It’s fair to say that Frank Grillo’s career has taken something of an upward turn of late. The actor, now in his 50s, has been something of a grafter, a journeyman in a career that has lasted over twenty years already. However his recent, more dominant and crucial roles, in big movies as The Grey, End of Watch and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, signify a change in fortunes, and that much is evident with his latest project too, taking the starring role in James DeMonaco’s The Purge: Anarchy.

Grillo discusses what it was about this original concept that attracted him – speaking candidly about getting into the head of his character, and what he would do in a similar position. He also tells us about the benefits in playing such an elusive a role with so little dialogue, and also tells us as much as he can about the forthcoming Hollywood remake of The Raid – where he plays a “main” character.

First and foremost, what attracted you to getting involved in this project?

Just like anything, my agent sent me a script and I thought it was a 100 million dollar idea. I hadn’t seen the first movie and I just thought that, as a concept, it was a great idea. DeMonaco wrote a great script, and I went to meet him and Jason Blum and we were referencing the same kind of films, Escape From New York and those John Carpenter films of the 70s, Charles Bronson and Death Wish, and that kind of thing. I think there is a place in the world right now for films like that, so I was on board right from the beginning.

Have you since seen the original Purge movie?

I did. I read the script a few more times after I had agreed to do it, and then I went and watched the first film. I didn’t want to be too judgemental based on the first film. I knew the film that was made, though successful, was made under a very script budgetary concession, which was three million bucks. But I knew what he wanted to do, which was what was exciting to me.

Do you find having a previous film helpful when understanding the tone for this movie, or conversely, can having that there be somewhat overbearing?

It’s a great question, it really is, and I think it can be either of those cases. With Captain American it was great, and necessary, to watch the first film a couple of times to understand that world. But if I didn’t see the first Purge, it would not have affected by performance or this movie at all.

The role is an intriguing one, because he’s so elusive and keeps his cards so close to his chest. It must be fun to play a role like that and does it give you more freedom to work with when creating a back story?

It’s cool because I get to create the character bible. One of my favourite films when I was younger was The Outlaw Josey Wales, I loved Clint Eastwood in that movie, I loved his journey. That was my secret, I want to be Clint Eastwood [laughs]. But it was fun, it was a lot of fun. I knew that if I had played my cards right throughout the film, emotionally, that the pay off at the end for the audience would work. To DeMonaco’s credit, he let me take what is a genre film, and turn it a little on its side and get real emotional at the end.

This feels like a more politically engaged offering than the first, it really delves into the ramifications that the Purge has on the working class. This does seem to have more to it than your usual shoot ’em up…

Yeah, DeMonaco is obviously poking at America, he’s poking at gun control and at violence. The less judicious reviewers have taken everything so literally, and are looking for a movie with a big political statement, but that’s not what we’re trying to do, they’ve missed the whole point of it. We are poking fun, taking at look at this in a stylised way. My buddy Tom Hardy did a film a long time ago called Bronson. Do you remember that movie?

Yeah, I loved that film.

It’s a great movie, but very stylised, even cartoonish at times. And yet the performance was equally as effective and moving and it told the story, and that’s what this film does. It tells the story in a certain stylised kind of way. If you get it and you’re along for the ride, of course you have to suspend disbelief at points – that’s why you go to the movies in the summertime, it’s 90 minutes of thrills.

I agree – but that being said, in spite of suspending your disbelief, there is something inherently realistic about the film, it’s presented in a hypothetical way that provokes the ‘what if…’ question inside all of us. So were you able to find that human element within the role and be able to relate to him yourself?

Oh, absolutely. There are two things – I never judge the character whether he’s being deemed as good or bad, I never judge him. And I always go into it and I don’t think anything is unbelievable, otherwise you’re dead in the water and you have to manufacture some kind of performance. I just see the character as being on one side of a political ideology, I don’t see him about being a bad guy or a good guy. To me Captain America does some bad things, and in this it’s the same thing. I hav to believe The Purge is a real thing, we’ve come to a place where genocide and other crimes like murder is legal. Listen, go to some places in the world like Darfur and we’re not too far away from Purges. They don’t advertise it of course, it’s not a holiday, but we do, as human beings, kill each other. For me it’s all real when I jump into it.

Talking of which, the character himself is so driven by revenge, which is born out of a very human, family orientated theme – were you able to get into his head in that regard too, and ask ‘what would I do in that situation?’

Yeah, it’s another great question. I have three sons of my own and I’d be lying if I said I was a passive person, because I’m not. I grew up fighting, I’m an avid martial arts trainer and I box every day. I’m a physical, sometimes aggressive person. A friend of my nine year old was recently run down in New York by somebody on a telephone. I gotta tell you, the thought of it happening to me, well the thought of going to get this cab driver so he would never see the light of day again, entered my mind. So when I’m doing the film, that kind of thing is right on the surface there to pull from. I think everybody has it in them, instinctively. James DeMonaco’s wife, who is a paediatrician, was cut off on a freeway and almost crashed, and this woman looked at him, and she said, ‘if I could get away with it, I would chase that guy down and I’d kill him’. That’s where The Purge was born, that’s the idea. That was the lightbulb that went off in DeMonaco’s head. This feeling where, if we could get away with it, every one of us at some point would seek revenge, or to right a wrong or an injustice. I just think it’s innately in all of us.

Well your character doesn’t seem to enjoy revenge, he almost sees it like a duty…

Right, that’s the nail on the head. It’s equally as troubling as he feels it is necessary.

So if The Purge was a real event, how would you spend your evening?

I live a pretty good life, I would make sure my family were safe and take them up to Canada! But you know what, if I was a guy who had beef and it was serious, like somebody hitting one of my kids, would I use the Purge as a mechanism to get revenge? I’d be lying if I say no. Maybe I would. That very question brother, is what makes people interested in this movie.

Given how often we are made to question our own ethics when watching this film, as such an immersive piece, were you able to be flexible and change the course of the narrative as you went along, to be in tune with how your character may react in certain situations.

Oh yeah, absolutely. That was something I needed to have from the very first meeting with James. I said look, I love the script, I love 85% of it, but it’s overwritten. My guy should not talk, he should not have so many lines. At one point James had me introduce myself by name, but I don’t want to make friends with them, my super objective is to get from point A to point B and do what I need to do – I don’t want to have any relationships with anybody. So I said let’s cut some out, and let’s not even have them know my name – and so to his credit, he said, ‘I love it’.

Finally, you’re down for The Raid remake, which is really exciting. You’ve mentioned you do martial arts training, so this feels like the ideal role. Are you allowed to say who you’re playing yet?

I’m not allowed to say who I’m playing yet, sadly, you know how the studios are with these movies – especially with this one as it’s a classic amongst fans already. But it’s one of the main characters. I have to go through extensive martial arts training, even though I’m already a very advanced jujutsu practitioner and a very skilled boxer, but even so, I’ve got to train for two months. So have all the other actors and it’s why it’s taking so long, because we have to find the right people and do specific training, because we all agree that if we can’t make this movie better or at the very least as good as the original, then we’ll keep pushing it back.

Another role that marks this incredible period of big roles for you…

It is, it really is. For me it’s a blessing and a chance to finally come from behind the shadows and carry the weight and hopefully do a good job.

The Purge: Anarchy is released on July 25th.