By Christopher Stipp

Archives? Right Here…

I thought it was the perfect opening.

It eventually came to me upon high, not unlike suddenly seeing the visage of Jesus on the burnt edges of a fudge-frosted Pop Tart, in that I thought my mind had subconciously fed me the brick that I was going to slam dunk on Greg Grunberg. Sure, it was a little risky because of the dated material on which the joke hinged on but he would get it even if no one else would. I gave thanks and praise and then, just moments before the interview, I had my wit popped like a thick balloon. 

Prior to all of this, though, when I was thinking of ways to approach talking about this show without having seen it, the quasi-serious promos for HEROES being my only guide, I didn’t really know the angle. I had never heard of Greg Grunberg before this interview, I didn’t have a clue he was ever on ALIAS as I never watched it, I knew that just being a dude negated me from being in the target audience for FELICITY but yet, as sweat poured off my head, the contents of his PR packet spilling on the gym floor as the exercise bicycle I was riding with nary a hand to keep me steady, with the exception of Greg’s steely 8×10 that I held in my mouth as I flipped through scads of clippings, photos and a recipe for a sweet looking brisket, I consumed a lot of press articles on the man in preparation for the interview. A shape took form in my head about what this man was all about and it was about that time that instead of worrying about how I was going to carry on a conversation with the man I hardly knew I had the hook.

I had the kind of funny that I wrote down on my mini legal pad and instantly felt it in my gut that it was going to be lead-off hitter of an opener. As well, I thought that this little nugget of merryment was going to set me apart, set my hip sensibilities apart from all the other quasi-journos who were going to write stories on this guy, and there was nothing left to do than let the joke take care of itself.

For those who don’t know much about Greg one of the more serious accents to his character, something that a lot of blowhardy celebrities partake in but forget about as soon as the last bottle of Brut has been popped, Greg devotes a good chunk of his free time and effort into trying make an honest difference in the world. Now, what made Greg’s efforts so grand and made me take notice of, something that not even Angelina and her plight to ostensibly export half the residents of Nambia into her home so she can adopt all of them, was that his ideas on how to get people involved in his work while creating the air that fund-raising could be an engaging activity felt new and genuine; there was also that one reason why it did feel so genuine

Greg has a ten year old boy that is dealing with pediatric epilepsy.

Beyond just feeling bad for his boy, Greg proactively went out and started stumping for this cause if for no other reason than to help his child, and others like him, get the kind of help they need. It would be easy to just dismiss Greg’s solo charity on the behalf of the Pediatric Epilepsy Project but when you see the fruits that have blossomed from his labor it is hard not to be impressed that he was able to get players like Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Sylvester Stallone and even Ringo Starr to help donate their own time as well in order to raise funds for a solid cause.

Beyond that, even, Greg created a movable feast of goodwill with the creation of a super-celeb travelling circus of rock n’ roll. The Band From TV, which you can also see here, is a fund-raiser on risers that is taking to the stage and, with the help of Hugh Laurie from HOUSE and even that Bob Guiney guy from THE BACHELOR, demolishing any pre-conception that The Bacon Brothers were the end-all be-all for famous people who think they can be rock n’ rollers too.

There is a lot that Greg lets me in on as we talk, some things are more personal than others, but even with that one funny moment I thought to myself on how to start things off I found my moment popped by the cruelist of all ironies: IMDB. Some days, from one to the next, you never quite know what or who is coming your way. With Greg, I had no clue what I was in for and, thankfully, he was gentle.

HEROES debuts Monday, September 25th

I’m surprised you’re up this early to do one of these things…

(Laughs) Oh, come on, early? I’ve got three boys. I’ve been up for four hours…unfortunately.

True. I’ve got two at home, myself.

Ah, girls or boys?

Two girls.

Ah, well, then we should hook ‘em up!

(Laughs) It’d be hard to set up a play date from over here in Phoenix. But, you know, it seems like the older they get the earlier they like to get up in the morning.

