Actors Roundtable: Adam Driver, Shia LaBeouf, Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks, Jamie Foxx | Close Up

[Music] [Applause] [Music] hi and welcome to close-up with The Hollywood Reporter actors I'm Steven Galloway and I'd like to welcome Adam Sandler yes sir Robert DeNiro Adam driver Tom Hanks present Jamie Foxx and Shia LaBeouf thanks so much for being here I'm sure you know this anecdote dying is easy comedy is hot true or false comedies more difficult yes I can't do what Billy Crystal does any Murphy you Adam but I can do other things I mean I like to think that I work and say in Marty's movies just situations that are funny in and of themselves which is like life you know there are so many situations we see we're in a we're in a situation all of a sudden I wish we could have filmed this or in this situation is some crazy you know but it's real is anything real life you wish you could have filmed all that you've been brought into a role no I mean the the only thing say would Marty Scorsese working with him is that you get closer to saying that whatever you want to do you can actually try and do it and and maybe it'll happen maybe it'll work so if you had an idea of something say look let me just try that I say Marty let me know let's just try you never know and and so you'd say it's something with some directors you don't even go there you don't even you say it's it's too much work to even attempt to bring it up to them to do that with Marty it's this is well doing what if it doesn't work it doesn't work so that's a great feeling of freedom and it's great Adam um from comedy comedy Oh dying yes yes from Cynthia you know if you have something that you either way something you're confident with something that seems like you believe in it I think it's the same feeling if you believe in a joke if you believe in a dramatic scene you're going there with the same approach I I would think right here's the thing comedy is an is a natural thing like I've just told him I was watching him in the comedy store I was 18 years old sneaking in the comedy store yeah watching him go up when it was like tightens it was rock it was Eddie working out [ __ ] with it I remember Eddie had on like a like this yellow [ __ ] century 21 jacket 21 and then you watch Eddie like he said whatever I'll crush you with my wallet oh yeah yeah so it's interesting when I look at everybody here you know it's this this is this respect and then I look at on my before he even said anything I'm already laughing so that's one of the first ingredients is that when you have this natural thing of watching him on his guitar and 1:30 in the morning doing a bit that he's so dedicated to it one focuses like oh you know so that's the first ingredient right that way that's correct and then the second ingredient is comedians you get a light like you get that lift off their launch where everything that you're saying it's fun it's hilarious like people are giving you that light I think it only becomes difficult once you reach that top of comedic level now people are expecting you know the world you know when I when I go talk to Eddie I was at Eddie's house uh and he's talking about getting back in and to calm and to stand up yeah but he's like how do you know I said well I said well if you want to get into it I could I could help you the first thing I do you gotta fix your house he's like what you mean I say your house too you got the candles scented Eddie at my crib I have [ __ ] at my house it doesn't work on purpose so I stay funny I got this look and in the kitchen is sort of ruffled up and I got a bathroom where you turn on the faucet and it sprays out and my daughter is like why would you think I said I feel like I fix all this [ __ ] and I won't be fun so it's like you have to have that and then when he talked about the situation like when we're watching you know Robert DeNiro the situation that you provide for him makes it all the way for the does that make sense yeah because now once you have the ability to be funny you need the situation in order for it to make sense because if not like this is the worst thing in the world when the director goes like okay let's just do your thing I'm doing my [ __ ] but it doesn't make sense so that's the part when you say the only thing that in koma do don't if they control it yeah they all say have fun with it commit can you be funny if you grew up with a built in swimming pool in your backyard I don't think you can if you grew up being able to swim anytime you wanted to right you experienced none of the shortcomings of a life that you that you'd turn into self damn this right it's tough can you play tragedy though a few girls if you have it easy doesn't it all come from some inner pain angst everybody yeah sure you bet it's like bertolt brecht man the whole thing is a struggle and there's where you where there's we find a tribe this thing about that will kill us all at some point is it's three o'clock in the morning and you have something very specifically that you'd know you've known for months you're gonna act this beat with this scene and it's three o'clock in the morning and could be anything from rain birds going off to you know taxicab drivers or something like that honking horns and it's like all right the movie is now upon your shoulders don't [ __ ] this up and then they sit back and you wait and you got to go there man you just got a tragedy comedy if you're a