Although some of the questions were the basics that most fans and followers have heard many times, Matt appeared eager to steer the interview in a different direction and opened up on some subjects that he doesn't normally speak about.
He talks about the divorce rumors, stating he's there to say they sleep in the same bedroom and in enjoy their relationship. He does say the other day Amy was talking about an episode and told him she wished he didn't say that about her, and he said the same thing to Amy about what she said about him.
Matt discusses dwarfism and genetics. He's asked about the kids and girlfriends. What we hear is actually consistent to what Matt says about Jeremy (one of the top inquiries about Jeremy always centers around "Jeremy Roloff girlfriend". Matt says Jeremy always has a circle of girls surrounding him, but doesn't have one girlfriend and he enjoys "playing the field". That's pretty much exactly what friends around Hillsboro tell us as well. He says Zach sneaks out on dates once in a while (we can confirm that too!) but Zach is very private about those types of things. Molly doesn't have a boyfriend and Jacob has Taylor, but they like to call her a friend instead of a "girlfriend" because of their age (13).
Matt sings Molly's praises. In general, Molly has always been the least criticized, most praised out of all the Roloffs, although obviously there are always going to be some differing voices, but as a general rule that's true for fan perception. Matt explains that Molly is the rock of the family and has a great relationship with every person in the family. She's the peacemaker.
Matt took the opportunity to talk about this DUI trial when he was asked if he is driving again. Matt discusses the details and says he was never in the bar, he only pulled into the parking lot to drop off one of the show's producers at the time. He's stating that the officer saw him pull out of the parking lot of the bar, saw him driving erratically because he was driving Amy's vehicle and wasn't used to it, and the officer assumed Matt had been in the bar drinking. Matt is now saying that he would have given any test the officer wanted, but the officer said he couldn't give Matt the Breathalyzer without taking him down to the station and Matt refused. Matt also says the case against him fell apart because Matt wanted the officer to give him another test - like a walking test, but the officer said he couldn't because of Matt's dwarfism. Viewers will remember that from the episode in the courtroom. Personally, I have to say that seems ridiculous. Can anyone really imagine Matt with his physical disability, being expected to walk in a straight line? But hey, that's why people have lawyers and that's the legal system -- protocols have to be followed. So the officer screwed up by not forcing Matt to perform some sort of physical walking test.
Moving on, in other subjects, Matt states he's in negotiations to write a cute children's book.
He also mentions wanting to write a behind the scenes "tell-all" type book about the show and what was real and wasn't real.
Personally, the Roloff that I would be most interested in reading a tell-all book would be from Zach, because I believe he is the most honest. As mentioned in our article about the show-ending, people connected to the show insist the things Matt said in the announcement and his subsequent remarks on Facebook were "spin".
http://smashinginterviews.com/interviews/actors/matt-roloff-interview-skydive-starts-sixth-and-final-season-of-little-people-big-world
Matt also talks about criticism on the blogs. Since there are many fans comments expressing themselves over the years on our site, I'm going to take this chance to defend their point of view and take issue with something Matt said in the interview:
Personally, I feel when Matt talks about fan criticism, he is intentionally overly simplistic about what and why they are saying whatever they are saying. For example Matt cites a criticism of Jeremy and has this to say:
"It’s hard to read critical things about the kids, particularly when they’re not true. I think what happens on blogs and forums is that they’ll say, “Jeremy’s sitting on the couch so he must be lazy.” He may have been sitting on the couch in that scene but then they’d say, “He must always be sitting on the couch.” They hypothesize based on a few snippets and most of the time they have one or two facts straight making their final hypothesis completely wrong. That’s frustrating."
As mentioned, I think when Matt responds to fan criticism, he intentionally simplifies it to make fans out to be dumb dumbs. Yes, in general, I would say that a common criticism of Jeremy among some fans is that he's either "lazy" or a "slacker", etc. However, let's really examine that. It's not because as Matt says, fans saw Jeremy sitting on the couch, for one 15 second scene and the dumb fans assume because they saw it for 15 seconds that all Jeremy ever does is sit on the couch. That is being very simplistic.
The criticism of Jeremy in that regard goes more like this: People see a 20 year old with a lot of opportunity dropped into his lap. He lives at home for reasons that are not financial. He hasn't had a real employer that wasn't his Dad and wasn't TLC/Discovery where he is paid to goof around. He doesn't do any extra promoting or interacting with fans as part of his role on the television show. Through the fall last year, he was attending community college 5 minutes from home only 2 of the 7 day week. Unlike Zach, who has his job at an indoor soccer facility where he coaches soccer and answers to a boss, and unlike some of his friends, Jeremy has no extra job. It's play, play, play. With a lot of the same friends he's been playing with since he was 4 years old. Fans heard Amy on the show saying the same thing -- "One thing I do know is they have a lot of free time on their hands." As mentioned in another item, according to some of Jeremy's friends around Hillsboro, this is what Jeremy has been up to the last few months:
*Several hikes across Oregon and Washington.
*Campfires. Almost every night
*Video games
*Exploring caves and tunnels across Oregon
*Fugitive games -- for the record, the friend says Jeremy is a "legendary" fugitive player with "mad skillz"
*Camping for the show for Father's day with Matt, brothers, and buds
*More tunnel exploring at 2am
*Seaside Beach trip
*Early mornings to watch the World Cup at Mad Greek Deli and then at the owners home for the big final games.
*Took his BMW into get restored
*Flew to Florida for Oasis of the Seas cruise -- biggest ship in the world.
*To Nashville for most of the week to party at the LPA con.
*To Pendleton to visit Mueller for a couple of days.
*Wake boarding and surfing.
*Call up his friends and hang out with the ones who aren't working. Day after day. Night after night.
*Visited Mueller again this time with Zach, Molly and a few friends.
*Sleeping on top of the Tower of Terror with friends
*Day trip to take pictures of sunrise
*Purchased another classic vehicle to play around with.
A person can disagree that that is lazy or suggest that all 20 year olds in Jeremy's position would opt for the same life style of non-stop fun and play if given the choice, but that's why there is the perception of Jeremy as being lazy or a slacker -- because it's hard-pressed to find differences between a typical day for 20 year old Jeremy and a typical day for 13 year old Jacob (with the exception of perhaps some non-PG activities ;-))
So that's why Jeremy was gets called a lazy 20 year old by some people -- because they see someone that plays constantly without responsibility. It's not because dumb fans saw Jeremy sitting on the couch for a 15 second scene and thought he never moves off of there.
You can read the full interview with Matt Roloff here:
http://smashinginterviews.com/interviews/actors/matt-roloff-interview-skydive-starts-sixth-and-final-season-of-little-people-big-world
