Greg Grunberg Talks Heroes
12 October 2009
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That Greg Grunberg has achieved success with the top-rated NBC series Heroes is no surprise. As Matt Parkman, a former cop who discovers he possesses a special power for telepathy, he brings a humanity and warmth to the character that might otherwise be missing in the hands of another actor.
But where the shock lies is how long its taken audiences to discover the 42 year-old actor from Los Angeles. With almost twenty years in film and television, Grunberg has gradually worked his way from bit-player to jobbing actor to leading man.
In part, at least, he has J.J. Abrams to thank. After several years as a day-player on everything from Melrose Place to NYPD Blue as well as scoring a supporting role in Paul Verhoeven’s The Hollow Man Abrams gave him a recurring role on his show Felicity as the entrepreneurial Sean Blumberg.
This was swiftly followed by the part of CIA operative Eric Weiss in Abrams’ Alias. Still, nothing Grunberg has done has matched the popularity of Heroes. With Season 3 imminent on DVD, which sees Parkman discover his child is his own, below Grunberg discusses why he loves the show, how his life has changed since being cast and why he believes it will last for at least four more seasons.
- How was it working with Baby Matt Parkman on Season 3?
Great We work with twins [Quin and Reed Baron] and they are the most incredible kids. I’ve worked with babies before but it’s the weirdest thing. Honestly, it’s like kinds spooky. When they hear ‘action’, the kids pick up on it and they go into acting mode!
And the kids’ parents are great. The mom’s an actress and dad is a manager but they’re really good people. But still, they’re babies they’re going to do whatever they want to do. They’ll poop off cue!
- So you haven’t been pooped on yet?
Not yet I’m hoping! Magic poop!
- If you consider Matt’s arc in Season 3, he’s something of a renegade, wouldn’t you say?
What I love is obviously as an actor, you want your character to be important. Then leading towards the end of Season 3, it was Ando and Hiro going, ‘We gotta go get Matt Parkman’ and Angela Petrelli was like, ‘I have to met you.’
I just love how for so long at the end of Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2, people were saying, ‘I wish you had more presence in the show.’ But now my power is very, very powerful. I did something that helped everybody else but at the same time I regret it. So it’s great, as far as my character having a major importance going into the next season.
- What do you think about Matt’s romantic entanglements with Daphne?
Like my wife says, ‘You’re like a stalker with Daphne! Seriously, there’s no relationship there!’ I push it so much, I’m like ‘This has got to work, we do love each other!’ And it shows how desperately, and I hate to use that word, he really wants the simple things. He just wants to love someone. He wants to protect and have a family. It was taken away from him on all ends before.
His powers took him out of it. It made it so he couldn’t have a normal life. Then his wife cheated on him, supposedly. Now he finds out that the baby is his and has powers. I don’t know. I love working with Brea [Grant, who plays Daphne].
I love the idea that Season 4 is going to be about family for me and protecting. I know for me, I’ll do anything anything in the world to protect my family. I have three boys and my wife and I she’s the rock. She’s the greatest. But it is one of those things where you get into situations and you’ll do whatever it takes. Every other part of my career, it’s like, ‘It’ll work itself out’ but not with my family. Nobody touches my family. That’s important to me.
- The whole show is about people wanting normal lives with maybe the exception of Hiro who wants to embrace the superhero way of life.
A: Exactly. And also Rebel, Noah’s character also. But you need those characters. Like when Rebel goes up to an ATM machine, he’s elated and you have to have that because the show can get so dark at times and you want a character to really relish it and enjoy it.
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