Actually, Keeslar's passion for theater was born a few years earlier, in his hometown of Adrian, Mich. His parents—Ann Ferguson, 43, a sales rep for an automotive-battery company, and Fred Keeslar, 47, a public health officer—divorced when he was 5, and he and his brother Nathan, now 20, shuttled between mother and father. A community theater group became Matt's second home. "What's great about being in the theater," he says, "is it's a family who can share what they are thinking and feeling." In 1991 he won a scholarship to New York City's Juilliard School and landed parts in 1994's Quiz Show and Renaissance Man. He dropped out to film Country but remains with his school girlfriend, dance major Brandi Norton, 21. They just moved into a one-bedroom Manhattan apartment but have no wedding plans. "We do have a cat together, though," she says.
During Country's filming, says Keeslar, cast members "couldn't stop talking about all the brilliant Irish actors seen for my part." To develop his brogue, he says, "I watched In the Name of the Father a dozen times." That dedication won over his Irish colleagues, as did his inventiveness in a scene where he had to stand in a cold lake for hours. Only his chest showed, so he stuck a hot-water bottle down his pants. "They loved it," he says. "They called it the Irish condom."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
