Today is the second in our series of Behind the Scenes interviews for ACG3.  We’ll be carrying these on through the weekend and into next week, so keep your eyes peeled for more!

Nick Grock is our guest today, one of the stunning cast members who you will see hit the screen with the release of ACG3.  So without further ado, here we go!

Q: Introduce yourself!

A: Nick Groch – Philadelphia-based architectural designer by day; actor, author, and homebrewer by night (and pretty much whenever I can get out of the office).

Q: Tell us a little about your role in the Assassin’s Creed: Generations series.

A: I play the character Dereck Stiles.  Dereck is a professional douchebag, who fell into success by riding on the coattails of his father (who earned his trust fund and his social status for him).  Though highly intelligent and well educated thanks to daddy’s millions, he is everything that is wrong with America, with his crooked connections, a reprehensible sense of entitlement, and extreme moral deficiencies.  He projects every inconvenience that might befall him upon another individual and takes undue credit at every opportunity, with his only concern being himself, his personal pleasure, and his ever-swelling bank account(s).  Other human lives mean very little to him if they aren’t catering to his whims.

Q: This isn’t the first ‘nerd culture’ film you’ve been in.  Can you tell us about the other pieces you’ve been in?

A: Gladly!  Some of the earliest fan films that I’ve worked on include Chris .R. Notarile’s Die Laughing and Punisher ’81.  I also had the opportunity to work with Nick Murphy (whose production team was recently honored at the first annual Philadelphia Geek Awards for Best Viral Video) on a project based on the Castlevania video game series; Nick (and The Quarter Bin) brought me back to play a role in an Angry Birds adaptation, as well.  It would seem that live action video game adaptations might start giving comic books a run for their money in the near future…

Q: Are you a nerd yourself?

A: I embrace all things geek; I think that everybody out there will admit that there’s at least one thing in our lives that we geek out about.  For me, it’s acting and architecture – my passions are my hobbies, and, fortunately, one of them manages to pay the bills.  The difference (as I recently read on a Wikipedia post, and we all know how reliable the Wiki can be) between a geek and a nerd is that while the nerds can dream and philosophize and be… nerdy, the geeks are the ones that get the job done.  Indeed, the geeks shall inherit the Earth, and I’m proud to consider myself a member of their ranks.  There are lots of us, Tom…  Lots.

Q: Tell us about your acting process.  How do you get into character, and is it difficult on a bustling set?

A: I’m not a lifelong actor; I started very late in my time here, and so I missed opportunities to study acting during high school, college, and grad school when I was apparently learning more than I would ever learn in my life.  For that reason, I really can’t speak too much of a practiced technique or method, like Meisner or…  Method.  I begin by putting myself into character the way that a method actor might.  At the very least, I know my lines inside and out, at my best, I know every line in the entire scene, but then I need to ‘forget’ them and present natural reactions to the camera.  My ultimate goal is authenticity.  Scripted work is essentially impossible to present in a truly authentic manner…  and therein lies the dilemma.  One of the great things about a crew is that it enables me to place all of my focus on MY job.  This actually makes it easier for me to get into character, because all that I need to concern myself with is who I ‘am’ and what I’m going to ‘do’ after I hear ‘action.’

Q: How was working with Tom Quigley as a director?

A: Working with Tom was everything that I expected it to be after watching some of his previous work with Assassin’s Creed: Generations and working with students attending Drexel University.  I have a special place in my heart for Drexel and for a number of his colleagues with whom he worked on ACG.  He is extremely creative, bright, adept, focused, thoughtful, handsome, collaborative, and courteous.  He values an actor’s abilities, he knows when to give just the right amount of direction and when to let a performer become what the character wants to become.  To watch him think about a suggestion that a colleague has just made is, for lack of a better word, awesome.  I love watching that – it’s my little treat on set when I get to forget about being observed…  and observe.  Nothing – no ego, no preconceived notion – gets in the way of producing something that is worthwhile and beautiful.  He does what he does for love of the act of creation.  It’s a joy to work with a person like that.

Q: What was your favorite part about being involved in the ACG series?

A: The high production value and…  Who am I kidding?  I got to boss around an underling and watch people walking down Market Street ask each other who that actor was.

Q: Any words out there for aspiring actors?

A: Yes.  Take a series of acting classes, get an agent, get an IMDb account, take as much acting work (both film and theater) as your schedule and health will allow, make sure that each project is legitimate, request dailies and gather footage as soon as possible to develop your reel, don’t let yourself be taken advantage of, don’t be discouraged when you don’t explode on the scene, and, above all else, don’t quit your day job.  Yet.

Q: What’s next for you?

A: Get my architecture license, fix up my house a little, start brewing beer again, work some more with Tom Quigley, Daredevil ’83, Spade of Reason, Centralia…

There you have it!  Remember to come back tomorrow for more juicy interviews!!

~ by tompquigley on September 24, 2011.

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