Happy Sad Confused - Clark Gregg

Episode Date: May 26, 2014

The versatile triple threat (acting! writing! directing!) that is Clark Gregg stops by Josh’s office to talk about his return to writing and directing with “Trust Me” plus their mutual love of Sam Rockwell and the randomness of a well-played career. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Because when you're doing big things, your tools should to. Visit square.ca to get started. Hey guys, welcome to another edition of Happy Say Confused. I'm Josh Horowitz, and welcome to the latest edition of my podcast, starring the one and only Clark Gregg. Who does not love Clark Gregg? I certainly do. This guy has really gotten some well-deserved success, particularly in the last five or six years, thanks to his role, of course, as Agent Colson in the Avengers and Captain America. He's been in, like, I think, every Marvel. movie since Ironman and of course now stars on Marvel's Agents of Shield. But the majority of this conversation is actually about a whole other side of Clark's career. You may not know it, but Clark is a very talented filmmaker. In addition to his acting, he has directed a film called Choke a few years back, which if you haven't checked out, you really should, if for nothing else to see an amazing performance by the riveting Sam Rockwell. And now Clark is back directing him,

alongside of Sam in a supporting role and many other great actors, including William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman and many more in a new film called Trust Me, which is out on VOD right now. It's in theaters, June 6th, and it is well worth your time and money. Clark is truly one of the good guys in the business, and I've had the fortune of talking to him. Basically, since I've been doing this at MTV about six years ago, I met him. I met him. him on the set, actually, of choke. You'll hear about that, fun story, and a lot of more interesting stories along the way in Clark's career, who's certainly, he's a guy who is grateful for his place in Hollywood and is also very aware of how lucky, frankly, he's been

where, you know, many talented people, they never hit it. They never get that one part that clicks and his came at a very random point in his career when he was really focusing more on screenwriting. So this is an interesting conversation for people that are finding their way in acting or screenwriting and directing or whatever your creative pursuit might be. Clark's certainly dabbled in a little bit of everything and has found success now in all aspects. And it's well-deserved, as I said, he's a good one. So here he is. As always, guys, sent me up on Twitter, Joshua Horowitz. Check out all our stuff on MTV.com. And enjoy this podcast with the very charming Clark Gregg. It's so excited to have Mr. Clark Gregg in the home office, the podcast headquarters.

The headquarters. Wow. How are you feeling? The stuff you have in here. It's dark. I'm just looking at the board. These are the upcoming guests. People skip right through this one. get to some of the people who are coming in. Congratulations, my friend, on a great film. Trust me. Thank you. As we speak today, it's, I think, on VOD. It's coming to theater soon.

In the brave new world of independent film, it is now available on multiple platforms. You can't get away from it, people. You can't get away from it. Basically, any device you turn on right now, you could watch my film. Although I encourage you to watch it on a slightly larger screen than your phone.

Totally, totally. It depends on how big the phone is. if you've got one of those really big new fonts please tell me the iPhone 6 is going to have a giant ass screen iPhone 6 is a 32 inch screen you heard it here first people if anyone has inside recon

from the new Apple it's me let's take a trip down memory with way in first car because when I was thinking about talking to you today I thought about I believe this is the first time we ever spoke and you probably don't remember this because you're a busy guy that meets important people every day

it was pretty remarkable I know what you're going to say do you okay it was an abandoned mental hospital, I believe, in New Jersey. It was late night, and you were shooting a little film called Choke. Oh. Was that a mental hospital? Wasn't an abandoned hospital? I thought you meant the first time when you came to visit me before they let me out. It was an abandoned mental hospital in New Jersey where we were shooting, if I'm not mistaken, it might have been one of the last nights, if not the last night of filming my first film, Choke. So it was Sam Rockwell in an airplane bathroom. Right. And a wonderful actress with whom he was having

illicit relations, and the airplane bathroom on a very low budget independent is a kit that comes in a very large box, and you basically open the box and suddenly there's an airplane bathroom inside for people to have sex in if you're making a movie about a sex addicted colonial theme park worker, which

it turns out will get Josh Horowitz to New Jersey in the middle of the night in a mental hospital that was haunted during a tremendous thunderstorm. It was. It was crazy that night, and I'm I mean, I remember Dave Matthews. Was he a producer on that film, or was he, he had some kind of...

