From the classrooms of New Orleans to the high-octane world of billion-dollar action franchises, Greg Tarzan Davis has carved an extraordinary path in Hollywood. The Louisiana native, who once taught first grade while nurturing dreams of acting, now finds himself starring alongside Tom Cruise in both the Mission: Impossible and Top Gun franchises. Davis, who was first exposed to theater by his grandmother and encouraged by a high school teacher to pursue his passion, made his film debut in 2019’s “The Call of the Wild” with Harrison Ford. His journey from local theater productions to international blockbusters represents a testament to persistence, hard work, and the power of never abandoning childhood dreams. When he’s not on set creating movie magic, Davis can be found in his Los Angeles home perfecting his baking skills, but his heart remains connected to his New Orleans roots and the community that shaped him.
What does it feel like to be part of a billion-dollar franchise?
First, I want to say thank you for having me. Thank you all for tuning in right now. It’s truly a blessing to be a part of a billion-dollar franchise like Mission Impossible, as well as Top Gun Maverick. It’s something that I’ve dreamt of since I was a child. I guess I didn’t really understand what the figure of a billion dollars would be like, but I knew I wanted to be in films that was going to be seen across the world, across the globe. So I guess that was going to equate to the billion dollars. It’s a dream come true.
How does it feel to live out your childhood action hero dreams?
As a child, we all had these big dreams of being something. Movies were something that I fell in love with early on. My mom used to take me to the cinema every weekend. That was a cheap way that we could spend time together, and she can shut me up, because I would just sit there and watch the movie instead of annoying her. I used to watch action films, and I said, man, I want to do that. I would go home, I’d be in my mom’s living room, jumping off our sofa, jumping on the table. She’d be like, boy, get your ass down and stuff like that, but I’m doing it.
I remember a moment in the last film, Dead Reckoning, when we were in Rome, Italy, and we’re in the middle of the streets and everything shut down, they have the cop cars and everything. I have Tom Cruise right there, Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham, they have a bunch of extras, and we all have guns and we’re doing the shootout. And we like bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, and then they say, cut. I look around and I’m like, damn, Tom, you made my dreams come true. I was playing this when I was 5, 6, 7 years old in my momma living room. Now I’m playing the same thing, except I’m in Italy across the world playing make believe, acting like an agent. I thought that was the coolest. That was one of hundreds of pinching moments I’ve had since I started to follow my dream of being an actor.
What advice did Angela Bassett give you about the industry?
Ms. Angela Bassett is a phenomenal woman, a phenomenal human being. She’s one of the people that’s paved the way for me, for all of us. Not just me as an actor, but Black women, women in general, to be able to open doors because art genuinely imitates life, and she says that. One of the pieces of advice that she told me, she was like, everybody’s always watching. Whether they are above you or under you, everybody’s either looking up or looking down to you and you need to make sure you’re always putting your best foot forward, and that’s what sustained her career for so long. That’s why everybody loves her. That’s why when you mention her name, people are clapping.
I got a chance to really talk to her when, I don’t know if y’all’ve seen this thing called Number One on the Call Sheet on Apple TV, I highly recommend y’all check it out. But just watching what she did, what she had to go through, the barriers that she had to break in order for me to be able to have these opportunities, it’s incredible. I just thank her for that because we don’t see it. We just see her nominated for Oscars. We just see her in billion dollar films and we’re just like, oh yeah, that’s what she’s supposed to do. Well no, that’s what we supposed to do, but that’s only because she and people like her have paved the way for us.
Why do you keep returning to New Orleans with each film?
First, let me say, the promise that I’m keeping to myself and to my community is every time I have a movie, I’m going to bring it back there, put it on the screen. When I was growing up, I never had that. I wanted to be an actor as a child, but I let that dream fall to the wayside because I had nobody to show me or guide me the way. I didn’t know anybody in the industry, so I was like, oh, whatever. And oftentimes when we don’t see things, we think it’s impossible.
No pun intended, Mission Impossible, but that was the thing for me. Until I started teaching first grade and one of my kids asked me where I want to be when I grow older, and they made me realize I want to be an actor. I’m telling them to follow their dreams, and I’m not following mine. So I said, now let me give myself a chance. Let me give myself 2 years, see how this shakes out.