Yeah, I know. AND…my 10 year old. We don’t want to put him to sleep before he’s tired but he stays up so late sometimes, not so late as some friends of ours let their kids stay up as late as they want, like midnight, which I can’t imagine, but he’ll stay up until 9:30 or 10 but then still get up super early. And it doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t get it.

So…then you’ve been up for a while this morning.

Since 6. 6 a.m. as I am the chef in the house.

Ah, yeah, I actually read your recipe for your grandmother’s brisket when I was preparing for the interview this morning and, I have to admit, it made me real hungry.

Very nice! I’ve got to say…that brisket, my grandmother’s recipe, is literally the best thing because you cook it three times and by the third time it’s just falling apart. It’s really good.

And what a great segue into HEROES.

Yes…

You know, I’ll be straight up with you. I was getting ready for the interview, and I was going to be all funny-funny and glib by goofing on the idea that this show is the greatest looking superhero program that NBC has put out since MISFITS OF SCIENCE. I thought it was going to be witty, no one was going to get it, only to find out that the series’ writer, Tim Kring, also wrote for…MISFITS OF SCIENCE.

What?

Yeah. You honestly didn’t know?

No I didn’t know!

I, literally, started laughing to myself and wondered of all the things that could’ve 86’d the joke…

That’s hilarious!

He was a writer for MISFITS OF SCIENCE.

You know what’s crazy about that is that I never would’ve expected, I don’t think the network either, would’ve ever expected this kind of a show from Tim Kring. Ever. Because he’s…PROVIDENCE, CROSSING JORDAN, I think he had one more show left in his deal, one more pilot, and I think they were expecting a procedural drama, something with a strong female character, whatever, and then this thing comes out of him? Which, I couldn’t be happier but I didn’t know Tim from anything.

Really?

Nothing. I’ve never worked with him before, didn’t know his name and I didn’t even know Damon Lindelof had worked with him. I mean I guess I did realize that Damon came from CROSSING JORDAN but I didn’t put 2 and 2 together.

And when I read the script I was like, “Fuck, this really feels like something JJ wrote.”

Yeah it does…

Just because it is so character slanted…you care about these people…there’s so many that if you don’t care about one you’re going to care about another, that sort of thing. I just thought it was so well written. I had just gone in on STUDIO 60, which I also thought was incredibly well written, but I wasn’t as excited about that show, for me, as this.

I had also just done HOUSE so I worked with David Semel, who directed the HEROES pilot, and when I read this I called the network and I said, “This is what I want to do.” I was at the end of my deal and I had just done a pilot for them that didn’t fly…

Was that THE CATCH or GRAND UNION?

GRAND UNION. THE CATCH was at ABC with JJ.

Ok.

Yeah, HUGE bummer because everyone loved it, turned out really well and it just didn’t fit into the schedule. It was more of a throwback, to like ROCKFORD FILES, than it was…It seemed like it from the series’ premise.

Which I love but they really wanted something edgy, and they’re probably right, but, anyway, then we did GRAND UNION which was such a great experience because I LOVED doing a sitcom and that didn’t get picked up.

With NBC these last couple years I got caught…like the timing was wrong. I did this Jason Bateman show called THE JAKE EFFECT. We did seven episodes and Jeff Zucker at the time, rightfully so, these expensive, single camera, half-hour shows weren’t doing well so he said, “I can’t pick this up. I just can’t take a chance.”

So, I was like, “Great.”

Then I thought, “Let’s do a multi-cam.” It’s cheap and something really funny so I hooked up with these guys, [David] Israel and [Jim] O’Doherty, these writers that are just awesome. We did this great pilot but, now, half-hour multi-cams aren’t doing well unless there is a huge name like Lithgow or someone attached so they didn’t pick THAT up. And so, once again, I’m like, “Great.”