It turns out if you're making a movie about sex addicts, Dave Matthews just shows up randomly. No, he was one of the producers. His company, ATO, was one of the key financiers of that movie. Like, David Gordon Green was on set that day, I feel like, visiting. Another person. Anytime there's a sex addict airplane bathroom scene, David Gordon Green will show up. I was lucky enough to have Tim Orr, the brilliant DP, and a couple of people who've done David Gordon Green movies, including Sam Rockwell, who had just finished snowing.

Angels, not long before. An amazing film, by the way, yeah. So, actually, I feel badly, I don't have it up anymore. For years, I want you to know, I literally had up on my wall the anal beads that Chuck Appellant gave me that night. What are anal beads? It's got awkward. No, I'm just kidding.

I do know that that was the, they were really technically a bookmark in the life-size size of anal beads, and that was an interesting product placements thing from the folks at Fox Search Lights. I might have a few of those at home myself. No, I'm not going to be ball up. And I appreciate that you had some. I noticed they're not on the wall. They've been used now.

Yeah. And you have a strange smile on your face. So I'm trying to imagine where they might be. It's a mix of pain and pleasure. Wow, this got happy, sad, confused really quick. It got really weird already. Sorry. So that was your first feature.

It's been a few years. You've watched it as to what? You're already shaking your head. What? What? You want to leave? You can leave. You can leave.

You can be our first walkout. interview. Let's be honest, Josh. Even if I storm out of here right now, there's no way I'll be the first. You can't even have having the time of my life. Was, a life got in the way at a good way, probably, between these two first two directing efforts.

Oh, Josh, life. And then death. Oh, got in the way. And I assume you're talking about my sudden run of work with the Marvel universe. Death and resurrection. Resurrection. Only me and the other guy. That's not a story you hear of a lot.

Yeah, I got really, I wrote this film, I think, between Thor and another little indie we made called Les Avengeurs. And at the end of that, I found myself extremely unemployed, thanks to a certain

Asgardian mischief maker. And so I kind of figured I was going back to what I love most, perhaps. I don't know if to toss up these days, I do love being in the Marvel universe, is making a little independent film and putting brilliant actors who are my friends in it.

And so I put this movie together with my partner, Mary Bernou, the brilliant casting director and now producer, Sam Rockwell, Amanda Pete, Allison Janney, Bill Macy, Felicity Huffman, Molly Shannon, who went to NYU with me, along with Felicity Huffman, just down the road a little bit.

And we made this hot little comedic noir in about 20 days. And just as we started shooting, I got a call from a man who has his own verse. Josh Whedon verse. And he called and said, listen, we think you might not be dead. And so we shot the film. And then a couple of weeks after we finished, or I guess in the editing process, I went and we did the pilot for agents of Shield.

And that's what I've just finished doing just in time, magically, to come here and talk to my pal, Josh Horowitz. So where did this? wouldn't come from because you were not as far as I know you weren't a child actor were you it'll be sad right now if I tell you yes I was my research just a very no just a very very unsuccessful one you never heard of I was no I was not a professional child actor I didn't even really get into it which is you know one of the reasons I'm still around I had been around some young actors who had you know sometimes very wonderful agents but there was a couple that were around and it struck me as so kind of sad and funny guys who were, you know,

dealing with the mom who was the manager, the momager. Right. Getting them lattes, trying to find just the right 11-year-old who was going to catapult them to the big time. And so I wrote this story, which kind of took a lot of odd twists and became kind of comedic and at the same time kind of a sneaky film noir. about the obsession with the transformative power of stardom, which is increasingly an obsession that I see around me. And as I researched it, or researched it,

if I don't use weird emphases, you know, the streets, the Hollywood streets, the tough Hollywood streets are paved with, along with the success stories of healthy, wonderful people like Natalie Portman and Jody Foster people who kind of keep this career going. lots of kind of the stories go on and on. In fact, two or three of the people

I mentioned, I cooked up fake siblings of a bunch of kind of young actors now, and then a bunch of them got in trouble in the meantime. And it's a really tricky thing. And to me, it was not necessarily about show business per se, but it seemed like

a very kind of rife, metaphoric world to get into something very American. And I've heard you talk about this, and it did strike me when I saw the film that it does feel like a throwback It feels like a film that isn't of a tone and of a character study that isn't made a lot nowadays. I mean, your protagonist, the guy to you play, is very much like an anti-hero. He's like cut from the cloth of like, you know, I think of like Paul Newman in The Verdict.

