Clark Gregg: I guess what we know about the Avengers is there's a reas...

I felt like people really do their best work when they're having a really good time and feel safe to push the envelope and make a jackass out of themselves.

Clark Gregg

envelopes safe people

I like anything Jennifer Lawrence is in. She's so beautiful.

Clark Gregg

jennifer beautiful

I was really sad after 'The Avengers' when I realized I was not going to have a part in 'Thor 2' or 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier.' But I'm not arguing with my fantastic plane and my really cool car.

Clark Gregg

car winter america

As you can imagine when you have to summon a force like that together, the opposing elements are pretty freaking gnarly. I would think of those pioneer movies where they've got the cook and the ladies loading the guns and firing at the surrounded wagons. I don't put Coulson in that category, I think he is on the upper tier of people who come to scrap at situations like that but everybody's involved.

Clark Gregg

gnarly gun thinking

All the PG-13 superhero movies are depriving me of the gore that I need.

Clark Gregg

depriving superhero needs

There's nobody who loves being around actors working more than David Mamet, especially actors bringing his tremendous dialogue to life. I've never seen a movie director who was happier to be directing a movie than Dave.

Clark Gregg

actors love-is directors

Because I'm stern and scolding [the characters] sometimes, I'm sure I'll get a ton of grief.

Clark Gregg

grief sometimes character

I was a football player at college and dislocated my thumb. I was out for a bit and passed the theatre and saw some lovely drama students walking into an audition for 'Much Ado About Nothing' and thought: 'That's what I'll do when I recover.' I joined that production and was hooked.

Clark Gregg

player football drama

The technology actually seemed to come at just the right time to make the Hulk - Mark Ruffalo was really able to play both characters.

Clark Gregg

technology play character

I was an 'Ironman' fan. It was in the '70s. I definitely liked comics and drew a lot of panels on my notebook when I should have been studying - probably why I ended up in the arts.

Clark Gregg

notebook should-have art

One thing I've learned about the Marvel universe is that it's a little bit like God... if you want to make him laugh, just make a plan.

Clark Gregg

universe laughing

Joss Whedon and all the writers of 'Iron Man' and 'Thor' found a way to keep Coulson saying something that keeps you guessing. I'm really lucky because a lot of people play agents and don't get nearly as much fun stuff to do.

Clark Gregg

play fun men

I had worked in this New York theatre company for my first eight or nine years out of college, acting and directing there, and I'd begun to write a little bit.

Clark Gregg

college new-york writing

There's always changes in the way they do that in the cinematic universe. I think, with the S.H.I.E.L.D. 2.0, you're seeing some of the first ripples of those different points of view on what S.H.I.E.L.D. should be when it's rebuilt. I'm very, very curious to know which side Coulson will end up on in that struggle.

Clark Gregg

struggle views thinking

I think most of the actors that I know that I think are good are kind of funny people. There's just something about being alive to the truth of a moment that makes a good joke that also makes a good actor.

Clark Gregg

kind people thinking

I thought there would be more time in my trailer to write during 'Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.,' but I seem to be always flying in a harness and conquering supervillains instead.

Clark Gregg

flying would-be writing

I think about it, and I realize there's been some version of a Batman or Spiderman or Superman franchise since I was a boy, since before I was a boy.

Clark Gregg

realizing boys thinking

It's a little strange, after all these years of working on camera, but once you start to watch the other people who do this a lot and realize how much of what you're doing has to just come through your voice, I found it really interesting.

Clark Gregg

voice people years

The hardest thing to get right is to figure out how to bring all those characters together, and to fulfill the promise of The Avengers. They really set a very high bar for themselves because you've been setting this coalition up, for these five movies, and they better deliver. And in my opinion, they thoroughly deliver.

Clark Gregg

together character promise

As a fanboy myself, one of the fun things about the gig has been every time I get a new script, I get to find out more about his day - to-day life and what goes on and what his relationships are.

Clark Gregg

gigs goes-on fun

I guess what we know about the Avengers is there's a reason why all of the heroes that we've been meeting, from Thor to Captain America - everybody - they need to work together.