One sign of a good actor is being able to take over a film as well as mixing into an ensemble cast and owning his scenes. Few are better at that than Frank Grillo, the man of the hour in Hollywood at the moment.
Over the past few years, the 53-year-old pillar of authenticity has been everywhere, on screens both small and large. After finishing up his work in The Purge films in 2016, he capped off arguably the best role of his career in DirecTV's Kingdom in 2017, before launching his production company later that year with Jeremy Rush's thrilling debut, Netflix's Wheelman.
Recently, Grillo broke new ground in multiple ways with the globally strong fighting docu-series, Fight World, and then breaking bad in Tim Sutton's roughneck survivalist drama, Donnybrook. Starring roles mixed with ensemble work.
The trend continues this week with Grillo landing a big role in the upcoming film, The Gateway, a thriller from Michele Civetta. Shea Whigham plays Parker, an alcoholic social worker who takes on the case of a single mother, Dahlia (played by Olivia Munn), overseeing the care of her daughter. Grillo's role is to be determined, but rest assured he'll make a dent.
The casting continues a takeover that I like to call the Grillo renaissance. In the next year alone, Grillo has a bevy of unique and versatile roles coming to theaters and streaming devices. He re-teams with his best friend and WarParty amigo, Joe Carnahan, with the science fiction spiced action adventure thriller, Boss Level, which comes out this summer. He goes up against Mel Gibson and Michelle Yeoh among others.
Grillo also links back up with Purge director, James DeMonaco, in this summer's Once Upon a Time in Staten Island, playing a family man whose son gets into an unlikely situation on the night Rocky 3 opens back in 1982. He shares the screen with Naomi Watts (who is also in Boss Level) and Bobby Cannavale.
Along with those gems, Grillo also has the action thrillers, Into the Ashes and Black and Blue, arriving later this year. Don't forget about the true story western with Ron Perlman, Hell on The Border, where Grillo breaks bad once again. He's currently shooting The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard, Patrick Hughes' sequel to the 2017 Ryan Reynolds-Samuel L. Jackson action comedy.
"Thriller" is a popular word these days with Grillo. He's at a unique place in his career where he can choose his next step and toss a script if he'd like. 10 years ago, he was scrambling and hustling, doing it all just to carve a piece out for himself in the mad game of make believe. These days, he still likes to exist on the fringe of Hollywood, but he's making power moves, blasting through the back of the line like a tailback hellbent on making it to the front.
While everybody was concerned last winter with whether Grillo would return as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones in Avengers: Endgame, they were missing out on the gem that was Fight World and not paying enough attention to the rest of the steak on his plate.
This year, as I detailed in my article back in February, he's making it hard to avoid his ability to lead films as well as steal them. Look right or left this summer, and you can't miss him.
As Carnahan told me recently, Grillo's ability is unlike other actors. "He's doing stuff that, no offense to the current crop of movie stars, they can't hold his water," Carnahan said.
The Gateway is just the latest piece for the man of action you use to know as "that guy," but now know as Grillo, first name Frank.
Stick around and be entertained.