Like, you know, that kind of guy. He's messed up. He's not exactly. Well, that's, yeah, I mean, that's the kind of movies I like, you know, the kind of guys who've just been beaten down and are still trying to hold on to a certain kind of Innocence, this was part of a bigger film that I was trying to write that was eight or nine stories linked together that were all about kind of lost innocence in children and grown-ups. And it was too long to ever get made in the real world. And yet there was this one story that really stuck out. So I pulled it out and made that.

And you're right. I mean, what I was going for was something that is the movies I love, The Last Detail, Harold and Maude a little bit. You know, there's just Hal Ashby movies, Great Seventies movies. where, you know, the characters were deeply flawed and the world was, you know, kind of not helping the many. Right. It's funny because you mentioned, like, tone is obviously so important to any project, but, like, this subject matter, generally speaking, has been treated in much more comedic ways, like, full on. Like, I mean, I'm sure you've seen, like, human giant did shutterbugs way back when, which was, like, awesomely funny. Yeah.

And, but I'm curious, like, was it easy to kind of zero in on what? kind of tone you want? Because as you say, you kind of, if you catch 10 minutes of the film, you might think it's one thing until you see it as a whole and realize what you get in. Yeah. To me, the movie's about transformation. And it's about this myth. You know, it takes place in the Hollywood underbelly. Because that's, to me, the epicenter of this idea. but it's something that kind of, to me, breeds all across American, and to a certain extent, world culture, this idea that, you know, you're going to work

and you're going to get this break that will suddenly change your life and change who you are in an instant. And, you know, it's something that was in a lot of Arthur Miller plays, the idea that, well, yes, some people, but basically you can kind of know that 80% of the people will be in the bottom 80%. And a lot of people that won't happen for.

And, you know, I've known brilliantly talented people who didn't get the right series of breaks for a long time. I felt like I was never going to really get a chance to kind of express what I wanted. And there's a kind of panic and dread and a feeling, especially in a culture that focuses so much on the winners, that that that means that you're just in deficit that you don't really belong here. Right. And that seemed very moving and funny to me. the idea that this character wants so much, he had a taste of a near version of a child stardom, and the rest of his life is about trying to live up to that.

That seemed to be the story of so many of these child actors who went down at Dark Road. And as this guy gets close to actually finding the kid and seems to have got a connection with this kid that will actually take him there, he loses his grip on reality as he's more and more challenged to really figure out what matters, taking care of this kid or getting his dream. and his own transformation is at stake and yet comes in a very unusual way and it felt very risky to me but it became very important to me

to let the movie do a little bit of that itself that it kind of starts on a day where you meet this lovable loser and his funny travails and yet the stakes go up very suddenly and that's been my experience and suddenly the long knives come out and if there's a way to separate you from this thing

that you have possession of that is worthwhile, then that will happen from people who were nice a few minutes ago. And so the movie itself undergoes a bit of a transformation. And, you know, I hope that that's something that's as moving to other people as it was for us making it. Has, in your, I'm sure you love your representation for her own agents. But in the past, has an agent ever kind of screwed you out of a negotiation, basically played a hard ball a little bit too?

too hard and lost you a gig that you had. I have to say that the people that I'm lucky enough to be represented by now are amongst the most honorable and kind people I've ever met and it took me a while to get with that person Blair Coen-Thomas out. But

I have been in a place where when the chips were down it became clear that the more powerful people on the other side of the table whom these people were supposed to be representing me against were suddenly more important to them than their relationship with me.

