LOS ANGELES – Clark Gregg loves “America's Funniest Home Videos.”
The “Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D” actor's new feature film “Trust Me” takes on a what defines success and what makes up “fame”; like so many people, the man who plays Agent Coulson loves to see a man fall which — under certain circumstances — makes a person famous. It's this “sphere,” Gregg said, that piqued his curiosity, as he wrote, directed and led in the film. While any business will have you chasing a deal that's “gonna put you on the map, we have the added component of celebrity and fame” in Hollywood. “That seems to drive people a little bit more mad.”
What probaby made Gregg a little more crazy is his ambitious schedule. In the first film he directed, 2008's Chuck Palahniuk adaptation “Choke,” he shot in 25 days and acted a little. For his self-described comedy-noir “Trust Me,” that shot in 20 days and “I was in every scene.”
“I broke all my rules,” he told me during our interview.
Watch the interview above, on why he keeps working with Sam Rockwell, how his recognizeability has changed since that first “Iron Man” appearance in Marvel films as Coulson, how making movies can take away childhoods of children, and which cringe-worthy scene he watched over and over again from “Trust Me.”
“Trust Me” is in select theaters on Friday (June 6) and went to iTunes/VOD last month. It co-stars Rockwell, Amanda Peet, Felicity Huffman and Saxon Sharbino.