By Mike McCarthy
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D star Brett Dalton, known for his role as Agent Grant Ward sat down with us at Boston Comic Con to discuss past and future seasons of the show. He also vocalized his love affair with a car and who he would love to play in future Marvel movies. We totally agree with some of his choices of who he wants to play, but one especially we want to see…maybe a combo of DeadPool and this character later on…think about it. You have seen Brett in bit parts in Army Wives and Blue Bloods, but his first job as an actor, which we talk about was on a Sony Playstation video game, that just so happens to release on August 25th. With the launch of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D his career has skyrocketed; and we hope to see him in more TV and film roles.
Wingman Magazine: During season 1 the whole scheme was changed after the first 8 episodes that were very tough to get thru. What made the writers and creators change it?
Brett Dalton: When we first aired, we already had four or five episodes done, so there is not a whole lot we can do with seeing how it’s landing, ya know. I think that’s part of TV, is adjusting as you go. I don’t wanna speak for the writers, but I don’t think they’re unaware of how thing’s are landing, and what fans want and what’s resonating and what’s not. I think that comes in to play. Also, there was definitely a shift though, right around the mid season. Every show takes a while to find itself. We had a really strong pilot and there is a learning curve for all involved, and it’s a story that’s being told twenty two episodes at a time. That is something different, and evolves and hopefully we found it.
WM: Do you watch the show when it is airing at all or do you not like watching yourself on TV?
Brett Dalton: I don’t know if I LIKE to watch myself, but we live tweet and I watch it in the ADR booth (Automated Dialogue Replacement) when we all have to go in and do a couple of dialogue lines every episode. We’re outdoors and action behind us and everything, so there’s a little bit of that. So I get to see a rough cut of that a little bit. Then during the shows, we are all live tweeting which is when I get to see the real finished product, so I am watching it with everyone else.
WM: As you watch the episode and yourself, are there little things that you want to change?
Brett Dalton: Every single episode, absolutely. I feel like every actor pretty much has the same thing going through their head. I mean you are watching the episode and saying “ oh this is great, this is great” and then your scene comes on, and you’re like, “ aww man I should’ve done that…oh they used that take? Why were they on my back on that shot? I had a much better reaction, I don’t know why they didn’t use that shot.” There’s a million other actor neuroses going on and when you get all of us in a room, we are all saying all the things that we should’ve done differently or what we wished the editors chose for us. Even little head tilts get to me a little bit.
WM: Is there an episode in season one or two that you think was the best for Ward’s character?
Brett Dalton: In season one I really like T.R.A.C.K.S, there was something about it, where it was told in an Ocean’s 11 kind of style with a voiceover narration of the mission and you saw it as it was happening. It was a train episode, so the whole thing is moving like a freight train and starts with the action and doesn’t stop until the train disappears. It was so fast paced, and I really liked that because in that particular episode where Ward couldn’t turn on the holocom and I thought that was really funny because he got very few moments of humor or one liners. He doesn’t get a ton of humor vulnerability, but not in the tongue-in-cheek kind of way. It was more of a dark kind of humor he was usually getting, and for someone who’s so tough, and he couldn’t even turn on the holocom.
The other episode that I really liked was when I got back with the team in season 2, I think it was episode twenty and it was like an incredibly awkward Thanksgiving dinner. I really liked that episode too because they let it be awkward, and let it have space. In TV we have to tell a lot of story in a short amount of time and it can feel kind of quick sometimes. What I liked about that episode was that those moments were allowed to breath and that’s what made it awkward.
WM: The love that Ward had for Kara really seemed genuine and that he had found peace. Do you think he really would’ve left it all behind just for her?
Brett Dalton: Well yes and no. He was taking a leadership position in Hydra at that point. It had it’s brother-sister moments, kind of old married couple and so many different kinds of relationships. I don’t know if he ever would’ve given up everything that he does because it’s part of him. I think he is always running away from something, and I think they would’ve done a lot of things together, possibly away from Hydra and SHIELD. They would be a thick as thieves kind of duo, like Bonnie and Clyde. Still doing everything they had before, just with no affiliation.
WM: Ward has gone from badass agent, to a traitor to the highest ranking member of Hydra. What can we expect in season 3, that you can actually talk about?
Brett Dalton: It’s a new chapter for Ward and for Hydra, which has lost most of their leadership. Much like we have seen Coulson put the pieces back together after the internal conflicts that occurred, Ward is left with the task of putting Hydra back together. He elected himself the leader and will be making Hydra in his own image. It’s not going to be about what Hydra was before with Naziism or world domination. He is the Rolling Stones to Coulson’s Beatles, the ying to his yang, and I think he’s the anti-SHIELD. It’s definitely personal as well.