Right. And that's a real violation. You know, that's, they were, you know, they're taking a percentage of, you know, admittedly, what feeble money I was ever making in those days to be the kind of guardians of my dream. Sure. You know, and when you realize that that's, again, you think it's a dream. It's my dream. Come on. Haven't you seen the movies? And you realize, like, Oh, this is a business transaction, and you're the weaker party in this. You know, good luck with those sharks. Talk me a little bit about, because you were kind of alluding to this before. Like, you know, now the fame obsession and the youth obsession, it's like, it feels like, I think, to most people, like, you either become a star at 16 or you never become a star.

You achieve success then, or it's not going to happen. And you very much had and had, like, a working actor's career who, I mean, correct if I'm wrong, like, I mean, you've had severe ever. and flows. You had big, you know, upticks and, you know, you had the lulls. And then arguably probably your biggest uptick in the last five or six years. And, and it kind of happened sort of randomly. I feel like I'm going to start crying. That's the goal. I always end up weeping at Horowitz's office. Yeah, man. No, I, yes, I was, I loved, fell in love with movies at a pretty young age, you know, Star Wars, Superman. I saw one blow with the cuckoo's nest when I was about 15 and it changed my life. And I saw being there.

And I saw some Al Ashby movies in the 70s. And even though it took me eight or nine years to figure out that's actually what I wanted to try to do, those things got in deep. And I watched young actors, you know, I watched all the 80s, the brat pack. Right. You know, I was like, oh my god they're doing this in movies and i'm doing this for 19 people in a crappy garage theater i may never get to do any of that and to have my work kind of reach anybody like that and i think that's where this movie comes from i have such a deep connection to that feeling of outsider right and you know uh and i know so many people whose work i admire so much who never quite found the right confluence of events to get the shot.

I mean, I had so many close calls where people kind of at the last minute a job they told me was mine they would give to somebody who was well-known. And I was like, gosh, guys, how am I going to get well-known? Right. And I have to just keep the job. Right. You know, I don't care about being recognized. I just, I want to not be dumped from this for a name.

Yeah. And, you know, you kind of almost start to give up. and I had given up and I was working as a screenwriter primarily. And it was weird because I'd be in the trades as a screenwriter

and suddenly people would see me for a movie as an actor. And, you know, and then my neighbor down the street, Favreau offers me a tiny part in Iron Man. It was like four or five lines. And I loved Iron Man as a kid

and I wanted to be part of it. The cast, Gwyneth and Jeff Bridges and Downey, who was a hero of mine, but I thought if they're going to cut anybody here the last name won't be Bridges or Downey or Paltrow but I couldn't help it I said I said yes even though I'd been you know people's I'd already had people enough time saying you were in that

who were you? I saw your name in the credits were you in it right and and then that thing happened when you least expected where they kind of liked what was going on and I'd stuck with it and they started adding more stuff and suddenly I was shooting a scene where Pepper Potts was saying thank you, Agent Colson, and I was saying, call us shield. And, you know, I have a very strong relationship with gratitude at this moment because it could have gone a lot of other ways.

And as you said, it's a youth business if you haven't really hit well before I did. It doesn't usually happen. So I'm having the time of my life. I think I'm really lucky, though, because I don't know that I could have handled it. before, emotionally. I mean, my maturity is theoretically kicking in any moment. It hasn't yet.

Yeah, no. And I'm in a position to actually feel really grateful and to kind of really enjoy this because I never thought this meal was coming. Was the, going back away, I mean, I've noticed a bunch of

David Mamet in the filmography. Was things changed the first thing that you ever appeared in the film was? Yeah, I mean, that's actually a really good counterpoint. I was not having a bad time. I was having a great time, and I had been really lucky to stumble into this class at NYU taught by a young, brilliant playwright, David Mamet, and a young unknown actor named Bill Macy.

