Soap Alum Matt Borlenghi Lands Pivotal Role In New Lifetime Biopic

Soap opera fans know Matt Borlenghi’s work all too well. He had an incredible run on All My Children (AMC) as Brian Bodine in the 1990s; played the Bold and the Beautiful’s (B&B) Ziggy Deadmarsh in 2002; and was also on Days of Our Lives (DOOL) in 2008, playing Salem’s Mayor, Anthony Marino. Now, the actor has landed a key part in the Lifetime biopic ‘Can You Feel The Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story’.

How Soap Alum Matt Borlenghi Scored The Lifetime Role

Brolenghi plays Barry Conner, a record executive in the movie, and was invited to audition by Leslie M. Greene, the film’s casting director.

The actor recently told Soap Opera Digest (SOD) that he had worked with Leslie before on some other projects and she had told him, “You know, I don’t know if this will work or not, but what do you think of this idea?”

As she filled him in on the details of the biopic, which highlights the rise to fame of Lisa Velez and her band, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, he remembered songs like ‘All Cried Out’ and ‘Can You Feel The Beat’.

Still, when he found out it was going to be a Lifetime film, he wasn’t immediately “keen” on the idea. As he notes, “I mean, how can you not think of their standard fare like My Ex Poisoned My Dog or something like that [laughs]?”

With that said, the actor’s mind was swayed when he realized that the biopic was part of a Lifetime series on women in music, which also included Gloria Gaynor and Mary J. Blige.

The flick series is titled, “Voices of a Lifetime”, and that’s when Brolenghi got very interested. He auditioned for the role, went through the network approval process, and the rest is history!

Soap Alum Matt Borlenghi Talks Lifetime Character, Barry Conner

Borlenghi goes on to tell SOD all about his ‘Can You Feel The Beat’ character, Barry Conner. As he states, Barry is the record label executive who launched Lisa and the band’s career, introducing them to the world. Lisa was only 15 years old when her career began to unfold.

The actor notes that he plays Barry, “ … very manipulative and two-faced, and I was given room to change certain language and make it more the way I felt like he would talk, you know? No one calls someone ‘Darling,’ like, ‘Oh, Darling, you’re so fantastic.’ That doesn’t ring true for me. So, they gave me free rein [with his dialogue] — but at the same time I had to be kind of careful with it because it’s based on a real guy.”

Borlenghi is a busy bee, not only with this Lifetime biopic but also participating in Season 6 (the final season) of Cobra Kai, which is slated to appear on Netflix on February 13.

The actor plays fan-favorite Lyle, aka The Pawnshop Guy. Borlenghi tells SOD that he appears ‘somewhere’ in the final five shows but can’t give away any more information.

Lifetime’s ‘Can You Feel The Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story’ is set to premiere on Saturday, February 1 at 8 p.m. ET.

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