INTERVIEW: CLARK GREGG ON “MARVEL’S AGENTS OF SHIELD”

By Abbie Bernstein On January 27, 2015 In Actor Interviews, Science Fiction & Fantasy Actor and Author Interviews No Comments

Clark Gregg Interview

Gregg speaks about his role as Phil Coulson and new director on Marvel’s Agents of Shield

Clark Gregg

Clark Gregg’s character Phil Coulson has gone through a lot of changes between being introduced as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in 2008’s [easyazon_link asin=”B00E5I2MCM” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]IRON MAN[/easyazon_link] and now running S.H.I.E.L.D. as Director on ABC’s [easyazon_link asin=”B00KMXQIYM” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]MARVEL’S AGENTS OF SHIELD[/easyazon_link]. Even bigger than Coulson’s promotion is the fact that he died on the big screen in 2012’s [easyazon_link asin=”B0083SBJXS” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]Marvel’s The Avengers[/easyazon_link] and is alive again, thanks to some dangerous alien technology, on [easyazon_link asin=”B00DJYJRHG” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]SHIELD[/easyazon_link].

The SHIELD TV series, now in its second season on Tuesday nights (it resumes new episodes in March, after making way for a run of its spin-off [easyazon_link asin=”0785197184″ locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]AGENT CARTER[/easyazon_link]) is intimately connected with the Marvel film universe. This meant that when the SHIELD cast gave interviews prior to the April 2014 release of the Disney/Marvel feature [easyazon_link asin=”B0090SI3GQ” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER[/easyazon_link], the actors had to give vague, misdirection answers about their show’s story arc. In [easyazon_link asin=”B0090SI3GQ” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER [Blu-ray][/easyazon_link], the Nazi-originated group HYDRA activated its many sleeper agents inside S.H.I.E.L.D., destroying headquarters, assassinating ruthlessly and generally tearing S.H.I.E.L.D. apart from within.

In the very next episode of SHIELD and ever since, those events have had major impact on the show. Now Coulson is one of the few people who know that erstwhile S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson, who has made several guest appearances on the series) is still alive. Fury’s actions are now so covert that he has given the directorship of S.H.I.E.L.D. to Coulson.

Gregg, originally from Boston, Mass., has not only played Coulson in a number of Marvel films ([easyazon_link asin=”B00E5I2MDQ” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]THOR[/easyazon_link], [easyazon_link asin=”B00E5I2M6I” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]IRON MAN 2[/easyazon_link]) but also voices the character when he appears in animated series and video games. The actor made his feature film debut in David Mamet’s 1988 [easyazon_link asin=”B00000F722″ locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]THINGS CHANGE[/easyazon_link]. Since then, he co-starred opposite Julia Louis-Dreyfus in the comedy series [easyazon_link asin=”B000TZ7FTK” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE[/easyazon_link] and been in a wide variety of features, including [easyazon_link asin=”B00005V9HH” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]THE USUAL SUSPECTS[/easyazon_link], [easyazon_link asin=”B002QFYJF4″ locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]MAGNOLIA[/easyazon_link], [easyazon_link asin=”B00003CXXP” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE[/easyazon_link], [easyazon_link asin=”B0031Q0XCA” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”](500) DAYS OF SUMMER [/easyazon_link]and Joss Whedon’s film version of Shakespeare’s [easyazon_link asin=”B00ECR7KX2″ locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING[/easyazon_link]. Whedon, with Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, is one of the creators/executive producers of the S.H.I.E.L.D. series.

ABC and Disney have a MARVEL’S AGENTS OF SHIELD party for the press on the Disney lot in Burbank, with food, episode screenings and cast members available to talk about the show.

[easyazon_block add_to_cart=”default” align=”left” asin=”B0053O8AKU” cloaking=”yes” layout=”top” localization=”default” locale=”US” nofollow=”default” new_window=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″]TITANIC[/easyazon_block]Gregg obligingly sits at an outdoor table to talk about Coulson. First, although the show remains super-spoiler-phobic, he says he’s happy to be able to at least address the Hydra in the room. Gregg relates that, before the SHIELD actors knew about that first-season plot twist, he was wondering why there was so much early emphasis on the villainous cadre Centipede. “It’s a relief to know. I’ve read a lot of comics and I kept kind of going, ‘Centipede? What is this? I don’t really remember Centipede. There’s so much cool stuff in the comics. Why don’t they get into HYDRA?’ And everyone would just give me these awful looks. I was like, ‘Okay, sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.’ And then of course, as we got closer, people started to pull us into a trailer or a special room and go,” he drops his voice to a stage whisper, “‘It is HYDRA. This is about to be a huge crossover.’ So yeah, to have that out in the open is a big deal for us.”

How big a deal is it to be the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Gregg seems regretful that he can’t go into specifics. “There’s so little I can say, but I will go out on a limb and say, the second episode [of Season 2], the title is, ‘Heavy Is the Head,’ and that’s certainly how it feels.”

It’s no surprise that Coulson’s head feels heavy, given that we’ve seen S.H.I.E.L.D. doctors doing open-skull brain surgery on him when he was being brought back to life. Gregg relates this was a combination of prosthetic makeup and computer-generated effects. For all the stunts and strange environments Gregg has participated in during his tenure on SHIELD, he says, “I think the most uncomfortable thing was to actually watch the scene where the top of my head had been peeled off and they were operating on my brain. My head is still sore from that scene.”

