Red Stewart chats with actor Michael Gross…
Michael Gross is an American actor who has been working in the film and television industry since the mid-70s. He is best known for his roles as Steven Keaton in the sitcom Family Ties and Burt Gummer in the Tremors film series.
Returning to the latter with this year’s sequel Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell, Flickering Myth caught up with Mr. Gross to talk about his career. And I, in turn, had the privilege to conduct it.
You’ve been playing the character of Burt Gummer for a while now. The first Tremors came out in 1990, and it’s been almost 30 years since then. What’s the appeal in returning to Burt? I remember Bruce Willis saying how he liked returning to Die Hard as John McClane because of the connection to the past. Is that the same with you sir?
I would say it’s not so much about the past as it is about the way we keep reinventing Burt: the present. He’s still interesting to me because I’m attracted to comedy. And his comic paranoia, his comic obsessive-compulsive disorder, is what keeps bringing me back to him. Comedy, to me, is about imbalance: people who are so tipped, one way or the other, to the extreme. And that’s what I love about Burt. In a world where everybody is trying to find balance, Burt is so far out of balance. And from the beginning he was just such fun.
And the challenge is making sure the material can support that fear. We keep putting challenges in front of this man. I don’t know whether you’ve actually screened the sixth one yet, A Cold Day in Hell, but he probably faces one of the greatest challenges he’s ever had. He’s always fought the monsters, but here we’re trying to work in more personal conflicts too. And in this one he’s really threatened with his mortality in a way that he has not been before and suffers a loss of control. And as he is a control freak, that’s a great part of the fun for me- watching somebody whose control is being challenged.
That’s very interesting to hear. I’m wondering, with the last one Tremors 5: Bloodlines, we got introduced to your son, portrayed by Jamie Kennedy…
Now I’m just going to say, that’s another perfect example of a challenge! We wanted to see how a loner, a man who keeps to himself, who is asocial, reacts to finding out that he has a son. A family member. Someone with whom he has to presumably share a life. We wanted to bring that psychological challenge to him. Not only with a blood relative, which he didn’t even know existed, but somebody who was so vastly different from who he was. Who didn’t operate the way he did, and thought differently from himself.
I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you, but that’s a great example of one of the psychological challenges we wanted to throw at Burt. “You have son you never knew of, what?! Not only that, but he wants to pal around with you, what?! No one wants to pal around with me, you know, I’m a loner.” So we love putting Burt in those situations. *laughs*
And what’s it been like to develop that relationship with Mr. Kennedy in A Cold Day in Hell? Obviously in Bloodlines you had to break the ice, but here the relationship has been established.
Yes, exactly. Well it’s fun, because the two characters are oil and water. Burt’s still chafed at the fact that he has to share his life with anyone. I think Burt think he knows everything, and that everyone else is on a steep learning curve, and so he’s impatient. And I think it’s like one of those great buddy films where they’re so wrong for each other. And that’s part of the fun! And part of what elicits the humor is that they are so very different and operate in different ways. The character of Travis is sort of like “well, let’s hang by the seat of our pants and see how this works out.” He’s a bit of a screw-up. and Burt is a very much a by-the-numbers, military sort of guy, “this is my way or the highway.”
And the Jamie Kennedy character would say, “oh there are a lot of different routes we could take,” and Burt would reply “no, this is the right way.” So it occasions a great deal of conflict, which is what makes for good drama, as well as humor. It’s not just heavy-handed, it’s a cause for comedy. So it’s a pleasure, and we’ve settled into a very nice way of working. I hope that chemistry shows.
No, it definitely shows. The father-son dynamic feels natural here, as opposed to other times where it can feel kind of forced. Now I have to ask, you’ve been in the industry a while, and this film is direct-to-DVD. And I’ve noticed that a lot of older actors like Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson have been doing direct-to-video films. I’m wondering, what’s the biggest difference between filming direct-to-video versus feature length films like the original Tremors? Is there a big difference for you as an actor, or is it the same?
For the actor, no. I think the biggest difference has to do with the budgets. If you do a huge feature film that’s going to have a theatrical release, you’re going to have more money. I recently worked on a Disney holiday movie [Noelle], their Christmas film for 2019, a couple of months ago. And it has a wonderful cast, Bill Hader and Shirley MacLaine among others, and a huge budget. You think “oh my god, the money they’re spending on this thing!” And there’s also the length of time they give to film it. It may take months to dot every “i” and cross every “t”.
