Interview: Frank Grillo Opens Up on Long Gone Heroes’ Hectic Yet Rewarding Filming

ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke to Long Gone Heroes star Frank Grillo about the action movie. Grillo was full of praise for director John Swab and also spoke about the film’s hectic filming, the DC Universe, and more. Long Gone Heroes is now available in theaters, on-demand, and digitally.

“Gunner, a special forces soldier who has witnessed the darkest side of country and combat, is forced back into the field of battle to save his niece, who is being held in South America. As the fight intensifies, Gunner and his team discover that her disappearance is part of a corrupt private operation that hits way too close to home. Acclaimed actors Andy Garcia, Melissa Leo, Josh Hutcherson, and Frank Grillo star in a non-stop action thriller that will leave you breathless,” says the synopsis.

Tyler Treese: Frank, congrats on Long Gone Heroes. I really enjoyed the film. I talked to director John Swab, and he said that you were the one that got him involved. I know you guys had worked together before, but why was he your choice here? You made a really excellent one.

Frank Grillo: John Swab and I have done five movies together. I’ve done most of his movies. He was my choice because I just knew that he could balance what needed to be executed with action as well as make this story strong. We reworked the script.

The movie went down for a while in Puerto Rico, and we came back to Columbia four months later. John had done an amazing job getting this thing to a place where we could get it over the goal line. It was a huge effort on his part to get this movie to become a movie. That’s why I chose John, because I knew, given the difficulty, that it was he who could do it.

I was shocked when he told me about all the turmoil behind the scenes because I had never noticed watching the film. He was telling me that like he was rewriting some scenes the day of shooting. As an actor, how was it like doing these things on the fly? That’s a challenge for everybody, but it speaks to your ability.

That’s why you need to be prepared, brother. That’s why you need to know your character. That’s why you need to understand the circumstances. We were doing it together. Like we would be at night going, “Okay, this isn’t working. Because that part of the movie doesn’t, we’re not in Puerto Rico anymore. We’re in Columbia. We gotta fix this. We gotta make it all kind of work,” right? So we’d be working at night, we’d be changing dialogue at night, giving the other actors dialogue.

We’d show up, and it was like real guerrilla filmmaking because we didn’t have a lot of time, and we didn’t know if it was gonna get shut down again. So we all just came together. Sometimes you catch magic, lightning in a bottle, that way, where all of the other stuff goes away because you’re so focused on executing. Because all the nerves and all the fears and all the worry about, “Are we doing this right?” It goes away. You don’t have time to worry about it. Then whatever the result is, it’s real, you know?

You’ve been in so many films, and you’re so active. It sounds like having a sort of wild shoot like this was kind of reinvigorating in a way for you.

Well, it’s funny you say that. Because [John] and I were just talking, he’s here meeting with the big agents and stuff. He’s about to go to the next level.

There are two other times when I made a movie like this. One was The Grey with Joe Carnahan, and I made a movie called Warrior with Gavin O’Connor. Both those movies had their own problems, but because of those problems, we were so together and as a unit that as a group of people, after we talked about it, I was like, I miss that. I miss that creative comradery, where you’re just so hyper-focused on doing it. It’s a rare thing. Sometimes you have too much time. In this, we didn’t. God bless John Swab because I think people should know the backstory of the movie, and based on the obstacles that he had, him and Kevin Hale, who edited the movie, did an amazing job.

In the film, you’re rescuing your niece, and your character just wants to get her out of there. Her character’s more of an idealist. There’s this really interesting ideological clash where she really wants to do better by those people and leave the place better. We see your character really changes because of that. What did you like most about that element? Because I came into this film just expecting some good action, which it has, and then it had like a really meaningful story, and I was very pleasantly surprised by it.

