{"id":10106,"date":"2014-10-03T10:22:47","date_gmt":"2014-10-03T14:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=10106"},"modified":"2021-03-29T17:12:18","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T21:12:18","slug":"taking-his-best-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/taking-his-best-shot\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking His Best Shot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; width: 100%; height: 400px;\" src=\"\/\/e.issuu.com\/embed.html?backgroundColor=%23dedddd&amp;d=201408oct&amp;hideIssuuLogo=true&amp;pageNumber=58&amp;u=portlandmagazine\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Interview by Claire Z. Cramer<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-20087\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/downeastmovies.jpg\" alt=\"downeastmovies\" width=\"1200\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/downeastmovies.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/downeastmovies-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/downeastmovies-768x403.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/downeastmovies-1024x538.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/downeastmovies-200x105.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/downeastmovies-620x326.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/>Greg Finley belongs to an exclusive club of talented young people from Maine\u2013think Anna Kendrick, Tim Simons, Rachel Nichols, Kyle Rankin, Caitlin FitzGerald, Patrick Dempsey, Judd Nelson\u2013who have succeeded in Hollywood. In Finley\u2019s case, it was an improbable trajectory from Scarborough High \u201903 to a lead role on the long-running ABC Family TV series, <em>The Secret Life of the American Teenager<\/em>, in 2008; a role in this year\u2019s series <em>Star-Crossed;<\/em> upcoming appearances as a heavy-metal meta-human on this fall\u2019s new series <em>The Flash<\/em>; and guest spots in between on shows including <em>Law &amp; Order<\/em>, <em>Cold Case<\/em>, and <em>House<\/em>. He\u2019d originally gone off to study restaurant management at Johnson &amp; Wales University. \u201cThe plan was always to run my own restaurant.\u201d His dad\u2019s an owner of the Dry Dock Restaurant &amp; Tavern on Commercial Street in the Old Port, so he knows the business. (\u201cOh yeah, I started washing dishes there when I was 14.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>Then he sustained a sports injury requiring emergency surgery and lengthy, bedridden convalescence at age 19. This resulted in months spent watching countless movies on DVD. When he was well, there was a new plan.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Were your parents worried sick when you told them you were quitting school to go to Hollywood and become an actor?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>They didn\u2019t\u2013or maybe they did\u2013freak out, but inside. They were supportive; they believed I could do it. I probably never would\u2019ve stuck it out without the moral support from my family. I get out here and I\u2019m living in the Hollywood Star Inn, 25 bucks a night, and I\u2019m homesick. There were some hard times, when I really wasn\u2019t in a good place. I almost gave up after a couple of years. But they\u2019d say, \u2018No, stick with it, stick with it.\u2019 It really helped. At one point I\u2019m in this empty apartment, no furniture, sleeping on the floor. I mean, I\u2019m 23 years old and I\u2019m working dead-end jobs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Then you suddenly have a great role in a TV series.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I was really lucky <em>Secret Life<\/em> went for five years. It might not have been a huge hit with critics, but it had viewers. There were times we were doubling <em>Gossip Girl<\/em> numbers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>After <em>Secret Life,<\/em> you were cast in <em>Star-Crossed<\/em>. You have tattoos yourself, but your character had very different ones. Didn\u2019t your agent ever tell you to not get any tattoos if you\u2019re planning a screen career?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh yeah, everyone told me. They used to joke on the set of <em>Secret Life<\/em> that I spent more time in makeup than the girls, getting my tattoos covered up. I just like tattoos.<\/p>\n<p><strong>And that scar next to your eye?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yeah, a kid threw a rock when I was a kid. Just missed my eye and my temple. But it required 46 stitches. Early in <em>Secret Life<\/em> they makeup\u2019d it out. Then it became cool.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Talk about <em>Danny Boy<\/em>, the movie you wrote and are trying to produce in Maine.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Co-wrote. I came up with it and I wrote the first draft, but it wasn\u2019t where it needed to be, so I hired a real writer. I have a production company. I\u2019m a director and one actress away from rolling. The Maine battle continues, though. It\u2019s always about the money, the tax incentives. It\u2019s just really hard to make a movie in Maine because the incentives aren\u2019t there. That\u2019s why there\u2019s so much filming in places like North Carolina and New Orleans. But I really want <em>Danny Boy<\/em> to film in Portland. In my head I\u2019m picturing the docks on the waterfront, the cobblestones. Danny\u2019s a Maine kid who comes up through Golden Gloves.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Did you box as a kid?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No, my dad had a heavy bag and a speed bag and I worked out with them, but I never boxed competitively. I play basketball. I\u2019m in the NBA E-league out here, I was rookie of the year one year. The league\u2019s for basically anyone in the entertainment business who can actually play. I\u2019ve played with Josh Hutcherson, Terrell Owens, Chris Brown, the rapper J. Cole, all kinds of guys.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Terrell Owens? Isn\u2019t he an NFL guy?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hey, T.O.\u2019s done reality shows!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Who are the actors you admire?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been a huge Leo fan from day one. He is just so good. Jack Nicholson. And Christian Bale. He\u2019s our greatest chameleon.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Did Bale\u2019s work in <em>The Fighter<\/em> influence your creation of <em>Danny Boy<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s funny, but I actually start writing my script before <em>The Fighter<\/em> ever came out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Besides the film and two episodes of <em>The Flash<\/em>, what do you have going on?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m back on the grind since [<em>Star-Crossed<\/em>]didn\u2019t get renewed. Auditions, auditions, auditions. My agent\u2013Amanda Glazer, she\u2019s great, she\u2019s been with me right from the start\u2013has some irons in the fire.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So after years of struggling and making it, are you now out hobnobbing with other young actors in Hollywood?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No! I\u2019m not into that. I hate being photographed and going to those events. I do keep in touch with the gang from<em> Secret Life, <\/em>though\u2013we got to be a close group.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hate being photographed when you make a living in front of a camera?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not <em>me<\/em> when I\u2019m acting. That\u2019s why I can do what I do.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Do you get back to Maine much?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As often as I can. It\u2019s great because I couldn\u2019t get back much in the lean years. I get there and I just stuff myself with seafood. I love going to Old Orchard. And my family visits me out here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So do you have an apartment with furniture now?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Got a house! Got the pool. I\u2019m looking out at\u00a0 my fire pit in the backyard right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>October 2014<br \/>\nThe actor\/athlete seeks a new challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[86],"class_list":["post-10106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-october-2014"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10106"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20088,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10106\/revisions\/20088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}