You're listening to the Staffa Corner Podcast, a Staffatarian look at entertainment and life with your host, greg Staffa. I guess this episode is talented actor Greg Hill. Greg was last seen as Pete in the near-future war, epic Civil War, and he can be next seen in the movie Afraid, which is an AI thriller from Blumhouse Coming out in theaters August 30th. So it just came out. Greg, thanks for joining us. Oh, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. So you grew up in Southern California, correct?

Yeah, I was born in Orange and then moved to Marino Valley and then when I was in my junior high years in high school I was in Corona and then from there I kind of moved out of state a couple times but uh, that's been my home base for the most part you always hear the story that you know.

Every waiter is an actor. Every, every little job is someone that's actually an actor. They're just doing a side job. What is it like growing up in that kind of environment where the industry is so predominant there? Is that something that's always kind of in your back of your head, like I'm gonna grow up to be an actor, or are you so deep in it that it just doesn't really register?

well, I think in my experience because I was living in corona, which is about I don't know, two hours drive from los angeles but it might as well be a another state, just because of how different both the inland empire and los ang is it seemed like kind of a far reach. But when I was very young I was exposed to some films that really moved me and I identified with some actors and always wanted to kind of pursue it. So the biggest kind of challenge for me was always the commute of you know my like 19, 20 years old I was, I was, I was doing a lot of music videos and stuff roles in that, and then I did one music video in particular where I realized I wanted to actually act. But then I kind of self-sabotaged a lot, so I guess it was always in the back of my mind. It's just, uh, I needed a swift kick in the you know the butt to kind of get to the point to where I was like ready to really pursue it and what is it?

I mean the swift kick. Is that just to get motivated to do auditions? What? What kind of kick did you need to to do?

my daughter had been born and she was a year old and I was going through a divorce. I had a director friend who I made a couple movies with and he kept asking me why don't you move in with me? He lived in a small studio apartment and I was talking to my mom and I told her because I had gone back and forth from originally. I wanted to be in a band and be like a songwriter, because I started playing guitar when I was 12 and it kind of saved me. But I kept going back between acting and music, back and forth.

One day I went over to my mom's house I told her I think I'm gonna move to LA and pursue acting. She got real stern with me. She kind of she just point blank said shit or get off the pot, you keep doing this. If you're gonna do it, if you're gonna go to LA, you better really go for it.

And that kind of drove me and I knew that there wasn't going to be a lot of people on the sidelines because I had a you know, a fresh kid and I was going through a divorce and everything that we're going to be like yeah, yeah, not that my parents weren't supportive, but there was going to be more kind of doubt with people of me being able to get jobs that paid than there was people thinking that I could, and so that kind of made me determined to. And I just went to Glendale and lived with my buddy and I hit the ground running. I started with backstage and I just went to Glendale and lived with my buddy and I hit the ground running. I started with backstage and I just got. I just applied, applied, applied, auditioned so many times and then just started started doing work for free and then getting paid a little bit of money on non-union projects and then that led to me booking the movie.

That kind of changed things for me. Looking back, do you see the kick as being warranted and needed, or just an added incentive to do something?

I think it was because I was kind of indecisive, I was very afraid of failure. That motivated me to kind of of. It was like a reality check, you know what I mean? Like I gotta do something because I was acting when I was younger and then I got derailed by all these different things I wanted to do. But I think that it was all an avoidance of really pursuing what I loved. Like I was a drug and alcohol counselor for a while and I thought, oh, this is really my purpose and it was a great experience. But it wasn't really my kind of drama or whatever you know.

I mean, couldn't some of that, though, be just you finding yourself until you realized what you wanted to do and kind of grow up, or do you think you really were kind of lost?

I think I was lost and I think most of my my youth, like in my 20s, I was just floundering around, not really taking anything seriously, and I I have friends who I've known for a long time and in their early 20s you know, I'm a decade older than them they were so like responsible with their work ethic and and I had jobs where I I worked hard and some of them really were kind of really tough jobs. But but as far as pursuing my passion, I was just plundering a lot of my life. And I guess what I will say is when I, when my daughter was born that born that was like a huge eye-opening, my life changed in so many ways because it was finally like, oh my God, I got this person that's going to be relying on me for their protection and to eat and to all the everything. So that really was a motivator as well everything you know.