And Felicity Huffman was in my class, and a lot of amazing actors. And at the end of it, we hit it off so well. We formed the Atlantic Theater Company, and Macy married Huffman. And we did plays together for years and really, you know, got better. They weren't great at first, and we really took it. the time to work a lot and get better. And I think the case was true for Felicity. And a lot of us is we really started getting work a little bit later after putting in the time. And, you know, this was a very rare kind of bunch of people where they said, look, write your own stuff,

direct your own stuff. And I took that really to heart. So when I was in LA not getting any work, I started writing and tried to make a film and put myself in it or that really changed my life as much as anything else. And Manit put me in my first thing. He gave me a tiny part as a stage manager and things change and Bill gave me my first play that he directed and this guy's really changed my life you mentioned the screenwriting

I want to mention one one particular because I'm a huge fan of what lies beneath oh thank you which is obviously Zemeckis directed it and I remember at the time it was a big deal because it was Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer it was Harrison's first kind of like

full-on like bad guy frankly which I don't know how you felt but I remember there was a lot of talk at the time that the trailers kind of gave it away that he was perhaps the bad guy. Did that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that annoy you a little bit? Um, um, I was surprised, right? I was surprised.

I'd spent a tremendous amount of time and effort, you know, I'd written the script in LA and out of work actor with a script and this amazing executive Nina Jacobson who now is the producer of the Hunger Game stuff. Right. Was an amazing kind of champion early on. This weird script you wrote, we're never going to make this here at Dreamworks, but we do have this ghost project that we can't really figure out and I drove across country and I came up with an idea and I pitched and I got the job and I wrote it and bam Domeca signed up and he was

generous and kept me around and helped me learn about screenwriting and you know we spent a year writing it and trying to find a way where in a very small for a big studio movie cast yeah how do you hide where it's going and that there Harrison's character has darker stuff going on and spent a lot of time crafting a screenplay that did that and very carefully cast Harrison who was game and amazing to come in and take on that twist and you know I felt like I felt surprised that they hinted at it so broadly in the early trailers yeah what was the was the spoiler alert you haven't gotten around to it now it's 13 years old it's still sorry it's a great one it was was Is Hitchcock a big kind of influence on that?

Totally. I loved Hitchcock films. And what I loved about them was that within them were always a really interesting psychological drama that touched on kind of bigger themes. And then within that they were sexy and character-based

and had no problems also being incredibly clever about making suspense. And a lot of Hitchcock has really interesting ideas and theories about suspense that we studied and talked about a lot. It's a movie that's held up pretty well and it was a great experience for me.

Were you on set much for that? Did you get to see Zemeckos? It's funny. I was on set every day. The whole time, they had a, they built that house on a lake in Vermont, which is where I had done theater for eight summers, and I couldn't believe that's the town they randomly chose. And the only time I wasn't around was when Mamet said, I wrote this movie, State and Maine, we're making it. Could you get free to act in for a couple of weeks? It was a great part in an amazing cast with Alec Baldwin. Right. And Sarah Jessica Parker and Rebecca Pigeon and Phil Hoffman, rest of soul. And Zemeckis, we will kind of

toward the later part of shooting. And Zemeckis let me out to do it. He said, I think, I think we're good. And then I was there shooting my first big days of scenes. And I got this call saying there's a problem with the scene tomorrow. Michelle wants you here. She'd been so generous to me. And I had to go to my mentor, the director of the film making an independent film and say, I know I'm shooting three scenes tomorrow, but is there any way I could leave early? Because they need me on the set of my movie. And I thought, I thought, oh my God, he's going to fire me. And he's the nicest guy in the world that can be also a little intimidating.

And he stared at me for a second, and he started to laugh. And he said, all right, I'm going to shoot you out in the morning. You can be on a plane by 11, and I've arranged a private plane for you. A friend of his had a Dick Charles, God bless him, had a private plane, a little prop plane. me do a landing strip in Vermont. And literally, you know, out of the woods, there's a strip, and there's a black car waiting, and they drive me to the trailer, they tell me the thing, they give me a couple of good ideas. We fix it, I read.

