Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Exclusive Interview with Daz Crawford

I had the pleasure of talking with Daz Crawford – Kebo from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I think he must be one of the busiest actors in LA at the moment, and hopefully, he’ll be busy with S.H.I.E.L.D. for some time to come, so I really appreciated his very thoughtful answers. Though, of course, he couldn’t give me too many details on what’s to come! Daz is originally from England and his long list of credits includes Blade II, NCIS, and The Unit. Read on through the interview for upcoming projects. If you’re like me, you’ve already become intrigued by Daz’s character.

Photo credit:James Arlen O'Keefe 

Q: Do you have a preference for film or television as you’ve done quite a bit of both?

DC: I started out wanting to do movies in the UK. But I really enjoy television very much. It’s nice to have the on-going story. With movies you get to know a group for a very short period of time and then move on.

Q: How has working on S.H.I.E.L.D. and Marvel been different?

DC: This is the longest arc I’ve done yet, but that’s the job. You often come in, do the part, and move on. S.H.I.E.L.D. is a great team. Great people. That makes the journey a lot nicer.

Q: Did you have to do anything specific to get ready for this role?

DC: No. Not really. When I first auditioned for this, at the end of the last series, it was just one episode. And there was a stunt involved, but I’ve done a lot of stunt work, so it wasn’t really any different. During filming, I’m an active guy, so I don’t find it difficult.

Q: You’re working mainly with Brett Dalton – as far as we know – how’s that been?

DC: Brilliant! Brilliant guy. We’ve had some really good laughs. You know, when you first go to any job, and you don’t know anybody, and you’re getting a feel for everybody. Brett’s been brilliant. Can’t fault him. Great guy. And kind of odd because obviously in the show, he’s my boss. Off set, we’re friends.

Q: Can you talk about Kebo’s relationship with Ward?

DC: Well, it’s sort of what you’ve seen from the last series and in this one. He’s my boss. I’ve come up with my own history which the script writers don’t do that. You make up your own history. How you got to where you got to. I’ve got my own reservations with regards to him as my boss, and I’m going to leave it at that.

Q: I liked Kebo’s conversation with Ward about HYDRA squandering the money previously and when you come on the boat with the rats to minimize the collateral damage. Are these the kind of things that are feeding into your history for Kebo?

DC: Well… one of them is. It’s kind of funny because when you do get a script and you’ve brought a life to your character with your own background and then you read something similar that a writer writes and then you laugh to yourself because I’d already put that in my own background. So half of it, yeah, but not all of it. I always ask myself my question that regardless of the script is why I’m there. What is the relationship? What do I want from this? What’s going to happen if I don’t get what I want and what’s going to happen if I do get what I want? And I always ask myself those questions and answer them myself. I don’t tell anybody what they are because that gives me my drive throughout the scenes. Because I always know in the back of my head, regardless of whether it’s spoken, what I actually want. It doesn’t mean it’s going to happen, but it helps me to drive throughout the scenes.

Q: And I think that’s one of the interesting things about S.H.I.E.L.D., that Ward has gone from being one of the good guys to betraying the audience in a way. And of course, he’s betrayed a lot of the people he’s worked with, so I’m predisposed to by sympathetic toward Kebo whereas in an ordinary show you might not necessarily be. So I’ve always got it in the back of my mind, what is Ward going to do to this poor guy?

DC: That’s kind of cool that you’ve got an emotional attachment to Kebo which is what I wanted to connect with the audience. Where they go with that connection, I don’t know. Obviously it’s down to each individual, and some people might want to get me killed and some people might want me to take over. There are just so many different options and directions it could go with Kebo. I’m just glad you’ve told me you’ve got a connection as that helps me.

Q: I think the moment that I really connected with you was Von Strucker, the younger, who is obviously not a nice person, when he was able to turn the tables on you. At that point, you were definitely on the sympathetic side for me.

DC: Ok, so when I got a kicking! For the second time. (laughs) I did laugh because I watched the show the other day and they showed a preview of my last episode I got a kicking and then in this show I got a kicking. Hopefully, people will be rooting for me at some point.

Q: It seems like that’s setting up a bit of a rivalry between you and Alexander because he’s clearly going to think he has some entitlement to inherit HYDRA from his father. Can you speak to whether we’re going to see a rivalry between the two?

DC: I can’t tell you that. Great question. You’ll just have to watch it now.

Q: Can you say whether you’ve worked with more of the cast? (I think we had a bit of a miscommunication here as there was some noise during the conversation at this point)

DC: That was the first time I’d met all of the cast. I’d not worked with any of them before.

Q: Can you talk about what your favorite scene to film so far has been?

DC: No. I can’t. It was really good though! It was really, really, really good…

Q: Can you say which episode it’s in?

DC: I think it’s in 3.06… There’s some great stuff in there.

Q: How was filming that scene in the car with Ward?

DC: What we did actually in that particular scene, I was in it all the time, but they did swap over with Brett with a stunt driver. It was quite a fast scene and when we actually drove through an entrance way in that car, there was literally about three inches on either side of the wing mirror of the car. And the stunt driver, we shot through there at probably sixty miles an hour. We did it a few times, and I was waiting for one of the wing mirrors to be smashed it was that close. That was a great scene. Great stunts in that and like I said we were swapping over, but I was in the passenger seat most of the time. It was definitely a bit hair raising going through the entrance way. I was fun though!

Q: One of the strengths of the show is just the quality of the stunts that they’re able to do on television. And even the special effects are top notch.

