The silence of Atlanta's famed Rose Garden bothered him. He wasn't sure why. He asked "Is it always this quiet here?" "Yes" we replied. But Michael, like most "troubled souls" as many who know him will describe him, is not very comfortable with silence. They say the last thing someone with demons wants to deal with is their own thoughts. Maybe this is why Michael hates to sleep. "Three or four hours at most" he answers when asked how much sleep he usually gets at night. Although lately his lack of rest may be more due to his hectic schedule than any sort of emotional suffering. "I been working non stop lately" he says. "Editing this film (Look At Me Now, which debuts Friday here at South by Southwest), working on my British accent for my next film, learning Swedish for the film after that, I'm working on a book, I'm shooting a web series for this anti-suicide charity where I meet with real kids and give them advice, it's just been alot".
While he remains pretty tight lipped about his upcoming films (He says "I don't want to spoil anything and knowing myself if I start talking about them I won't be able to stop myself") he is more than willing to open up about his book and his effort to help young people deal with their issues. "In interviews when asked what I'd do if I wasn't acting, I've always said I'd be some sort of counselor for troubled kids and teens, and this is sort of in a way me being able to finally get to do that and I can't tell you how fulfilling it is, to make a difference in kids' lives." Meyers is referring to his web series he is filming where he meets with real male teens around the country and gives them tips on how to interact with girls and gain self confidence. He posts these sessions on TWLOHA.com (the official website for To Write Love On Her Arms, a suicide prevention foundation) as well as YouTube. He became involved in the charity in 2009 when he saw one of the shirts in a Hot Topic at a mall and accidentally thought they were a rock band he hadn't heard of. When he found out who they were and what their cause was, he found himself compelled to become personally involved in his first ever charity. "I didn't just want to throw money at it like most celebs do. I wanted to do something. What motivated me to do THIS (web series) was letters guys sent me and emails about wanting to kill themselves over a girl. I can't tell you how hard that hit me. Because I can relate to that. I teach these kids the tools to approach girls and find self esteem. It's important. I hear haters and critics calling me a Pick Up Artist. No. I'm not trying to get them laid. I'm trying to get them to find self worth and part of that is respecting and loving yourself and learning how to socialize. It could be, more than anything I ever do, the most important thing I do with my fame." On his upcoming book, which he says will be "part autobiography, part memoir of experiences he's been through, part inspirational advice book about relationships, love, addiction, depression, love and life".. "I sat for weeks trying to brainstorm some catchy clever title for the book until I realized, look let me just be simple and call it what it is. It's a book about changing your life, your outlook on the problems and demons we all face. So let me just call it "How Do I Change My Life".
This isn't the first time Michael has directed. He shot a short film while he was filming The Best Tears (a show he refuses to talk about anymore. "It feels like a lifetime ago, like I had the worst college freshman year ever and it was caught on TV" he confesses) and has shot several music videos for bands he loves such as Linkin Park, True Hollywood Story, and Secrets and Sunsets. The lead singer of Secrets and Sunsets is Alley Vendetta. She is the star of Look At Me Now. "I met her at the Galleria mall in L.A." recalls Meyers. "She was this little firecracker of energy and she just had something special about her. We hit it off right away and I saw her as perfect for the role. I thought she'd say no but I asked her anyway and she was totally down to do it. They were recording the album at night and we'd shoot during the day. All the while her parents still made her go to school. She worked herself silly but we got it done." Meyers calls her performance "meta acting" since he felt the non experienced actress used her own raw emotions and instincts for the scenes. Her story is of a teen runaway who falls into the porn industry and cannot escape. Meyers got the idea for the film (which he also wrote himself) while he was in Paris in the Spring of 2009 shooting Taken. "I met alot of girls in the sex industry with that story and then I came back to the states and did some research and found out about porn stars such as Shelley Lubban and Jersey Jaxin who all had the same story. I became obsessed and realized, I NEED to tell this story".