moment you can think of where that's ten times a week sometimes where it's everybody is kind of every everybody's making the same movie you are you know the crew the Teamsters everybody knows that Oh today is the scene you're gonna you know oh wow this is gonna be a bill oh look we shut down the whole street for this you know all right 11 o'clock okay they're rigged we're gonna be ready for a rehearsal please give me a gun you played a comedian Sally Field Oh punch away the safty brothers told me to tell you that that's they love punch line is that right they love they watch punch line a lot playing a guy who's supposed to be funny the only way to do that was to go out and develop funny material and I probably did six you know appearances of something where all I really did was jump up and down on a trampoline I had no sense of it and you you were because I got I saw you hooda training I saw you training I was young comedian at the comic strip and you used to come in and go up there would so embarrass all believed yeah yeah Barry Barry and I we good he missed that night not if you saw me but no no I saw you a couple times and you were good you came up right away where the comedians were a mad that you would come onstage and school the best I can describe it is you just have to you just have to go there when I was in when I was in junior college taking acting classes and there's 10 of us there we're all we've all been to the American Conservatory Theater performances of certain things and we usually look at comedies going yes but the assignment the assignment for one day was okay on Wednesday everybody's gonna come and you're gonna be funny and you're gonna make each other laugh and it was stone knew nothing no one could do anything funny because that was a task at hand so comedy is hard because you know instantaneously whether or not you're you know your soup is good food Adam you were in the military say King and throw I'm dying or comedy they seemed trivial in comparison well I mean one the stakes you're pretending or life and death and the other kind of are but the way the process in which you work on them is the exact same it's you know a group of people trying to accomplish a mission that's bigger than any one person and you have a role and you have to know your role within a gun team and you you're only as good as the people that are there with you there's someone leading it and when they know what they're doing what you're doing feels active and relevant and exciting and when they don't it feels like a waste of resources and dangerous and you're just so aware that you're one part of a bigger picture how did you switch from being a marine to being an actor I I was interested in it before being in the military then when you get in the military you get out you can have all this false confidence that civilian problems will be small in comparison which is an illusion but then I was lucky enough to get into an acting school and learned about acting and plays and a process and then I was lucky enough to work have you ever felt Charlotte that act there's a life in death moment in acting where your whole life depends on you pulling this off yes which one every time it feels like you're next on the chopping block every time how do you get past that anxiety prep hard yeah just like boxing it's just like boxing guys train really hard to go put their neck on the line never been in the military but it feels life and death to me yeah so prep hard determination yeah I went last year to the Harry Ransom Center I don't know what that is but it's the archive at the University of Texas which has great papers and there are bobs papers and to actually see your handwriting on you know the Raging Bull script and it was amazing because your scripts are covered with notes what was the toughest character actually had to prepare for they're all different depends and some some are harder or in some ways and others and Raging Bull because of the weight and all that and the mission just the physical stuff awakening there's a lot of physical stuff too and studying how my character behaved and what what his affliction was and then Raging Bull I read the book somebody handed me the book one of the authors and I read it while I was doing once 1900 Bertolucci and I and I and I called Marty from Italy and I said we've got a you know the books not great literature but it's got a lot of heart and I kind of want to do certain things I remember I used to see Jake LaMotta he'd work in a kind of a strip place right on 7th Avenue in the 40s he'd be standing right out there and I'm in the sidewalk and he was overweight and this and that I said Jesus look what happened to him from that and and I thought just a graphic difference of being out of shape and then being a young fighter really that was interesting to me I thought I'd like to see if I could really just gain that weight well actually and and do it so that was my interest in it Marty had his reasons and both of us just come together on the project and yeah any of you had a dream project that you've taken to a director or another acting tonight you must do this honey boy it's your project you wrote it yeah but if you haven't seen it it's terrific it's unbelievable thank you so who did you want to do it with you my back was against the wall I was nuclear at this point so it wasn't like a dream project it felt like like survival like there was no other way to go I didn't