They're like, okay, you're good, kid. And I go back to the plane. They fly me back to Massachusetts, and my life had changed very suddenly. It was kind of an amazing day. So did you get into the mix coming out of what lies beneath, which was a big Hollywood studio thing? You can't get bigger than Zemeckis and Harrison Ford, et cetera, into the mix of, like, big kind of Hollywood screenplays because obviously the future team directed are smaller skill they're independence clearly you know I have a knack Josh I have a knack for taking very

commercial breaks and turning them into independent film I definitely did some work for a while writing studio pictures but I seem to also have a knack for choosing the material at the studios that was the most kind of unusual and independent and therefore the least kind of makeable within the studio system so I spent some time writing stuff that didn't get made, I'm not a fan of that. I'm a fan of very rewarding a thing. You have an idea or a thought or something that you find moving and you want to share it. But I did use that cloud. They brought me this book by Chuck Paonic, and I loved the book of Fight Club and the film. And they said, we want you to adapt this. And I said, I'll adapt it for free

if I can direct it because there was something about these sex-addicted colonial theme park worker that for some reason hit home. And I turned it into a tiny independent film that was one of the great experiences in my life. And it was, correct me, when I'm wrong, Sundance, I mean, its debut, searchlight picked it up, what was like 2008, something like that was.

I'm like, I'm getting it right. You're good, Josh. I'm good, very, very good. I remember, because that was also a memorable year, that was, I think, sadly, a year like Keith Ledger passed away during Sundance. While we were there, we were doing the press day after,

the day after the movie had sold, and, you know, a lot of people knew him. I didn't have the, I didn't have the good fortune of me but really sad yeah um the Sundance experience though and was that where it sold at while you read Sundance or did it come after you went to Sundance they called it Black Sundance because I think of the premieres in the competition all but ours and two others had premiered and nothing had sold and the agents pulled

me into a condo and said look we just want to prepare you nothing has sold and yours is odd so go enjoy the movie have fun at the party but we're not going to sell this tonight and in fact everyone's going to the other movie which I think was Hamlet too oh yes I remember that yes Steve Coogan yeah everybody was going to that movie instead of ours but I'd never seen the movie in front of people yeah we'd finished it a couple of weeks before and again unusual comic dark tone and people a few minutes in started to laugh And it really connected with that audience.

And that was so meaningful to me. I was kind of like, you know what, it's okay. It's okay, I'm gonna find a way to get these poor people their money back. But at least the movie was received well and people loved it. My cast was there and happy. It was a brilliant performance by Sam Rockwell

and he was clearly happy with the film and that meant the most to me and Angelica Houston. And then we went to the party in the middle of it, all those same agents came running over and went, I'm not gonna believe this. Fox Searchlight, which was, you know, the ideal place they actually came to see your movie

and they want to buy it. And they're here at the club. I thought this was an elaborate prank. But it turned out to be true and I had kind of an amazing experience with them and they put the movie out. Just four short years later, here I am with another one. Here you are.

And Rockwell appears again in a small role in this one. This guy, I mean, I've shot a lot of crazy stuff with him. He is, he's pound for pound the most talented man on the planet. He is just, he's my hero. How do you describe Sam? He's the kindest person. He's the most, he's the bravest and most committed actor I've ever worked with. And the most generous of spirit.

So Sam and I did a play together many years ago. We called The Naked Play. He was down at a very cold, drafty winter theater, the Orphium downtown. It was called Unidentified Human Remains. the true nature of love. It just rolls off the time. And it was fun. It was kind of a good play, but there was a lot of nakedness, luckily for everyone in New York.

Not me. But everybody else, and we all got very tight, and I just would sit there and watch Sam in a supporting role every night. Just, what is this guy doing? It's just effortless and amazing. And years later, I put him in choke, and I went back to him and basically offered him any part, including the women. And trust me, and he liked the alter ego.

The cooler nemesis, Algo Stankis, didn't need to do it, but just showed up to support me. He said, I want to see you do this part. I really want to see this movie, and I want to see you do this part. And he came on as a producer. That's who Sam Rockwell is. He came on as a producer. He helped us get the movie made. He showed up.

He doesn't need to do a role like that. He's amazing in the movie. And actually, ever since I saw Galaxy Quest, he's the guy who most, Nails the tone that I like the best, which is it's so funny and it scares you a little Exactly. And he played this guy in Galaxy Quest who's the red shirt. He's the Star Trek character. He's like, I don't have a name, man. They were going down to the surface of the planet. What's my name? What's my last name? Which meant he was going to die. And it was kind of Hamlet. And it's why I offered him

choke. It's why he's my favorite actor. And he does it again in this movie, where you kind of think you know who this character is and the slick kind of send-up, but he's got so much more going on that you kind of fear for Howard, my character. And it kind of makes the movie to have him in it. I love him so much, everything I ever write. I don't think I'll ever want to play the lead role again because it nearly killed me. But the next thing I make, everything I make, is going to be a Sam Rockwell film. One other random performance I want to ask you about it when I was in through the filmography.

