I don't look like Hollywood Guy. I'm a regular guy.
— Frank Grillo
I think it just seems like something that somebody else does, like they raise actors somewhere in Ohio, and once in a while, people go and pick their actors and move to Hollywood. It seemed like such a distant idea. But then, as I started growing up, I'm like, 'Oh, this is an occupation.'
When I graduated college, I decided that I was going to try to be an actor, but it was my dirty secret.
My parents got married when they were 16, and they never had any money.
A tough guy, to me, stands for something, and he's not afraid to get a beating.
The things that make me saddest - when I got into my head - if anything were to happen to me, and my wife were to have to go to my kids and say 'Daddy's gone.' Worst thing I could imagine.
I have always been restless. I have always been a seeker. It is one of the reasons that I train as hard as I do and I have studied as many disciplines as I have. I need to be challenged.
Being an actor can be a lonely life.
I'm a physical person - I like to get hit.
My favorite movie is 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' with Clint Eastwood, a guy who gets his family killed by the bad guys then goes on a journey of revenge, eventually discovering himself - very existential.
You get spoiled on 'Captain America,' where your trailer's two blocks long and it's got three bedrooms.
What I look for in a role is the physical. But what's the journey emotionally? Can I take this person who is this archetypal tough guy and find the beauty?
I was a wrestler. I played football, lacrosse. After high school, I got into jujitsu. I boxed my whole adult life.
I find in L.A. that you ask people how they're doing, and the immediate answer is, 'Oh, I'm very busy,' as if busy is the goal.
I can see parts of my father in 'Kingdom' when I rage like that. I can see my father's frustrations in his life.
I'm not talented.
I have a good work ethic.
I love 'The Dirty Dozen.'
My friend Liam Neeson has managed to carve out a great place in the industry for himself and is still doing action movies at 64 years old. He's my hero. I use him as a template. My middle kid, Liam, is named after him. He's one of the coolest guys in Hollywood.
Anthony Bourdain is a legend and an inspiration for me.
A lot of times, especially with TV, I would get these scripts, and I'm like, 'Oh, they want me to be the good-looking guy who's a little bit of a rascal.' It's just boring.
What people don't know is that I'm a blackbelt in jujitsu, which I've been for 20 years, and I've been boxing since I've been 15 years old - those are things that come natural to me.
The soap opera was so long ago - the thing about soap operas, and there's something to be said for doing it, but you do a script a day. I don't want to say it's a training ground; it really isn't, but what it does teach you is discipline.
Listen, 'The Purge' actually exists in some form or another in many places around the world when you think about it.
I'm not really enamored by movie stars.
I did 'The Grey,' and it was very intense and emotional because we're in the wilderness, and it was always 30 degrees. You kind of lose your sense of reality in the fact that you're filming a movie.
When directors like Joe Russo, who understand story from a very global perspective, start working more and more with Chinese filmmakers, you'll start seeing Chinese films that connect with audiences all over Asia, Europe, and South America - maybe even North America.
Coming from immigrant Italian people, the one thing you do is work hard.
There's nobody in the arts in my family. It was kind of embarrassing to even say that I wanted to be an actor.
I love Charles Bronson. He didn't have a lot of range, and he wasn't a great actor, but you couldn't take your eyes off him.
'The Outlaw Josey Wales' is one of my top three movies.
I wrestled when I was a kid. That started me off with the discipline, because making weight was my responsibility. It is a team sport, but it is also a solo sport.
Israel changed my life. It is one of the most amazing countries that I have ever been to.
There was nobody telling me, 'You should be an artist,' or, 'You should be an actor.'
A film that I love is 'Deliverance' from back in the day. You start out with these archetypal characters - the hero, the bookworm, the pacifist - and by the end, it's all turned upside down. I love that.
When you have Liam Neeson in a film, no matter how good everyone else is, it's a Liam Neeson film. And if there's wolves, and you're running, it's about Liam Neeson running from wolves.
I grew up with no money. No money. I always struggled and had the sense that there was this other class of people who went to college - this was when I was younger.
I'm a believer in getting punched in the face. I know it sounds cliched, but to me, fighting is a metaphor for life.
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.
