KEVIN GREVIOUX: To be honest, that’s what my writing is for. I have my writing as a catharsis, for that other side of it, for the fun part. That’s why I came out here. I did not come out here to be an actor. I ended up falling into that because of the physicality that you mentioned, so it’s like, this is fun, it’s cool, and you can make decent money.

CHRIS NEUMER: We’re talking about the acting stuff.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, exactly. Why can’t I do that while I’m writing? I get better at writing, work on my craft, and it all came together with Underworld. So I was able to write myself a part and play it. Fortunately I found a good guy in Len Wiseman, who gave me the opportunity and it worked out.

CHRIS NEUMER: I liked the part about how you couldn’t make the part too big because then they would’ve brought in a rapper. As soon as you said that I tried to imagine Ludacris in the role, this wiry, skinny guy in this role, and it was kind of funny.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Exactly, and that’s what happens sometimes.

CHRIS NEUMER: That would’ve taken on a different role though.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Right. But to me, the writing is where the real moola is. So I don’t mind being typecast as an athlete. My voice may even prohibit me from doing certain kinds of roles, and as an actor you understand that. You could have a guy who’s 6’4", good looking, well-built, and he could be 42 years old, but they’re not going to cast him as a father. He doesn’t look like what America thinks a father looks like. He doesn’t have a belly, he’s not balding, there’s not gray hair.

CHRIS NEUMER: There isn’t anything wrong with that.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Hey look, I’m bald! But, they look at that as typical, so you get a guy who’s having a hard time finding work, and he’s in his 40’s, why, because they don’t see him as a father. He doesn’t look like a father he looks like he could still play the NFL. They also say he can’t be a doctor, even though, how many people that are doctors right now used to play college ball, and also, NFL ball, there are a lot of them, or at least a few. Robert Smith, who played with the Minnesota Vikings, he has his degree in chemistry.

CHRIS NEUMER: I’m sure, knowing what I know about him now, I’m sure he’s trying to create some new medication for himself that’ll make him normal. Is there ever a sense, I mean, I know screenwriting is where the real you lies, but your acting is also getting bigger, you played a character that had name this time as opposed to "thug". Kevin Grevioux poses for Terrance Gold

KEVIN GREVIOUX: (Laughs) or henchman.

CHRIS NEUMER: It seems like, and I don’t want to say you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, but you really stood out in Underworld. There’s a reason I’m here talking to you. You and Michael Sheen had a presence, and that’s something you either have or you don’t. You guys had it. Scott Speedman was good and all.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Right, he was very good.

CHRIS NEUMER: But when I think back on it, I think of Kate Beckinsdale’s pants, you and Michael Sheen.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Right. Of course I’d like to do other roles.

CHRIS NEUMER: So sort of tying the two together, I know Lisa had said you’re writing something, is it the Pale Rider?

KEVIN GREVIOUX: The Pale Horse Rider.

CHRIS NEUMER: The Pale Horse. Is there anything about that you can divulge on the record?

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Not yet. I don’t feel comfortable doing that yet, it’s not at that stage, so I have to wait on that one. But I am developing some stuff now that I’ll be acting in as well as writing and producing. That’s where the real art is, to me.

CHRIS NEUMER: Producing?

KEVIN GREVIOUX: No, writing, for me. That’s why I got into this business. So, I know I have a presence on screen, but even though it’s limited, I really don’t mind it because I get to work with so many cool people, and I’m having fun.

CHRIS NEUMER: Now I’m not asking for names here, but I just want a perspective. Are there people who you’ve met who it isn’t cool to work with? Like, if I find out he or she is working on this project, I’m not on it, I’m stepping away.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Believe me, I haven’t done a whole lot, but I have not run into that. I’ve heard of it, about a lot of that stuff, but I haven’t experienced it personally yet. I’ve had nothing but good things to say about the people I’ve worked with, it’s been really fun. But you know, there’s also a sense that when you do see people act like that, they’re under a lot of pressure, and a lot of people have been told for years, "You’re not going to make it, you’re no good," blah, blah, blah. Things you probably didn’t hear, so it’s like, "What are you going to say now?" Sometimes people will come up to you, and they want to get with you on your side now when they weren’t there before.

CHRIS NEUMER: Oh, I can’t tell, but it’s upwards of ten now, how many times – and it only happens in LA. I’ll be introduced to a pretty good-looking girl, 20-something-year-old girl, and she’ll be looking away, and then somebody will say to her, "So did Chris tell you he writes a national film magazine?" Suddenly, she’s like, "Oh…" Keep on going baby.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: That does happen a lot.

CHRIS NEUMER: When you talk about them not being on your side, and then you start gaining some success and notoriety, and then they’re asking you what’s going on. I just remember Chris Rock’s comments, "Look at these rocks, beotch!"

KEVIN GREVIOUX: You try not to be vengeful in that way.

