Gregg, alter ego both like tech
‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ actor uses iPad app to learn lines while driving Tesla.
LOS ANGELES Clark Gregg not only stars in a TV show that’s full of tech — flying cars and a futuristic plane are featured in ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D — but tech helps him learn his lines.
Picture Gregg, a veteran of such sci-fi films as Iron Man and The Avengers, driving in his Tesla, reciting his lines to his iPad Mini. That exactly what he does, as he told us on the S.H.I.E.L.D. set.
REHEARSAL 2
The $19.99 app for the iPad and iPhone “allows me to record the scenes that are coming up the next day,” Gregg says. “I can learn two or three scenes on the way home. I record them into the app, and it plays them on a loop.”
SURROUNDED BY GADGETRY
On S.H.I.E.L.D., he gets around town in a flying Corvette. He’d love such a vehicle in real life.
“Anyone who lives in L.A. understands there are freeways where you should only have a flying car so you can get the hell out of there when it comes to a complete stop,” he says.
After shooting the pilot, he says, “I turned to my wife (actress Jennifer Grey) ... when they revealed my flying Corvette ... and said ... ‘This is the fantastic geeky midlife crisis I forgot to have, and they’re paying for it.’ “
SAVING AGENT COULSON
When his character was killed in the Avengers movie, “Agent Coulson’s fans weren’t having it, and they waged a really impressive and moving Twitter campaign, #Coulsonlives. I think it’s one of the reasons we have a show. Their support brought me back to life.”
S.H.I.E.L.D. is heavily discussed on Twitter, where Gregg has more than 250,000 followers, and often live tweets the show.
GREGG’S GADGETS
He never goes anywhere without his iPad Mini, iPhone 5 and Beats Tour by Dr. Dre in-ear buds, and swears by his Tesla electric car.
“I love great engineering and great design,” he says. “The G forces a Tesla can generate are not something to be sneered at. And the fact that I never go to a gas station, just plug in behind my house and go back and forth from work. It interacts with my iPad — it plugs in, and I can run lines through beautiful speakers.”
Gregg picked up the Maxboost battery case, which plugs directly over the iPhone and doubles battery time for the day. “I don’t think it’s a mystery that the iPhone runs out of juice. They especially do when you’re on location and can’t get to a charger.”
While the iPad Mini helps Gregg learn lines, the iPhone is used to fine-tune his character. “I use it to listen to music. It can go on for four hours if I need to stay in a particular emotional place.”
APPS
Gregg likes Flipboard, the socialmagazine app, Boxing Timer Pro, a $2.99 iPhone app for boxing workouts, and Marvel Unlimited (free, Apple, Android) to catch up on his employer’s comic books.