DC: It’s movie quality. When I first got on the set and I was seeing each set being made, to me, it was definitely, the quality is fantastic. The whole ensemble of the crew are brilliant, the stunt team are brilliant, the acting, the writing’s amazing. I even find myself reading the scripts and the storyline –  there’s a lot of writers involved, so stitching that scene together. I did speak to Brett when they very first started, it was very difficult because there were less actors involved. When you start something brand new, it takes a while to iron out the problems, and as it’s gone on it’s recruited more actors which had made it a bit easier on the other guys and girls. So getting that team together, I can imagine was difficult, but working on it now, you can see the fruition of it. How it’s growing and it’s very effective. And the stunts are excellent! Definitely, big huge budget. Cost a lot of money to put all these stunts together. But it keeps people on their toes.

Q: The writers have really taken the time to flesh out the characters. So a character like Ward, who is a bad guy, you still feel sympathy for him and pull for him in a sense.

DC: I was wondering what the audience think about him as a bad guy. While, myself, I’ve been working with him now, and it’s just interesting what people think. But the writing is just phenomenal. You know there’s intertwining stories going on all the time and it keeps leaving you on the edge of your seat. Where is it going to go now and what’s going to happen next? And even I find myself thinking when we go for the table reads, you don’t know what’s going to happen until you turn the page over.

Q: And yet the writing is careful enough that you can go back and see where the seeds were planted.

DC: They’re very meticulous.

Q: I did want to ask you about your next movie project that’s coming up, Awaken.

DC: It’s just been on screens the last few weeks in LA. That’s a thriller that we shot over in Belize, which was a really great project to work on. A great ensemble cast. Daryl Hannah, Eddie Furlong, Jason London, Robert Davi. We had a really, really good ensemble cast. The storyline, it’s a thriller about organ smuggling. We, the people, are kidnapped from various locations around the world and stuck on an island, where, we don’t know, and on another island close by are the bad guys and they wait for an order. So let’s say, your mom needs a heart or a lung or something and you contact them and then they would come to the island and collect one of the hostages and kill them and take their lungs or heart, whatever was on order. I manage to escape the group but not escape the island, and I hide for about 20 or 30 days, and then a girl comes on, the heroine, and another guy escapes and the three of us plot to try and help the girl because she’s looking for her sister who happens to be with the bad guys, but she doesn’t know it at the time. And we then try and help her, and that’s got lots of twists and turns in it. It doesn’t end the way people think it’s going to end, but it was a great project to work on.

Q: Anything else coming up that we should know about?

DC: There’s another movie that I shot earlier this year called Rogue Warrior, which is sci-fi. That was shot all in LA, and that was shot on some of the sets of Star Wars, actually. We used to go down to a place called Salton Sea, which I’d never been to before, and that was an experience. But it’s a sci-fi, and I’ve been in prison on a mysterious planet and my girlfriend comes and tries to save me. And we have fun and games with all the aliens. It’s kind of a cross between Star Wars and War of the Worlds. Exciting stuff – really cool. That will be out either before Christmas or early in the new year.

Dawn Patrol, which I shot with Scott Eastwood, which is great thriller. Again, that’s just been released recently in the last few weeks. And I know it’s been shown at a few select cinemas across the States, and I don’t think it’s in California, but I know it’s in Texas. It’s set in the far east, a military zone, and California, and Scott Eastwood is a guy trying to explain what happened to a woman in the war, in a battle and she’s blaming him. It’s got a good storyline. I liked the script. I remember getting the script and thinking this is really cool – I’ll work on this. So, that’s just been released.

And then I’ve got another comedy, called Trust, which has just been announced but hasn’t shot yet. It’s a comedy-horror. And my character is a guy called… my real name is Iyan Steele, but I change my name to Iron Steele because I want to be the hard man. But for obvious reasons when you see it, I’m not the hard man at all. That’s again in early days.

I’ve been really busy on the work front. I’d like to try to get a holiday if I can, a vacation somewhere, but it’s not letting me go anywhere right now because I’m auditioning for quite a lot of things. It’s good though. As an actor, you work, you don’t work. Your work is up and down, and I’ll take it when it comes. I enjoy the job. If you enjoy your job, then you’ve got nothing to worry about, have you?

Q: Coming back to S.H.I.E.L.D., if you could be cast as anyone else on the show, who would you pick?

DC: That’s a great question! I would be… (laughs)… I’ve got a choice of being a good guy or a bad guy, right? So really, I’ve got either Ward or who else in the rest of the crew… I have got… there is somebody on my mind. I think I’d be Bobbi.

Q: Good choice! And one final Marvel question. What’s your favorite Marvel movie?

DC: I’d be a traitor if I didn’t say Blade II, wouldn’t I? I like the Spiderman and the Hulk, The Fantastic Four. That’s a tough one to choose one. Not Ironman, I do like Ironman, but he’s not at the top. I think Fantastic Four.

Q: Thanks for chatting with me. I’m definitely rooting for Kebo.

DC: Great! The more people rooting for me the better.

Q: Any final words for the fans?

DC: Keep rooting for Kebo, and the more you root for him, the more you’ll see of him, that’s the way it works. Thanks for everybody that supporting me. It’s a great show. You really can’t go wrong, can you? Marvel is really good. The team is great. I’ve been on a lot of sets before and you think, oh, I can’t wait to get off. But this one is definitely, you know, everyone is helpful, everybody gets stuck in. They are long days, but it’s good fun. Thanks to everybody for watching the show and keep watching.

Don't miss the next episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., "Devils You Know," on Tuesday, October 9 at 9pm on ABC!

About the Author - Lisa Macklem

I do interviews and write articles for the site in addition to reviewing a number of shows, including Supernatural, Arrow, Agents of Shield, Agent Carter, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, The X-Files, Defiance, Bitten, Killjoys, and a few others! I'm active on the Con scene when I have the time. When I'm not writing about television shows, I'm often writing about entertainment and media law in my capacity as a legal scholar. I also work in theatre when the opportunity arises. I'm an avid runner and rider, currently training in dressage.

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