HNGN caught up with Atticus Shaffer, star of ABC's "The Middle," who plays the beloved, 13-year-old Brick Heck alongside co-stars Patricia Heaton and Neil Flynn.
Shaffer, who is 16 years old, was born with Osteogenesis imperfecta, a congenital condition that causes fragile bones, but the young actor has an optimistic attitude and a hunger to devour every experience that life throws in his direction.
Truth is, Atticus is just as funny and quirky in real life as he is on the family sitcom. Surprised? We're not!
Shaffer prides himself on being unique - or a nerd, as he says - and he is an advocate for individuality. Read about what he has to say in this exclusive interview with Headlines & Global News.
HNGN: You've been going for six seasons now. What do you see for the future of "The Middle?" How long do you think it's going to be staying on the air?
Atticus: That's actually a really good question because obviously, like you said, we are in our sixth season and shows don't last forever, unfortunately. We are getting towards that stage where we kind of got to be a little bit more aware of, "Hey, you know this could possibly end soon." I am the type of person that expects the worst but hopes for the best, and I am so thankful that we have been able to be on as long as we have been on. I talk to the fans all the time through social media or people that come up to me in person and they just love the show and how relatable it is. It's really cool to be able to see all these people and have our show go on for as long as it has been, but you know, in theory, I would love to see it go another season if it's not too much. I'd love to see it go two more seasons, but you always have to be careful and I just hope that it goes for the amount of time it's supposed to go.
HNGN: Yeah, and specifically for you because you are a fan-favorite for sure. Tell me a little bit more about how your character as Brick depicts your actual real life and personality. Do you see a lot of yourself in him and vice versa?
Atticus: Yeah, that's the cool part about Brick. Brick is actually not a completely fictional character. He is based off of one of the show's creator's sons. He would lick a number of car windshields and be quirky like that, so the outline of Brick is based off of him, but obviously as an actor and as you work with the directors and writers, you add more and more to the character to make it a character.
I think the biggest thing that I can relate to with Brick - and this is what I find so much fun and what kind of keeps me inspired to be this character - is the fact that Brick shows it's OK to be unique, to be different, to be quirky, to be smart, and he follows the beat of his own drum and that's something I do in my life. I believe that we are all meant to be different; I believe that we're all meant to be unique. I mean, how boring would the world be if we were all exactly the same? It's cool that I get to play a character who is a role model for that, and that's what I see myself in him the most.
HNGN: It seems like you've learned a lot from this show. What has it been like for you to pretty much grow up while filming and have a second "family?"
Atticus: My mom and I would always talk about this, and it's really cool because I did start this show when I was so young. It's literally a time capsule that you get to watch. It's not just handful of pictures where it's like, "Oh, hey, you look so little there," but you can't remember too much after that over time. No, I get to see how I looked, how I behaved, how my voice sounded, everything, and that's what so cool about being on a family sitcom like this. You look at the classic sitcoms, or what have become more classic sitcoms, like "Family Matters," "Full House" and stuff like that, and all the kids on the show; they are the ones that change the most. It's very surreal to see yourself growing up on TV, but it's interesting at the same time. It's like as if you were walking around with a video camera all the time filming yourself, but you're playing a character.
HNGN: Who is your favorite actor to work with on the show?
Atticus: We have been super blessed, because in the first and second season we had our crew and cast and everything, and as time goes on and as the show kind of becomes where it is, some crew members leave and some cast members don't come back, but then you have people that have been there from the beginning. They're the originals; they're like family. For me, personally, I love our crew. They are hard-working men and women. They love what they do and they bring it into their work that they love what they do. They are the ones that do the manual labor behind the scenes that allows us to even be on. Actually, one of my best friends is a production assistant and we hang out all the time and goof around.
I think one of my favorite directors, though . . . well, I love them all. In the first season, it was a new director every week and only once in a while would the director come back, but now it's only about three or four directors that have been with us since the beginning and one of them is actually our director of photography on the show. You have the electricians, you have the grips, you have the camera department and the head of the camera department is the director of photography and he's been with us since the beginning of the show. I think it was in the third or fourth season he actually got a chance to direct an episode and when he did it was very interesting. It's a blast to be able to work with him.
HNGN: The cast portrays a real family in a natural way that doesn't seem forced at all, so what you're saying definitely reflects what you see in the show.
Atticus: Yes, exactly. It's true for the most part. We don't change. It's not like, you know, here we are in public and we all love each other and then we get on set and hate each other. No, we really do want to make it as best of a set as we possibly can. At least, I do. That's my goal, so it's nice to know that what's being seen is the truth.
HNGN: I think that's why "The Middle" has such a huge following because no matter what the scenario is, it rings true to a lot of families and that's the beauty of the show. Since you've dabbled in a few genres now - horror and comedy being some - which is your favorite, and do you see yourself having a future in any more horror movies? I remember you in "The Unborn" and that was terrifying.
Atticus: I actually still scare myself about that movie. I can never watch it. I've watched it once and didn't even get all the way through. I just went up to my part and I'm like, "OK, I'm back to normal. I'm shutting it off." I don't get asked this a lot because a lot of people don't know about "The Unborn" and stuff like that. I mean, they'll know about it, but they don't touch on it and with all the genres I've done, I have predominantly been doing comedy. I do love comedy. I think comedy is a blast. It's fun to have all the different bouts of humor. I would love to continue in the comedy field, especially in different varying degrees. Like with the voiceover stuff . . .I love my animation work. Doing animation is so much fun for me. I enjoy it and it's an art form to me because you're focusing solely on your voice. I think for animation I would love to not only continue with comedy like I am doing now, but I would love to continue different types of animation, whether it be video games, more movies, other TV shows or guest parts on TV shows. It would just be really cool to keep going with that and be able to explore and branch out that art form.
