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by Weezul on 02.11.11

Brea Grant has always struck me as that "one to watch" type of actress. I first noticed her when she sped onto the scene as Daphne Millbrook on Heroes, then kept an eye out for other projects, whether it was Rob Zombie's Halloween 2, Web shows like A Good Knight's Quest or viral videos from Funny or Die. Then I took a double take after reading her breakthrough comic co-written with her brother, Zane, We Will Bury You. Call it my celebrity crush, or just being charmed by her presence on the screen, but when I had a chance to shoot her some questions about comics, television, and acting overall, I couldn't resist. So with that, Nfamous fans, I give you Ms. Brea Grant.

First off, how did you get your start in acting? Did you always know you wanted to be an actress, or was it something you came upon while on another path?  

It took until I was 24 to actually attempt any acting as an adult. I had done some community theater as a kid but didn't do too much beyond that. My dad was big on having something to fall back on, so I think I pushed aside trying to make money through art for a long time.

At 24, I was in grad school for history and decided that being an academic wasn't for me, so I started taking acting classes. Grad school made me feel like the biggest dumbass on the planet. I wasn't as smart or as articulate or as well-read as anyone in there, but I figured I could take acting classes and fake it. I remembered liking acting as a kid, and I thought at the very least, it would be a great outlet for me.

I was really terrible and nervous attempting to act at first, but I liked it way more than grad school. I remember telling my friends I was taking acting classes and them looking at me like I was insane. It was completely out of character for me and something I never thought I'd actually attempt. After about a year of acting classes and suffering through grad school, I took a semester off and moved to Los Angeles. I guess if I hadn't done that, I'd be teaching history somewhere in Texas.

Given President Obama's recent State of the Union address, having more teachers isn't a bad thing, and I loved history in school. When you were on the set for the first time, what was that experience like?

Bizarre. My acting career, in general, has been a surreal, bizarre experience. I did a lot of small indies, horrors, and shorts before I landed a television show, but compared to most people, I moved up pretty fast. Don't get me wrong — I think I had about three auditions the first year I was in Los Angeles, but every one of them was so exciting it kept me pumped until I could go on to the next one.

It's still an exciting process, though. I'm always excited to get up and go to set every day. I think if I ever lose that excitement, it's time for me to go do something else.

And if that day comes, there's always teaching history. So let's talk some of your filmography. Your star has definitely risen over the course of the last few years with your time on Heroes arguably being one of your biggest breaks. How did that come about?

Heroes was one of those magical, once-in-a-lifetime actor experiences. I had done Friday Night Lights and had gone back to waiting tables not too long after that because there was a writer's strike in Los Angeles so most things weren't filming. My agent at the time got a call that the writers from Heroes had liked my role on FNL and had written a role with me in mind. I still had to audition and screen test for it, but overall, it's the nicest thing that can happen to an actor. I found out that they were just interested in me, and I laid on the floor of my bedroom screaming. Because clearly I'm a child. Who gets overly excited. And then likes to tell people about it.

That situation in itself sounds almost like a scene from a movie so I can't say I'd blame you. So being still new to the acting game, what was the one thing you learned most from your experience on the show?

I think maybe to not take it for granted. I was surrounded by so many seasoned actors who knew what to do and gave me so much good advice. I think I couldn't have been in a better spot, and watching them, I learned to just be happy, nice, and thankful to everyone all the time. Hollywood is full of ups and downs, and I think a lot of people start basing their entire existence on one show or one thing that they never think will go away. And it does pretty much always. You just have to be happy with whatever you have while it lasts. Working with seasoned pros like Greg Grunberg, I got to see how important it was to be nice to everyone and appreciate your day-to-day experiences. He's one of the nicest people to work with, and it's just amazing to see how excited everyone is on set when he walks in and is excited to be there.

When I was on the show, Adrian Pasdar told me to remember that no matter what you do, you're still yourself. And if you're not happy with yourself, you'll never be happy. Because in Hollywood, it's never enough — all actors want a show. Once they have a show, they want to be film stars. Once they're film stars, they want to be bigger film stars and make more money. It's never ending, and I definitely started to feel that. He said that even if you're a huge film star, you will still be unhappy until you realize that at the end of the day, all you have is yourself. I think it's important in everything you do to just slow down, live the moment, and not take anything for granted.

That's some solid advice. He's had a solid enough career to speak from experience. So another big break for you was Rob Zombie's Halloween 2. This was your first "slasher" film?

It was my first "slasher" but not my first horror. I did a couple of indie horrors before I did any television. One called Trance I think is coming out on DVD soon actually. I love genre stuff, though, so when I got an offer for H2, I jumped at the chance to be a part of that legacy.

That makes sense. How was this different from your TV work on Heroes?

It was completely different. I had never actually gotten to actually have any rehearsal time for any project I had ever been on previous to H2. On most television shows, you just arrive at set, meet the person playing the love of your life or your lifelong best friend, block the scene, and shoot — all in one day. On H2, Rob let Scout, Angela, and I rehearse and develop a rapport. When we actually shot, he wanted us to improvise, go off book, and have fun with it, whereas with television, you really don't have time to do that kind of thing. It felt like a whole new kind of acting to me.

