CraveOnline: So what’s the DirecTV series?
Frank Grillo: It’s called “Navy St.” and Byron Balasco, a great writer, wrote this great script. DirecTV and Endemol are partnering on it. It’s DirecTV’s first original series that they’ve created. 10 episodes, we start shooting that in March and it’s really great. Warrior was one of my favorite experiences and I actually have Greg Jackson who trained me for Warrior, he’s going to be involved too as a technical consultant, so it’s like bringing back the old guys. It’s really gritty and it’s going to be in the vein of a “Friday Night Lights.” really great dramatic stuff and it’s dropped in this world of mixed martial arts, so I’m excited about it.
When I heard Navy I thought maybe it was military.
No, no, because in Venice Beach, CA there’s a street called Navy Street.
I was going to ask if there was a Frank Grillo action vehicle in the works, but is that maybe more on television where you can be the Statham?
There is, actually. I’m in the process of negotiations so I can’t say. It’ll be released soon, but I am going to be doing a film where I am kind of a Snake Plissken-esque character from the streets of New York.
Oh, that’s what we want to see.
My wife’s walking with me and she’s laughing at me.
You’ve mentioned Charles Bronson and Snake Plissken, so who were your favorite action heroes?
Snake Plissken certainly. Rambo I was a big fan of when I was younger. I even loved, if you want to date it back, James Cagney. To me he was an action figure of the 1940s. He was a badass. John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, all those guys, those iconic men. They were not emasculated. They were men and they didn’t make any excuses for what they did. I love that kind of cinema and miss that kind of cinema so if I can be part of bringing a little bit of that back, like Statham, I’m all in.
What genres are the other films you made since Homefront?
One of them’s a really great psychological thriller. Kyra Sedgwick and I and this young actress Bella Thorne. Then I’m doing a movie now with John Leguizamo, Minnie Driver and Dianna Agron. It’s a governmental conspiracy film, really cool, thriller. AnnaSophia Robb, it’s a great cast. I’m doing that right now. I’ve got a movie coming out with Maria Bello, James Wan produced so it’s one of those films.
A horror film?
It’s more of a thriller film than it is a horror film but it does have aspects of that. He’s great, James Wan’s great.
Are these very different characters for you to play in each one?
Yeah, they’re all very different, which is great for me. That’s what’s been fun for me is I’ve really been getting the choice to do very different things. It’s great.
DirecTV originals is very new territory for television. When you look back to getting your start on episodics like “Silk Stalkings,” how far has television come?
When you think about it, I’m getting old now, but when you think about the avenues that are opening up to tell stories, it’s amazing. A company like Endemol started out on a lot of those reality shows. They made a lot of money, and DirecTV who do their thing and they’re also a very cash rich companies. The Netflixes of the world and the AMCs, all these little companies that started out doing one thing, they got into original programming and for an actor, if you’re not a big movie star, to find great writing and great characters, I think now TV is the place that you do that. All of these networks that are doing original programming allow that. The fact that it’s on cable and it’s limited to 10 episodes, you can really do great work. I couldn’t be more excited to come full circle and go back to doing a little bit of television.
Were those early episodic gigs a good first experience too?
Yeah, you know, you’ve got to make your bones. You’ve got to go out there and do your things. Whatever comes your way, you jump on it and like anything, that’s how you get your experience. You figure out what you want to do as an actor. It’s a lot of trial and error. Television’s a great medium. Television now, my buddy Carnahan’s got “Blacklist” that he got on the air that he did the pilot. My buddy Gavin O’Connor has “The Americans.” These are top notch writers and directors that are making their way into television and doing great stuff.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
