Arts Huberman lands film role as executed Nazi
Arts NHS grad is shot by Leonardo DiCaprio
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER
As a rule, mothers are not happy when their sons are gunned down, but the situation was quite different for Valeri Osley, mother of 2006 Nantucket High School graduate Matthew Huberman.

"He called me and said 'I was just shot by Leonardo DiCaprio. Can you believe it?'," said Osley, talking with pride about the part her son earned in a major Hollywood film to be released next year.

Matthew Huberman is currently a sophomore at UMass/Dartmouth as a math major and is vice-president of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth Theatre Company. In early February, Huberman tagged along with friends who were going to open call auditions at Boston University for extras to fill roles in "Ashecliffe," a movie being released in 2009 about the end of WWII based on the book "Shutter Island" and being directed by Martin Scorcese. Stars include Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Kingsley and Mark Ruffalo. Huberman was just there for moral support and had no intention of joining the competition. After a few "Aw, c'mon," prodings, he gave in and auditioned successfully for the part of a German Nazi.

"I got dragged into it and they all got angry that they didn't get parts, so they're all resentful that they brought me," Huberman said jokingly about his friends.

While "Ashecliffe" does not represent Huberman's first time as an actor, it is certainly his most elaborate role. At Nantucket High, in 2006 he played Charlie Brown in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," and in 2005 portrayed the character named Forbright in "Cash on Delivery."

The story of "Ashecliffe"revolves around U.S. Marshalls called in to investigate the disappearance of a seriously disturbed patient from an asylum for the criminally insane off the coast of Massachusetts. DiCaprio plays one of the marshalls, and during the investigation he experiences flashbacks of when he was an American soldier during the Nazi's surrender at the close of WWII. The surrenders at the German death camps caused the U.S. soldiers so much anguish at the sight of the prisoners' fates that they began executing the German military. Huberman happened to be positioned directly across from DiCaprio when the movie executions took place.

"I've never been shot at with a gun before. They were blank bullets, but loud, so they gave us ear plugs," said Huberman.

The movie began filming at the beginning of this month at a Taunton, Mass. location that was a convenient 30-minute drive for Huberman to reach, but an experience unlike any other he has had.

"It's definitely one of the wierdest things I've ever done," he said, talking of the elaborate sets designed for even the briefest of shots including his scene in a death camp, which lasts just five minutes. Because that scene was to be in dull weather, when the sun came out the crew used two giant cranes to move in huge black canvases and block the bright light. "The detail was ridiculous."

Fortunately, Huberman's filming only lasted three days, so the movie did not conflict with his studies or rehearsals for the university play he is in called "The Laramie Project." This also has a dark theme based on an actual experience. The Techtonic Theater Project went from New York City to Laramie, Wy., to conduct more than 200 interviews with townspeople that enabled the theater company to create a story line coinciding with the true 1998 abduction of a young gay man, Matthew Sheppard, from a Laramie bar by two men posing as homosexuals.

The men took Sheppard to an isolated location, tied him to a fence, beat him to within an inch of his life, then stole his wallet and shoes and left him to die. Though Sheppard was found alive about 18 hours later and hospitalized, he died from his injuries six days later. Huberman plays the theater project manager as well as Sheppard's father, Dennis.

"It's a very, very serious show," said Huberman, noting that the university is running it from April 24 to 27 during Gay Pride Week and a speaker from the Matthew Sheppard Foundation will present a talk. "A lot of it is very, very heavy."

Huberman enjoyed acting so much in high school he wanted to continue at college, and besides his current play was Mr. Van Daan in the UMass 2007 performance of "Diary of Anne Frank" and assisted with producing the university's versions of the musicals "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" and "Moby Dick."

In addition, for the past two semesters Huberman has been involved with his college's "Star Search" program inviting high school students to participate in programs such as cooking, yoga and theater groups, with the latter offering instruction about film making, script writing and performance expression.

Though Huberman does like being in plays, and now movies, he still wants to become a math teacher and hopes to somehow combine the two interests.

"It's a wierd combo, I know," he said. I