THE MIDDLE - ABC's "The Middle" stars Atticus Shaffer as Brick. (ABC/DIANA KOENIGSBERG)
Atticus Shaffer makes a big impression starring as Brick Heck on the ABC comedy The Middle (Wednesdays, 8:00 p.m. ET/PT). Brick whispers to himself and is more intellectually driven than the average 10 year old. And Shaffer tells EntertainmentHeartbeat.com that there are more than just a handful of similarities between the character and him – and they are fully connected.
“It’s not just a little bit,” Shaffer acknowledges. “It’s basically all of me. Brick and I are almost exactly alike. I love to read, I love to play with Legos. I think where I’m not like Brick is only for two things: I do talk to myself…just not in a whisper – and I’m not as into fonts. That’s where it ends, those two little things and the rest is me.”
It appears that Brick and his sitcom siblings Axl Heck (Charlie McDermott) and Sue Heck (Eden Sher) are going to mix it up a bit more as this season progresses and Shaffer is eager to take on the challenge.
“I don’t want to reveal too much,” he begins, “but my storyline is actually going to be a Brick and Sue episode. Aunt Edie (Jeanette Miller) gives us a bag of these old items that she had…kind of little knick knacks…and while we’re looking through the bag we find her phone in there. Brick and Sue go on a little texting craze, rack up the phone bill and have to try to cover that up.”
Shaffer swears he has never gone nuts texting and he also insists that fame wasn’t what prompted his interest in the TV and movie biz. The actor confesses that he has huge aspirations to sit behind the camera lenses.
“It’s to go to college and become a director and a writer because I really love to tell stories, I love being a storyteller,” he admits. “That’s part of the reason I love this business so much. From a director’s point of view or a writer’s point of view I’ll be able to be a storyteller just in a different way.”
Bets are on Shaffer making a smooth transition from child actor to adult director pretty seamlessly.