I saw you listed as in AI, the Stephen Stewart movie, as Super Nerd. Tell me about that. That was typecasting. Anyone who knows me well knows that it was just typecasting. Spielberg had been the producer, one of the key producers on what lies beneath him. The main idea of the movie was his. And he'd been really cool to me.

He's a really cool guy, not surprisingly, around what lies beneath. And I think right before they started shooting that, they decided they needed a team of super nerds who were helping to design the artificial boy. and I got this call Stephen would like you to do a part in the movie I'm not even sure they said your name would be super nerd but it wouldn't have changed it and I said in

I mean yeah and I showed up and I got to watch him working with Yanush Kaminsky and he talked to me about about what lies beneath and was just really really again really cool and generous with me and they ended up kind of shooting that bit a couple of times and reshooting some bits and got to watch William Hurt work And, you know, it was, again, it was at a time when I was really a screenwriter or not acting too much. And I just, it was always a learning experience.

So what's the balance right now? Obviously, we were talking before. We don't know for sure that we're not going to jinx anything, but Athens of Shield, if I were betting men, I would bet that you're going to come back for that one for second season. Are you angling to fit another directing effort in soon? Yes, I was, I've been very lucky in that I've gotten to be in some really cool stuff. But when the giant destroyer or the aliens come around, generally some Norse gods or other guys step in and take care of it, not as much on agents of shield.

So I've been there very long hours having the time of my life, but there hasn't been a ton of time for writing. And now I'm off for a couple of months. And it's funny, it's what people say, you know, what do you prefer? And I don't know, it's kind of like, now that I've been acting around the clock, all I want to do is sit in the clock. quiet room and cook up some other crazy movie to make.

Is there something special to being, sound like a whatever, maybe a snobby kind of Hollywood question, but being number one on the call sheet in terms of a show like Agents of Shield? Because, again, you've spent a lot of years as super nerd, as the even unidentified guy, and now you get to be the lead on a major show. And a certain point I said, I'm no longer playing characters that don't have an actual name, like a lot of us too. I've even had actors who had smaller kind of like the cop going,

I'll do it if you give him a name. Right. Like, we won't ever hear anyone calling the name. It's like, I don't care. Put it in the script. I need it to be on IMDB. Give me something. You know?

Yes. I've done those, and you're right. I've been a lot of numbers on the call sheet. And some of them may have been triple digits, frankly. So, yeah, it's very different to be number one on the call sheet. It's a great responsibility. And, you know, you get taken care of a little bit. They're trying to make sure that you can get to the finish line without passing out.

So they look out for you a little bit. better and it's also got to be nice you're surrounded by some some pretty green actor some some actors that haven't been in the business too long and you can be kind of the obi one canobie if i was more mature i think they would really look up to me um no they're they're tremendous i love the attitude i enda castecker and elizabeth hensstridge and chloe bennett and brett dalton um they're so hungry to kind of jump into this world and leave it out there. You know, in my experience, the marble stuff really only works

if you're playing it like it's Shakespeare with some really funny stuff. You know, it's got to be absolutely real to you or it's never going to be real to anybody else. You know, we've got Lady Siff swinging a sword in Arizona. You know, so you've got to really throw yourself at that with no quotation marks around it. And these, I think it's, in a way, it's been the funnest part is I'm meant to be the one kind of leading the charge with those guys,

but I really end up getting to soak up their enthusiasm and their energy. It's been really, my life is very much a parallel of the show. I have this new team who are kind of green, and I've just been watching them one by one just kind of flex and grow into this job, and it's been amazing. In our remaining moments, you asked about my strange odd Ferrell hat. It's not a Farrell hat, Clark. It's an Indiana Jones Fedora as someone that,

As worn by Farrell? As worn by Farrell? All I know is it makes me happy. Good. That was the desired effect. It's got an assortment of random, odd, silly. As happiness is the truth. Are you going to break out into the song?