So that really was a motivator as well. So you moved in with the director, and that that can't hurt to move in with the director, who's often looking to to cast people. You've done a couple films, including your latest one, afraid, is directed by him, isn't it?

well, no, that's chris white's actually. Um, the uh. The director friend was somebody that I had met when I was living at Bend, oregon, when I was, I think, 19 or 20 years old, and we met at a party and we want we always want to make movies together. So we made this movie called the Wolf Man's Hammer years later, and the director of Afraid and Operation Finale another film I was in, the film that really got me in the union and everything Chris Weitz. He saw that movie, wolfman's Hammer, and then several years later, he cast me in Operation.

Finale Gotcha and Chris is one that really so. It helped me with the director, but this other director, Chris, is the one that really opened the door for you.

Yeah, well, the guy that I lived with, we were like at the time we were like brothers kind of, and so we just loved being around each other and talking about film and music and we kind of geeked out on it. But Chris was the one that kind of changed things for me in a big way, because out of the blue I got a call from the guy I was living with and he said, hey, you know, chris, he wants you to audition for this movie he's doing. And then Chris eventually reached out to me and then AB Kaufman was the one casting the movie. She's legendary. I auditioned for one role and then they asked me to audition for a different role, which was kind of a bigger part. And then I found out I got it and next thing I know I'm in Argentina for two and a half months filming this film with Oscar Isaac and Ben Kingsley and Nick Kroll and all these guys.

What is that like coming in as a relatively we've done a lot of stuff but as a relatively newcomer to come in and work with them? Are you able to get to know them and learn from them? Or is this just a job where they're your co-workers and you're doing your thing and he's doing their thing? Is there much mentoring that happens for new actors when they're put up against someone like an Oscar Isaacs or a Sir Ben Kingsley?

It's kind of a bit of both. There's one aspect of it where you're in the big leagues, kid, you better be able to perform. You're in the big leagues, kid, you better be able to perform. And you feel this pressure of like I have everything to lose here because I've got to prove myself, because I've never played on a professional field before with the big players. But then also some of the actors can be very kind and kind of like this, this one actor, michael Aronoff.

We were at the table reading and he could see that he said he saw my hand was trembling because I was. You know, there was studio executives and Ben Kingsley was three chairs over from me and I'm, and so he kind of like took me under his wing, and not in a way where he was trying to give me advice, but it's in a way that we, we hung out, we became fast friends and we respected each other when we watched each other work, and so that formed a bond. And he was way more experienced than me because he had just come off of winning a tony um for a broadway play. He was doing so. And then there was one time in particular too, like I remember, if you don't mind telling me. Like this little anecdote that kind of I think kind of sums up this kind of thing.

Like I didn't want to wear a certain shirt because I didn't think it was right for my character at the part in the particular scene we were doing. I wanted to keep my shirt on and wardrobe wanted to change me and I kind of went up to Oscar and I said, hey, I don't really want to change this shirt, but they're telling me. I got to and he is like hey, come with me. And he went and he told wardrobe he's going to wear this shirt, whatever, you know, he had so much authority on that set and I always thought that was such an amazing gesture for him to do and so those kinds of things are, you know, really helpful.

And then before I did that film, I was doing a like a non-union short film by an 18 year old kid whose parents were producing it making $50 a day, where they fed us pizza and it was in a Chuck E Cheese alley. And then I went from that to Operation Finale. So I was talking to one of my actor friends and I said I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm so terrified of going and doing this, and he just said to me me, you'll rise to the occasion. And I think that at the end of the day, that's what happens you just kind of rise to the occasion.

I think that's one of the things that's so interesting about hollywood is, like I'll remember, like I've been a dumb tv critic since about 2012 and I remember early reviews where I've said, you know, oh, I love when, when this guy writes an episode, or I love, you know when he, he takes over an episode and writes it, and then you know, four years later I'll get a message from them saying, hey, I'm directing now, or I'm a show runner, and you know, just because you're in a back alley, you know filming outside of a Chuck E Cheese, you know, five years from now, you never know what that director is going to become.

