This year Seth Green turned 40 and also marked another anniversary: He has spent 30 of those years in show business, since making his debut in The Hotel New Hampshire (1984).
You probably know Green, but what you know him from depends on your age and tastes. Woody Allen fans remember him as the Woody-to-be main character in the classic Radio Days (1987). Those who lean more to mainstream comedy remember him as Scott Evil, insolent son of Dr. Evil (Mike Myers) in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) and two blockbuster sequels. Sci-fi/horror aficionados know him as Oz, the guitar-strumming teenage werewolf in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2000) and Angel (1999). Animation devotees know Green as the voice of Chris Griffin in Seth MacFarland's long-running cartoon series Family Guy.
"Performing is pretty consistently an insecurity-scratching, emasculating, disappointing, personally hurtful experience," Green says. "To be an actor is to basically re-create emotion convincingly, and so you're constantly visiting really dark places to put them over convincingly on film. The amount of times that you're rejected is exhausting, so it's no wonder that people quit.
"But the people that keep it up are the people that can't help it," he continues. "They just don't know anything else, and they get to consistently affirm it. Over the course of your career, you have many opportunities to doubt it or to quit if that's what you choose to do. I've just never quit. That's why I'm still here."
That he is, not only as a seemingly ubiquitous actor but also as a writer, director, producer, narrator, spokesman and videogame investor.
Green's new movie, The Identical, explores an intriguing question in pop-culture history: "What if Elvis Presley's stillborn identical-twin brother had lived?"
Newcomer Blake Rayne, a former Elvis impersonator, stars as Ryan Wade, the twin brother of the coyly named Drexel Hemsley, a 1950s rock-'n'-roll superstar, who grows up as the adopted son of an evangelical preacher (Ray Liotta). The Rev. Wade scorns rock 'n' roll and does his best to quash its irresistible appeal to his son. Providing support and encouragement are the boy's adoptive mother (Ashley Judd) and his best friend, Dino (Green).
"Elvis is the kind of icon that is easy to be intrigued by," Green says. "He's undeniably talented across several levels, magnetic in the way that a movie star needs to be and so compelling an icon that he's been preserved for 50 years. He is still indelible.
"But that's a separate point," he continues, "because I don't think that this movie set out to capitalize on any Elvis enthusiasm. To tell you the truth, I didn't even think about this as an Elvis movie, because the movie isn't really even about the star ... [I hope that] people don't just look at the marketing of the movie and think that this is an Elvis movie, solely for Elvis fans, because Elvis plays really no role in the film."
The eternal debate over nature vs. nurture is, of course, inescapable in a story of identical twins raised by different parents.
"One is raised by his birth parents, who were too poor to keep the other baby, and the other is raised by a preacher and his wife who can't conceive," Green says. "And that baby, because they believe it's a gift and that it is their purpose, they raise it to be like them. The baby grows up never knowing he has a brother, never knowing he has a twin ... [Wade] grows up believing that he's supposed to be what his father tells him, and not what he feels in his heart, and that's a really interesting concept to explore."
The Identical is a true family affair, the work of director Dustin Marcellino, his father, producer Yochanan Marcellino, and his grandfather, record producer Jerry Marcellino. They filmed it in Nashville, where the Marcellino family has deep roots.
"The community really came together to help produce this movie," Green says. "The way that people came out to help make this movie was humbling. Every time we had extras in scenes, every time we needed a crowd scene, hundreds of strangers would show up. We filled each of those arenas, each of those stadiums, each of those state fairs with local friends of friends from all around the city. Nashville was gracious and supportive and full of creativity.
"I'm sure there's a dark underbelly somewhere in it," he says, laughing, "but I didn't experience any of that."
Green's character is a drummer with a penchant for booze and women. To handle the film's numerous musical scenes, he worked with drum coach Criss Cheatham.
"Criss worked with me tirelessly, both in my off time and then on the sets while we were filming," Green recalls. "I approached it very simply, like dance choreography: Rather than trying to learn how to play the drums, I learned how to play the songs that I needed to play on camera. Because I'm more used to performing than playing any instrument, I just concentrated on looking the way that you are supposed to look when you're a drummer, like posing my body correctly.
"I just tried to look not too stupid," he sums up, laughing. "You just want anybody who actually plays drums to watch it and not think, 'Ah, he's faking it!'"
Green has been acting for as long as he can remember.
"When I was really young, I was drawn to performing," he recalls. "And then when I was 6, at a summer camp, I convinced the folks in the drama program to give me one line in the end-of-session play. And I really knew then. When we finished that performance, took our bow and walked offstage, I was like 'This is what I do.'
"I had always kind of thought it, but that was when I was certain."
Many actors dream of someday landing a role in a Woody Allen movie. Green had his by the time he was 12 -- despite Allen's disappointment that the boy didn't know how to play chess. It was his first major film role, and he didn't know what to expect.
"You've got to bear in mind that the sum total of my experience or my world view, while I was doing that film, was limited to what I'd done by the time I was 12," he says. "So it was great for me. I just did my best. I knew that all I had to do was listen to him and do whatever he told me to do as best as I could."
Green has voiced Chris Griffin in Family Guy since 1999. The voice he uses, he reveals, was inspired by Ted Levine's creepy performance as the serial killer Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs (1991).
"A friend and I were talking about how difficult it must have been for Buffalo Bill to conceal his identity," Green recalls. "How did he hold down a real job? How did he have such an incredible dungeon facility, when it was unclear what his job was? So this was how the whole thing started. We spent the whole time doing that voice in all kinds of mundane tasks like working at the post office, working at the drive-through or helping somebody with their party decorations."
When the show's writers heard Green's take on Chris' voice, it helped inform their view of the character. Since then, however, Green largely has stayed out of the writing process.
"I've never offered any kind of advice on the character," he says. "I'm present in the recordings and, if inspiration strikes, we improvise, but it's very rare. The show is so sharply and tightly written that it is rare to discover something other than a performance flare."
Next up for Green is another voice gig, in the animated feature Yellowbird.
"It's actually a really sweet story about a super-unfortunate bird who needs to leave the nest to discover himself, find out where he exists in the world and what he's supposed to do, and not stay bound by fear in a single location," Green says. "He winds up overreaching and taking a flock of birds on a series of horrific misadventures, and ultimately has to admit that he has no idea what he's doing."
Shooting for the moon is nothing new to the actor, who has developed a passionate interest in space travel. He's intrigued by the first glimmers of a commercial space-travel industry, and hopes to get a seat on an early flight.
"My goal," Green says, "is to get onto the International Space Station in advance of all the consumer space travel that's inevitable inside of 20 years."
MovieStyle on 09/05/2014