Anna Faris is Unqualified with Frank Grillo
Anna: Okay, so I have a lot of questions for you about Hollywood.
Frank: I'm probably the least knowledgeable person but go ahead.
Anna: So you grew up in New York and then you worked on Wall Street, what —
Frank: I was a kid.
Anna: What happened? So why did you decide to move to L.A.?
Frank: Yeah, you mean and leave Wall Street?
Anna: Yeah.
Frank: It was like instead of waiting tables I was,I was a stockbroker in daytime, yeah. I never had any intention of staying there.
Anna: Well what was that like being a part of Wall Street?
Frank: It was terrible. God like it's the worst. What’s worst thing that's ever happened to you,that you've ever done? What's the worst thing you've ever had to do?
Anna: (Sigh), I had to lick a banana slug at camp.
Frank: Okay. That was bad. This was worse. It's like a hole every day just (indecipherable 3:14) licking banana slugs, is what Wall Street is.
Anna: Fair enough, fair enough.
Frank: Yeah.
Sim: So why did you decide that this number —.
Anna: That Hollywood is better?
Frank: No, no.
Sim: How did you, how did you become an actor?
Frank: I always was, I always was involved in acting, in to doing silly plays and stuff, and I thought I'm gonna go to California because I'm probably just a headshot and resume away from stardom.
Anna:Did you really think that? God bless your sweet angel heart.
Frank: I really did, and my mother used to tell how good looking I was.
Anna: You are.
Frank: No, she did. I remember. Stop.
Sim: You're are. You're a very handsome man.
Frank: Okay. I’m fine, I’m getting by. But my mother refused to think, like me and John Kennedy weren’t like pals. I’m like mom, it's not happening. She said go to Hollywood you’re gonna be successful.
Anna: And.
Frank: And I’m not. (laughter)
Anna: Right, no.
Frank: I'm getting by the skin of my —.
Anna: Are you kidding me?
(laughter)
Sim: I’m sorry but being the lead in movies, I think you're doing very, very well.
Frank: It’s fine. It’s all good. It really turned out well. My kids go to nice schools. I got that, or they got that, but it turned out well. Yeah.
Anna: But, ah, do you think like when you first came here so, when I, um, when I first came here, the idea of Hollywood being fake, when I would go back to Seattle, which is where I grew up, I would get a lot of like hazing from the very few friends that I had.People be like ugh, isn't it fake down there? And I struggled a lot with that idea of… the idea of like does that mean that, well like, what does, what does exactly fake mean?
Frank: Right. It’s not fake. It's a word. It's a place for people to pursue very specific dreams.
Anna: Bleach blonde hair?
Frank:I mean that's fake but go to where I grew up by New Jersey. There’s a lot of it.
Anna: I don’t know what is going on. I think they are going to surprise you with some kind of chocolate cake.
Frank: Cake? Cake?
Sim: There’s no cake.
Frank: Okay good. I don’t eat cake. Um. You know what I’m saying? Well, it's a little sad Hollywood.
Anna: Did you get any of backlash from, like family members, from—.
Frank: They laughed at me hysterically.
Anna: Really?
Frank: I come from immigrant Italian people. You know, they lay bricks and drive trucks. They’re nobody's. I don't even know if this, we can say acting is in the arts. I mean, is it?
Anna: Really? But that is so Italian. I mean that is, like that comes from —.
Frank: I mean like southern Italian. I'm like southern, all the way down south farm Italian. Like there's no —.
Anna: Well sure there's a lot of hard work involved but, but yeah but but but the idea of like ancient Romans, like the idea of performance.
Frank: No, no. My family if you had a pension you're in good shape. So, because they're poor people. So let me get this straight. You went to college, you not gonna do anything having to do with going to college, and you're going to be an actor? Uh huh. It was hysterical, except my mother thought I was best looking guy in the world.
Anna: Well you are.
Frank:Love that woman to this day. She still calls me —.
Anna: So now does your family feel —.
Frank: Borrow money from me all the time?
(laughter)
Anna: So now they're like —.
Frank: No shame. No shame. Yeah.
Anna: So is there like satisfaction or is it like, oh my, is that like.
Frank: With what? With becoming?
Anna: Well, yea. The idea that family members are now sort of knowing, kind of sucking it a little bit.
Frank: It's kind of gross, and you know it's kind of, I'm sure you experience the same thing where it's like you are center of attention because you do something that everybody seems to think is really special. So all the conversations gear towards that.