Michael's Interview from his July 2013 BLACK BOOK Magazine Cover Spread

WHEN THE CHAMELEON FINALLY FINDS HIS TRUE COLOR

by Evelyn Barton

From movies to music...single life to single father...drama to comedy...brooding loner to smitten boyfriend. Michael Reese Meyers wants the world to know he is a changed man. Happier, more confident, comfortable in his own skin. Responsible. Stable. And yes, in love! While on tour with his band Chants of Reign in Europe, during their London stop, Meyers attended the London premiere of Man of Steel as well as sat down for a brief but in depth interview with Britain's Blackbook magazine to let us inside the life of Hollywood's most talked about rebel and why, for once, it feels good to be him.

Michael is all smiles today. He cannot stop goofing around or joking with his bandmates. His energy and spirits are up. He is upbeat, joyful, and optimistic. His bandmates, two of which (rapper Al Sheridan of Irish roots and DJ James Blaine who hails from right here in London) who have known him since 2009, say he's always like this. Others who have met Meyers have said different. We asked around town for actors and directors who have worked with the three time Academy Award nominee and each person (all who asked to remain nameless) gives a different account of Meyers' true persona. One actress who shot a film with him early in his career called him "mysterious and kind of scary". Another who worked with him more recently said "he's really funny around a group at times but also a bit of a loner. I don't think he's a very happy person deep down". One director who worked with him in 2008 referred to Meyers as "a firecracker of anger and sweetness all mixed into one". A co-star from one of his earliest films had probably the most interesting description of all. He said "Mike is the type of guy who wants to be incredibly close to you from the moment he meets you. If he senses you don't want the same thing, he turns on you." Perhaps the fact that no one has the same definition of who he is helps cement his reputation as...well, the "Chameleon".

Today though, he is in a wonderful mood. The reason becomes all the more apparent when new girlfriend Nadia Milan walks into the room to give Meyers some coffee he has been waiting for. Suddenly his energy shifts. He becomes more calm and timid. He and Nadia have an intriguing way of communicating. They stand very close to each other, close enough to be kissing, and whisper to each other as he gently rubs her mid section. She stares into his eyes deeply. He is clearly smitten. She has a motherly way about her and Meyers melts in her presence. When the interview officially begins, she is all Michael wants to talk about. "Nadia is the reason for everything I do now. She's amazing. Her vibe, her energy is so calming. So zen. It really relaxes me when she's around. I need that" he says. He goes on to reveal how they met and her adventurous past. "She was an extra on the set of Moneyball, in the scene where I first meet Olga's character. She approached me between takes at one point and struck up a conversation. I was instantly in awe of her beauty and how elegant and intelligent she was. She just had this energy about her. So poised and sophisticated." Nadia is of Russian descent. Born and raised in Moscow, an only child, to a billionaire father and mother. Her father is one of the richest land developers in the world. Meyers felt an immediate connection. "She has been through so much and we bonded over that. I mean, this is a woman who was a supermodel and TV show host in Russia for many years, from the time she was a teen, then got into an arranged marriage at 19, developed a full blown cocaine addiction by 21 and took it upon herself to get help. She went to a hypnotherapist to help her stop and it worked. She fell in love with that process and that world so much she decided to become a counselor herself and learned hypnotherapy. She worked as a healer for many years. She began reading all the teachings of the great philosophers. She traveled the world. Worked as a photographer. Worked with charity organizations feeding the poor in Africa. She worked in a soup kitchen for the sick and homeless in Virginia for a whole summer. She was a fashion photographer in Paris for a few years. She became a palm reader in London. She has lived all over. In fact that was her day job while she was on Moneyball. She did that during the week and did acting auditions on weekends. She is really a strange, unique and magical person."

I asked Michael to briefly reveal what happened between him and Scarlett Johansson. He laughed and said "You know, it's one of those things. One of those weird yet wonderful things. We just decided we work better as friends. We've hung out a bunch but decided, let's stop flirting and really go there. Let's go out to eat. A real date, you know? So, we went on a date, had a great time, made each other laugh. At the end of the night we hugged, I think I kissed her on the cheek. Said goodbye. The next day I texted her and said, 'nope felt no chemistry, no spark' and she goes 'yea I felt nothing too'. Then we go, 'alright, I guess we'll just be friends then'. Haha! I mean how often does that happen? Two people who are physically attracted to each other, get along, but just agree there isn't that extra special something to make you want to fall for someone? And I don't even know what it was that was missing. She's an amazing girl. But not at one point did I ever say to myself 'I could fall in love with this girl'. Maybe too much time had passed. I don't know. I really can't put my finger on it...(pauses)...I don't want to say she was too cheerful. But I don't know. Other than Kristen Bell I've never been with a girl who was that visibly happy all the time. And maybe it just didn't feel real, I don't know. Not that she's fake, but, I never felt like she fully let me in. It was like going out for drinks with your boss or co-worker. Everything was just surface. It never got deep or personal. I always look for that moment on a date where the smiles go away and you share something real and that moment never came. And you can't force it to happen. I said some deep stuff. Personal stuff. Just to see if she'd open up as well. She kind of just smiled and went 'that's outrageous, people are outrageous'. Then she changed the subject."

