderous actors, suspicious fires and tenacious orphans.

While he’s a fast riser in the world of TV and film, his entire career stems back to one faithful Little League tryout that didn’t go the way he hoped.

“Before I went to the movie, I had Little League tryouts for baseball, and I didn’t make the team and was devastated,” Cardarople told PopCulture.com. “My parents took me out to see Ace Ventura, which cheered me up… I never laughed so hard in my life. I was like, ‘Man, this guy is my hero,’ and I wanted to do what he does.”

From there Cardarople had caught the film bug, but he didn’t quite know how to pursue the interest as a career. After high school, he embarked on a weird, fun year of travelling. He backpacked through New Zealand, studied dolphins in Hawaii, and even lived in an Arizona biodome.

Following that journey, Cardarople’s desire to work in the film industry still persisted, and he enrolled at the Los Angeles-based New York Film Academy. He went on to work on several short films, which says helped light the spark for him to act.

Around this time, he got his first big break when he became the personal assistant to Luke Wilson.

“I traveled around with Luke for a couple of years and learned the ropes,” Cardarople said. “I got used to what it was like being on set. He also helped put me in a film with Jessica Simpson called Blonde Ambition. His brother, Owen [Wilson], got me an audition for Drillbit Taylor. They were generous and super cool for doing that.”

From there he stayed busy with acting gigs.

He’s popped up in films like Jurassic World and Dumb and Dumber To, as well as numerous TV comedies including New Girl, Scrubs, Comedy Bang! Bang! and Selfie.

It was when Netflix put out the casting call for their adaptation of Lemony Snicket’s beloved children’s book series that Cardarople landed his biggest role so far.

He brings a perfect blend of humor and oddity to his role in Count Olaf’s band of actors, but he revealed that there was originally a different villain role that he wanted to sink his teeth into.

“Before I went in for the audition, I re-watched A Series of Unfortunate Events with Jim Carey to get a feel of what the style was like,” he said. “I originally auditioned for Hook-Handed Man, so I wore a brown suit and dressed like him. Of course, I didn’t have hooks or anything. Then I got another callback for a different role, Henchperson of Indeterminate Gender (also known as Orlando).

He described his first day on set as surreal, and says the joy of sharing the screen with revered actors like Neil Patrick Harris is like a dream come true.

“It’s like going to your first day of school. You’re excited. You’re nervous,” he said. “It really is surreal because you watch these actors as a kid, and it’s like, ‘How did I get here?’ Anything is possible when your dreams can come true.”

Cardarople is set to return for ASoUE season two, which he describes as hilarious and very unfortunate.

The run of success is not stopping there as he landed roles in two of 2017’s most revered comedies, The Big Sick and Logan Lucky. He also recently portrayed Mikey, a lovable space cadet and friend, in the Sundance selection The 4th, a role that allowed him to work with close friend Andre Hyland.

Next up for Cardarople are several ventures of his own creation. He’s writing a pilot, publishing a book of poetry titled Space Cadet and working on a short film written, directed and starring himself.

Despite his star still rising, he’s already looking back and realizing how far he’s come, especially when compared to that kid who didn’t make the Little League team.

“My first dream as a kid before I wanted to act was to be a pitcher for the Red Sox. But then I got to do acting, and I love to make people laugh,” he said. “I remember the director of Drillbit Taylor said to me, ‘Welcome to the big leagues, kid.’ So I guess, in a sense, I didn’t make it into the Little League, but I did make it into ‘the big league,’ which is better than the Little League. Everything came full circle for me then.”

Make sure to check out Matt on Twitter and Instagram.