ESQUIRE: How did you like Philly?<\/strong><\/p>\nFABIEN FRANKEL: I had the best time, and I\u2019m not saying that because we\u2019re here promoting the show. That was my favorite job I\u2019ve ever done, so I\u2019m sure I told you that when we were out there [the last time we spoke].<\/p>\n
It felt like you were just getting settled in then. I remember giving you the chance to double down on the whole kerfuffle with calling a cheesesteak a baguette.<\/strong><\/p>\nThat\u2019s exactly right, mate. Wow, I remember you giving me the out on that.<\/p>\n
What were some of your favorite Philly spots?<\/strong><\/p>\nObviously Angelo\u2019s. I\u2019d love a cheesesteak right now. We also went to Alpen Rose, the steakhouse, and Franky Bradley\u2019s. We went out there a bunch.<\/p>\n
Did you see any biker gangs like the Dark Hearts while you were out filming on location? I feel like Philly is all about ATVs now.<\/strong><\/p>\nYeah, I went to my buddy\u2019s place in Jersey and there was a bunch of ATV guys around. Me and Stu, one of our camera operators, we were rolling around out there.<\/p>\n
Was the humid Philly summer tough to get used to? From everyone I\u2019ve talked to so far it sounds like it was like 100 degrees as you walked around in the woods.<\/strong><\/p>\nIt was freezing cold when I got there and boiling hot when I left. American summer is not British summer. It\u2019s humid. It fucking bites. It\u2019s like biting cold and biting hot. And I didn\u2019t have much makeup. Brad hates makeup. He literally specifically asks actors not to wear makeup. He wants us all to look how we look. If you\u2019re haggard, be haggard. If you\u2019re tired, be tired. And I think that\u2019s right.<\/p>\n\n\nIn episode 6 of Task<\/em>, Frankel\u2019s Anthony Grasso comes face-to-face with Mark Ruffalo\u2019s Tom Brandis\u2014who finally knows that he\u2019s the mole.<\/span> Eli Schmidt<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nI loved your DJ Grassonova monologue earlier in the series. It felt like the first time we really got to hear your accent work come out.<\/strong><\/p>\nThat\u2019s probably one of the scenes I felt the most insecure about. I watched it with a friend of mine, and she was like, \u201cIt\u2019s so you, that scene.\u201d It felt like such an insult, and I know she didn\u2019t mean it in that way, but I was like, Oh my God<\/em>. I felt really insecure about that scene, so that\u2019s nice.<\/p>\nI figured that you must have appreciated it, since you were talking last time we spoke about how much of a different challenge Ser Criston Cole [from House of the Dragon<\/em>] is since he arrives with no backstory. <\/strong><\/p>\nYeah, it did. And [Ingelsby] does that so well with everyone. So hard to do, I imagine, as a writer. It\u2019s like he writes everything fully formed. And Criston \u2026 this, it is what it is, but Criston is a purpose in a storyline, and House of Dragon<\/em> is a show that is a bunch of people who are serving a story. At times, I find that that\u2019s difficult as an actor.<\/p>\nEspecially, too, when you\u2019re a character who betrays the audience. You faced, really, the height of social-media anger during that second season.<\/strong><\/p>\nOh yeah, dude, that was a whole moment. It was weird. And it\u2019s funny, I feel like people\u2019s opinions about the character, suddenly there was more empathy, if that makes sense. It wasn\u2019t empathy for him; it was empathy for me, like, Oh, we don\u2019t want this guy to feel like it\u2019s his fault.<\/em><\/p>\nWhen I saw one of your characters betray someone again in Task, <\/em>I was just like, \u201cOh no, not again.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nDude, brother, what the fuck, right? The nice thing about it is that, eventually, you understand the reason why. But it\u2019s like, people fuck up, and that\u2019s what makes acting these types of characters who fuck up so interesting.<\/p>\n
The scene in episode 6 where Tom confronts Grasso is so intense. What\u2019s Ruffalo like as a scene partner?<\/strong><\/p>\nHe\u2019s the fucking best, man. He\u2019s so wise. There\u2019s people who spend hours trying to explain stuff to you. And then there\u2019s people you just watch. You learn by osmosis. As a person on set, the way he speaks to everyone, he knows everyone\u2019s name and he\u2019s friends with everyone. You can stop him and have a conversation with him, and he won\u2019t tell you that he doesn\u2019t have time to speak to you no matter who you are. When you\u2019re at that level of success, I can imagine you can become jaded. Mark is so far away from that.<\/p>\n
And that scene \u2026 it\u2019s great, man. It\u2019s fitting. Tom\u2019s not the one who needs to make him feel guilty. He\u2019s already got the guilt as it is. And Grasso\u2019s a very self-aware character. He\u2019s not oblivious to his own actions and the consequences of his actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\u201cHe\u2019s the fucking best,\u201d Frankel says about Mark Ruffalo. \u201cThere\u2019s people who spend hours trying to explain stuff to you. And then there\u2019s people you just watch.\u201d<\/span> HBO<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWere you actually drinking beers during that scene?<\/strong><\/p>\nI wish. No, they were nonalcoholic beers just put in a Yuengling bottle. We were not allowed to drink on set. Also, Philly\u2019s got slightly different alcohol rules because you can\u2019t buy liquor past ten o\u2019clock, or even in the grocery store, which is crazy. So if it\u2019s ten o\u2019clock and you had people over and you want to make margaritas, you just can\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s so frustrating.<\/strong><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s with that? Isn\u2019t there an administrative thing we can do to change that? I\u2019m making it sound like that\u2019s such a big thing that I want to fight for. [Laughs.]<\/em> There\u2019s bigger things worth fighting for.<\/p>\nMaybe the more actors we get into Philly, the more attention it will get. <\/strong><\/p>\nDude, that\u2019s it. The actors. If anyone\u2019s going to change the alcohol laws in Pennsylvania, it\u2019s the actors.<\/p>\n
What are you excited to work on next?<\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019ve got to finish the House of Dragon<\/em> season, which is done in a month or so. Then we\u2019ll bring it back to the drawing board. I\u2019m reading a lot at the minute, a lot of scripts. I\u2019d like to direct a film. That\u2019s what I\u2019d really like to do. My brother and I are developing a bunch of stuff together\u2014things that are personal to us about our family, but we\u2019ll see if they come off. If I could direct a film in the next year or two, I\u2019d be really, really happy about that.<\/p>\nYou Might Also Like<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a long day. The sun is setting, and Fabien Frankel is has been through a whirlwind round of interviews for his new HBO crime drama, Task, before it\u2019s even my time to talk with him. So I figure that we need a strong palate cleanser to reset the evening. I suggest a literal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2086886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[382713,351336,368194,364238,316735,369947],"class_list":["post-2086885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-anthony-grasso","tag-brad-ingelsby","tag-fabien-frankel","tag-house-of-the-dragon","tag-mark-ruffalo","tag-ser-criston-cole"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Fabien-Frankel-on-His-\u2018Task-Twist-Downing-Yuenglings-and-\u2018House.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2086885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2086887,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086885\/revisions\/2086887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2086886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2086885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2086885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2086885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}