Matt Barr of ‘Walker: Independence’ talks movies, cowboys and favorite Fort Worth places
Playing a cowboy on screen is a dream come true for Dallas-native and actor Matt Barr who leads The CW television show “Walker: Independence”.
Barr was born in Allen and grew up in Fairview, son to former Southern Methodist University football coach Mike Barr and portrait artist DeDe Barr. Matt Barr has been a working actor for about 20 years now, appearing in “One Tree Hill”, “Sleepy Hollow” and “Valor”, among other projects.
He was also an executive producer on the Fort Worth story of “12 Might Orphans” which hit movie theaters in 2021.
Now, Barr is starring on The CW show “Walker: Independence,” a prequel show to the network’s “Walker,” which itself is a reboot of the original Chuck Norris led show, “Walker, Texas Ranger.” Barr played the lovable outlaw “Hoyt Rawlins” in four episodes of “Walker” before (spoiler alert) he met his demise.
But fear not, new life was breathed into the character this fall with the launch of the late-1800s set “Walker: Independence,” with Barr playing a descendant of “Hoyt Rawlins.” The Star-Telegram caught up with Barr at a USA Film Festival screening of the third episode of “Walker: Independence” at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas Thursday night.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Star-Telegram: Thanks for being here. The first few episodes of “Walker: Independence” were a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to watching the third episode tonight. So before we get in the show, you’re from Texas, so I wanted to start with that. How often do you come back to town? And what are some of the spots that you hit when you’re back in the DFW area?
Matt Barr: I probably come every couple months or a few months maybe, because my whole extended family is here. What’s funny is a lot of people have kind of migrated to Fort Worth where my grandparents were from. So my favorite restaurant [in Fort Worth] is called The Original [Mexican Eats Cafe] on Camp Bowie. Margaritas and queso with the family is like my favorite thing in the world to do. Something about like being here for the holidays and going to see a movie at AMC over there at the mall or coming to the Angelika. I always think about the movie theaters I went to growing up that were like sanctuaries to me.
S-T: How often would you go to movies back in the day? Every weekend?
Barr: Every Friday we would go because there used to be like 8 movies come out [every weekend]. It was just trying to sneak into the rated R movie, you know, some like Wesley Snipes action movie. But yeah, my dad would always take me.
S-T: You were talking earlier about “12 Mighty Orphans”, which came out last year. You were working on that for a long time, right?
Barr: We read the book right when it came out (in 2007) and then optioned the rights to it like immediately from Jim Dent. And I don’t know how we swung that, but we sort of like talked our way into getting them and then over the first year ended up buying the rights and just shopped it around town for like a decade. It sort of had a lot of different lives and it got close to being made. We had meetings with Tom Hanks and Disney and there was kind of a lot of close calls.
But it was a great film school for me in a way in terms of producing, because I was always just trained as an actor. It was a hard journey, but it was like one of the most satisfying things ever to see that movie finally get made. It’s something I’m probably the most proud. I’m just a proud Texan and it’s a great Texas story.
S-T: So what about that kind of story made you want to go behind the camera instead of in front of it?
Barr: I think I was always an audience member. I’m a movie lover first, so I think of myself as just a fan. I just love the movies and I love storytelling, I think that’s why I’m an actor. I remember whenever I read a good story, I just wanted to be a part of telling it. This had all the elements that I loved. It was football, it was Fort Worth and it was an underdog story. To me that was the cocktail of what I love about movies.
S-T: Do you have plans to produce more projects?
Barr: Absolutely. With my producing partner Ryan Ross we’ve been developing a kind of adventure survival story for a while. But yeah, we’re gonna do a lot of stuff over the years.
S-T: Last year you had the four episode run on the original “Walker” show. What has it been like to go from a supporting character on that show to now being one of the leads on “Walker: Independence”?
Barr: When I was doing “Walker,” you’re playing the Mercutio to the Romeo you sort of have a lot of free space to play. There’s not really a boundary around your sandbox. Jared Padalecki was really the rock there. So I got to be pretty fearless and really, I tried to bring that same kind of fearless recklessness to this version of “Hoyt” in “Independence”.