have a lot of people talking to me yeah I was in a mental institution so it wasn't like oh this is my dream project I'd like to explore this it was like my backs against the wall this is the craft that I love and I can't do it anymore and I also had a doctor who was pushing me to explore these dirty parts and write it down and yes it wasn't like a dream project they more more it felt more like necessity like survival like some different you said you're in a mental institution I don't ask you to post some questions but is there anything you discovered there that's been helpful for your acting yeah empathy for my father you know who was always the biggest villain in my life you know and I think if you can empathize with the biggest villain in your life and sort of scrape some of these shadows and it makes you lighter freer I don't think I was leading with love and my life has changed you may or may not have tested I feel like when you when you lead with lightness and love you can get to the heavy easier you know it's much it's much easier much more accessible like anger and the rough [ __ ] is very easy you know it's the other stuff this feels quite difficult you know getting honest laughs is very hard I'll tell you when I have to laugh in a movie I can't do that if my character supposed to have a genuine laughing moment I'd rather do a get genuine anything else if it easy for you to cry you have that big moment in uncut gems where you're really emotional we're easier than laughing maybe maybe not I'm not great at crying yeah crying when I when it's written in a script and then he breaks down and this then kind of that really gets me tense for for a while you you had a massive one in marriage story every time I see that performance of somebody breaking down I my home man that guy that's incredible how did you get that point it's not something you push for you don't push for emotion is it either happens or it doesn't you know that you can't like anticipate it or nothing will happens but you know there's a lot of things that in that instance or supporting you you're the script is so good and it's well-written it was badly written there's only one way to do it if it's well written you know the language is so rich that every time you say it it opens up an idea for something else and because Noah has structured and Adam knows this from working with known Meyerowitz the text is the text and I find that incredibly freeing because your intention could be anything and if you're with another actor as Scarlett in that instance in the you know the set Noah's giving you another piece of information that maybe and thought of before or the line or maybe you've gotten a fight with your wife before the scene starts or maybe nothing maybe you're having a good moment before this scene starts it just opens up your imagination of a different way of of reading it you know he's taken basically a four month run of a play and condensed it to two days you know so that I think that's easier if it's just having a motion I don't think I can do that do you take that emotion home with you I don't I don't think so I mean I got after you Austin no no no so I mean it's a release it's like you did that that's there take a break come back sometimes though there is a residual something that you have to be aware of there is a it's a physiological process that incorporates your emotions and your the sinews of your body it's funny laughing and weeping are two very physical acts you know they're not they're not up here no I mean when I cry man my face turns you to rubber yeah you know how you bend over and some kind of thing mm-hmm and you can only you can only get there if the letter that the text takes you there and there's this great commonality of moments like that and which like I said earlier everybody's making the movie and everybody knows that tonight or this day is going to be an emotional thing and your job is to forget that it's on a schedule and just live it and be it and don't don't you can't you can't push it it actually has it has to come out oh I'm just I'm just emotional yeah I'm always I'm just really that's great I don't know but I'll be crying about stuff that really my accountant just called me said you you tried to buy private plane your toughest moment I think the toughest thing being a comedian is watching other comedians blow like Eddie blue oh [ __ ] and then a martinet and so I'm like okay where's my where's my thing but then you see that they've touched all of the comic bases I remember going into reading for Russell Simmons uh-huh for some for some comedy and I was doing my thing and he was like uh-oh I didn't know that's right that's right and even though I was just saying it just used to sound like Chris Rock you sound like Eddie so that was tough because I like damn I don't have nowhere to go right and then like you know this cool thing where Oliver Stone will open up it was you know this any given Sunday thing which is more dramatic and and so I don't know if that's a tough thing but that was just like man let me let me go get with him and it was opened up a whole nother thing and then the tough part was getting back to being funny yeah like you know like the young folks they see me like Oh hisses do using Django right right right now I'm doing I have to try to give back to I've done so many comedies also I have so many comedies on TV I don't have a hard time getting back into that people just