Niall Matter on His Fantasy Role in Hallmark Movies & Mysteries' "Rip in Time"

Although he's a recognizable face on both Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, fans of actor Niall Matter (pictured above) will see him as never before in his latest project, Rip in Time, co-starring Torrey DeVitto. The film is a clever and witty re-imagining of the famed Rip Van Winkle fable (about a man who awakens from a 200-year slumber to find himself in the future), which required Matter to undergo a serious, and hairy, transformation, rendering him almost unrecognizable (see photo below). "Honestly, it was that transformation [for the film's beginning] that really helped me form this character," he explained during an exclusive interview with MediaVillage. "Once [I saw myself] transformed into that person, with the hair and the beard, then standing up for the first time and looking in the mirror with all that and the wardrobe, it instantly took me back to his time period and made falling into the character very easy.