You definitely have to know your compasses and have a beginning, middle and end. Because this is gonna be a long form story and a very fleshed out character. So I think I just had to sort of build a framework and have a code in which this guy was gonna live by, because it has to be consistent for the audience. They’re definitely kindred spirits, those two guys.
S-T: When you first heard about this prequel show, was it something that you jumped at to do?
Barr: When we were doing that run, just something with this character clicked right away. You hear that cheesy phrase, “I was born to play this guy.” But it’s sort of this mutual kind of collaboration with the writers and producers and me, like, we should keep running with this. It felt like we kind of hit some type of lightning in a bottle. They wrote him so well and so I was just game to explore it more. I loved when they had the idea. Let’s go back 150 years in time and sort of explore that late 1800s Texas. I was like, hell yeah, coming from a Texas boy who loves westerns and was like, “Where do I sign up?”
S-T: Are you a fan of westerns? Is that something that you gravitate towards?
Barr: I love period projects in general. But I don’t know if it was like growing up around cowboy culture in Texas. I think of my family, like boots and cowboy hats and the smell of leather or something about that, it’s always been really romantic and strangely comfortable to me. We would go to the rodeo at the stockyards on Saturdays as a kid and I just remember that like being really exciting. Always wanting to dream of being a cowboy.
So I always loved westerns. I liked that there’s the sort of resurgence happening right now, because I think for what seems like a couple decades there’s a couple generations actually, that haven’t really been introduced to this genre. So what our show is, I think, is somewhat of a remix of a western. It’s kind of bringing it into this century and you have all those great tropes and what to me is the DNA of a western, but it’s sort of done for 2022. I kind of liked that balance actually.
S-T: It seems like it’s a revenge kind of tale with the Walker family, but there’s also a diverse cast and diverse town in Independence.
Barr: I like that it’s organically diverse. What was cool about those melting pot towns was like that’s what America is built on. America is a country of immigrants. That’s really one of my favorite qualities of of our show.
S-T: I kind of describe the “Hoyt Rawlins” character, maybe a little like a cowboy “Han Solo”. He shows up, he has a bunch of charisma, he does his thing.
Barr: When they first pitched the character, they said he’s a hill country “Han Solo.” And I went, “Done, let’s go.” But yeah, he is and he’s an outlaw. But, like “Han Solo,” you always sensed that kind of morality in him. There was a nobility and at the end of the day, Han knew what was right and wrong, even when you break the rules. Those characters have always been my favorite.
S-T: What’s it feel like to bring this show back to your hometown and to the Angelika to show this thing that you’re really proud of?
Barr: I can’t even describe how special this is being a Dallas boy, growing up coming to the Angelika. Growing up [in] this place was like a sanctuary to me. It’s something that’s pretty special as my first ever time on a set was on “Walker, Texas Ranger.” I was an extra as a 12-year-old. So to be here in Dallas doing the prequel to “Walker, Texas Ranger,” you know, talk about coming full circle. This is like a Texas kid living his dreams, you know? If only Chuck can be here, right? [Laughs]
S-T: You remember what episode it was?
Barr: You know what, here, I’ll tell you where to find it. Erik Estrada guest starred from “Chips.” Okay, I remember that because he was hitting on my mom the whole time. So we can go back and find it. I don’t know what season that was. (Editor’s note: Erik Estrada guest starred on season 8 episode 6 of “Walker, Texas Ranger” airing on Oct. 30, 1999.)
S-T: How did you get involved in that show?
Barr: A family friend had a ranch out like in Wylie or somewhere and they filmed at the ranch. So we actually drove out there and got access. I was able to meet Chuck Norris and some of the actors and he was so nice to tell me just a little bit about the business of acting. I got to see the magic of the set and you kind of never forget your first. I still think about how in awe I was of the whole process. It was like, you know, 200 people making the show happen.
S-T: And like you said, now you’re doing it on the prequel to the original show.
Barr: [Laughs] I know. What dreams may come.
“Walker: Independence” airs at 8 p.m. on Thursday’s on The CW or streams for free next day on The CW app.
