Mattea Conforti has always loved performing and being on stage. Starting out as a competitive dancer, she never thought she’d be singing and acting. Now, look at her! At 14-years-old she has already starred on Broadway, became a Disney Princess, and now stars in the AMC hit show NOS4A2 as the delightfully creepy Millie Manx.
“I really went into this business for dancing roles and to perform because that’s what I love to do,” said Mattea, who at nine-years-old, heard about a casting call for Broadway’s Matilda and went into the audition hoping to get an ensemble role. “Six months after that, they called me back and they said that I booked the lead which was crazy at the time because we never thought that I had that ability to sing in a Broadway show. I mean, I never sang in any vocal productions or anything like that but in a Broadway show just going from dancing to singing automatically it’s just a crazy change.”
From that moment, Mattea’s career took off! After Matilda, she came back to the stage to appear in Sunday in the Park with George and star in Frozen as Young Anna. Off-stage, Mattea voiced Young Elsa in Disney’s Frozen 2 and appeared as Elisa Marie in the STARZ series Power.
“They’re (stage, voice and TV acting) all just so different that you can’t really compare them because when you go from live theater, you get one shot to convey a message to the audience whereas when you’re in film, you get a bunch of chances to do it but there’s more chances to get into character and to fix your mistakes. In voice acting, it’s different because the audience can’t see your face, they can’t see any facial features that you may be trying to convey to them. They’re just all just so different that I can’t really say which one I like the most, I like them all.”
Mattea goes from playing cute and innocent Disney Princesses to playing Millie Manx.
“Millie Manx is Charlie Manx’s daughter. She is a demon in the show. She loves her father so much and she’ll love him unconditionally throughout the whole entire show and all she wants to do is be loyal to him and to stay with him. This season, you’re going to see a lot more of her as she takes you on adventures which will keep the viewer guessing about what Millie Manx will do next,” said Mattea adding that the process of turning into Millie is a lot different than turning into Princess Anna. “It’s very different. The makeup for Frozen was like a lot of sparkles, a lot of cute blush and for Millie Manx it’s all veins, blood, gory teeth and a messier wig. It’s a very different transition but it’s a very fun transition to go through.”
Mattea says her favorite part of filming season one was scissors for the drifter.
“I think my favorite part of filming season one was when we first got to do scissors for the drifter. That was really my first gory, intense scene that I’ve really ever done. And just to see how much work goes into those scenes, and then to see it on the big screen, it’s crazy to think that you were involved in that because you never realize how much work goes into that.”
Speaking of games, Mattea says we’ll be introduced to more twisted games the children of Christmasland play.
“This season, you’re gonna see a lot more games…Kids in the real world, their fun and games are playing tag, hide and seek, that’s how they find joy. In Christmasland, these kids think of games where it’s a lot more intense, and it’s something that they can enjoy, but other people think is so wrong and so cruel, but they find it so much fun.”
One thing Mattea teased was whether we will get to see how Christmasland came to be.”Maybe we will, maybe we won’t.” She did say we’ll get to see her and Zachary Quinto
“This season you will see a lot more scenes with me and Zach interacting more and you’ll see our relationship over the course in Christmasland, you’ll see how that builds, and it will become a lot more intense.”
Mattea said she really enjoyed working with Quinto both on and off-screen.
“He’s a very fun actor to work with; he’s truly very professional. He can be serious when he needs to be, but he definitely knows how to get into character, and he knows how to put everyone in good moods. He knows how to include the cast and the crew all together. He actually brings his dog, Skunk, to set a bunch. It’s really cute to see him, and we get to play with him offset, which is really fun… When they would call cut and we had a bit of a break in between scenes, we would talk about my schoolwork and I’d be like, ‘Oh, I don’t really want to do school today,’ but he would encourage and be like, ‘Oh, this book is amazing I’ve read it before.’ He’ll tell me what it’s all about for my English classes, we’ll just talk about, like books and stuff behind the scenes.”
NOS4A2 season 2 premieres this Sunday at 10 p.m. on AMC.
