When Scarlett Johansson took on an anime character role in a live action version of The Ghost In The Shell in 2016, actor, writer and comedian Chris Grace got the spark to perform as Scarlett Johansson. 

Asian American groups had instantly protested a white actress taking on the beloved character from  a Japanese cyberpunk story based on a manga series, saying it was a “whitewashed” role. Johansson defended it, saying that an actor had a right to play any role. And that’s the premise of Grace’s new show Chris Grace: As Scarlett Johansson, playing through June 22 at Portland Center Stage in a co-production with Boom Arts at the Armory in downtown Portland.

Dmae Lo Roberts first saw Chris Grace when he played Jerry on NBC’s Superstore, and he recently appeared as Duane in Netflix’s The Residence. Roberts loved the unrequited love story on Superstore. With few words, he broke hearts as he finally declared his love for Sandra on the show. Though he was only on a handful of episodes per season, he was a much-loved and memorable character. 

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Roberts had a chance to see Grace’s show and interviewed him backstage afterwards. In this podcast, some of the subjects Grace talks about include …

Representation:  “I can watch Breaking Bad,” says Grace, “and I imagine that I’m a chemistry teacher, making meth or whatever, right? But then if I see The Farewell and it’s about an elderly Chinese relative, and I’ve been in situations like that and I’ve had moments that really were mirrored in a piece of work like that, your emotional connection to those things is so much stronger.” 

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Growing up in Texas:  ”I love Texas. Like I still visit there and my family’s still there and it’s a very interesting place to try to be a creative person. But I was in a very active theater program in high school, and then I went to college to study it … the prevailing feeling I had through all of that was that I just never actually felt like I belonged in any particular situation.

Working on television shows: “ I still think it’s surreal to like turn on a TV and see my face on it. Yeah. Yeah. But even beyond that, I think … in the end, it is actually just a kind of workman-like industry that has really weird highs and lows in it, but especially I would say in the last 10 years of television, people think you make so much more money on TV than you do.”

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Chris Grace: As Scarlett Johansson, a co-production of PCS and Boom Arts, runs through June 22, 2025. All shows are at Portland Center Stage at the Armory, 128 N.W. Eleventh Ave., Portland, Oregon. For tickets, call 503-445-3700 or in person at the box office. More info at www.pcs.org. Find out more about Chris Grace at www.chrisgrace.com.

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Chris Grace is best known as Jerry on NBC’s Superstore, and recently appeared as Duane in Netflix’s The Residence. He has created and performed two acclaimed solo comedy shows: Chris Grace As Scarlett Johansson (now a filmed special on Dropout) and Sardines. After his run at PCS, he’ll perform Scarlett at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and Sardines at the Huntington in Boston.

He tours internationally with Baby Wants Candy and UCB, and appears frequently on Dropout. This August, he’ll debut a new project at Scotland’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival called 27 Hours, in which he attempts to write a new hour-long show each day of the festival (wish him luck). He does it all for Eric. Bluesky: @chrisgrace.com

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See Darleen Ortega’s ArtsWatch review of Chris Grace: As Scarlett Johansson here.