That's a huge difference. I didn't think it would be such a contrast in process. Are there any shows that you're a fan of and would love a role on? Are there any shows you're currently following?

I never miss an episode of 30 Rock or Fringe. I also love Walking Dead, True Blood, Breaking Bad, and Dr. Who. Like everyone else in the world, I love just buying DVDs and making my way through whole series at a time. I did that with Veronica Mars, Party Down, and Weeds recently.

I'm always dying to audition for my favorite shows, but the problem with actually being on them is that it sort of ruins the magic. I watched FNL and Heroes before I was on them, but once I had shot them, all I could think in my head was, "Oh. That's the sound stage over on Gower, and that's Masi making that face he makes" or something else that takes me out of it. It sort of loses its appeal in some ways sadly. 

I can see how that could be "dream come true" moment but also how it would take some of the wind from your sails. So with these projects under your belt, is there anything new you're working on you can spill the beans on?

I shot three movies last year — two indies and one that will air on the Syfy channel this year (with monsters and everything!). The first was called Homecoming, where I play a soldier who comes home from war to see how her family and friends have changed. It's really different than what I normally get to do. The other indie is Detour, where I got to play across from Neil Hopkins (Lost!). The entire movie is just him stuck in a car, and I'm in his flashbacks. It should be pretty interesting.

Right now, I'm working on a feature I co-wrote with my friend, Vera Miao, that's an apocalyptic buddy road trip movie. We're hoping to shoot it in Texas in the summer.

You had me at "apocalyptic buddy road trip." I can't wait to see how that turns out. If you were to look five to 10 years ahead, do you think you'll still want to remain in acting, or would you want to explore writing, directing, or even producing films or a series?

I've definitely been doing more writing, and as I watch people who do all of their own stuff — the Duplass brothers, Miranda July, Lena Dunham — it's really inspiring to me. I would love to move in that direction — creating stuff for myself and the people I love working with. I would much rather spend the day working with people I love on a project I love than make a ton of money. I think the longer I work, the more important that will be to me. So, to answer your question, yeah, I think I'll keep moving into the writing, producing, and maybe even directing side of things. Although, directing really scares the shit out of me.

I've read that directing has that effect on almost all who try it the first couple times. Then something just clicks, and they don't want to do anything but ever again. Let's shift gears a moment and talk comics. Last year you entered the comic world with We Will Bury You with your brother, Zane, co-writing. How did this project with IDW come about, and how did you score well-known, artist Ben Templesmith to do the covers?

Zane and I had been throwing around this comic idea for a while, and I met (or you could call it "stalked") Ben at a convention that I was attending in London for Heroes. One drunken night at a bar, he said yes to helping out with the comic, and I held him to it. I'm not sure if he knew I'd keep pestering him about it, but he was really nice when I did. When we sent our pitch over to IDW, he had agreed to do art for the project, so essentially, he's the reason we got published. He's really been great and has given Zane and I advice from day one. 

Interestingly enough, stalking Ben at bars is how I get him to do things with me as well. And how did you team up with Kyle Strahm and Zac Atkinson who did the interiors?

IDW sent us over a list of names of possible artists, and once we saw Kyle's art, we knew he was right for WWBY. He draws amazingly grotesque creatures alongside beautiful women, and that's exactly what we were looking for. Same with Zac. IDW sent over his stuff, and we were like, "Yep! That's him!"

I couldn't agree more, Kyle and Zac have a perfect balance. Was We Will Bury You your first published work?

It was my first comic work, yes.

Any plans for a sequel at all?

Zane and I had grand plans for WWBY. We had mapped out four different stories that all take place at the same time. We had one in a prison, one in a California sanatorium, and one in a playhouse in Germany. We wanted all the characters to converge in Germany, which is why at the end of the first book of WWBY, Mirah and Fanya board a boat (spoiler alert!). Of course, that was a little ambitious for our first try at comics, but we'd love to do more if anyone asked us to.

I wouldn't give up on that dream just yet. I'd definitely read more from that universe, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. How did you like writing comics?It's obviously a different world from acting, but do you see any overlap at all from an experience standpoint? How would you compare the two?

I see a lot of overlap, and I often try to explain it to people who I think maybe just think I'm weird and that I like to talk about being an actress too much. Which could also be true. I love writing comics, and I love acting. Both are about collaboration. If you don't know how to work with people, either career is going to be very difficult.

I also feel like you can't get anywhere in either field without really working at it. It's taken Ben and other people like him years and many comics and many conventions to get where he is. It's taken Greg Grunberg 15 years of being a series regular, talking to his fans, and constantly auditioning to get where he is. I think people watch from the outside and think "Oh, you just write something, and it just happens overnight" or "You just get a phone call, and you're on a show," and they don't see all the practicing and auditioning or writing and pitching that goes absolutely nowhere. You have to be ready for rejection, ready to take people's notes and criticism, and ready to wake up to all of America loving or hating your art. It's hard, and sometimes it sucks, but I think through acting, I've built a pretty tough skin that helps me in the comic world.