WM: There hasn’t been a comic book based show that has had a major villain be a big part of the series, until Vincent D’Onofrio in the new Daredevil. Can Ward pull off that same kind of presence?
Brett Dalton: We’ve gotten to know Ward for two full seasons now, so automatically you are going in with all that backstory. I could do any scene, and the audience is coming with 44 episodes of backstory, so there’s a sort of built in depth to it all. He’s not some random villain that you see for a couple of episodes and then a baddie that promptly dies. Ward is someone that people have invested a lot of time in getting to know, and they have seen his bad side, but they have also seen his good side. They have seen him on missions with Fitz, and I think that is sort of inherent. What I think makes a good villain is a great backstory, getting to know these guys and getting to see that they aren’t just these mustache twirling, cat petting, moon writing evil masterminds. They aren’t all waking up thinking “ How can I crush the world today?”
WM: Have there been discussions of S.H.I.E.L.D crossing over more into the Marvel films ?
Brett Dalton: Hell yeah, I want to be in a movie, of course. I know they are aware that there is some connective tissue between the two worlds, and I would be really excited to do that, and we are excited that we have a third season and some shows don’t have that opportunity. With Strucker and Lyst going from our show into Avengers, I can only imagine there will be crossover into Captain America: Civil War…As far as I know, I have no messages telling me that I will be in Civil War but perhaps I got a call from Joss Whedon saying I am in the movie. But yeah, that would definitely be cool.
WM: You are starring in a video game that releases this month. Are you a gamer at all? Would Until Dawn be a game that you would play?
Brett Dalton: I do yeah, August 25th, Until Dawn. This was one of the first jobs I ever got as a professional actor after Grad School and we made it for the Playstation 3. It was in the final stages of production and Sony got back and said “ We love this game so much, but can you do it over, this time for the Playstation 4? Can you change it from a first person, to scenario driven and can we recast the actors as well?” I was lucky, I think I was the only original cast member attached to the PS4 version. They brought in Rami Malek (Mr. Robot) and Hayden Panettiere ( Heroes), so it’s nice to see us all together and it’s crazy how realistic and spot on it looks like us in the game. I love the horror genre and if you haven’t seen it, you have to watch It Follows. Nothing since Cabin in the Woods has there been such an interesting take on the horror genre. So yeah, I would but since I don’t have a PS4 I can’t get it yet, but hoping Sony sends me one for the game. It’s a badass game and it starts out like Cabin in the Woods as a self aware video game.
WM: If you could be any existing superhero in the DC or Marvel Universes, who would it be?”
Brett Dalton: In the DC world I think Lobo is cool as shit. In the Marvel universe, Death’s Head II is cool as hell, Carnage who is insane. I really like the Punisher and Cable, who I thought was dope, he always had the best toys. And of course…Thanos is the man.
WM: We are gonna push for you to be Cable, all you need is the star around your eye and the white hair.
Brett Dalton: *Laughing* Yeah the white hair is all I need, but yeah that would be awesome to be Cable.
WM: We are the same age, when you were a kid did you watch the X-Men cartoon in ‘92 or Batman the Animated Series?
Brett Dalton: Yeah definitely watched X-Men…Batman..the one with the square jaw, yeah absolutely. All that stuff was great, and the original Ninja Turtles. The cartoons of our time were all fantastic and it’s nice to see some coming back for this generation, some more successful than others for sure. When you get the toys we had, like even Legos, the Lego Movie…it was awesome and even Ghostbusters is making a comeback and has potential. In a good remake ( like Ghostbusters) as long as the tone is right and it’s something familiar I think it will be good. They just have to nail it. What they don’t want it is…I won’t name specific examples of bad remakes, but really the only thing they had going for them was nostalgia. If you can bring something back and put a new spin to it then you really have something. Star Trek has done that, that reboot was incredible. On the success of that, comes Star Wars.
WM: Which S.H.I.E.L.D. co-star was the most fun to spar with?”
Brett Dalton: I guess I only really sparred with Agent May, and a little bit with Chloe, but that was just a little bit of boxing. I’ve had some pretty epic fights with the two resident badasses of our show, Bobbi Morse ( Adrianne Palicki) and Agent May (Ming Na Wen). They both bring and force me to step up my game. I have been lucky enough to work with both of them, and lucky that we all walked away in one piece. So I can’t make a choice, both are awesome.
WM: Agent May, Skye, Agent 33 …which one was the best kisser. And which one would be the most pissed that they weren’t chosen?
Brett Dalton: Agent May would kick my ass first for not choosing her. I would say that my love affair with Lola is probably the strongest. I had to pick a car to make sure there weren’t hurt feelings.
Make sure to catch Brett Dalton on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D this fall. Season 3 premieres on ABC September 29th. Also pick up his game Until Dawn on Playstation 4 on August 25th.