An actor who’s appeared in shows like Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Gotham, and Law & Order recently spent some time in Rockford working with students who hope to one day be like him.
On a recent Friday afternoon, Anthony Robert Grasso sat in the basement of Rockford University’s Clark Arts Center. He was finishing his lunch right before resuming his acting workshops at the school.
In addition to acting, he directs and teaches. He founded ARG Acting Studio in New York where he teaches ongoing acting classes with up to 60 students. This is his fourth time coming to Rockford to teach.
“Rockford just feels like Long Island to me,” he explained. “It's a lot of like strip malls and, you know, freeways, and so it kind of feels like I'm not really far from home.”
Grasso’s acting credits span three decades, but he’s been teaching just as long at places like New York University and Papermill Playhouse in New Jersey.
“Being an educator for 26 years now," he said, "and working with young students, older students, my students range from 20 to about 78 so I have a lot of people coming back to the business in their 50s and 60s. And then I get the young kids like these guys here. I love when my students do well.”
The Brooklyn native said he used to act with his friends as a child. In sixth grade a teacher suggested he become a part of the drama league, but he got cold feet. He said he got in trouble as a teenager and school was not his priority. But a drama teacher changed his life.
“She said, 'you know, come to my class and I'll pass you,'" he said. "And she said, 'it's an English class, but we work on plays, and you get to act.'”
He surrendered and went on to study at the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he fell in love with painting. One of his artist friends invited him to Italy. That friend was dating actress Elizabeth Hubbard, who starred in several soap operas and films, including the 1980 academy award winning Ordinary People. Grasso said a friend of hers looked at him and told him he should be an actor.
“And I just thought, ‘Why would you say that? I've been here to paint.'" he remembered saying. "And then I said, ‘I wouldn't even know what to do.’ That's how I answered it. And Elizabeth said, ‘Here's what you're going to do.’ And she gave me all these different things to do when I got back, you know, 'take a voice class. Once you get that ironed out, I want you to go here.'”
Grasso went on to study at the British American Drama Academy at Oxford, England.
Rockford University theatre professor Deborah Mogford said a few years back the university received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to bring professional actors to the school. One of her former students connected her with Grasso.
“And then we had a phone conversation,” she said, “and discovered that we were kindred spirits and that I we had many of the same teachers, and so that's how I invited him.”
And she keeps inviting him back. She said he’s great with engaging the students.
“He can gently spur their imagination and their technique," Mogford explained, "into doing things they didn't think they could possibly do or expand in ways they couldn't possibly expand.”
Senior Isaac Urbik is finishing up a Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting and directing. He still remembers his freshman year, when Grasso gave him feedback on his monologue.
“It kind of felt like a personal attack," he said, "but looking back on it, he was right. It was a choice that I had made that was so over the top and wasn't necessary.”
Mogford said prior to this workshop, Grasso asked the students to bring monologues so that they could practice on stage. Then they transitioned into film and scene work.
“We ended the day with him working with some students who were very frightened, our students who were very shy, and bringing that out,” she said. “And the comment that he made to me is, ‘I know not everyone's going to go on and do film, but if in this process, we can build up confidence in a world that has taken confidence from so many people being brave, that is the job as well.’”
“He never wanted to watch anyone fail," Urbik said. "And he made sure that none of us did. He was always encouraging, even when we slipped up. He made sure that we picked ourselves back up and was proud of the work that we did with him.”
Grasso said he understands that some aspiring actors can’t afford formal training. But there are still ways to sharpen their skills. One is by using a smartphone and tripod to make a movie.
“Or pull out a sonnet from Shakespeare sonnets, practice that daily,” he added. “Or pick a monologue from all the great writers that are right there on your fingertips. Again. You don't even have to pay for most of them, and you could study a monologue just to keep the instrument going. It's an instrument.”
Grasso said he will continue to act, direct and teach but one thing he aspires to do is be in a movie that is featured in the Cannes Film Festival.
In the meantime, he’ll continue to pour his artistic passion into others.
Listen to the full interview with Anthony Robert Grasso here.
