The story is unbelievable.

A young man travels to New York in 2010 with his mom and aunt. They do a little shopping and take in a show -- "Looped," be exact. Midway through the show, the young man decides he's going to get backstage somehow, someway, to meet the show's star, Valerie Harper.

He does. The young man is nervous, talking 90 miles an hour, and Harper stops him.

"What do you do?" she asks.

The young man rattles off details of his life -- none of them include acting. The young man is not an actor.

"Oh, you've missed it," Valerie Harper says.

This is where the story gets wild.

"I can't believe this is my story," said Matthew Bonneau, a 25-year-old Pineville native. "I thought I would be the very last person this would happen to."

Until the encounter with Harper, Bonneau's life was on track.

He graduated from Bolton High School in 2004. He went on to receive a biology degree from Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss. At the time of the encounter, he was a year and a half into a three-year master's program in psychology at Loyola University in New Orleans.

"(Harper) told me I look like an actor," Bonneau said. "I've never acted. Well, OK, I did one play in the fifth grade at my church. It was a Christmas program. I was one of the wise men."

Most people in the world would have been flattered. They would have gone home and told all their friends. They would have tucked it away in the folds of their memory. They would have completed their master's degree program.

Not Bonneau.

He returned to New Orleans, promptly turned in his school books and began searching for auditions and casting calls.

Thus far, it's worked.

"My parents were about ready to have me committed," Bonneau joked. "When I told my mom, she said, 'Hmmmm ... well, you are dramatic. And then she realized that I actually took Valerie Harper's comment seriously. But, since I've gotten work, I'm lucky and blessed to have supportive parents."

Bonneau's first role was that of Seth in the feature film "One Desperate Day." It's a psychological thriller set in Louisiana. Then came "The Waters: Phase One," set in post-Katrina New Orleans. Also a psychological thriller.

He had a spot in the HBO series "Treme." He also had a role in Jonathan Silverman's "National Lampoon's Another Dirty Movie." His biggest film to date is "Battleship," starring Liam Neeson and directed by Peter Berg. "One Desperate Day" and "Battleship" are set to premiere in 2012.

"Looking back, I always wanted to be a doctor, the president and a firefighter all at the same time," Bonneau said. "Obviously I couldn't do that. Maybe acting was always what I was meant to do."

And just because he quit the master's program doesn't mean he's lost regard for his academic career.

"The credits are still there," he said. "They're good. They're valid. And, the part of the degree that I've studied for has been really helpful. A traditional actor typically has a degree in theater. Psychology allows me to get into a character's mind, to understand why they're behaving the way they behave, why their mannerisms are the way they are."

While much of Bonneau's work has been in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, he has worked in New York and Los Angeles, where he's worked with acting coaches.

"I want to pursue this acting thing," Bonneau said. "Whenever I'm on set, there's a real art aspect to it that's very fulfilling. If you see an actor that really makes you question your beliefs, then that's a great actor. I just want to make people think."

Though he's yet to encounter Harper in person again, he sent her a letter asking for advice. Harper responded.

"She wrote back on March 7, 2011, and said her advice to me is to keep on acting where you are," Bonneau said. "To be honest, I have no idea what (Harper) saw (the night they met). But, it was a life-changing experience. I can't believe this is my story, but it can happen."