And I think it's amazing to see kind of that evolution of actors to directors or directors to directing bigger things. It's Hollywood. You get what you put into it. And just because you're shooting in an alley, you know, outside of chucky t's, one week, next week, you're standing next to astor isaac talking about shirts. I think that's what makes hollywood so great is. I think a lot of it comes down to work ethic and how you treat the people around you. It sounds like that's kind of.

That's so true, that's so true. And the thing is, every time I did a project like that, where I was, you know, I had no arrogance about it, like I didn't think I was above it or anything. I learned so much doing those types of projects. And there have been a couple directors who are kind of doing bigger stuff that have reached out to me that I have either worked with in the past or, you know, was going to work with, and now they have, like a budget to do something.

So you're, what you're saying is 100, spot on you know, sounds like as much as there's a casting process. There's also kind of a network of people know what kind of work ethic people have and it it gets around, I think that's one of the things around, I think that's one of the things.

Yeah, sorry.

I think that's one of the cool things about Hollywood is that you know the good, like you said. I think you said the good kind of bubbles up to the top, and I think that's very true and it sounds like that's the kind of work ethic that you're bringing into these things and it's starting to pay off into these things and it's starting to pay off.

Well, I just try to. I try to treat everybody on set, no matter what their job is, as an equal. You know, I, I, uh, I've seen a couple times where people don't do that and they have a lot of arrogance about them and treat people like like they're below them, and it really turns me off, and so I just try to be nice to everybody and I realized that there a lot of the crew is there. They just bust in their ass just Doing physical labor. That you know, and I'm sitting here I get so we as actors a lot of times I think we forget that we're just a spoke in this giant wheel, you know.

Yeah, and I mean it's always interesting because you might not have liked your shirt but the director or someone might have had another opinion of why the shirt stays on. But I think it's cool that you were able to bring it up and address it and you saw it in your character character and so therefore it should stay. I think that's a, that's a kind of a cool, that's a cool story, you know an oscar.

We were like part of this massad group that was going down to to argentina to capture, uh, adolf eichmann, which sir ben kingsley played, and at that point point we had been working together a lot. I had a pretty big part in that movie, so by that we had like a camaraderie. I always remember Oscar having my back on that and it was like a big lesson to me. Okay, that I've got to be this way. Listen to me. Okay, that I've got to be this way. If I ever get the opportunity to get to that level which I hope I do one day that I'll take care of the company that's with me, you know.

You have two daughters, correct? Yes, are any of those interacting or see what you do? Do you do many roles that your kids can see? Are they old enough?

I think with afraid. Um, I think my, my wife doesn't want one of them. One of them is by marriage and I don't think she wants her to see it, but I I believe the movie's rated pg-13. And my, my other daughter, she's really into film and her favorite movie is Beetlejuice and she got to go on set we were doing reshoots and Chris was so kind and he showed her the uh, the soundstage, the green screen, all kind of give her a tour. She thought it was the coolest thing in the world and she always talks about how she wants to be a director, and did that make you the coolest dad in the world for at least a day?

I don't think any parent that does what I do. I don't think any of their kids are like you know.

Maybe they don't show it Well, but you got at least a range for it. Her dad came through for at least a day. You must have been a hero, at least that day for having the stream.

Yeah, she thought it was really cool. She thought it was really cool but at the end of the day, I think a lot of times your kids aren't as impressed as you thought they would be before you had them. No, now does she? I mean they love it, but I mean so honest with everything.

Is she more interested in being behind the camera or in front of the camera?

She says she either wants to be a director or an actor. But I know she only says she wants to be an actor because she thinks it's cool that I'm an actor. I think that she's got a really good eye for for that and she's very creative and she, she does art, that's like storyboarding and stuff, and she's a very visual person. I think that she'd make it. Uh, she's very creative and she's into like the goth dark, like stuff. So, and then the daughter I'll go a little bit more into just ballet and stuff like that.

