At the beginning of our sweeping and surprisingly revelatory conversation, legendary Hollywood actor—and more recently, director—Seth Green, said something so insightful, so spot-on that I could’ve stopped our interview right then and there and would’ve still been able to discern the rest.
I was in the middle of telling the three-time Emmy winner how I, too, lived in LA for several years selling television shows and producing films, and that without exception every entertainment executive would tell me that coming from New York City, I was so “authentic” and a “breath of fresh air” before never hearing from them again about a project they had supposedly “loved.” Without skipping a beat, a clearly amused Green says, “Isn’t it funny, Richard? They compliment exactly the quality that doesn’t exist in them.”
Bingo. Game over. Hollywood distilled to a singular sentence. This chat was going to be fun. I wasn’t wrong.
Born in Philadelphia, but having grown up, as he says, “between Philly and New York,” Green came to Los Angeles with a decidedly East Coast swagger and truth-telling that caught on and hasn’t let go in decades and decades of quality work. His IMDB credits are as eye-popping and befitting a genuine acting superstar.
Roll the tape.
In no particular order, Green has appeared in myriad impactful films including Pump Up The Volume, Can’t Hardly Wait, Big Business, Party Monster, The Italian Job, Can’t Buy Me Love and, my runaway favorite, his portrayal as Dr. Evil’s son, Scott Evil, in the smash Austin Powers franchise. How an actor can have the range to move seamlessly from, say, his wannabe rapper role as Kenny Fisher in Can’t Hardly Wait to portraying the real-life infamous Club Kid James St. James in the intense Party Monster, is difficult enough; but the fact that Green never lets the audience see the work he’s putting in to a given performance comes across as “not really acting” when the exact opposite is the truth. I call that quality so many actors have, including Streep, Penn, Cruise, McDormand and more, the “burden of talent.” These and other staggeringly gifted actors aren’t given full credit for the work they’re doing because the audience can’t see that work on the big screen. It seems effortless. Seth Green is one such thespian with a hefty burden of talent. He’s among the best doing the thing, and not everyone is aware.
Green, with wife and fellow actor, Clare Grant, at the 2026 MPTF NextGen Summer Partyin Los Angeles.
Green sweetly swats any of that praise talk away. “I haven’t spent my time focused on how to achieve accolades,” Green says, smiling. “I like the process. I really love performing. My favorite moment is in between ‘action!’ and ‘cut!’ When I get to do the thing with other people who are great at it, that’s the best version of it.”
As accomplished as his film bonafides are, his television CV is something els