Nadia spoke to me for a few moments before the interview began and I could instantly tell she is a very spiritual person. Not religiously though. Every other word out her mouth is "light" or "shadow" or "dimension" or "centered" or "spirit". She brings everything she sees, hears, thinks, or experiences back to some sort of message or meaning that will enlighten one's soul. She is an incredibly deep thinker and Meyers says that is one of his favorite things about her. "She is very good friends with Deepak Chopra" Meyers adds. Nadia met the now world famous Indian holistic health/New Age guru while doing missionary work in Costa Rica back in 2010. "She gives me a quote from him daily, and it always blows my mind how helpful it is" Meyers says. I ask if she always speaks about "Chakra's" and "energies" and he laughs. "Yes. Yes that is really how she speaks, all the time. At first it took some getting used to let me tell you. I thought she was crazy at first but then I realized she really believes in this stuff and not only that, but it works. At dinner I told her about some night terrors I had experienced in the past and she said she had them too and we did some sort of meditation thing, right there at the table. She got rid of them. I haven't had them since. It's powerful stuff. I am becoming a believer." The pair became serious the night of his 29th birthday party and she is accompanying the band throughout their tour. "She is very familiar with Europe obviously so she is showing us all the sites" Meyers explains. He says if things go well, they plan to move in together once the tour ends and they return to Los Angeles in the fall.


Michael's life and perspective on his life (and career) has changed greatly over the past year. He once "thought acting was his be all and end all" but now sees it as a job. A job he enjoys but something he can live without. He looks to music to truly express himself. "Chants of Reign is my real mark on the world. That's my poetry. My characters I play are fictional and sure the performances can be celebrated, awarded and remembered, but it's my music that is really gonna touch people and change them" he says. Their first album "These Empty Streets and the Lonely Heart That Still Beats" was "meant to be the most depressing album of all time" and a soundtrack to all who were "depressed, suicidal, in the darkest place imaginable". Sonically it's sound was influenced by Irish folk rock, indie rock, and cinematech (short for Cinematic Techno). Their second album "The Epic Mysterious Journey Between Melancholy and Eutopia" was an "experimental album" which had array of sounds and genres, ranging in everything from dance to pop to rap to R and B to trance to rock to even reggae. The emotional theme of the record is getting over a breakup or losing someone and how do you move on with your life and the long ups and downs of that grieving process. Those first two albums were heavily influenced obviously by Meyers' tumultuous romance and (as he calls it) "unhealthy obsession" with Mel Morley. Their new third album "iLL Escape" is more of a party album, with sounds ranging from electronic trance/dance music to techno/dubstep/hip hop as well. "It started out as an instrumental relaxing album, with trance tracks like Sunday In Paris and Rumors and Ghosts In The Hall as well as tracks like Enter The Void which is an homage to all those scratching tracks DJ Hahn does on every Linkin Park album" explains Meyers. "But we started to get beats from other producers of all these half finished songs, like the first single Invincible, came to us as an incomplete track that was meant for Far East Movement. It had the hook and bridge but no verses. Al, James and I heard it and went 'this could be something if we add words'. And a few more tracks like that started to come in, so we went 'okay we will have 3 or 4 or 5 at most songs with lyrics, but it's mostly an instrumental album'. But more and more came along, like really good songs, tracks that could be hit singles, and we just went 'fuck it, let's make this a full on album with tons of instrumentals bridging the tracks together'. And that's what we did". The album includes songs produced by the likes of Bassment Jaxx, DeadMau5, Skrillex, Chillaxx Movement, SnoCap Mishap (they produced the band's most famous song, "Love Misled"), and the band's own DJ James Blaine.