Then I had about a week left on my deal, I had already fulfilled my obligation to NBC, I know I’m boring you with some of these details…

No, no…

So, I didn’t have to do another pilot for them and this holding, slash, development deal they had with me and I was like, “Ok, I’ve done what I’ve supposed to do…” but I really…NBC gets me and I just love Kevin [Reilly], and I love Marc Hirschfeld, everyone over there on the production side, everyone’s great, and we totally get each other but I couldn’t find anything that I loved.

With STUDIO 60 I went in and I read for Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme and I think they already had ideas of people that they wanted because the cast is just unbelievable.

Huge.

Huge and they’re all amazing…and I don’t think I ever had a shot at that but at least I got to read for them and it was a great experience for me to go in for them.

Again, the script was great but I thought…Well, at least in the pilot the character I went in for…It would be developed and you’ve got to trust those guys that they’re going to make an incredible show which I think is going to happen.

Then, when I read HEROES, I was like, “Are you fucking kidding me? Where did this thing come from?”

Right.

But, I did not read a two hour. I only read one hour and the role I read was Milo’s [Ventimiglia] role, the role of Peter, and I read that and, of course, now, I would have never of cast myself. Now that Milo has done it and I’ve seen the pilot there is just no way it was for me but at the time, when you read the script, I go, “Oh, I could do that.”

But I called Semel the night before I was going to go in and read for them, he had just been attached to it, and I said, “David, I am so excited about this, man. It was fun working with you on HOUSE…” And he asked me what role I was reading for and I said Peter. And he was like, “Um, I’ve got to tell you, you are completely wrong for this. You’re not right for it at all.” And I being who I am I was like, “Ok, guess what, I am going to come in and just knock your socks off.”

So, I came in and I did it how I do it and Tim, I could just see him squirming in his seat, he had just this second hour of the pilot in his head that he was writing and this role of the cop that he immediately said, “Oh my God, this is my everyman. This is my guy.”

So, as I’m driving home from the audition, and I could tell that the audition went well, but it wasn’t like…something was up…as I’m driving home, someone called me and said, “You absolutely…Really showed Tim a way to explore that character that he wasn’t originally thinking and it’s this other character that you don’t know about.” And so they sent the script over and I read it and immediately is my favorite part and worked out perfectly.

It’s great. Absolutely great. Now it turns out that they didn’t do the two-hour pilot so that’s why I’m not in the pilot.

I was going to say…You’re not even in the pilot.

You know what…I wasn’t in the pilot for FELICITY, I was on that for years. I wasn’t in the pilot for ALIAS, I was on that for years. As soon as I did the pilot for LOST I was eaten within five minutes.

(Laughs)

So far, that’s the way it should happen.

You bring up a funny point. I know you played a part in LOST, the pilot. Now, with you and JJ being good friends I read that he initially was going to kill off Jack, Matthew Fox, by having him be consumed by the creature and that you were the one who kind of stepped in and said, “No, don’t do that…”

Yeah.

Has Matthew Fox ever sent you a Thank You note?

(Laughs)

Yeah. He’s given me several hugs and thanks. I think that everyone was in agreement but I was just one of the people…the straw that broke the camel’s back and put it over the top. I was like, “You’ve got to be kidding me. This is my favorite character. This is going to be the guy that I think is going to be everyone’s hero. Everyone’s gong to look up to him. He’s a doctor. You can’t kill him.”

And then when they decide to cast Matthew it was just a done deal. There’s no way.

Originally, it was Michael Keaton.

I didn’t know that.

Yeah, JJ talked to Michael Keaton but the problem is that you can’t let the critics and the advertisers be led down a path where they think it was going to be a Michael Keaton show. I mean, he’s unbelievable. Imagine Michael Keaton on an island like that, it would’ve been incredible. And then you kill him? In the pilot? And they buy advertising thinking…It’s a coup, but you just can’t break that rule. I don’t think you can lead people down that path but, having suggested that Jack live, JJ said, “Well, good. Then I’ll just kill you.”

