The Orville’s Scott Grimes goes on a new adventure in Season 2
The Orville star Scott Grimes dishes on how Lt. Gordon Malloy is moving forward in The Orville season 2 and working with Seth MacFarlane.
The new season of The Orville means TV fans can enjoy more of Scott Grimes. The FOX series has given Grimes a spotlight to show off his excellent comic timing and how he’s a tremendous as well as multi-talented performer.
This season sets his character, Lt. Gordon Malloy, off on a new course that includes more voyages and even a chance at testing for command. Four episodes in, it’s already been crazy and fun, and there’s a lot more to come.
Amazon Adviser connected with Scott Grimes recently to talk about The Orville Season 2, where Gordon goes next, and how his longstanding working relationship with series creator and star Seth MacFarlane has found its way onto the show.
Learn more about Scott and The Orville in our interview below; you can watch new episodes each Thursday on FOX and Amazon Video (available to purchase single episodes or the season pass), and also follow Scott on Twitter.
Amazon Adviser: The Orville gets to take flight for another adventure. What did it mean to you, to get to play Gordon for another season?
Scott Grimes: First of all, all the cobwebs are gone from that first season—because we made our whole season and then we had to wait to get the reaction so we didn’t know how this was going to be taken.
To have people react and not only like the show, but like Gordon, and get rid of all the nerves of am I doing the right thing? Is this actually going to work? It gives you more confidence with that second season. With the thousands of shows that are on TV, it’s a gift to be able to do one season of anything, never mind two.
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AA: Gordon and Ed Mercer have that great friendship, and you go way back with Seth MacFarlane thanks to your work on American Dad and Family Guy. Has any of your real friendship found its way into the characters’ dynamic?
Grimes: All of it. We have a hard time working together, just because we laugh a lot. When it’s already there and you have a relationship in real life, you don’t really have to act it. It comes across. It comes across in the eyes, the listening and the time you have together.
So yes, I think there’s a ton of me in Gordon. He writes it so I’ll tell him something one day and then two weeks later you might see a little thing in the script—if I said I could juggle or something and then all of a sudden it’s in the script. You want to pull from real life and he’s really good at that.
AA: What’s ahead for Gordon in The Orville Season 2? What are his adventures this season?
Grimes: He’s struggling to find a relationship. All these people around him are in love and he just hasn’t had that much luck. He does find somebody this season. Whether they’re a real human being or not is the tease. I can’t wait for everyone to see it because it’s heartfelt and it’s true, but yet it’s heartbreaking as well because of the circumstances.
Also, the first contact stuff is always [interesting] for me, as a lover of science fiction, because here we are on Earth waiting for someone to contact us. That would be so cool if they all of a sudden got in touch with us and we get to explore that this season on Orville. Being the first crew to find a species of being and let them know there’s other life out there. I can’t wait for people to see that. There are ten thousand other things.
AA: In season 1, we saw moments where Gordon was underestimated a little bit. Is he comfortable sort of not caring what people think about him?
Grimes: He’ll simplify what someone intelligent is saying or make a joke about it. I like to think of him as, he’s the translator for some of our audience members that might not be as sci-fi savvy as others. So when [Ed] says something or anybody says something, he likes to make a joke.
But what he’s really doing is simplifying and putting into layman’s terms what this person just said or what we’re about to do. I love that about Gordon, and he’s a kick-ass pilot so it’s not like he’s on board for no reason. He’s a good guy.
AA: Most of what you’re known for is comedy like being the comic relief on Orville or your part on American Dad. But you’re also a talented dramatic actor, so what’s your favorite dramatic role?
ER would have been the thing. I found it really difficult to do what we’re doing on The Orville, what I had to do on ER, which is have reality-based comedy within a drama. ER was the hardest one to do that, because you’re a doctor. You went to school, you’re saving lives, and all of a sudden you’re funny and a bit of a screw-up. That wasn’t easy to do, because you want people to go to a doctor to heal them, so that was a fine line to ride on that.
Band of Brothers was probably the most challenging. That was the most dramatic I had to do without a ton of comedy.
AA: You also have a musical career, so with The Orville keeping you busy, are you still able to work on new music?
Grimes: I still write. I did this record with Russell Crowe and a guy named Alan Doyle called Indoor Garden Party. We did that together. We’ll probably make another one of those.
Writing music for American Dad, which I do that as well, I’ll never give that up. I love writing, I love performing; it’s just been tough since Orville and American Dad kind of go at the same time. I was writing last night, so you never know.
AA: You’re making a TV show with your friends, in your favorite genre, and you get to pretend to fly a spaceship every week. How much fun is Scott Grimes having right now?
Grimes: Not only are you doing it with your friends, you’re on a two-story ship that was built. When you walk on our set, it ain’t hard to pretend. I look out the windows and we have these star screens so you look like you’re in space. It’s so awesome. It’s like a giant billionaire’s toy that he built for kids. It’s a beautiful set.
As a child, you pretend to be in space and I get to do it. I get to be on wires and in a spacesuit, and all this cool stuff that freaked me out at first. I love the challenge of doing that. It’s such a gift and then you get to make money and work with your friends, it’s just a win-win.
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New episodes of The Orville air Thursdays at 9 p.m. on FOX and can be purchased on Amazon the following day. For more about TV on Amazon, visit the TV category at Amazon Adviser.