CHRIS NEUMER: You try? That’s funny, because I don’t think you’d ever do it.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Exactly. But there were girls you might’ve dated, and their mothers were like, "Oh, it’s a crapshoot." Then you make it, or you do something everyone sees, and with one swoop, that image onscreen, and they’re wrong, you see. It’s hard not to take a jab, but as a bigger man, you don’t do it.

CHRIS NEUMER: A bigger man, it seems like there’s a joke right there.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: (Laughs) the thing is, don’t take the bait. That’s the way you have to look at it, because there’s plenty of that.

CHRIS NEUMER: It seems like as you mature too. Not mature as a person, but mature in the industry, you keep learning how to do that more and more.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah.

CHRIS NEUMER: And sort of laughing at the people who do flip back and forth.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Exactly, and it’s sad but that’s the nature of the beast, and you have to deal with it.

CHRIS NEUMER: Might as well accept that it’s there.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, and I understand that. But it’s hard to deal with when they act like they never said those things, and they don’t realize. Well, maybe they do realize how hurtful it is. Before you come out here, it seems like such an unreachable goal or dream, that everyone says, "Yeah, ok." I told a friend of mine years ago, never tell anyone you’re doing this, and I said that because, they’re not going to understand what you’re talking about, especially if it sounds lofty. And then, he went ahead and did it, and of course, they said, "Oh yeah right, whatever, keep dreaming."

CHRIS NEUMER: His name was George, right? Kevin Grevioux poses for Terrance Gold

KEVIN GREVIOUX: (Laughs) "Keep Dreaming," people don’t realize how painful that is. But when you make it, then all of a sudden they act like they never said that.

CHRIS NEUMER: Or they rationalize that they said it because it was in your best interest.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, exactly. It’s like, how do you know what’s in my best interest?

CHRIS NEUMER: Now, you’d mentioned this earlier, and you’d said that you had a goal in mind. I came back to this, because you mentioned that you’re not supposed to tell anyone your dreams, which I also assume are your goals. You said you had one major goal that you were working towards. Without fear of me laughing at you, or telling you to get out of here, what is this goal that you’re driving towards?

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Just to be able to tell good stories, and have them reach the screen, that’s my goal. A lot of that was reached with Underworld, but I want to be able to do more of that, I want to be a creative force. I guess if I had to hold someone in high esteem it would have to be George Lucas.

CHRIS NEUMER: Circa 1981?

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Whatever the case may be, he has still influenced. There’s George Lucas, Spielberg and Stanley, and those guys are creative fantasy forces. You would be hard pressed to find guys who have done what they have done, not only in terms of what they have created, but what it has meant to the culture, and that’s difficult.

CHRIS NEUMER: George Lucas pained more people from 1989 on than any other film maker at all.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: But you know what, man, you can’t judge the guy. I’m not going to judge him on his recent work.

CHRIS NEUMER: Well, let’s go ’86 and say Howard the Duck, or ’84.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: But what does Star Wars mean to us? I’m going to say us.

CHRIS NEUMER: Well, I’ll grant you that, because it means so much to us, and the new ones have landed with such a resounding clunk.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah.

CHRIS NEUMER: I think that if we didn’t care, if we were just like, "Well, I don’t care what you’re doing," then I’d probably go ahead and do that.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, man, but they were so fun.

CHRIS NEUMER: They were, the first –

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Three.

CHRIS NEUMER: Two and a half? Wow, we’re on the same page.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, but still, I just thought they were great. And then Spielberg, and maybe I shouldn’t say this, but I actually liked Close Encounters more than Star Wars. That affected me more, I was like, "This is crazy!" This is cool, I mean even the aliens, looking at them, I thought they were great, they were crazy. I loved that stuff. And with Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark, that was just a bomb movie.

CHRIS NEUMER: Let me ask you this off-topic. You’re a science guy, you’re a Sci-Fi guy. You mentioned the aliens in Close Encounters. Do you ever find that all interpretation of aliens are always in the same kind of human form, only their heads are a little bigger, their eyes are a little bigger?

KEVIN GREVIOUX: By that, do you mean humanoid, or like Star Trek, or do you mean the alien grey types?

CHRIS NEUMER: I mean they have the same basic body shape as most people. I majored in Anthropology; you see how close I came to that. But when you take a look at the evolution of things, you’ve got weird fish that shoot things out of their foreheads, and it all basically came from the same one cell, and branches off in all these different places. I always find it interesting that you have this alien from another planet, a different environment, with different needs, yet it looks surprisingly like a humanoid from here, it even has four or five fingers. The first time you come up with an alien, like in the Abyss, for example, I’ll give Cameron credit for that, it’s not exactly a form, but it’s more of a whisper, a cloud, or something like that.

KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, right. But you know what, it is hard to get people to buy into that stuff, visually.

CHRIS NEUMER: The reason why is extremely obvious.