CHRIS NEUMER: With Tim Burton, it’s all up in his head. He’s one of those directors who not only has a strange thing going on up there, but he’s able to tap into it and bring it out and onto the page, and it actually translates onto the screen.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Exactly, and I like that.
CHRIS NEUMER: You mentioned a commercial you were in, in the car, and I was curious to know: it seems to me outside of the political correctness of the plight of the gorilla, there seems like there are certain people, and I should call up Johnny Cochrane, I’m sure he can do something with it, but were there any of your friends who called you up and made fun of you, a little bit of ribbing for playing the gorilla?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: (Laughs) No, not all. Most people are enamored with the film industry, so anything you do, it’s a role, it’s fun. Now, I’m sure that if I did something offensive, they’d say something against that, like if I was the guy picking up elephant doo-doo behind the circus train, I’m sure they’d say something about that. But everyone loves it, their first questions was, was it hot underneath all that makeup? Or, how was it working with Tim Burton? Or, I sound like Michael Clark Duncan and he sounds like me. Or, how was Mark Wahlberg?
CHRIS NEUMER: Now I’m trying to think of Tiny Lister talk, and I can’t even think of his voice. Do you guys ever get together, all the big black guys? There’s probably five of you guys.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Well, here’s what happens. We mostly know each other, because we used to all audition together. So I’ve seen Terry before, Tiny Lister on things, you know you see a lot of those guys, so you know them from the industry. So it’s pretty cool.
CHRIS NEUMER: How often does it happen that someone comes up to you and says, "Oh, you were so great in the Green Mile," and you keep on walking.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: You know what, that’s only happened one time. Like I said, I’m only 6’2"; I’m not as big as Michael. So they might say, like you say, somehow I thought you’d be bigger. So, they’re kind of used to that, so they don’t expect Michael to be as big as he actually is. But he is big; he’s 6’5". So he’s a legitimately big guy.
CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah. It also seems like it taps into something, I was thinking of the perception of you. You’re huge. My biceps are living vicariously through your wrists. I admire what you have done, creating, literally, your body of work, because there’s no way in hell I could ever do it. I’ve got long 36 inch, lanky arms, and I can’t do anything with them. But I was curious to know, you’ve got this deep voice, hearty laugh, you’re this big strapping guy. It seems like there would be a perception of you that’s incredibly different from the real you.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: I guess there is, but I get that a lot, that comes with the territory. When I was working with a microbiologist at NIH, here I have my degree in Microbiology, and I am under a hood looking at cells and someone will come in and say, why aren’t you playing football? It’s like, I have a degree. Obviously I’m academically oriented.
CHRIS NEUMER: Did you ever play football?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, but I never played past high school, and I entered college only weighing 165 pounds.
CHRIS NEUMER: Wow.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: (Laughs) Yeah, so I got a growth spurt and gained 50 pounds of muscle.
CHRIS NEUMER: Ok, what happens when that happens in baseball, I’ll tell you I know what you were doing in the locker now. What was the motivation for you to keep yourself going?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: If I were to be a skeptic, I’m still always going to keep in shape.
CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah, well there’s in shape and then there’s you.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: But I’m not that big though.
CHRIS NEUMER: Oh come on.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: I’m not though.
CHRIS NEUMER: What do you bench now?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: That’s hard. The most I’ve ever benched is 420 or something. But I wasn’t doing it for football, I was doing it for my own personal gratification, and because I could.
CHRIS NEUMER: Gotcha.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: So now, I don’t bench too much anymore. There was a time I worked out recently relatively regularly, and I benched 375 pounds, but why?
CHRIS NEUMER: If you’re ever trapped under a car, you’re going to be ok.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: But if I’m not playing football for the Minnesota Vikings, so why? So that’s my whole thing. Also, it’s part of being a kid, what kid reading comic books doesn’t want to be a big, strong superhero?
CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah, but with superheroes the muscles are in the suits. I’m trying to figure out what the most I’ve ever benched is. Now the bar is 45 pounds. I played Division 3 for college basketball, and during that time I must’ve benched 145 pounds, the most in my life, period. I know I killed myself doing that, and you’ve done three times that, I think?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, but I was a growing boy.
CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah, I’m just giving you a little bit of a hard time.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: That’s all right.
CHRIS NEUMER: I was also wondering, sort of going along with the perception of you, in the other world you’re probably a bad ass. When you’re out there, and you pull those things out of your chest, and they digitally altered your voice slightly, didn’t they?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: No, not at all.
CHRIS NEUMER: No? Wow, I thought there was at least a little bit of digital altering.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: People say that too, and I wonder why? I have no idea why.
CHRIS NEUMER: I was just trying to think, what if you took that persona that you bring forth onscreen and applied that to getting a table in a restaurant.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: I’d get shot, or they’d call the police. You’re supposed to pick up guys like that. When I used to work as a bouncer in a nightclub, you would have mostly problems with the little guys, more so than the big guys.
CHRIS NEUMER: I read in another interview you did that you didn’t necessarily mind being typecast. So then I started wondering about this. It seems as though whatever you’ve been typecast as has been contained within a relatively small opening. What do you think is the next step for you where you sort of break out a little bit from the mold? Where do you go from here?
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.
