This post was written by Hatchet staff writer Morgan Baskin]

“If you blink you, might miss me,” acting and movement adjunct professor Matthew Wilson said of his cameo in the third episode of the second season of “House of Cards.”

Wilson plays a senator from Georgia, opposite Kevin Spacey’s Frank Underwood, who presides over the Senate during a Republican-led attempt to stall the vote on an important bill. Wilson said he’s read for more than 50 roles since the inception of the show – including speechwriters, White House staffers and CIA operatives – before finally being cast in the second season, which was released Friday on Netflix.

Wilson, who has a master’s degree from the Shakespeare Theater Company’s Academy for Classical Acting at GW, said he sent in costume measurements and received the script before he even found out who he would play. So how’d he prepare for the role? By watching “House of Cards” of course.

“We only filmed for two days in the Annapolis State House, and they really streamlined that whole subplot quite a bit,” Wilson said of his time filming in early June 2013. “It was pretty straightforward because of how truncated it got, so I just wanted to get a sense of the show’s style.”

Once he arrived at the set, Wilson said Spacey was “very business-like.” He was particularly impressed by director David Fincher’s (“Fight Club,” “The Social Network”) attention to detail. The costume designer, for example, gets intricate notes ranging from how to knot the senators’ ties to which fabric to use for curtains in the White House.

“I think you can see from the top down how careful and well-constructed the whole piece is,” Wilson said.

Up next for Wilson: work on a production of “Titus Andronicus” with his theater company, which will open this May.

He is teaching an introduction to acting class this semester.