when I get to do something like this like uncut gems and yeah I haven't done that many dramas maybe I've done like six or seven over 30 years worth I'm always excited doing them it's a different excitement for me because I'm not sure of myself yeah I know when you do comedies you kind of I mean you grew up doing them sure I grew up as a kid being in comedies it's a different lighter feel on the set it's exciting there's nothing better for a comedian than going home go oh I think we killed that scene that's gonna be funny so audience is gonna like that but there's some drama man getting it right and feeling like you gave it your all and that excitement of reading script and going oh that scene is going to be incredible than actually shooting it and it comes out the way you wanted to or maybe not exactly the way you wanted to but something happened big for you that's that's as good but you hold on your thought when it doesn't come out that wait you guys push yourself oh my god there's something great written that that I don't think I get I got to where I was supposed to get really mad at myself thank you yeah yeah yeah you're disappointed the only thing is that you like like you were saying you don't push for anything I mean I don't if you push you're not gonna get it so you just have to take what comes and try and find ways to get there but you just can't be anxious about it you know it's like the thing you know the be active you can't remember the lines we can't act anymore so he's working in a garage and somebody an actor the director comes over says listen I just want you to say Hawkeye here the can enroll in the third third act you know so I said okay so I'll go tell her sweet hurts and then at home you know he's working haka here the cannon roar hark I hear the cannons roar haka the cannon roar every variation every way ready the third act ready to go after five weeks ago so he goes backstage is ready you know the first act goes no problem is waiting haka a the cataract a tiger a second act everything caballo came flying third act he's there backstage the stage manager comes okay ready and he's here in the play out there boom come on he's going them say hockey hockey the kennel hockey that kind of what then you're a bang turns around what the [ __ ] was that [Music] are you stuff critical oh yeah yeah yeah I mean I don't I don't think that you ever get over him cuz in a way you kind of know what your potential is more than anybody else in it in a sense I have a lot of regret often when you leave said you can't help but you know think about it and you know obviously it's film so film is forever so you never get a chance to go back and do it again I feel like that's that's the thing about acting is that you regardless of how often you do it or how long you do it you never figure it out that even in the you prefer theater because of that oh I've learned from theater in that you know you always at the end of a four month run of a play you're always the last performance it's always the best one and you're like okay now I have a better sense of what I want to do and go back so I know that there's no right answer there's no right way to play a scene that's my part of it I like the making of it and it's someone else's responsibility to make the choice of what is the best version of it but I know that there's no right way and I you just have to feel comfortable with with failing and you either get easier on yourself I think about like okay then I'll just I'll let it go or you don't but I don't think you will you only ever figure that out why so I think people keep doing it I think I don't know are you self-critical if you go home there have been too many times where I thought I really crack something over the fence all I could do is stumble around today and it's fantastic and you there's no canoes oddness you almost have no control yeah for me it has come down to whether or not the the procedure and the behavior that was asked of you is authentic and if it is then you've got to leave it up to serendipity and those that those fabulous people that are willing to look at your you know every eyebrow and pour on your face and decide what's going to be the best take what what what's going to end up being in the do you know when it doesn't say in a way it's not even your job really I mean I I think it's it's not your job to feel and anything it's the audience's job so I obviously been thinking about something for a long time and you finally get there and do it you want to feel something just because you feel like you put the effort in but it's it's not really my responsibility to feel something it's to Telegraph that something is being felt you know but you it's hard to reconcile that to not feel like you got there and you actually it's it feels like it's gonna be more authentic but I mean to your point you could be having all the feeling you want but no one is feeling anything and that and your job is to tell the story not have a feeling in front of people we were doing captain Phillips if we were in this lifeboat this grip had all these great moments where rich Phillips looked through the porthole of the lifeboat and as the Sun was going down and it's thinking of his family at home and whether or not he's are going to see the thing so you could sit around in Malta you know where we were shooting is oh that's going to be a powerful moment [Laughter] great then you go to work and there is no porthole