Posted in: Interview, Movies | Tagged: Any Day Now, Eric Aronson, Paul Guilfoyle, taylor gray

Any Day Now Star Taylor Gray on Heist Film, Paul Guilfoyle & More

Taylor Gray (Saturday Night) spoke to Bleeding Cool about his latest indie heist comedy "Any Day Now", Paul Guilfoyle, and more.

Taylor Gray has been active on screen for nearly two decades since his on-screen debut in the CBS series Numb3rs in 2007. He's since been a regular on the film and TV scenes with memorable roles on Nickelodeon's Bucket and Skinner's Epic Adventures, the Disney animated series Star Wars: Rebels, Lifetime's American Princess, Go90s In the Vault, and Sony's Saturday Night. His latest is the heist film Any Day Now, based on the infamous Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist in Boston in 1990, which totals in the hundreds of millions worth in art, the single largest unsolved property theft in the world.

Steve (Gray) is a night watchman in his early 20s, but his life is already getting away from him: his band is falling apart, he owes a ton of money, and he's in love with his best friend's girl. When Marty Lyons (Paul Guilfoyle) comes along and ropes Steve into a world of misfits, oddballs, and lost souls as dirty as the Charles River, Steve wonders if this is a change for the better or if he's about to make the worst mistake of his life. Gray spoke to Bleeding Cool about working with writer Eric Aronson, who's making his feature directorial debut; any prep work, working with the CSI star and veteran actor, and what scene stood out the most.

Any Day Now Star Taylor Gray on Legendary Boston Art Heist

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'Any Day Now?'

The script was the first thing given to me, and it was an amazing, humanistic story set against a real and fun heist. I've always loved heist movies growing up, but this is a fun take because it's more about the characters than the actual heist. I watched the docuseries about the heist, this cold case, and I was immediately drawn in. The fact that it's the biggest art heist in history and it's still unsolved, and no one knows where any of the art is. That's already a great canvas to paint on.

How do you describe Eric's approach and what he's like as a creative?

I love Eric Aronson, and I mean, there are some people you work with where you say that, and Eric is fantastic. He's incredibly collaborative. He's wickedly smart and knows how to get the most out of every actor and what they need out of a performance. I watched him individually take care of each one of us, allowing space for us to bring in our own ideas, and the fact he's had a great career writing. This was his first film directing, and everyone was a little interested in how that would go. I can't wait to see what he does next because he's incredible.

Did you have to do any prep work for the role of Steve, and what does that role allow you to do you wouldn't normally do in a project?

There's always prep work when you're playing. This one's loosely based on somebody, but we had certain facts that he was a security guard. He was in massive debt, had been kicked out of school, and was a musician, so there are certain things we could get a silhouette of who he was. From there, I leaped in, painted in, and connected the dots for the rest of the specifics. It was a lot of playing guitar and getting into the mindset of a struggling musician of the time who's feeling this existential ennui, who's looking for a purpose in their life, which, as any young man, I feel you experienced at some point in your maturation process. I had to tap back into that.

What did you enjoy most working with Paul, and how did you develop your chemistry with him?

Paul's incredible. It was really sweet last night in Boston. We had a big screening where he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Boston Film Festival, which was so well-deserved, and there was a beautiful video from Al Pacino introducing him, and it talked about his sort of storied career. I didn't even know some of these projects he had worked on. He's such an actor's actor, as they were saying last night. He cares about the craft and finding the truth. In the best way, he's a hard ass. He wants to dive in and break it open. I share that ethos with him. It was cool to put our heads together and find life in these characters, so I would jump in the arena with him whenever, again, he was fantastic.

Was there a particular standout scene in the film that stood out to you compared to the rest?

The scene of the robbery is fun because as you're doing your imagination work as an actor, you're walking yourself through the script repeatedly. That's one thing that happened, so that was always cool because when we shot it, I remember thinking like, "Oh shit! This is the robbery! This is what went down, and this is what he was feeling when these guys came in; whether he knew about this, it was an exhilarating and terrifying moment." That whole sequence into being taped up and gagged, which wasn't my favorite to perform, but was also straight out of the images we had from that time. The whole sequence of the robbery stands out the most.

Was there anything you learned from being around Paul, and did you discuss the craft?

We did talk about the craft more afterward. He shared a bunch of stories about doing theater, and I had gone to drama school in London. He knew a handful of the people I had trained with. We had a handful of mutual connections; we would mainly talk about work on stage, what it is to be present as a human and as an actor, and what makes an actor. It was sweet to share war stories in a way. but also, you learn so much by giving and talking with other actors, and he's someone who gives so much that you just learn by the friction in each scene.

Any Day Now, which also stars Alexandra Templer, Thomas Kee, and Armando Rivera, is available in select theaters.

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