I remember those days. It takes a lot of tenacity to push through and keep a positive outlook during the process. Do you have any new comic projects in the pipeline?

Yep. Right now, Zane and I are writing the Suicide Girls series for IDW. It's sort of a dark Charlie's Angels set in a future controlled by a religious robot cult. Cameron Stewart and David Hahn are doing the art, and Steve Niles is writing little mini-stories for each issue.

Zane and I are also always developing stories on our own. We have two pitches we're getting art for right now and enough pitch pages to drown the next publisher who asks for them.

That's an interesting premise for Suicide Girls. I'm looking forward to that. Do you read comics as well? What books are you following, and is there a particular book or character you'd love to write?

I do read comics. When I have time. It's unfortunate because I've found the more I write comics, the less time I have for actually reading them. I would love to write a Hack/Slash issue or one of the stories for Creepy. I also follow Demo, pretty much anything Templesmith does, and X-Factor religiously. I loved Daytripper and would give my right arm to work with Fabio or Gabriel. And I'm excited to read New York Five.

That's a good variety of material. You're the second person I've heard praise Daytripper. I may need to look into that one. Many actors/actresses like to branch out even further than what they are doing or best known for, so I'm curious — can you sing? Should we expect to hear Brea Grant: The Music That Moves Me anytime soon?

Ha! Funny you should ask. I did write a musical script I have a director friend looking at right now that I'd love to shoot for cheap with my friends. Honestly, though, I think you might have more luck just finding me at a karaoke bar in LA. 

OK, so that's pretty cool. My brother is on Broadway currently, so he's the talented one in the family.  Do you actually write music or play an instrument? Do you find writing a musical much different than comics or scriptwriting?

I played drums in punk bands all through high school and some in college but left my drum kit in Texas. So I guess I can't really say I play anymore, but I am aware of how to play if that means anything. As far as writing music goes, that is waaaay out of my league.

Somehow I picture you as a drummer. I could use you in my Rock Band group for Xbox. So with all that you have going on, do you have any downtime between projects? Any hobbies?

A lot of times, I fill my downtime with more projects — I help out my friends with their shorts or Funny or Die videos. And I'm constantly enrolled in acting classes that I rehearse for four or five days a week.

For my own time, I like to just read books or comics and watch movies. I go on hikes with my dog and attempt to bake something about once a week. "Attempt" is the best word for it because I'm sort of known for my disastrous baking projects. It's almost spring, so it's about time for me to plant my garden again, which I get completely obsessed with for a few months out of the year.

Do you play games at all? Though I'm not sure with all this you'd have the time, but if so, what do you play? 

I don't. I love to play when I'm around, but I feel like I missed out on being good at video games, so I sort of more watch, drink beer, and cheer on my friends.

Fair enough. And speaking of Funny or Die, your PSA video was a riot as well as your "Race for the Heart" interview. How did those projects come about? 

I have a lot of funny and creative friends. It's one of the amazing things about Los Angeles. If you can deal with the traffic and the assholes, you can find some of the most creative and motivated people that are just getting started. The PSA was with two actress friends of mine, Kelley Robins Hicks, Stacey Storey, and was directed by Heath Cullens. They put a bunch of other smart funny ladies in it as well. The idea for it came from Kelley ranting about penis pics at a party at my house. Art imitating life, I guess. The "Race for the Heart" was with my friend, Sergio Cilli, who has a show on Current TV and directs lots of amazing and funny things. He also did a funny music video recently that I was in. He can pretty much call me for anything, and I'll jump on board.

I think most actors want to do stuff like that, and that's what people don't realize. I love to work with my friends. Especially if they're professional and cool about everything. Every time I show up to work with Sergio, he gets my shots done, feeds me, and lets me go home. He doesn't keep me for hours on end if he doesn't need me. He always edits the film fast and gets it done. It's those kinds of things that keep me always saying yes when he asks me to do stuff because it's such a pleasant experience. It's important with your friends to treat each situation completely professionally because if that's what you want to do with your life, I mean, why wouldn't you? I think it's bizarre when you're working with an actor or someone for free and they don't know their lines. It's the greatest low-pressure opportunity to get better at what you do. I think a lot of people don't get that. (And that was my only rant for this interview — I swear.)

You can rant with me anytime. I'm fascinated with the "behind-the-scenes" of Hollywood. So wrapping up, what's one thing you want the world to know about Brea Grant?

If I leave this blank, does that make me boring? I'm just still amazed anyone would read an interview with me like this.

Nope, not boring at all. Just that you've not let stardom go to your head. Thanks again for the fireside chat, Brea. This was a fun interview, and you're a peach for taking the spotlight. 

When you've read this, be sure to give Brea a #followfriday on Twitter (@breagrant) and check out her professional site www.breagrant.com for photos, interviews, and the latest happenings in her life.