Terry Dale Parks has appeared in numerous television shows including Longmire, Homeland and Prison Break aside from scoring roles in various movies including Friday Night Lights, G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Olympus Has Fallen.

Recently the Oklahoma native has been super busy with three of his latest projects releasing very soon. One of which is ABC's The Astronaut Wives Club that made its debut Thursday night, where he portrays Jim Webb. This series is based off Lily Koppel's book The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story, which focuses on the lives of the wives of America's Mercury Seven astronauts.

Enstars spoke with Parks all about The Astronaut Wives Club, as well as his other upcoming appearances in Terminator Genisys, which releases next month, and Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, which premieres in September.

ENSTARS: What can you share about The Astronaut Wives Club without giving away too much?
Terry Dale Parks: It's funny because I was just thinking about the whole thing with the astronauts and their wives in that time period. These days we have all the Marvel comics' superhero movies and we have the superheroes we see on the screen; even on television. But the thing about it is the astronauts of the sixties that were part of those missions that people thought before then were impossible, those guys were actual human superheroes in their day. They were the superheroes. They were the real deal. They were the people that everyone looked up to. Everyone knew their names, and what's interesting about this is that it's not just a biographical story about them and what they did. It's about them and their real lives and what was going on in their worlds with their families and it's of course The Astronaut Wives Club so it deals with the wives, but it deals with them as well.

Tell us about your character Jim Webb.
Well, Jim Webb was the government official that was basically in charge of being the big brother, looking over NASA's shoulder. He was reporting back to the government and beyond that he was in charge of budget and other things like that. I can't tell you that he was necessarily the most liked man by NASA and all the people there, but he was not a terrible guy. So he's in charge.

What drew you to audition for this role on The Astronaut Wives Club?
Well, I mean I've been fascinated since I was a child. I was born in the early seventies so I remember some of the end of the moon program. Of course the Challenger explosion and all those things had happened. So I think my generation and the generation before [mine] were always fascinated by space missions from NASA with astronauts. For me that was really the biggest appeal. The fire comes from the biographical aspect of it that was behind everything. All the stuff really happened so that's what really, really drew me to this project since I have always been so fascinated with the space program.

What was it like on set of The Astronaut Wives Club?
Well it was a lot of fun! There are some star names attached to it, but I'll tell ya there was nobody who came to that set with the "Hey, I'm the famous person" attitude. I think everybody there was really, really excited about being there and telling the story and to be a part of that project. It was just a really fun shoot. It was a fun group of people to work with. I think everybody had a really, really tremendous time together. I made a lot of great friends there working on that set.

In just three words describe this series.
In three words...[it's] fascinatingly scandalous. Uh, that's only two words though, but that's the best two to use. It's fascinatingly scandalous. It's the best way I can think of to describe it really.

Switching gears a little, you have appeared in many television shows so has there been a favorite role you've gotten to play?
I love playing bad guys. I like playing people who look like they may be regular guys, but they aren't regular. They're very irregular. I like playing bad guys. I really enjoyed when I had a role on the TV show Longmire where I played this bad guy who impersonated a U.S. Marshal, but was actually working for the mafia. I think those kinds of roles are the most fun types of roles to play because you really get to show a side of yourself that [isn't typically shown]. I think every young kid who grows up watching The Godfather wants to play those bad guys. Bend and break the rules. Or the guy who you never saw it coming from, ya know? So that role was a lot of fun.

What was it like working with Arnold Schwarzenegger on Terminator Genisys?
I always loved the nineties era of action films and Arnold Schwarzenegger is like the epitome of the late eighties, nineties era action films. That was his time. He was the star. He controlled Hollywood at that time. So being able to work with him you always feel a little star struck...He's a much kinder and gentler Arnold Schwarzenegger than he was 20 years ago...I really enjoyed working with him though. I find him to be a very kind person. A very personable person. And I'll tell ya, that whole shoot was so much fun. There's a great storyline because they're turning back to the roots of what The Terminator and Terminator 2 were really about. They were much more story-driven films, which is what they're returning to. The original James Cameron creation, which is one of the reasons why I think this film is going to be really great. There are all the special effects of course, but there's also a really great story that drives it all. It's one of the things I love about it the most.

The Terminator franchise is known for a lot of casualties so will your character make it to the end if you can share?
I'll tell ya I play a lot of characters that meet an untimely demise. I'll put it that way. Or they get beat up.

What was it like working on the set of Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials?
That was a lot of fun to shoot. That's a group of young actors who are the most humble people who are not affected by the whole Hollywood thing. That director Wes Ball, he's an up and comer. He came out of nowhere and is so talented. The first Maze Runner was just such a good film. It was a really good film and it did really, really well at the box office. Being able to work with the young actors was great. They were so nice and humble and they were just like any other young kids. And the star Dylan [O'Brien] he's a great guy.

Was it intimidating joining either of these casts since these movies are such prominent fixtures in pop culture?
Right, yeah, exactly, you'd think it would be and I'd say a lot of the times when you walk into something like that especially a TV show where the cast is already together and they've been shooting together for a season or several seasons and then you walk in and you feel like the new kid in school. I will tell on those two films I never felt like that. I never felt that because I think the people working on them were so genuine and down to earth and so easy to talk to and get along with. We had fun together. So no I never felt like that on those films. I won't say I never felt like that on films in the past or TV shows when you walk in and nobody knows who you are, but they all know each other.

Do you have any other projects coming up?
I just finished working on a HBO show. It's a small role on the HBO show called Togetherness. That's the Duplass brothers [Mark and Jay]...Really just finished it the week before last. We were shooting Season 2 and Season 1 has aired...I also just finished up working on Quarry, which will air on Cinemax in the fall. It's an interesting show with a historical aspect to it. I love shows with historical aspects to them. The thing about Quarry is that it definitely examined a historical period in life since it's set in the 1970s with the end of the Vietnam War.

The Astronaut Wives Club just aired its first episode, which can be seen on ABC's website. Be sure to tune in for the rest of the episodes weekly on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET. Also, be sure to check out the other projects releasing in the near future that Terry is involved in.

Tags
Television, ABC, Movies, Terminator: Genisys