I appreciate you saying that. I come from a generation, I have young sons [and] their ideals are a bit different than mine, and they see the world differently than me. Slowly I’ve come onto their side, and it’s very similar to this, where this young lady who believes in something far more than me. In the beginning I say, “Look, I don’t care about Venezuelans, I don’t care about Russians. I don’t even watch CNN. I’m here to do a job to get my niece out and get her home safely.” That was kind of my throughline.

But little by little watching her, and even when she gets the video back, she doesn’t know what she’s gonna do. She’s struggling with right or wrong. I’m glad you picked up on that because it’s not just an action movie. It’s about human beings and it’s about generational differences too. It’s a big thing what’s going on in our world now, especially as we’re entering this election; you see generational differences in ideologies and why somebody wants one person, and somebody might want another person. I think it’s important that we kind of explore that.

You’re one of the busiest actors I see. I feel like I see you in movies more than I see my family sometimes.

I need to stop [laughs].

You actually have two films coming out on the same day. Hounds of War is also coming out. That’s really wild.

You know, there are 365 days in a year, and that’s a movie that had its own problems. I wasn’t happy with it. I think the director just failed me, anyway. It was made years ago, it’s been sitting for two and a half, three years, and they actually released it on the same day as Long Gone Heroes. So that’s my luck [laughs].

I haven’t seen that, but you at least have one very good film coming out with Long Gone Heroes.

Thank you, brother. Thank you.

A lot of the actors that I’ve talked to that stay as busy as you all have the same throughline — they all did soap opera work. I find that so fascinating. What do you think about your time on Guiding Light really helped you moving forward? Because it seems to just instill this work ethic on everybody that like comes from soaps.

Yeah. You know, a lot of people come from soaps. It’s so funny, I posted something from soaps today. Listen, it’s a script a day. What it taught me was to be diligent with my preparation. It’s a script every day. At one point, myself and my ex-wife, Wendy Moniz, we were front and center. We were like the couple on Guiding Light, and we worked every day. We were in a lot of scenes, and we had to show up every day prepared. So you went to work and then went home and worked. That taught me a lot about, not a lot about acting, but a lot about the discipline of acting and what you need to do for people to believe you, which is the basis of being a decent actor, it is being believable.

So, I used to hate. I used to say, “Oh, it’s on a soap opera…” So many amazing people from, from Julianne Moore to Kevin Bacon, the list goes on and on and on. My buddy, Derek Dillahunt, who’s a phenomenal actor. Soaps were just the opportunity that I had at the time, and they had at the time. What actors need to act, and I’m very grateful for Guiding Light. I’m super grateful to have had that opportunity.

You’ve got the DCU coming out, which is so exciting. What’s really cool about that animation, live-action, video games, you’re gonna be playing this character throughout all of them. What about that multimedia aspect really excites you?

It excites me. I can’t even tell you how.I have a 16-year-old son who is super, super involved in everything superheroes. I mean it, and to see his face light up, to understand what it means to him, and what the opportunity that James Gunn and Peter Safran have given me to kind of be a throughline throughout the whole DC universe, much like a Sam Jackson in the Marvel Universe, and the opportunity he’s giving every actor, if you’re doing it in the animated, you’re gonna be doing it in the live-action. It’s one actor that the audience gets to attach to. I think it’s brilliant. I think it’s phenomenal, and the fact that they called me to come and do this… I mean, I’m humbled. I’m grateful. I hope to be with them for a long, long time.

Last question, I saw you trained under Rickson Gracie, and you’re a Brown Belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Do you still roll? I was just very curious about that.

I don’t roll very often anymore, only because I have a pretty bad knee. One of my best friends is Rigan Machado, who’s also up there with Rickson [and is] Rickson’s cousin. I sometimes roll when it’s really controlled, and I have high-level guys to roll with, but mostly every day, I box. I do a lot of boxing training and a lot of strength and conditioning with Justin Fortune, my guy. I think I’m fitter now than I’ve ever been.

Thanks to Frank Grillo for taking the time to talk about Long Gone Heroes.