That was a dumb thing for me to do, never put a time limit on your goals, on your dreams, because you never know when it’s going to happen. But I said, let me give myself 2 years. Fortunately for me, it happened in a short period of time, but it’s because I put in a lot of work. A lot of people said, oh, you’re so lucky. And I said, F you, I’m not lucky. I put in a lot of work for this. I put in 10 times the work in the next man because I knew I was going against people that had been doing this all their life.
So for me to go back tomorrow, and I’ve done it for my two other films, Top Gun: Maverick and Dead Reckoning, to go back and share these moments with them is really incredible because I see the light in their eyes when they talk to me because they resonate with me. That’s the biggest thing for me, not making it to the very top and then saying, hey, I’m going to give it back then, but come on a journey with me so you can see the hardship.
What advice do you have for aspiring actors?
The business don’t owe you anything and don’t think that you’re entitled to it. It’s a long journey, so you have to be patient. When I want something, I put my mind to it, and it’s not that I expected to come instantly, but I expect things to happen. My team, my lovely publicist, she always puts me in check and say, hold on bud, that’s her favorite thing. Hold on bud, it takes some time. I want it to happen, I know I put in the work, but it’s just a reminder you have to be patient because it can happen today. It can happen tomorrow. It can happen next year. It can happen 10 years from now, but just know if you stay consistent, it will happen.
Do you have plans to direct films?
Yeah, I want to direct. I want to do it all, produce, direct, acting. Acting is my first love, but I’m into filmmaking as a whole. What will be my first project? That’s really hard to say. I don’t know. God is gonna point in a direction and tell me what film is going to be, right now I’m still learning my craft of acting, and I’ve been shadowing McQuarrie, who’s the director of this film and so many other films, and just picking his brain and trying to figure out when that time is right for me to direct. But I don’t know just yet. I’m figuring that out.
Why is it important to shadow industry professionals?
Because you don’t know anything. We think we know stuff, but we really don’t until you ask the questions and then you get the answers. You’re like, oh, I didn’t know that. And even for the things that you do know, it’s the repetition of constantly hearing it that gets ingrained in your mind and it makes you better at whatever it is that you’re asking about, I highly recommend.
These young kids nowadays, we had this conversation recently, y’all are lazy, and y’all are living in this instant society of social media and thinks that everything you see on social media comes quick and rapid. You see the glitz and glamour, and you don’t understand that it’s not necessarily real. You think if you post one video and you become viral, you become famous and rich instantly, but that’s not how it goes.
A lot of people don’t want to be assistants. A lot of people don’t want to do interns. A lot of people think, hey, I did this, so I need to automatically be making X, Y, and Z, and it’s like, why? What did you really do? But people feel that they’re so entitled and it’s so important for you to start shadowing because that’s where longevity comes at.
The person next to you, whether they’re in your field or they’re not, they have a wealth of knowledge that you aren’t privy to yet unless you ask the questions, unless you’re willing to follow, and that’s what’s going to allow you to have that longevity. I see a lot of people who rise to the top and then they fall even quicker because they had it so fast.
One thing that I always say, man, God has put me on his journey and he’s taken his time with me because I’m not ready yet. I remember when I booked my first pilot, I was so excited and I thought I was going to be this Denzel actor as soon as I booked the role, but the pilot didn’t get picked up and I was devastated. I was like, I was so ready. This is my big break. I was going to be a movie star. I look back on that time and I was like, man, I was horrible. I was rubbish. I didn’t know how to act for nothing. I don’t even know how I got cast in a pilot.
If that pilot would have kept going, I would have thought I was good. I would have been smelling my stuff. I would have thought I was ready, and guess what? I would have been here today, gone tomorrow. I’ve seen that so often with a lot of my peers who get their big break, but they don’t take it seriously. They don’t ask the questions. They don’t go to classes. They think, oh, I’ve already made it because I booked this. No man, as soon as I’ve done this press tour, I’m signing up for a class. I’m working with the best of the best, but I’m still saying, let me go back to school so I can hone my craft. So you have to shadow, you have to intern. You have to do these type of things, be an assistant, learning the ins and outs of everything.
