Bob Stephenson on the Road to Making it Big, From Cary Grant to David Fincher

Do commercial casting directors treat you any better now that you've spent so many years in the business and scored some major film roles?

I don't think so. [Laughs] But there have been a couple commercial breakdowns for commercials that I can't go out for that say, "Looking for a Bob Stephenson type." My agent will call and say, "Hey, they're looking for you." It's kind of weird when you meet the people that are your type.

What is the Bob Stephenson type?

I don't know. One guy was blonde and really big. I don't want to think about it.

You've written all of these commercial treatments, you associate produced the movie Thumbsucker. Are you looking to get back into writing and producing?

I'm trying to put together a movie now where I would play the lead. It's hard because money has tightened up a lot so producing has been a lot more difficult. I've been trying to focus on acting so hopefully, if I can get a little more cachet, I can put that project into motion.

Are you writing the script for this project?

No. It's a script that's been around for a while called Analog, and I really love it. I met with people a few years ago about it, and just recently the idea came up again. Mike Million, who directed this movie called Tenure with Luke Wilson, wrote it and the script is great. It's really cool. [Leans into microphone] Don't anyone else take it. I'm excited about it, so I'm trying to finagle it. Because it's pretty hard for someone like me to play the lead.

Do you get recognized a lot?

I walked out of this restaurant once and these two big guys in uniforms, one African American and one Latino, come up to me and were like, "Hey man, how've you been?" These are two people I clearly don't know and they are wearing the same polo shirts but I'm not really looking. They're saying, "Where do we know you from, man?" This happens sometimes, and you don't want to say, "Oh, I'm in commercials" so I just said, "I don't know." And they keep saying, "No, we know you." Then the big, black guy says, "You come into the clinic?" And I look down at their shirts finally, and the shirts say, "Clinic For Spousal Abuse." I shout "No! No! I've never been there!" That encounter went on and on, they were asking what high school I went to, if I hung out in Chino.

Have you had any great encounters with fellow actors?

I went to a Dodger game with Cary Grant in high school that was probably the highlight of my life.

How did that happen?

I went to a boarding school up north, and there was a girls' boarding school up north that [Cary's daughter] Jennifer Grant went to. She was going out with my best friend at the time. Anyway, I came [to Los Angeles] and stayed with my friend, who said, "Hey, we're going to a Dodgers game with Jennifer." We drive up to Bel Air and were talking in her room and I say, "Hey Jen --" and from way down the hall, you hear [does a Cary Grant impression], "Her name's Jennifer. It's not Jen, it's not Jenny, it's Jennifer!"

I was so tickled, I couldn't believe it. I love Cary Grant. He didn't come out to introduce himself, that's all he said. Then, we got into the car with his wife Barbara and we drove all the way down Sunset Boulevard and he's saying, "That's where me and Dino used to hang out," and "Over there was the Brown Derby. It's not the Brown Derby anymore." So we got a tour of Los Angeles with Cary Grant.

How was it watching the actual baseball game with him?

We got to the game and they went to sit with [former Dodgers owner] Pete O'Malley but there were some extra seats. So I ended up sitting with the owner of Dodgers while watching this game with Cary Grant. There were all of these guys, black-tie waiters, standing there to get whatever we need. Vin Scully's right next door announcing the game. That was the best time ever.

Did Cary get excited about the Dodgers?

A little bit. It was interesting because on his license plate it said "Brut 5," and I don't know if you remember that cologne called Brut Faberge? They had these little green bottles with medallions on them. It was sad and kind of interesting but Cary did all of those movies and made a lot of money but didn't make the kind of money movie stars make today so on his license plate, it said Brut 5. And toward the end of the game, he had these little sample bottles of Brut and he handed everyone a bottle of Brut Faberge. So he was obviously being paid by Brut. I was like, "You don't need to do that, Cary. I'll help you out. What do you need?"

That's a little devastating.

I was in high school at the time so I didn't really understand the financial aspects. I just thought, "You're Cary Grant. You must be loaded! You live in Bel Air!" And maybe he did, but just wanted more money.

Maybe he just really believed in the product.

Right, maybe he loved Brut 5 and was behind it 100 percent. You look at it these days and every big actor is hawking something.

Would you like to get to the celebrity endorsement arena? What is your long-term acting goal?

[Joking] I just want to be famous. I have a sex tape, it's about to come out. It might get known as being the sex tape with the least hits ever. No, I'm just super excited about working for a long time. My heroes are Gene Hackman and Gene Wilder, guys that can do a lot of work and work for a long time. That's what I want to do.

You can follow Bob Stephenson on Twitter @bobstephenson.

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