I'll do the kind of Rex Harrison like. The Russell Crow kind of thing. It's like a room, Josh, without a roof, is what I'm trying to tell you. Big, despicable me fan. You want to grab a couple random questions in there, see what fate? More than one? One at a time, whatever you want. it's like a one step at a time

I see the one you kind of artfully placed on top there and I'm sure it involves pants going on please remove pants immediately it's a request more than a question go what was that seriously what was that I can't deal with that one I'm curious what it was now the one superpower I want oh yeah we're not going to do that you do that

there's like a statute of limitations on that one and also all my answers are just so inappropriate now okay next is this any better the best sitcom all Time is. It's provocative. I've got an answer. What's yours?

Besides the new adventures of old Christine, obviously. No-brainer. Number two, though. God, that's hard. How old school do you want to go? Yeah, I mean. I know. I have something that I love so much.

It's hard not to say Sanford and Son, but I'm going to say the Mary Tyler Moore show. Okay. I'd go cheers myself. Oh, cheers. It's so good, too, yes. Okay, okay. Seinfeld.

Hard to argue. Seinfeld, marry Tyler Moore. Okay. It's a tie. Okay, fair enough. One or two more. Let's see how we do. Okay.

These are good. Well, I saved the good stuff for the randomness at the end. That's a pristine one. No one has ever asked. Oh, this one's going to be over the head of everyone in your audience. My first celebrity crush was... Was it a cave woman in the days of Europe? What was it?

She was... Okay, now you're just being me and Josh. You opened it up. It was before TV. You ever see Whistler's mother? That's all we had in my day. My first celebrity crush was, again, there was two. Okay.

There was a singer named Petula Clark who sang a song called Downtown. I don't know why. That was a big crush. But also there was a sister. There was a sister on Buffy and Jody, an older sister, whose name I think was Sissy I had it bad for her That's all I'm going to say

The name wasn't it didn't even matter No Wasn't about the name Yes and then you know I went through a different phase Of each of the Brady sisters And then oh my god The Partridge

Susan Day Okay now you're just Now you're just everybody I had a lot of seven years Now it's just getting creepy Just being the long left Okay sorry Do you want to end on celebrity crushes

Or do you want to end I'm going to leave this up to you How do you want to end this podcast? I'll do a lightning round if you want Let's do it You want to do a lightning round? Let's do a lightning round. Okay.

Here we go, real quick. First concert, Parliament Funkadelic. The Mother's Shift Tour. This is a good one. Have I ever been arrested? Yes, next question. Wait, no, ball up. Favorite childhood TV show?

H.R. Puffin' Stuff. That explains a lot. The one superpower I want is Josh Horowitz's razor-sharp wits. There we go, that's it. And let's stop on that one, ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Clark Gregg, The movie is, trust me, available on any screen you can find.

Go on VOD, go to a theater soon. And then, in the New World, coming out theatrically on June 6th. That's the way to see a guy. You did that like Tevya a little bit. I was going to make a fiddle-on-the-roof-the-roof-the-roof-Roof reference. It's good to see you, as always. The Taylor Muddled Council. I was going to go Topol.

It's good to see you. Congratulations on the film. Thank you so much for having me. It's always fun to see you, man. You own TV rocks. It's wrapped. I know, I'm changing it. I was upgrading it for the new millennium.

Come on, dude. Goodbye, summer movies, hello fall. I'm Anthony Devaney. And I'm his twin brother, James. We host Raiders of the Lost Podcast, the Ultimate Movie Podcast, and we are ecstatic to break down late summer and early fall releases.

We have Leonardo DiCaprio leading a revolution in one battle after another, Timothy Salome playing power ping pong in Marty Supreme. Let's not forget Emma Stone and Jorgos Lanthamos' Bugonia. Dwayne Johnson, he's coming for that Oscar. In The Smashing Machine, Spike Lee and Denzel teaming up again, plus Daniel DeLewis's return from retirement. There will be plenty of blockbusters to chat about two.

Tron Aries looks exceptional, plus Mortal Kombat 2, and Edgar writes, The Running Man, starring Glenn Powell. Search for Raiders of the Lost Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.