Greg Grunberg Talks the “Struggles” of Shooting Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Entertainment Weekly has a brief interview avaialble on their website with The Force Awakens actor and Abrams’ friend Greg Grunberg. In the interview, Grunberg discusses the unexpected struggles that he had being on set in the presence of the stars of his childhood.
“J.J. caught me watching the movie,” Grunberg says. “He’s like, ‘Cut! Cut.’ He comes over to me he’s like, ‘Dude, you’re watching the movie as I’m shooting the movie. You can’t do that.’
Grunberg, who appears in The Force Awakens, was describing a scene he was acting in, which featured “legacy” Star Wars actors like Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher.
“I’m around a table and there’s Harrison and there’s Carrie and you know, Carrie Fisher is the greatest. Harrison is great too. I mean come on, it was a dream,” Grunberg says.
It appears even veteran actors can get a bit star stuck in the presence of our original heroes. In the interview Grunberg also mentions that he and director JJ Abrams actually saw Star Wars :A New Hope together for the first time, making the filming of this movie extra special to the pair.
The experience of working on the film with Abrams, who directed Grunberg on TV shows like Felicity and Alias, brings their friendship full circle. They saw the first Star Wars film, A New Hope, together when Grunberg was 4 years old. “We got dropped off and we saw it at the Avco theater which is why the code name for Star Wars when we were shooting it was Avco,” Grunberg explains.
Even so, Grunberg explains he is still just a fan and like the rest of us is battling the urge to know more before he sees the final product. The only difference between him and us is that he has the option to be spoiled by the source.
“As a fan I don’t want to know,” Grunberg says, echoing his previous sentiment to EW about being in the film. “But he is like a kid in a candy store. He’s like, ‘John Williams scored the movie!’ I’m like, ‘Dude, I don’t want to hear it.’”
For the full piece check out EW. And for Entertainment Weekly’s full coverage of The Force Awakens pick up their latest issue.
Right, so Grunberg got to see a fragment of a Star Wars movie in full 3D, so to speak, with Han-frickin’-Solo and Leia-even-more-frickin’-Organa RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM IN THE SAME ROOM.
Yeah, it is easy to understand that he got carried away.
What a lucky bastard! Lol 🙂
This is a beautiful story… except for the fact that both of them were ELEVEN yearss old when Star Wars came out, not four. Unless both of them were able to see a very very very very early cut of the film in 1970.
Who would drop of a four year old at the movies ?
These days? No one. In the 70’s…that was just a Tuesday. 😉
you are exactly right..i used to walk over a mile by myself to school when I was a 5 year old kidnergardner in 1978. and that was absolutely normal. the world was a much better place. I remember going to the movies with friends at 5 and 6 without my parents.
Same here. We roamed everywhere back in the day. Never had a problem.
It wasn’t a perfect time mind you but even the major problems of the day were trivial compared to the ones in 2015 and not just the PC ones that the media invents on a daily basis now to stay relevant.
Problems were not trivial in the 70s, but if you were a kid then, you didn’t have to worry about them. Also, there weren’t several 24-hour news channels sensationalizing every crime that happens around the world for days on end, making everyone paranoid like today.
VD, Terrorism, and Political Partisianship were but a tiny shadow then of what they mutated into over the decades. As much as Nixon, Ford, and Carter failed spectacularly as Presidents I still prefer their incomptence to the utter cluelessness of the Dumbya and Obombya adminstrations. But yeah, I agree that the media as well and is a large source of said problems.
Exactly – a came with my parents to Madrid-Spain when I was 5 and didn´t know a word in spanish. We stayed for 6 years and all that time I could go out alone or with my brother of almost same age, when we were 8-9 we could take the bus to a multiplex or I could go visit a friend to play with our star wars action figures and it was 30 minutes by foot. We always went to school alone. Nowadays – I don´t know anyone who let his kids go alone to school – or from school….Different times…
Thank you! God bless the latch key generation. Different world back then in every way.
Maybe its a misquote and that’s supposed to be 4th grade?
I complained about it on the actual article, and it has been since updated to reflect their correct ages.
First world struggles
Maybe he is playing ackbar. Pull up the shot of Akbar from the most recent spot. Or maybe he is playing someone else around that command table.
Tim Rose, the original actor, is playing Ackbar. He’s already had an interview posted here.
ok good call- still- this table might hold some answers
He’s playing an X-Wing pilot. The “Table” might refer to the table read where the actors sit around and do an early read-through of the script, or it could refer to the tactical holographic command table where everyone is standing around planning an attack or watching the attack unfold. Either way, he’s an X-Wing pilot.
http://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/2015/06/exclusive-first-look-at-three-characters-from-the-force-awakens.html
He’s probably not getting pulled aside at a table read. So its more likely the tactical Holographic table like I included the picture of above and essentially was exactly was I was talking about.
Not a fan of this actor. He seems like a decent guy as a person but I really hope they cool it with the nepotism on the next episode but that doesn’t look to be the case if JGL is in it who’s a much better actor but too much of a name to not be distracting to the story no matter how small the part.
Fat Keanu Reeves
This guy’s a more expressive actor, though Keanu gets all the good parts.
Kinda thinking they both would be better switched: Give Keanu a TV Show bit-part, and let Grunberg jump onto the bus for a change.
Would definitely be entertaining.
Greg Gunberg, “the best buddy” 🙂
I thought that was Dane Cook for a sec
Yeah, it’s really tough being the director’s best friend.
Jealous much ?
Would we not be star struck?
I know I would.