Interview with Eric Roberts

I had the pleasure of meeting up with the amazing talented Eric Roberts. His career began with King of the Gypsies (1978), earning a Golden Globe nomination for best actor debut. He earned both a Golden Globe and Academy Award nomination for his supporting role in Runaway Train (1985). He is starring in the upcoming “The Expendables” directed by Sylvester Stallone. He is also currently appearing on NBC’s “Heroes”. His daughter is Emma Roberts (Valentine’s Day).

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Mike Gencarelli: What was it like to work with such a diverse cast in “The Expendables”? Can you tell us about your character?

Eric Roberts: Well with Sly (Sylvester Stallone) leading the way, there was really no pressure, it was like going to fucking camp and it was really fun and we all know each other, we all have been in good movies together and all have been in bad movies together and we like each other. Sly is a good leader, Sly is all boy and Sly doesn’t take no for an answer. So you know we all deliver for him and its fun to go to camp with the boys. I play a rouge CIA operative. I play a guy that falls in love with his own power in his situation, so they realize they have to get rid of him…so they do

Mike Gencarelli: I heard you were recently cast in the new Roger Corman creature feature “Sharktopus”, can you tell me about the movie and the character you play?

Eric Roberts: All I can do is I can tell you this, you’ve heard of sharks that scare you, you’ve heard of octopus’ that scare you. Put a shark and octopus in bed together, what do you create.. you get a “Sharktopus”. The “Sharktopus” is so bad, that I get looked at as an evil scientist, when in reality I am just an incredible scientist, but they don’t get me.

Mike Gencarelli: You play Salvatore Marconi in “The Dark Knight”, how do you feel about the movies success? Do you have any reflections on the movie? Was Marconi fun to play?

Eric Roberts: I think it is one of the most beautiful movies I have ever saw for what it is, its genre, everything, it’s just cool to watch and I hope that man hires me again, that Chris Nolan. Yeah it was good to be part of it, he was a blast to play, cause its easy. It was a blast. We shot it at a place called the old Zeppelin hanger, 30 miles north of London, this great big old hanger, it had the Zeppelin IV at the turn of the 20th century. It was three football fields wide, it was nine stories tall and you walk in and its all Gotham City, it was just really cool, like a life size dollhouse.

MG: After playing Thompson on NBC’s “Heroes”, how do you feel the direction of the show has taken and did you enjoy playing that character?

ER: I worked so hard on the scripts, I worked so hard on the history. I am an old homework actor and I started having fun with the character this season. They made my character an understanding human being, you understand where he is coming from for the first time. I like that cast, they are a lot of fun.

MG: You have worked on a lot of music videos over the years, ranging from The Killers to Akon to Mariah Carey? What is your connection to music?

ER: What interesting is that you are behind, because every video I have been on has gone number one and I’ve been in 4 or 5. Yeah, I’ve become videos lucky guy. What happened was that Sophie Miller was directing The Killers video and she called me to play a pimp and that is how it all started.

MG: You’ve been working in the business since you were 5, you’ve worked on theater, TV, movies. Nominated for an Oscar, two Golden Globes, have you ever thought about directing?

ER: They always ask me to direct shit, I love my headache, and I don’t want their headache. I really love what I do.

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