90210’s Ryan Eggold Talks Baby Mama Drama, Naomi, Teddy and More Season 3 Stuff

When the second season of 90210 concluded, Ryan Matthews was pretty much a hot mess.

Wasted and out of control with a DUI charge most likely looming, his portrayer, Ryan Eggold tells GIVE ME MY REMOTE that season 3 will bring back the responsible Ryan of old, thanks in large part to his impending fatherhood.

What else did Eggold have to say about the new year?

Read on…

Ryan Matthews…the season finale was certainly not his finest hour.
Ryan Eggold: Not in the best condition, no.

Does the season pick up with him in a similarly bad situation?
RE: Yeah, the first shot of Ryan in season three is just him face down in a pile of booze, bottles everywhere and it’s just bad. No, I’m kidding. [Laughs] That would be awesome. You know he’s having a baby with Jen, so that actually put a lot of things in perspective for him. He’s cleaned up his act, realized he can’t be drinking and driving and all of these things. I think he’s excited to be a father. All of these things. He’s gone back to his good-hearted, well-minded self.

And how is his relationship with Jen going? They’ve been so on-off. I mean, she’s insane.
RE: [Laughs] Yeah. It’s basically a continuation, but they are stuck in this situation together of having a baby they didn’t plan for, that wasn’t a conscious decision. And they really don’t get along very well. It’s pretty funny the arguments and the conversations [they’re having] — they can’t agree on anything.

Which will be difficult since they have to raise a kid together.
RE: Exactly. I think Ryan really sees the potential in Jen — he sees she has a good heart and is a good person, but she’s just so Jen sometimes.

Jen can certainly be a troublemaker.
RE: Indeed. And there’s just so much — Ryan’s kind of a meat and potatoes guy and simple and more grounded and she’s like…I don’t know what…

Fancy horses–
RE: Champagne and fancy boats. It’s different.

Is Ryan viewing her as a potential love interest again now that she’s his baby mama? Or has that door shut for good in his mind?
RE: No, absolutely. I think he’s given up emotionally on hoping for that, but I think he does hope for that and would like that, and would like that relationship to work. It’s just difficult and doesn’t seem to be working, but in a perfect world [they’d be together].

So is Ryan putting other romantic relationships on hold in the hopes that he might get back to that place with Jen?
RE: He’s all about the baby and he’s all about Jen. He’s kind of left past romances and is sort of trying to make this work. I don’t think he would admit to Jen that he is hoping for that or he wants that to work, but he certainly is.

To be fair, if he admitted that to Jen, that would give her the upper hand and the last thing either of them would want is for him to give her that upper hand willingly. Jen would want to fight for that control.
RE: Right. Yes. Absolutely. She is a dominating woman. She would never let Ryan make the first move or take charge.

Of course she wouldn’t. And how about Ryan’s relationship with Naomi? In the season finale, it seemed like he might have seen that she was about to be attacked by her teacher. Does he remember this, despite the fact that he was wasted?
RE: It does come to play. She has some really interesting stuff dealing with what happened and what it means. And you know, Ryan and Naomi become a little bit closer because he’s having a baby with her sister, which also reignites [the Naomi-Jen] relationship because they haven’t really been the best of sisters. But then it does come into play that Ryan saw that [attack] and becomes a part of [Naomi’s] struggle with that.

So does Ryan have a clear memory of what he witnessed?
RE: [Laughs] I wouldn’t call it a clear memory. I don’t think he’s entirely sure of it, but eventually, he’s 99.9% sure of what he saw.

Okay, cool. And we know that one of Ryan’s other students, Teddy, will soon be coming out of the closet. Has Ryan been made aware of that yet?
RE: He hasn’t found out yet, but there is a situation where I have to break something up between him and another character and it has to do with that. So I’m kind of on the outskirts of that, but not directly involved.

Would you like to see Ryan get more involved with that storyline? Obviously, there should be a fine line with how involved a teacher is with their students, but that line has always been blurred with Ryan…
RE: Exactly. I’m not sure. I would…I think it’s a great storyline for Trevor [Donovan (Teddy)] and the character and I think Ryan as a teacher at West Bev has, by the nature of being there, been involved in these kids lives. I would like to see him as a part of that, but I don’t know in what way he would. You know, maybe if he needs someone to confide in, something like that. Ryan is that earnest character for things like that — if you need a confidant, or if you need advice or things like that. When he’s not drunk as a skunk, that is.

Exactly. He’s almost the perfect go-between  for these kids, because he’s younger than their parents, but he’s also a little bit older than these students, so he’s almost filling that older brother role.
RE: He’s a safe choice because he’s young enough to understand and not judge and not criticize and not discipline, but he’s old enough to have experienced more and have something to say about it.

And two of the kids did just lose their father on the show — Annie and Dixon no longer have Harry, which also means Ryan will have a new principal to deal with at work. Has that caused any complications?
RE: It hasn’t affected my job so much. We have a new principal coming in and in terms of school and the job, it’s pretty much the same for Ryan, though Rob [Estes] was the best and Harry was great. I won’t get to play anymore basketball with Harry, which I’m bummed about. It was fun to have that comrade at the school.

It was definitely fun to watch you guys together. Before I let you go, is there anything you want to tease for the fans about the season premiere?
RE: Monday’s episode is very exciting. Honestly, it’s like anything that could happen, happens. It’s like planes crashing and worlds exploding and it seriously is pretty fun. Characters are falling in love, running into things. All sorts of great stuff.

Are you looking forward to 90210 season 3?

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