(Laughs)

But that’s fine. JJ and I will work forever. It’s just that the timing is not right right now. I talk to him everyday…

And I read that. You two really do have a partnership, a kinship, and I have to wonder, because you two have known each other since you were little boys, did you see that potential growing up together? And please be honest because I would drop the hammer and throw old friends under the bus who I knew weren’t going to amount to anything…

Oh, absolutely! Are you kidding me?

I’ll break bad on any one of my old friends…

You get flashes of it. You got the feeling that this guy was really brilliant, has a great sense of humor. I have friends of mine that are actors and you could just see that when they were kids. That they were goofballs, they stood out, they always wanted the attention and they were smart.

But he, JJ, was always doing…we were doing special effects. We made movies when we were nine and ten and making prank phone calls. And he was always artistic, he’s incredible at sketching and clay and can mold a character and can sit down at the piano and play by ear. He’s just like a renaissance guy. He was one of those friends who was like, “Wow, I really want to be close to that guy.” And then, after an hour, you’re like, “I can’t live up to this! I’m inferior!” But he’s never made me feel that way. He was always just creative. I would never be able and compete with him, creatively, but I was right there with him. We were doing everything together. We were making movies when we were ten, and art things and science things…it was just a blast hanging out with him.

My parents joke…my dad was like, “Why didn’t I make him sign a management agreement when he was 8?”

(Laughs)

My dad LITERALLY says that. He’s like, “JJ, you signed a napkin…at the Schwartzenbaum bar mitzvah. Don’t you remember?”

(Laughs)

That’s the thing. This show HEROES kind of feels like a JJ production because it’s being compared to a program like LOST.

I think the comparisons, in my mind, if you really break it down, they don’t compare at all except for the international cast idea but I think what you can compare is the quality.

This genre is unique in that and when it’s good it is really good and that’s what this is. When you read the script it reads like someone who has a story they’ve been wanting to tell for their whole life. They’ve researched it, they know where these characters are headed, they know where they’re from, he has rules of what can and cannot happen and who the evil characters are, and that you can’t just get rid of them right away because they’re going to be around for a while…It’s all that great stuff that makes up this genre but where did this come from? With Tim.

He talks about he wasn’t a sci-fi geek, he wasn’t a huge fan of superheroes, he didn’t have comic books when he was a kid yet he writes THIS. So, what he’s done, and it’s really smart, is he’s brought in these guys like Tim Sale and Jeph Loeb, Greg Beeman and especially Jessie Alexander who came over with me. These guys are just fanatical about this genre. They’re so good at what they do. Michael Green. I mean, they are all incredible and so passionate about it.

When I sit down and talk to them about stuff that I get excited about I am talking on such a superficial level like I am going, “Oh, it’s so great when Matt does this thing with the.,.” and they’re just like, “Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, there’s a reason for that and it’s this and this and this and this.” And it’s just like, “Whoa.”

That writer’s room is…shit, it’s palpable how the energy is in there.

Really?

Yeah, they’re just all having so much fun. It’s like on a comedy where they’re throwing around jokes and they’re saying, “What about…” “Well, how about…” “Ha-ha-ha!” These guys keep topping themselves. And it’s not formulaic. That’s the other thing.

And I was going to bring that up regarding the writing. Is there a fear that the writing ever creeps too close to self-parody?

There is always that fear. We had that fear on ALIAS. We were always walking that line. But, no, not on this because you’re dealing with…this is much more of an escapist…you can really lose yourself in this show because you’re creating, not another world because all these characters are incredibly relatable, but certainly you have to take a leap immediately in watching the show because it’s superheroes and super abilities. Once you go with that, which I think everyone is going to go with it, the rules can be stretched.

So, in ALIAS, the frequent flier miles didn’t make sense on that show. We were flying all over the world…an hour here we were in Paris, an hour back, you know, it was crazy. This show, though, is so rooted in the reality that these characters are dealing with in their everyday lives. That’s what I love about my character and Ali’s character and Milo.