[easyazon_block add_to_cart=”default” align=”left” asin=”B009LDD1H6″ cloaking=”yes” layout=”top” localization=”default” locale=”US” nofollow=”default” new_window=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″]Person of Interest: Season 2[/easyazon_block]Another big plot twist in Season 1 was that among Coulson’s small, trusted group, sharpshooter Grant Ward, played by Brett Dalton, turns out to be a HYDRA agent. Gregg says he was almost as surprised as his character by this development. “I did not know. As I said, I didn’t know that Centipede was going to turn out to be HYDRA, that we were going to do this big crossover with Winter Soldier. We were all taken to a screening about half a mile from here and walked out with our jaws dropped, wondering what they were going to call the show now.”

As for making Ward the traitor out of all the possible options, Gregg says, “Ward was such a great choice. He was so the buttoned-up agency man, and when you look back at all the stuff he did to infiltrate, it couldn’t have been more brilliant, and I don’t think there’s anyone who would have been a better choice for that.”

Bill Paxton played John Garrett, Coulson’s one-time S.H.I.E.L.D. buddy who was secretly Ward’s HYDRA mentor. Gregg says of working with Paxton, whose resume includes the original [easyazon_link asin=”B00005N5S5″ locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]TERMINATOR[/easyazon_link], [easyazon_link asin=”B00MBNYT10″ locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]ALIENS[/easyazon_link] and [easyazon_link asin=”B001VFM0YW” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]PREDATOR 2[/easyazon_link] (along with [easyazon_link asin=”0783225733″ locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]APOLLO 13[/easyazon_link] and [easyazon_link asin=”B007SPPANM” locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”yes” localization=”default” popups=”default”]TITANIC[/easyazon_link]), “For me, it was a dream come true. He’s been in a lot of my favorite movies, he’s a tremendous actor and he’s a tremendous guy. And after he met a pretty gruesome fate, quite deserved, in our season finale, I saw a Tweet that said, ‘Okay, now Paxton has been killed by a Terminator, an Alien, a Predator, and Agent Coulson.’ And I thought, ‘That’s fantastic.’ I was really happy to be on the list.”

In fact, Garrett dies at the hands of Coulson, who is wielding the alien weapon known as the Destroyer. Coulson had previously shot Loki (Tom Hiddleston) with the Destroyer in THE AVENGERS, though Loki fatally stabbed Coulson in the altercation (which is why Coulson required resurrection). How did Gregg feel about Coulson being reunited with a piece of hardware so key to his personal history? Gregg laughs. “Sometimes I lose the fourth wall. My life feels so much like Phil Coulson’s. I have this young team, we’re trying to get things going, trying to save the world – ‘Oh, it’s much harder than we thought it would be,’ ‘Okay, now it’s going a little better,’ ‘Now we’re really in charge, but we don’t have everything we need.’ So the day when my beloved Destroyer weapon showed up – the last time I saw it was B.C.D, Before Coulson Death – it was really nice to see it. And someone did another great Tweet, which was, “The Destroyer Gun. When you absolutely, positively need to kill every super-soldier in the room.” It gave us some new super-soldier wallpaper.”

[easyazon_block add_to_cart=”default” align=”left” asin=”B00FEVZH8K” cloaking=”yes” layout=”top” localization=”default” locale=”US” nofollow=”default” new_window=”default” tag=”buzmag-20″]Person of Interest: Season 2[/easyazon_block]The SHIELD cast often live Tweet with fans as the episodes air on ABC. “I love it,” Gregg says of the Tweet sessions. “It’s very important to the show that we do some live Tweeting. We try to do it when we’re not shooting. And I actually really love the feedback. It’s kind of like feedback in the theatre – you get to see what people are feeling right as it happens, and a lot of them have such funny, brilliant stuff to say.”

Of the new crop of Marvel films, Gregg tries to choose his favorite from among those that don’t feature Coulson. Tongue in cheek, he notes, “It’s hard for the fans, I feel bad for them – there have now been three or four that I wasn’t in. So if we rule out the ones before that, because we know those are superior,” he laughs, then gets serious, “I don’t know, it’s so hard to say. I loved IRON MAN 3, I loved GUARDIANS [OF THE GALAXY], [CAPTAIN AMERICA:] THE WINTER SOLDIER. GUARDIANS really tickled my funny bone. I loved the humor of it, and I thought Chris Pratt was magnificent. That whole cast, really, was terrific.”

As Coulson has appeared in so many films before SHIELD, are there any discrepancies in the characters past and present stories that actor Gregg has had to reconcile? Gregg doesn’t seem to recall any, though he tries to stay on top of new revelations. “Every now and then, there’s kind of a throwaway line, where he’s talking about going to a strawberry festival and I’ll go, ‘Oh, interesting, he’s a foodie.’ He had a number of things where he’s talking about how much he loves Portland [Oregon], not just because there’s a particular cellist there that he loves, but because they have a great food scene. So I’m having to make sure that I read up on my food blogs so I can really understand what Coulson’s into.”

For a favorite Season 1 SHIELD scene, Gregg says, “That’s really a toss-up. Every script, I would get to find out more about Phil Coulson. That was certainly my journey in the movies. Every new writer/director team would come aboard and I’d say, ‘Okay, what am I going to find out about me now?’ The end of the season, between former Director Fury showing up with the Destroyer Gun and saving my poor S.H.I.E.L.D. ass, that was really at the top, although the scene in that same episode, when he explains why he brought me back, that’s pretty great. Although I’ve got to say, already in Season 2, there have just been some scenes that I just had to pinch myself.”

Gregg would like to talk about Season 2, but Marvel and Disney have spoiler secrecy protocols that S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA would envy. “There’s so little I can say that wouldn’t spoil something. All I can tell you is, I’m very excited about the people we’ve got, the people we established last year, the new characters. Lucy Lawless [who guest-starred in the season opener], Nick Blood, Adrienne Palicki. Then Kyle MacLachlan, some of the bad guys. It’s very exciting, what’s going on. You’re going to understand what it means to be Director is very different than what it meant to be Agent Coulson.”

By Abbie Bernstein

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