You are a painter, a writer, a musician. Is it her own thing that she took on?

I think she got a lot. I can't take credit for it I don't think 100%, but she fascinates me. She's really creative. I mean she started reading when she was like four like reading at a high level and stuff. And she's a very creative person, reads a lot of books and draws and makes these videos and always wants to make these little movies with me on the phone and stuff. And then she's fascinated with the guitar too. She took my guitar into her room yesterday and was just strumming on it for like two hours. She's a very curious kid who's interested in a lot of stuff.

I don't have kids of my own, but I think parents in general often don't realize how much their kids are watching them and absorbing their talents, their mannerisms, but also some of their passions.

Yeah. I think it's the same with the bad stuff too.

Yeah, but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of it is because of your work, that she's I don't want to say mimicking, but finding that passion, because she sees it in you and that's your passion. So I think that's great. One of the things I read about you is you often and I don't know if this is true or not, but you often like going for drives and having debates with yourself.

I think I said that in an interview when I was doing the run for Civil War. Yeah, I kind of whenever I have to drive because I again about my daughter, she lives about 30 minutes away and so I'll pick her up from school and sometimes there's traffic and it can be a long drive and in the past I would just get in my car and drive around to clear my mind. But some of the thoughts in my head I just kind of come up with an idea or a question and then kind of debate back and forth Like, well, you know, just breaking the stuff down. I think a lot of people have, most people have an inner monologue and I think most of the time with myself, with that inner monologue it's just like trying to figure out exactly what any particular thing is and what the essence of it is. I don't know if that makes sense or anything. No, it does.

I think it does. I think it's unfortunate that too many of us these days are so set in our beliefs and our mindset that we don't have that conversation with even ourselves to say how can I, what ways can I look at something in a different perspective? And I still might not agree with it, but it helps me understand it and I think I was very interested in that quote with that interview, just because I think more people need to have that and it doesn't mean you're going to switch your opinion, but I think more of us need to take that pause and go help me better understand where that person is coming from. I might not agree with it and I might not change my mind, but at least I'll better understand that person. I mean, especially in politics these days, I think if we just paused and said you know, I don't like your candidate, I don't like your beliefs, but help me better understand why you do.

Yeah, it's the type of thing where, growing up and even now, a lot of people that are older than me, it seems to be that not everyone, but a lot of people I run across are really stuck in their ways and think at a certain point in their life, a lot of times, I think, after they have kids especially, they're like this is what I know, and I know it, and it's the truth, and I don't have room for anything else, and so I think that the more you know, the less you know, because if you keep trying to discover different ideas or different philosophies, every time you question something, it opens up a world of possibility to what there could be, and that's what I'm really into, and I'm really fortunate to have a wife that is of the same mind, and we'll just talk for hours about just questioning things.

Does being an actor help with? That just questioning things. Does being an actor help with that, because you're often asked to take on a role that might not fully fit with who you are as a person or some of the beliefs that you have as Greg, but you have to portray that. Does taking on a role and understanding your character help with that kind of understanding of people and understanding of real life situations like that?

yeah, sometimes there's a role, there's a, there's a guy where it's the type of situation where you have a direct in like what I? I only speak for myself, I'm not speaking for anybody else, but I only speak for myself. I'm not speaking for anybody else, but for myself. It's like I know this guy and so at that point it's just a matter of the logistics, of the little details of things. But other times it's not so much. It's kind of more distant from you, and so then you've got to kind of find your way in and you could.

I read this story. I heard this story about Gary Oldman how when he was doing this movie, he had kind of longer hair and he was trying to find the character and he was kind of stuck at one point but his hair was real wet and at one he kind of threw his head back real quick and his hair kind of messed around and he goes oh my God, that's the guy. And then when you watch the film it could be so many different things. That gives you a way into the person, and I never try to judge any character that I'm playing, because people at the end of the day I feel like are just making choices, and that's the way I try to perceive my, you know, character.

Sure, now you've done some tv as well episodes here and there. Looks like your biggest or longest episode streak was with sneaky pete, which is a series I really enjoyed. What was it like working on that?

