Clark Gregg might be most known as Agent Phil Coulson in the Marvel Movie Universe, but he’s had an extensive career in film and television and is a member of the Atlantic Theater Company.
He currently appears in Ethan Coen‘s collection of one-act plays, Happy Hour, on the New York stage. Gregg gave an interview to The Gothamist about returning to the stage after a prolonged absence.
When asked about the fact that he hasn’t done theater in some time — his last appearance on Broadway was in A Few Good Men, which ran from 1989-1991, later becoming a hit movie (with Kevin Bacon replacing Gregg in the role of Capt. Jack Ross) — Gregg comments on whether or not one can really “lose” it. “You know, you may but I haven’t yet, I don’t think. It feels pretty good; I thought it was going to feel more uncomfortable, but I did a sitcom for a couple of years [The New Adventures of Old Christine] and one of the great things about a sitcom is that you have an audience, which certainly was how I came up working. And it was really comforting to have 200 or 300 people. You don’t have a stand-up comic kind of warming them up and pizza and snacks and everything to put them in a really good mood before the dark comedy of an Ethan Coen play, but it’s kept me from at least getting rusty.” Despite the long absence, Gregg feels comfortable with his return for the most part. He explains, “There’s a lot of stuff that feels like it’s on the right track and then there’s… I feel like there’s more to discover and every performance is really…I take a lot a notes afterward and I try to think it through and figure out what I found out. And just keep trying to push the rock up the hill ’till the tuning fork starts to hum.”
Happy Hour runs at the Peter Norton Space through December 31st.
