Patch Profiles Tony-Nominated Actor Zach Grenier

Tony-nominated actor, Zach Grenier, recently shared a cup of Kari's coffee with Maplewood Patch. Grenier has a long list of acting credits. You might have recently seen him as divorce attorney David Lee on The Good Wife (he'll be back) or one of his five, soon to be six, appearances on Law & Order. He received his Tony nomination as Best Featured Actor In A Play for his portrayal of Beethoven in '33 Variations.'

Tell me about yourself: I am an actor who has been fortunate to be able to survive in this business into my middle age. My grandfather was the first art director for Fox Film Corporation (that became Twentieth Century Fox) in the teens. He was a western and patriotic set designer for Biograph Studio silent films. My grandmother was a coloratura soprano, and my grandfather wrote and directed a Broadway play Town Gossip as a starring vehicle for her almost a hundred years ago.

So would you say that you come from a show biz family? All of my uncles went into show business, technical direction. One was the Technical Director of The Ed Sullivan Show. I didn't get to see the Beatles, but he got an autograph.  My father was the different one, he became an electrical engineer.

We moved around a lot when I was a kid and by the time I was eighteen I had lived in eighteen different houses—it's not uncommon for actors to have transient lives. When moving from place to place, one constant was drama club. At fourteen I played (Shakespeare's) Henry V. If parents don't want their kids to be actors, my advice is to keep them away from historic kings.

Where did you go to college? I graduated from high school in Ann Arbor and my choice was to either become a townie or a factory boy, so I chose to attend the University of Michigan where I majored in Anthropology. I received a financial aid package and my aim was to do something that had to do with service to humanity.

But my plans changed. During my first year of school I was in five plays, Three Sisters,  Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (I played Brick), Pavlo Hummel, Miss Julie and The Magistrate. I had no time for anything else, like classes.

So, I transferred to a Boston-area school to study acting. That was really hard. I had to support myself while attending school and had almost nothing. I was literally skin and bones. But the acting was viral. It was something I didn't have control over. I've been on my own since I was very young. My one lifeline was being an actor–being in the theater. When I was on stage, I knew what I was doing. It was a comfortable and safe place to be. 

What brought you to Maplewood? In the 90s, my wife and I moved from Brooklyn to South Orange. While we lived there, we always thought that Maplewood was the cutest little town in the world.

We didn't stay in New Jersey very long  then, because I had opportunities for movies. I've worked on many movies and television shows including regular appearances on the first season of 24,  on Deadwood and Touching Evil. I've also appeared on Golden Girls, Curb Your Enthusiasm, CSI and Numb3rs to name a few. We had wonderful years in L.A., but I missed the theater and wanted to get back. Luckily, my wife agreed. We loved our cozy house in California, so we looked for an East Coast version. We found it in  Maplewood.

What do you like best about the town? We love the convenience. We just hop on the train and get to N.Y.C. Travel is not a big deal. In some ways, living here in Maplewood is more convenient than Park Slope. And it's a good place for working actors. Quite a few live right around here—Andre Braugher, Christine Ebersole and Norbert Leo Butz immediately come to mind. In Maplewood, you can easily go into the City and have dinner and see a show. I go to see whatever I can. I recently saw Race. I worked with both stars, Richard Thomas and James Spader, and said hello after the show. Another wonderful show is Circle Mirror Transformation. It's hilarious and depressing, performed by incredible, talented, wonderful people.

Living in New Jersey is so culturally rich. We love hiking in the Reservation, we go to folk concerts by performers like Richard Shindell—a genius folk singer who lives in Argentina—and Cheryl Wheeler. Her song, "My Cat's Birthday," is great.  We're looking forward to next year's Maplewoodstock already.

Would you call yourself a late bloomer? I really got started at forty. That's when I began to do a lot of films and TV. People seem to like me in movies, and I'm pretty flexible about where I go in terms of character and styles of films. My films range from Tommy Boy with Chris Farley and David Spade to Fight Club with Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, Twister with Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Ride With The Devil, an Ang Lee movie starring Tobey Macguire.

Condolences on the recent loss of your mother. How is your family doing? My mother's legacy, what she provided to her children, was love for culture. She was a glowing ember for culture and all things poetic. I  have two sisters. One is a playwright and story teller, the other is a social worker and gifted artist. My brother is a poet and jazz historian and radio host in Ann Arbor, Michigan. You can find his show, Dr. Arwulf, at wemu.org.

Speaking of family, are you related to Adrian Grenier of 'Entourage'? No relation to him. I've heard he's a nice guy. It would be interesting to work with him. Casting people ask that question all the time. It's an unusual name in the U.S., but common in French Canada.

I know you love animals, do you have any pets? A friend calls our home the "Grenier Home for Domestic Animals. " We have two dogs, and four cats, all rescues from all over the country, from Long Island to Pasadena to Chicago. We started out in 1978 with one cat. Our first long-term cat was from Boston and she passed away in California at 19. When we bought our South Orange house we adopted three cat siblings. Currently, we have four cats. Our dogs are an Aussie-golden retriever mix, Hector, and Leda, a Whippet/Besengi mix. The thing about having dogs is that you can't go away over night. We don't kennel them because they get too upset. I've heard that an adult dog has the cognitive level of a two-year-old child. Our cats are named Cú Chulainn , Shu, Boudica and Tina the Terrible (from Chicago). Tina is an alpha cat who rules all the other cats. In fact, the dogs were raised by the cats.

I support Alley Cat Allies and the Pasadena Humane Society. I'm also involved with Broadway Barks. Bernadette Peters is the celebrity who works with that group.

How do you spend your time between roles? I love working as carpenter, working on my house. My father taught me those skills, so I love to build and fix things like other people love to read. If something is broken I have to figure out how to repair it. I'm thinking of building a deck on our house, but I'm not sure. We have to replace our dishwasher. I'm looking forward to pulling that old one out and putting in the new one in.

Tell me about playing Beethoven in 33 Variations. I was asked to do the Moises Kaufman play at the La Jolla Playhouse in an earlier version, which was very close to the Broadway version. It's the story of a musicologist in failing health who becomes obsessed with Beethoven's Diabelli Variations or 33 Variations. Two story lines take place simultaneously—one present day and the other in Beethoven's time. Jayne Atkinson played the female lead that Jane Fonda played on Broadway. I was fortunate to stay with the play and it was fun to work with different actors. I wish my mother had had a chance to see me in this show. Diane Welsh, a concert pianist,  performed the Beethoven for the show. It was a mini-concert every night. Unfortunately, we were on Broadway only for a short period of time.  The closing notice was posted the night before the Tonys were announced.

As a Tony-nominated actor in a Broadway play, I guess you commuted to New York every night by, what, chauffeured limo? Actually, I took the train every night with an army of Broadway people on that train. They're the ones that make Broadway run—musicians, technical people and other up-and-coming performers. Talented people, musicians who you really know are great. Singers, dancers instrumental performers all get on the train in Maplewood. I got to know some of them and have the greatest respect for what they do.

So, Beethoven, Bach or Brahms? I'm prejudiced–Beethoven. Actually, thanks to my brother's influence,  I like jazz.