I.

I think if you watch the episodes I'm in, if you would have, you know, went to the bathroom, you would have missed me because I was kind of like a glorified extra in that, and by that I mean I was getting you know the rate that a day player I wasn't a day player, it was like a day player rate but I had like four episodes and they only included me in three, I think no, but I only had one line in the whole thing and that whole experience is a lot different than, for instance, civil War, because you can kind of tell that it's kind of a job.

That it's kind of a job you know and I don't want to talk disparagingly about anybody who does you know series, because there are really good ones and I'm sure they put a lot of effort and treat it very seriously I know they do. But but that to me kind of seemed more like, okay, I'm just kind of clocking in, clocking out, I'm doing my best. But I just spent a lot of time with the other actor I was with in our trailers and in the car, but it was a great gig because we didn't have any really heavy lifting and we were getting paid for it.

Sometimes it's just about paying the bills, is there? So tv isn't something that you kind of lean towards, or if you had the right role you would take it, but for now you're mostly sticking with films that well.

To me when I was a kid, the dream was to be a film actor. Sometimes you can't really control what you have the opportunity to do, and every opportunity is a great opportunity in this field. But if I had my druthers, I would just do film. That, to me, is the most pure medium, in my opinion, just for my sensibilities. Sure, I grew up watching film, movies like East of Eden, on the Waterfront, all those films and I just remember being very young and thinking that's what I want to do. I want to be in that kind of medium where it's two, two and a half hours, whatever it is. Tell a narrative story that way.

Sure, it is interesting with streaming and stuff. Now it used to be. One was a movie star, one was a TV actor, and now we're seeing people like Harrison Ford. Who would have thought Harrison Ford would be on season two of a show, him being in a regular show, and streaming has really changed the game for that. So I find that interesting. So August 30th just hit your movie just is premiering. Tell us a little bit about Afraid.

So I think it was 2019 or 20, and I had already done the movie Operation Canali with Chris and I was living in Redona Beach and I texted him and I said, you know I haven't spoken to him in a while and I said, hey, are you working on anything?

And he said, yeah, I'm kind of writing a movie about the dangers of technology I'm gonna try to pitch to blumhouse, which I don't think chris needs to pitch anything to anybody. But and I I was like okay, and I started so when I kind of checked in with him every six months, I'm like, how's that script script going? Like, uh, because I, I wanted to be in whatever he was making next, and then he goes, oh, there might be a role in it for you. And then I didn't hear anything for um, a couple years and then my manager called me and said, oh, yeah, uh, they want you to be in this movie. You know chris is making it, but really it's just about how I think. I think for me it's type of thing where, uh, we are giving so much away for convenience to technology and I see it starting to turn against us and I believe that the movie is kind of a cautionary tale in regards to that.

It is. I mean, it is fascinating. Just the other day I was bored and one of my apps that I have as like an AI feature and I just put, tell me about Greg Staffa, tell me about me. And it wrote like a six paragraph, beautifully written, in like two seconds, and it had all my information and Greg's done this and he's done that. And I'm like, wow, wow, this Greg guy sounds fascinating and it's all about me, it was all correct, it was all I mean just, but in two seconds he was able to like lay that out and have all that information at his fingertips and just fill in gaps of things and make it sound and just like holy cow, if it can do that, what else can it? Can it do?

yeah, and and I know I know some people personally who's lost their, their jobs or lost a lot of clients uh, particularly writers, and uh, just because it went from like, for instance, with uh copyright or copyright or like SEO and stuff like that with website content used to be like tell me about this kind of jewelry, and then all you've got to do is go in and edit it, and it doesn't take a writer who's honed their skills to be able to edit it to make it sound somewhat like it was written from a human, from a human. So they go. Let's just get rid of our, our writing writers that are freelance writers that we have and we'll save money on that. We'll just use this app that costs us, you know what? Like five to $24 a month.

And then um, and then obviously there was the whole strike that was, you know people are worried about, you know the actor, and then the actors being used and stuff, and then the whole terrifying thing to me is the self-replicate aspect of it. I don't know the whole thing is. We're living in a very interesting time.