It’s like what would happen if, Chris, you woke up tomorrow morning, and suddenly you started to hear these voices in your head. That’s the way they’re writing it…is that you would get headaches and you wouldn’t be able to concentrate, it would affect your whole life. You would hear the honest thoughts of your wife and your co-workers and…that’s not a good thing a lot of times. At least for me, I don’t think you can find a more sympathetic…hopefully I’m playing it that way, it’s sort of the way I play things, it’s empowering and yet a really hard to deal with disability. On the empowering side, it’s really fun and you get a lot of cool stuff to deal with. It’s brutal at times with the stuff this character is going through but that’s what I love about it. It’s complicated.

Are you kind of the Jack/Matthew Fox character in this ensemble…

I am more of the Mulder and Scully because I’m a cop who gets roped into investigating just what the hell is going on.

And what’s smart about that is they’ve partnered me up with Clea DuVall from CARNIVALE. She’s an amazing actress and plays this FBI character who kind of recruits me because of my abilities. So, she’s tapped into exactly what’s going on and why all these people with these abilities are being hunted and what’s going on. Who’s after us, why are they after us, we’ve got to stop this killer, who is the killer and no one really understands or has taken the leap that this could be what it is like she has. So, when someone like myself proves to her that I have these abilities she wants to use me, partner with me to solve this.

So what’s great is the audience gets to figure out what’s going on through the eyes of these two people that are investigating everything…so far, I have to say. I mean, the Matthew Fox character they’re all inside a bottle on that show and they turn to him because he knows more about fixing things, he’s a doctor.

We haven’t come together yet on our show.

What episode are you on now?

I just got the script this morning for episode number [the tape was a bit intelligible on this number. Apologies]. So, what’s happened is I think at the beginning their idea was that they…and you can decide to print this or not…the idea was that they were going to [Oops. The tape cut out here. Sorry. It won’t happen again. We now return you to our regularly scheduled interview]

But I can’t wait! All I do is see these guys in the trailer, at the coffee truck…

Ensemble cast. The promos have these people deeply rooted in their own thing and it doesn’t seem like anyone can play off each other’s, pardon the pun, strengths inside of a good ensemble…

Not yet. There was an episode of ALIAS, one of my favorite episodes, the Ricky Gervais episode, obviously because of him, but in that episode we all had…we all worked together in a MOD SQUAD sort of way where we plan this thing, we built this set, it was like a real team thing. And that I can’t wait to get to point [in HEROES] where I’m the guy in the van, like I would be on ALIAS, and suddenly they say, “We have no idea of whether he’s holding or not. Is he holding?” Then they tell me, “Go in, read his mind, and come out.” And I go in and I just have to brush up next to him…THAT could be so cool! I love that.

What’s great is that everyone knows how incredible that’s going to be so it’s a nice carrot to hold out there going, “Now when these guys all get together they’re unstoppable.” But they don’t even know they all exist yet so they are just these individual stories all over the world.

And how fast have the scripts been coming?

It’s funny but when we get a writer on the set, whoever is responsible for that script they usually sit and they’re there as the producer/writer, I’ll just belly on up to him…kind of just talk to him. “I love this script! Everything is great…SOO…what do you have in store for me?” Or I’ll throw something out like, “This would be cool…” and that usually draws something out and they’ll say, “Yeah, that sounds good but we’re doing this and this .”

They don’t want to give us too much information. But Jessie is one of my closest friends and Tim and I have become close so it’s one of those things where I do try to get information but…it’s also fun to not know. On ALIAS, there were periods where I would go for a series of five scripts and I would just read my stuff because I wanted to be surprised and I don’t want it to direct my acting if I know how powerful another character is or what’s going on. My character is supposed to be dark so it’s nice to just go with what I’m given.

 

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