BRADLEY GREGG : INVISIBLE “TOO” HOLLYWOOD
An Actor’s Saving Grace

The recent media attention actor, Founder & Artistic Director of the Brooklyn Shakespeare Company, and teacher, Geoffrey Owens received due to the outing of him as an employee of Trader Joes and the response to it…is some of the best stuff the Lord has seen fit to highlight about the sick culture of celebrity and the nature of man in recent memory. We know from the Biblical account in Genesis that pre Fall, Adam was given work to do in the garden. This work was dignified, fulfilling, enjoyable, and pleasant. After the fall, the work became laborious.
What I find most interesting about this story is the revealing of heart issues that so often go overlooked. Heart issues uncovered as people process through the questions that arise from a story like this one.
How does one go from starring on television shows to working at a grocery store?
That’s ridiculous!
There must be a story there.
What a loser.
That would never happen to me.
Oh no, if it could happen to him, it could happen to me.
Actors have it made.
Actors deserve to be elevated.
Actors are role models.
Grocery store employees are not role models.
Wait, he’s a Shakespearean actor?
He’s a teacher? At Universities? Wow, who knew?
Grocery store employees are “lesser than.”
I’m rooting for the underdog.
I’m actually not rooting for the underdog.
Wait, who is the actual underdog in this story?
What makes a story a redemptive one?
Who are our heroes?
Tyler Perry who stepped in with a job offer or Trader Joes who did the same?
Why?
Missing an opportunity to dig into heart issues here would be tragic.
After having his life interrupted by the Lord in 1997, my husband moved to the Sonoran Desert out of obedience and in an effort to lead his family well. An actor with a niche skill set, he worked at a Car Wash (one girl and her dad paid and drove through twice just to get his autograph,) as a waiter in a French Restaurant (where he struggled to carry a tray in one hand,) as a roofer (where the crew called him, “Hollywood” and he had to get a tetanus shot after taking a nail through his shoe,) for a landscaper (who hit on him constantly,) as a late night food delivery guy (best tippers were the Strip clubs,) and as a church janitor at mini mega church (where he learned how to sing, “This is The Day That The Lord Has Made” with actual joy.) Eventually, a Creative Arts Director position was created for him at that same church. Over the course of twelve years in that position he focused on his writing, shooting, and editing gifts. He trained our sons to do the same.
In the eyes of the industry, he had mysteriously fallen off the face of the earth. In the Lord’s eyes, idols were tenderly being removed and character training was taking place.
After that Lord led hiatus…upon returning to the industry, my husband has had to do things some people are surprised by. He took a job at Extra TV as a P.A. (utility type of guy…holding lighting flags for Maria Menounos and Mario Lopez,) driving LYFT (where he picked up drug dealers and their Rottweiler at The Oakwood Apartments,) and traveling for Comic-Cons where people stand in line to shake his hand, pay for meet & greets, photos, and autographs. He’s actually contemplated applying at Trader Joes. We love Trader Joes. One of the cashiers at our local store is a huge Bradley Gregg fan. The first day we arrived back in town, she recognized him and a friendship was born. An aspiring actress, I cast her in a short I directed.
What a crazy and beautiful life.