HNGN: I don't think a lot of people realize the work it takes to do voiceover work and animation. They forget that there is a person behind the voice, and you are exerting as much energy as you would if you were being physically filmed.
Atticus: Exactly, and to a degree, both have those aspects about them that make them more difficult and then other aspects that make them less difficult. So, like with voiceover, people are like, "Oh, so you can just do voiceover in your pajamas and then you sit there for 20 minutes and then you go home?" No, it's a lot more than that because where it's theatrical you can have a specific gesture or something that you portray on-screen that can kind of give a hint as to what you're thinking or feeling as a character. Now you have to just let it all be in your voice, so that way the animator can take that and then draw a character around that.
HNGN: I know you are an avid gamer and reader, so what is your favorite book and favorite game? What are you interested in right now?
Atticus: As a gamer, as a reader and as an animator, I am pretty much a glorified nerd, which I am proud of. I love "The Walking Dead" and I watch it with my mom. We think it is one of the best shows on TV of all time. We're huge into watching it and I love zombie video games and things that I can kind of get online with my friends and we can just kind of chill out and play video games after work or school or whatever. It's a lot of fun to do. I also love action adventure games and I'm a big kid, but I still love the LEGO brand games. For books, I guess you could call it my New Year's resolution, but I want to read all of the classic books or as many of them as possible, especially ones that are required for school because I want to read them before they are needed for school and then that way if I have already read them, I can go through them at a more relaxed pace. I'm starting with my namesake of "To Kill a Mockingbird," which I absolutely love. I think it's an amazing book. It's incredibly well-written and I love that my mom named me after such a great character from a book. After that, I'm going to go up to my mom and her library and just ask her, "OK mom, what book should I read next?" and just go through them one by one.
HNGN: Since you brought it up, what does it feel like to have these unique names - Atticus, Brick? Do you think they are representative of your individuality both in the show and in real life?
Atticus: Yeah, you know, again that's another really good question - talking about individuality and being able to be your own person and being unique. It's following up to what I was mentioning earlier about Brick and how he portrays that. I think it only adds to the character of Brick being named Brick and having such a unique name. Actually, he was named in the original pilot because there were two pilots with the first one being a completely different cast, and then there was the second one. I was in both of them and I was the only cast member brought back for the second pilot, which is the pilot that we all know now with Patty, Neil, Charlie and Eden. In the original pilot, there was a line that Frankie said in one of her voiceover moments saying we named him Brick after a character in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," I think it was. Or was it "Fiddler on the Roof?" Of course, I'm having a brain fart moment, but I think it was "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." He was named after that character, and Frankie and Mike, they had an understanding of, "Oh, if you name your kind with a unique name, they will be more unique and cool," but they kind of got the reverse effect on that. He's (Brick) definitely unique, but not necessarily popular-unique, but as a character people love him. For my name, when my mom found out I was a boy, my mom and my dad just really didn't know what to name me and they got the book "1001 Different Boy Names" at that time and none of them stuck. My mom watched the movie "To Kill a Mockingbird" with Gregory Peck and she was just like, "OK, that's what we need to name him; we need to name him Atticus."
HNGN: How do you balance your acting ambitions with your family life and social life? Do you find it hard?
Atticus: That does get difficult in a sense only because of just the time that is required for work. I work 10-hour days and I live an hour away from work, so it's really a 12-hour work day, but with school - because I am home-schooled - I have school on Saturdays and my mom is my teacher. She already knows what curriculum I need to do. I get three hours a day to do my studying, and my mom and I already know my plan and it does get challenging at times, but you know we get through it because I love to learn. Learning is so much fun for me. I love doing my studies and so I enjoy doing that even when I'm on set. As far as friends and family go, I really lucked out with my parents, with my brother and with my friends because they keep me down to earth and in this business. It's very easy to change . . . and not for the better, whereas, with my family, they see the importance of being down to earth, being real and being yourself and that's what my mom always tells me. Always be yourself; don't let anyone change you. Be you. My family and friends see me as Atticus, not Atticus the actor. That's what I love about all of the close people in my life. I try to balance it as often as I can, try to see my friends as often as I can. At the very least, a phone call or playing a video game or whatever, we make it work.
HNGN: That's a really powerful message that seems to resonate in both your work and your personal life. Is there anyone you would love to work with in the future? Who do you look up to in the industry?
Atticus: Whoever I am able to work with, I always love working with them no matter who they are. For the people that are kind of on a little bucket list of mine that I would love to work with or, at the very least, meet definitely would be Russell Crowe and Liam Neeson. I love their work. They do wonderful jobs with their acting, whether it be movies or voiceover work - like when Liam Neeson played Aslan in "The Chronicles of Narnia" series. As a little extra something of mine, I would love to be able to work with Norman Reedus just because Daryl's awesome on "The Walking Dead." I mean, who doesn't want to work with Daryl? I'm actually also a Jake Gyllenhaal fan. I think he is great, especially in his later movies. He's really grown and I loved him in "The Day After Tomorrow," "Prisoners" and everything like that. He did a wonderful job.
"The Middle" airs on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EDT on ABC.