Meyers says the band isn't done yet and already have extensive plans for their fourth and fifth albums as well. "The next album is gonna be an R and B sexy romantic album with slight touches of funk and jazz in there as well" Meyers explains. "The type of CD you put on when you are in your apartment at night, lighting candles, and cooking dinner for that special someone who is about to come over and set the mood. Baby making music. Sexy R and B. A mix of new school, old school, Lite FM jazz, just everything classy and sexy. It will make you wanna drink wine and fall in love, haha". The band has already begun writing for the new record and are scheduled to work with Noah "40" Shebib, Daft Punk, and Timbaland as producers, amongst many others. They will record this album in Los Angeles in the fall of 2013 for a 2014 release. They also have loose ideas for where to go on a fifth record. "We know it will be an all reggae album" Meyers reveals as he nods his head in excitement. "The radio HAS to play us, we're a mainstream band and when was the last time you turned on top 40 and heard a catchy reggae tune? Never. Not since the late 90's/early 2000's when people like Shaggy or Sean Paul had hits and were getting a ton of airplay. We want to bring that back. There's a whole world of reggae fans, people who love 311, 420, Bob Marley, Wayne Wonder, that do not get to hear their stuff in the mainstream and our fifth album will be for them. We're inspired by all those artists and we actually hope and plan to work with some of 311 and 420's producers on that one. It will be good to get back to live instrumentation too because both iLL Escape and our R and B album Funky Fresh Flow don't really have that. It's more beats on those albums. Less guitar and stuff. So it will be good to get back to that."


He admits Nadia is a huge influence on his newfound happiness, positivity, and the romantic angle the band will now take on the next coming two albums which "will celebrate being in love and being in a happy relationship". A band that once prided themselves on how depressing their music could be. "Yea the next album will be all about love, that's the mood I'm in now. I had a funny feeling going into 2012 I was going to find someone, I don't know why, and I did." He is also excited about newfound fatherhood. Up and coming actress Natalia Martinez (strangely with the same NM initials of Nadia Milan) gave birth to their son London Cologne Swagger on May 31st of this year. The child's unique name caught the world's attention but to Meyers, what really stands about his little baby boy is how he has changed Meyers' view on life. "I now know why I'm here. I look into his eyes and I see a fresh start. He can hopefully learn from all my mistakes and make me a better person. A better father and example for him and the person I want him to be" he says. Meyers hopes that by the end of the year once he and Nadia are settled in LA that the three of them can become their own little family. "Natalia is cool with that and she has the main custody of him until that happens. She's been great. I'm really excited to be a dad and to have that life. I've always dreamed of it. The partying, drugs, sex. That wasn't me having fun. That was me numbing the pain of not having the type of love I've always dreamed of having since I was a kid. Now it looks like I will finally have it. I am beyond excited. I just feel like pinching myself that it has finally happened."


Also in the fall Meyers will be filming his first comedy, a filmed called "Ted", written and directed by Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane. Meyers will co-star with Amy Adams in the raunchy comedy as a Boston couple dealing with an unusual roommate, a talking, pot smoking, hooker loving teddy bear. "The concept just seemed so simple yet so genius. Like a rated R Alf movie, haha" says Meyers. Meyers will play a pot smoking slacker who can't hold a job and would rather get high and play video games with his foul mouthed talking bear than grow up. Adams is the reasonable business-minded girlfriend who wants him to get rid of his furry friend and finally be a man. Meyers is nervous but excited to do his first comedy. "I asked Seth to bring Amy in because she is an amazing actress, she did a great Boston accent in The Fighter, I wanted to work with her so bad on that but we had no scenes together. Off the set she was the sweetest and just a breath of fresh air in this industry. Such a down to Earth normal person. Also, she never has done comedy before so I wouldn't feel like I was being paired  up with someone whose done this before and then feel like I am slowing them down. We will be learning this comedy thing together."


Meyers said recently he may take a brief break from acting after Ted is done filming and he seems eager to begin the next phase of his life. "I'm not the same person I was when I started acting. I'm such a different guy than the actor you saw in those early movies. I want to be passionate about acting again and I hope I will be again one day but right now, what makes me most happy, is looking in Nadia's eyes when I say something that makes her laugh. I like seeing fans sing along to songs me and my bandmates wrote. I like hearing my son laugh. I want to live life. Real life. Not on a movie set. I just need some time to relax and get away and come back fresh and recharged. I been through so much and been hurting for long. This feeling I get when I'm with Nadia is heavenly. I just want to bask in it for as long as I can. I've been dreaming of it since I was a little boy. I don't feel the same. Food tastes better. Music sounds better. I have never felt like this before. It's hard to explain. I have found a new purpose and pretending to cry or scream at someone isn't it."

When the interview wraps up Michael and his bandmates go in the hallway to sign some autographs for fans who are from their VIP online fanclub. Michael and Nadia are the last to leave and hold hands as they walk out the door. I overhear some of their conversation. She rubs his head and neck, particularly the part where his Mel tattoo was. Apparently she has no idea who Mel was or what was once inked there because she curiously asks him ' Michael, what happened right here?' referring to his laser removal scars which are still visible. Meyers says softly, "Nothing, it was something that happened a long time ago. It's ok now". Nadia kisses it softly, as they walk out, together. Holding hands.