In many cases, the direct-to-video budgets are smaller and the shooting times are less. So it may be a bit more hurried, if you will. But other than that the process is exactly the same. I mean we’re portraying characters, and we’re, as Burt would say, “doing the best we can with what we got.” And so there will usually be a shorter shooting schedule and a smaller budget, but everything else remains the same. At the heart of it all has got to be good writing.
Studios make these decisions irrespective of what the actors are doing, and the actors show up and we do the same thing. We hit our marks, try to avoid bumping into the furniture, and learn our lines.
Right, it’s a similar production process. Now, we’re running close to the time limit, so I wanted to ask you a question unrelated to Tremors if you don’t mind.
Oh not at all actually, please.
Recently we lost Harry Anderson, who was one of the greatest actors ever. And I know you appeared on an episode of Night Court [back in 1987], and I was wondering what your experience was like working with Mr. Anderson?
Well Harry was a very sweet and humble guy. You know, Harry never really thought of himself as an actor: he thought of himself as a performer. He was a street magician is how he started his work- a comic street magician who passed the hat for many years before he fell into acting. And because he never thought of himself as an actor, he never became full of himself. He was just a nice guy who found himself in great circumstances.
That appearance on Night Court was a lot of fun. And about two or three years ago, I actually worked with Markie Post again in another direct-to-video film [Camp Cool Kids], and she was absolutely a delight to work with, and so that brought back some good memories of working on Night Court.
But Harry was a sweetheart, that’s about all I can say. Easy to laugh, and a very generous guy.
Absolutely, he was a great actor. And as are you Mr. Gross. Growing up, I used to watch Family Ties with my mother, and it was always a joy to sit down to.
Well you’ll be happy to know that some of us still keep in touch. I just worked with [Meredith Baxter] a couple of weeks ago in a play that we may take down the road later this year in the Fall. And I still see Michael J. Fox when I’m in New York, you know for breakfast or lunch with him. And the man who directed this Disney film I did for 2019, Marc Lawrence, was one of our former writer/producers on Family Ties. So there’re still a lot of echoes of Family Ties that resonate in my life. And probably foremost of them would be my friendship with Meredith, which still endures.
That’s great to hear, because a lot of times unfortunately actors lose touch with one another. But you know, with Roseanne and Will & Grace having reunions, maybe there could be a Family Ties reunion in the future. *laughs*
You know, Meredith and I get asked that a lot, and I’m sure Michael Fox does too. But I doubt it’s ever going to happen, because our great spirit, life, and soul of Family Ties passed away a couple of years ago: our executive producer Gary David Goldberg. And the other producers have gone on to do other, wonderful things on television and film, so I doubt that they’d be able to gather back a group of writers who could reignite that fire.
And frankly, I don’t know. I’m getting too old for regular work. *laughs* I love jumping around, I love the variety of freelancing. And I often say to people had I wanted steady work, I would’ve done something else for a living. *laughs*
*Laughs*
Steady work is wonderful, but I love the variety of different sorts of characters, and going from one thing to another, one project to another. So Family Ties was wonderful, and to revisit Burt every couple of years is fun. But in this Disney film I played an elf, all 6’3″ of me, and soon I’ll be on Grace & Frankie playing a gay man who is a caterer. And it’s just, I love the variety. I love skipping about from thing to another, so I’m really blessed in to have been given that opportunity.
And I can say, from following your work over the years, that you’re an incredibly talented actor, and that I hope you continue to do an array of projects because I really like seeing actors expand their range. So thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to speak with me Mr. Gross. It’s been a complete honor as I said.
Oh thank you very much. The pleasure’s been mine.
Thank you sir.
Flickering Myth would like to thank Mr. Gross for speaking with us. Tremors: The Complete Collection is available on DVD on May 1, 2018. New and longtime fans can now enjoy the wonder of all six movies in one must-own set including, Tremors, Tremors 2: Aftershocks, Tremors 3: Back to Perfection, Tremors: The Legend Begins, Tremors 5: Bloodlines, and newest film Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell.
Red Stewart
