Several days ago, we were pleased to talk to Frank Grillo, star of Little Dixie. He told us about the movie, his career, his upcoming projects and… Charles Bronson!
A charming person we talked with, thank you, Mr Grillo!
My name is C. Sheriff, and you we’re going to talk about Little Dixie. And the first thing is we saw Little Dixie, and it’s a dark movie. It’s very special. And we would like to know, what do you think that Little Dixie has that makes it different from other thrillers you have participated in?
Frank Grillo: I’ve participated in a lot of thrillers. I don’t know that it’s entirely different, but we have a main character who really lacks a great deal of emotion. Not to say he’s emotionless, but he’s very pragmatic, and he’s very non-sentimental in the way he approaches what he has to do. He’s got a job at hand. He’s got to go get his daughter. I don’t even believe he’s saving his daughter. He’s going to get his daughter. I don’t think he ever believes that he’s not going to be able to bring her home.
Several days ago, the director of Little Dixie said that having you on the screen was like having a wild animal, like a sort of Charles Bronson, a modern Charles Bronson. Would you agree to that?
I’d be lying to you if I said it wasn’t by design because I just love Charles Bronson in every capacity, physicality, his no-nonsense approach to being on the screen and to acting and his scariness. I love it. I love being unpredictable, and I love people being a little bit on edge around me in movies like this. So I do take it as a compliment to the highest degree.
You worked with John Swab, also in Ida Red a few years ago, and in Body Brokers. What difference do you find between Little Dixie and these other two movies?
Oh, they’re entirely different. Each one of them is different. You know, Body Brokers, I was a white collar kind of scam artist. I don’t know, somewhere between Tony Robinson, Bernie Madoff and then in Idaho Red, I was just kind of like a bit of an Oklahoma gangster who was quite emotional, actually. So they’re all very different. What I love about John, he writes all different kinds of characters and tells all kinds of different stories. And he does it on a nickel. I mean, he does it for almost nothing, these movies don’t cost very much money. What he makes them look like is amazing to me.
By what we can tell, you have over ten movies to premiere, which is really incredible. And what we would like to know is what can we expect from Frank Grillo in 2023, and what can you tell your fans? What can your fans know?
Yeah. Some of those movies, I think I’m just in a cameo. I have a lot of friends that make movies, so I jumped in and out to help them out, but I have a great movie called Year Two coming out, which is about a pandemic only imagined with werewolves, which is Year Two, and I’m excited about that. One day is the The Lion that will be coming out that John Swab directed with myself and JK. Simmons. And I got a couple of other ones that are sprinkled in there that I like. Yeah. I think this year, though 2023, I’m just going to be a little more selective and maybe do a couple of movies and slow down a bit.
What else can we ask you? What attracted you about the character of Doc Alexander, who’s very kind of dark guy, and with that case in his hands that he’s carrying around? We don’t want to tell anybody anything about that, but that was really impressive.
What you would attract me to the character is that John wrote it for me. And knowing what I love most about playing certain characters and movies, he just tailored it to everything I love.
From a guy who’s very capable, just doesn’t need to say a lot of words, and kind of can move through the world with a great deal of confidence. He basically wrote the character that I would write for myself, so it was a no-brainer.
From MCM, we would like to thank Luke and Jeremy for their help.
Where to Watch Little Dixie
Now playing in select theaters, and available on digital, and on demand.