The other half of the story is about a bisexual male college tennis star who chooses to take an experimental drug that supresses the sex drive in order to not deal with his inner demons. Michael casted Days of Our Lives actor Chandler Massey for the role for one simple reason: "He IS that character, whether he wants to admit it or not" says Michael with a sly smile. The film has been saddled with an NC-17 rating due to "graphic violence, graphic sex and rape scenes, profanity, drug use, and perverse sexual scenes and tones" and will be released in select theaters on March 4. Meyers refused to edit the film to an R since "what they wanted me to cut would've totally taken the punch out of the film thus making it all pointless. It would've been like taking the crucifiction scene out of The Passion of the Christ. The film is what it is and I wouldn't be proud of it if I released it any other way". The buzz has been extremely positive but Meyers isn't nervous OR overly confident, just..."concerned". "I hope they recognize it's not controversial for the sake of being controversial. I hope they see the message and what we're trying to say about the porn industry, sexuality, and how this country, as far as we've come, can force people to hide who they truly are because it's not acceptable". He also says the film's other main theme is how a lack of love in the home can distort a child's perception of intimacy and sex and admits he knows this from personal experience. "Look, I'm not trying to sit here and say I had the worst childhood. I didn't. We lived in a mansion in Beverly Hills. We went on trips around the world. Spent time at country clubs. Led a very privileged life. But at the same time, all the money in the world can't erase the memories of arguing, violence, abuse, dysfunction, lies, and all the drama that comes with growing up in a home where people were just playing roles but not really wanting to be there. I was more of a tax writeoff than a child. My grandmother and my older brother raised me more than my parents did. They worked alot. And when they weren't working they took trips. They tried their best but their main focus was making money, which is more a commentary on our society than them. I remember being 9 or 10 and sneaking into my parents' bedroom because that was the only TV in the house that had cable and the dirty channels and my dad caught me watching porn and he acted like it was no big deal. He told my mom, 'He has to learn sometime'. I mean, if that's not fucked up, I don't know what is?"
Michael is a notorious Hollywood ladies man (He's dated or hooked up with several big names including Kristen Bell, Megan Fox, the late Julia Fonda, American Idol contestant Mandi Sutton, porn star Sasha Grey, Twilight star and his Best Tears/Inception co-star Mel Morley, Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester, MTV The Hills reality star Audrina Patridge, Naomi De La Fuente, and most recently Mila Kunis) who has been very forthcoming with his love for (and addiction to) sex. He is not shy about the fact that he was exposed to it at a very young age and that those experiences have shaped the man he has become today in a huge way. "It always seemed like no big deal to me. Sex, nudity. To me it was just like shaking someone's hand. It took me a long time, far too long, to learn that sex was something between two people in a committed serious relationship and that it wasn't okay to just touch a girl on the butt if she is a stranger or just a friend. Common sense things. It really screwed me up. A normal guy understands that when a girl doesn't want to sleep with you it's nothing personal, you just aren't her type. I didn't get that. I got extremely upset and depressed (when I got rejected). I had watched so much porn by the time I was 12 or 13 I became so warped that I thought it was normal for people to just meet and fuck, like it was nothing. I was messed up inside". Michael hopes Look At Me Now (a title he says he chose since it symbolizes the reaction he thinks the characters would have if they looked in the mirror at who they've become after the choices they've made) can help wash away his sexual demons. "I just want to be normal and happy and in a loving relationship. There's a saying: Most men want to make love to a million women. A real man makes love to one woman a million ways. I want to find that one special girl and treat her like a queen, but it's hard these days finding someone worthy of that love. I been through alot but I know I got alot of love to give. The type of love I feel I've never been given by so many girls." He doesn't expect the film to be a huge box office hit, and by this summer, he will be known as the new James Bond, but for now, he is content with the job of re-inventing his Hollywood image. "Your actions define who you are in this industry. I just have this feeling that the time has come for me to make a change and become an example for others that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I want to be the one they look at and say 'He made it through, he fought his demons, I can too'."
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