Part of me is fascinated by it. Part of me thinks it'll be a fad. But after a while we're going to miss. When something's written by a real human with real emotion, with real life experiences, talking about something I just think AI is, my hope is that it can never fully replicate and it can never fully replicate, and after a while we're just going to say, you know, I miss hearing a human's voice.

How a human views something, how a human writes about, you know, the sky, I mean, because AI can write about the sky and stuff like that, but to have like a musician or a writer or a songwriter write about it, I think there's going to be a clamoring for hearing that voice still, and so my hope is that we don't fully kind of get into it where it's all just sexual manipulation, but it's, the voice is still desired yeah, the voice is the most important thing, I think, in my opinion of like there was this drive-through I was going through where it started to use, uh, an automated system where it was like a robot talking to you and and you would, you'd pull up and it's like got this weird.

It just was a weird experience and every time I went there it was really strange because certain things just couldn't get right. And then eventually, when I went back after several months, it went back to the human working the you know the register and asking you what you wanted to eat and everything. So I hope on a large scale, like like you kind of pointed out, that that's what happens, that we just figure out. Okay, the robots will never take over. The government's never going to be able to. Anytime you go to a government website, I mean, we all know how much of a they just just know what. Every time I go there, I think they're never going to be able to take over because it's just they can't even get this right.

You know, well, I had a. This is my night job or my weekend or whatever job, but I have a day job that kind of pays the bills, or right now I'm looking for one, and I just had a job interview. That was an AI job interview. I'm like, is this AI going to really tell this employer, you know, hey, this is going to be a good candidate or not? Or is it just looking for and after a while they're going to say you know, are we hiring the right people based on what this AI is telling us, or do we need to put someone back in there to find the human candidates that work with other humans? So I'm curious about it. So, other than having a friend that directed it for you, what drew you to the role?

I read the script and Chris is an amazing writer and I loved working with him on the previous movie.

But the thing about the script that was really cool is that in the beginning it was just this one scene that uh, myself and the person that plays my wife was going to be in, and it was a little bit politically driven, like uh, they were like a Q and on type type thing.

And then with the rewrites it became less and less about that and then he added the uh, a scene in the beginning where something happens with our daughter and at that point I go, oh my god, this is just about like my, my guy. It's about him starting off at one place where he's got this like kind of upper middle class life and kind of sucked into the whole scrolling thing on on the social media and stuff. But they have a good life and then and he's clean cut and then when this thing happens with his daughter, he kind of sends him into this thing where he just needs to find his daughter. So when it, when the rewrites, happen, and then we got the, the final version of what it was going to be. That really turned me on to the character and to the story because I think any parent can identify with that Wow.

So that's out now. It just came out August 30th. What else can fans of yours look forward to? Seeing you in the near future?

There's a couple of projects that I'm talking to some directors about, and I'm currently writing something that I want to hopefully get developed, but I don't have anything that has a release date or anything. It's just stuff in development, really.

And the writing. Is that something that you're hoping to balance with the acting, or is that something that's much lower on the scale? Or how does the? How does the painting and the writing? The musician, the actor, how does it? Painting and the writing? The musician, the actor, how does it balance out? Well?

I think it's all the same like expression and um, but really it's my wife that's doing the bulk of the writing and I'm writing a lot of the helping with a lot of the dialogue and some of the plot points and stuff, and so she's sitting at the computer typing it out and then we're kind of discussing the what should take place and everything. I, when I was younger, I used to write a lot of poetry and and and I, uh I wrote a book, but it was I don't think it was too good, but it's not something that I've really focused on and worked and put the elbow grease into. But I'd like to kind of do the gene wilder thing where you know, after a certain point, just kind of start making your uh, your own content so you have more control of the trajectory of your career well, greg.

I appreciate your time, looking forward to checking out Afraid, which is now in theaters, and wishing you the best of luck. I can't wait to see where your future takes you and what roles we'll be seeing soon.

Thank you so much for speaking with me today. I really appreciate it.

That does it for this episode. Thank you for listening to the Stafford Corner.