CraveOnline: Another movie that I’m a huge, huge fan of, and I went “Hey, it’s Greg Grunberg!” was BASEketball.
Greg Grunberg: Oh yeah.
BASEketball is one of the funniest damned movies.
Matt [Stone] and Trey [Parker], those guys are beyond brilliant. I was just so lucky that I got that role. It was just a tiny, tiny role, but to be in a movie like that is amazing. It’s like my buddy J.J. Abrams. He puts me in movies. It’s just fun, and all they have to do is call and say, “Be in this.” That was one that I auditioned for, and I went in, it was early in my career. But yeah, the New Jersey Informants. Now even my kids think it’s a classic. It’s just one of those classic cult comedies that really worked.
And it shows that Matt and Trey are the worst actors on the planet, and it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. They are the most brilliant people in Hollywood. Look at Book of Mormon, look at “South Park,” look at all the stuff they’ve done. But I love watching that movie and going, “Oh my god, these guys are terrible! And I can’t stop watching them.”
You said it yourself, J.J. Abrams puts you in almost every one of his movies. I didn’t see you in Star Trek Into Darkness. Are you there somewhere?
Not in that movie, no. But yeah, he and I are best friends. We try and work together every opportunity we get. He just has to pick up the phone and call, and I’m there.
That’s awesome. I have to imagine that everyone who knows him is bugging him for Star Wars stuff. Do you ever do that when you’re just hanging out?
Oh sure. I talk to him every day, so yes, once a day he gets Greg Grunberg plug. Why wouldn’t I? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. But who knows? I have no idea. I don’t know who’s going to be in the movie, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I just know it’s going to be a great movie if he’s in control of it.
If you had your druthers what kind of character would you play in a Star Wars movie?
I have no clue. I wouldn’t even know what to say because I don’t even know what they’re doing. I don’t know what they’re doing with the franchise. I don’t know what he’s doing. He’s called me to run ideas by me, and every time I’m like, “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t even want to hear it. Don’t. I just want to be…”
That’s how I remember Star Wars. It’s one of those moments that kind of changed me, you know? I think that’s what he’s going to do with the franchise. I really think he’s going to reinvigorate it where there are going to be lines down the block and people are going to be anticipating it. I want to be one of those people. I want to be surprised by what I see, so I think I’m going to be so long as I keep this up and say, “Nope! Don’t tell me!”
You’ve actually been in a lot of really cool video games as well. Condemned was one of the great launch titles, as far as I’m concerned.
Thank you.
Are those easy? Do they just bang those out, or do you have to approach them the same way you do everything?
They’re a little bit different because, it depends on the project, but Halo, some of are just non-descript characters, military voices here and there. L.A. Noire was really cool because I actually got to do acting where my face was on camera, and then they digitized it and made a character, but I got to do some serious effort. And my kids get to play it.
Condemned was really creepy and cool, because the sound design is very minimal, and it’s a lot of breathing and you’re inside this guy’s head. They let me really have fun with it, and it was really well written, and I loved doing that. That was one of the first things that I did, and it really led to believe that this was going to be something I’ll want to do for a long time.
