Everyone remembers Netflix's Love Is Blind and its ability to pull us out of the beginning phases of quarantine cabin fever. Matt Barnett and Amber Pike were the couple who refused to edit themselves and allowed their voices solely led them to love.
Barnett spoke exclusively with TheThings from his construction site, a grounded move on his part. He spoke about his future plans with Amber and how a trying time turned into one of the most important chapters of his life.
Love Waits For No One
From the minute you were cast, how did your life play out afterward? How did everyone around you take that?
"I didn't really know that I was fully cast until probably two weeks before we filmed," he revealed; short notice for someone to prepare for a possible engagement, "I had two weeks to let me work know that I wasn't going to be there for a few weeks."
"Basically, I knew I was going to be away for two weeks or three weeks, depending (on) if I proceeded in the show. I think it was right after we got engaged, I was staying in a hotel locked down because Amber had a wedding."
Barnett didn't exactly know how events would unfold from there, but production allowed him to call his boss and say that he wouldn't return to work for another week.
In engineering, that had to have been stressful, especially considering the fact that he wasn't allowed to tell work why he took so much time off.
What did your family think of you doing the show?
The Atlanta engineer ensured that his family supports he and Amber's relationship despite its unconventional origins, "Every time I've talked to my mom about it before filming it was like, 'That's just who you are. I expected you to do something weird, crazy.'"
"I love my parents, they're both very supportive no matter what," he said, possibly to clear up viewers' misconceptions of his family's receptiveness to their quick-paced relationship, "I'm kind of lucky in that sense."
Barnett noted with a carefulness that his and the rest of the cast's success stories were lucky, considering the reasoning behind their show reaching the level of popularity that it did.
New Friends In And Out Of The Spotlight
Did any big celebrities follow you or publicly comment on the show?
Barnett chuckled at the thought of what has followed the unexpected obsession with Love Is Blind, "I think Kim Kardashian said something about it at one point and then Justin Bieber. Those are the two biggest ones that I remember that made comments that I noticed."
Before the seriousness of COVID set in, he and Amber received an A-list birthday party invitation from a fellow Netflix local.
"It wasn't Millie Bobby Brown, but someone Millie Bobby Brown knew reached out to me and Amber to see if we could come to her 16th birthday maybe. Then COVID happened so it got canceled."
He remained humble and not even a hint of bragging slipped from his anecdote. His excitement seemed to come from a place of disbelief.
"Then me and Amber want to go up to Vancouver at some point because somebody from 'The Flash' reached out and I was like I want to go see them!"
Regarding the rest of the cast and how they've reacted to their newfound platforms, we had to ask if that publicity has affected them.
Do you think anyone's changed? Do you think the fame got to anyone?
"I don't know honestly. One-on-one everybody's the same. I don't think so. I actually hang out with Mark more than anybody, we play video games together. Cameron and Lauren, I've seen them once together in the past year."
What's that like knowing you were a part of this crazy historical time?
"It's weird, honestly. I was at the gym and some guy came up to me and he was like, 'You saved me and my girlfriend's (or fiance's) relationship. We were fighting a lot during quarantine. We watched your show and it kind of brought us back together.'"
"It gave me goosebumps," Barnett reflected on the moments that drowned out negative comments, "I don't think of it like I'm impactful to anybody. I feel like a normal guy. It's strange to me."
Getting Back To Work & The Real World
A lot of reality TV stars, they become famous and end up quitting their daytime job. You still work, does Amber still work full-time?
"She works at a restaurant and a bar. She works a few days a week so ya, she works," he responded
His STEM background doesn't exactly mesh with the typical career path that fans would expect from other reality show personalities.
"I get annoyed with the sponsorship stuff," Barnett included his opinion on the sponsorship over-saturation on social media, "I'm not really a social media person. So, being on social media and posting stuff on social media it's like a job in itself. It's exhausting."
How do you balance a full-time job and then obviously you need to be on top of your social media?
"It's very difficult. Amber's more of a creative than I am. She's got that creative mindset I don't necessarily. She's better at social media but she doesn't like social media because (of) haters and stuff. People say negative stuff but I think she's kind of filtered through that."
He joked about their fun on TikTok, where their supporters can see their silly side. Talking about the video clip app added a moment of levity to Barnett's expression, rather than the business-focus mentality that other apps have embodied.
Plans After Lockdown
Where is the first place you guys are planning on going after this craziness is over?
At even the mention of travel, Barnett ensured that he and Amber would not embark on any of their awaiting adventures until the world opens back up with proper safety precautions.
"Right now we're talking about taking a road trip around the U.S. She's got family in Colorado, her uncle's in Colorado. We were going to go visit him. Maybe travel around some of the parks in that side of the country."
"We were talking about going to Greece," he continued, "In October but I don't want to risk it. I don't want to buy plane tickets to Greece and not be able to go."
Do you have any special projects in the works?
"You might start seeing our actual YouTube channel, some videos coming out. I'm not really good at editing videos and I'm not very good at being scripted, so YouTube's kind of hard. I'm much funnier when it's off the top of my head."
In terms of future kids, he slipped in a sly, "We're not not trying." Double negatives don't confuse us! If they have a baby in their future plans, they'll surely have the cutest mixture of Amber's outspoken felicity and Barnett's down-to-earth charm.