in the lifeboat like take away it's almost oh you cannot prepare you can only just be there the movie process it's a little bit different it's like you means in the theatre just not even that just like when I was on in any given Sunday I remember all of a stone when I first audition was like you're horrible when I audition and I was like what because I was a television actor so everything I did was loud yeah nobody was but I learned from that toughness meaning like when he finally decided to you know make the decision for me to be the lead he still would grill me he said that's not it that's not it that's not it like working with Quentin Tarantino and I watched an actor struggle because the thus it was like it was heavy I mean you had you had Samuel Jackson Lee I mean it was some juggernaut you know come on [ __ ] say that [ __ ] and try to say come on come on oh yeah and the guy was trying to get his line you know watch Quentin Tarantino go to just gonna work out right but didn't you see the movie and Quentin said all I need is one sure even working with Christoph Chris Christoph was watching him work I learned a little bit more about movie I watched him fold a paper some [ __ ] wrote on the thing and was just supposed to put it in this pocket it seemed like it took him forever to do it and he had it was nothing else existed but that moment right Christophe wass process wasn't that I'm gonna have all of these things memorized and do all of these things at once he would give you these and could calm yourselves gentlemen and you see all these little bits of things and then all of a sudden in the movie boom calm yourself gentlemen oh [ __ ] and then I like to thank the Academy because you hear so many stories about people working who shy his most intimidated you that you've worked with and who have you learned from the most everyone's intimidated by all of them yeah different not intimidated you never look me in the eyes you always look just above my it's just his way maybe just for me but um probably probably being around Hardy Hardy's a bit of a gorilla on set tomcod yeah probably I was most intimidated by him yeah would you be in a bit of a gorilla well he runs a say you know he pee in the corners is his set you know it when you get there yeah hmm don't feel like a shared space it feels like his space and and you know and he's very good actor and and also super loving but on a set is you're in his church who has told you the most Bob really yeah definitely like that all just be quiet yeah we have some great actors around this table if let's face it well and what did he teach you well through the performances I watched him reveal himself and be a presenter of a soul and explore who he was through the work and I've always just he made it feel sacred to me so I so it felt like like he lifted the craft into something that felt like a it's wild to hear you say you're not religious but I know you're spiritual and I don't have to ask you because I watch the work and I can feel it so I'd say and not to you know kiss ass but through the work having a guy to look towards are you intimidated by anyone well there's always somebody who's but as you get older you don't want to be intimidated by anybody who shouldn't intimidate if you you know we're in a political situation now we have the best example of that where I feel that you must stand up to this kind of person not to make a speech about this year but it's in it's necessary to stand up and not because people are nonplussed it's like they say did this guy just do that he did it I don't even know how to react and react to that because I'm like that's not within my world of common sense or or right and wrong but what's being fair so I I have to find a way I just have to you gotta you gotta push him back you got it you gotta snuff him out you gotta get rid of him he's he's you know it's it's you got a deal with it because but people are sold so nonplussed by this behavior and that's how crazy people like him can get even further imagine him getting a second term he'll one he said I want to be President for life he talked about it so then he'll he'll go for that he'll feel pardoned himself he'll do anything the beginning you know well you know he's in New York or maybe he's got common sense somewhere in there he's a liberal actually supposedly but then you know after he just got worse and worse and worse and worse and we've got to get rid of him madam should access be political I'm not great at that like I said I listen to Bob talk and I go okay I listened that I have I when I said my convictions that great I do I do believe in I my my way of being I just try to be as good of a person I can be and try to conduct myself a certain way I don't think I always do that right but when it comes to me discussing politics I don't think I'm I don't think I'm knowledgeable enough to go at it it's an interesting thing because it's actually not politic what he's talking about is me letting my kids watch someone who was supposed to be from Mayor whatever they're supposed to be different he's not talking about policy he's talking about the human nature of things and so we should all have an opportunity to say or not say but I got kids so I got to tell my kids I said hey listen this is not the way things are supposed to be when it comes to the human nature of it because when you do ass into these levels of running things we look to that look all of what we what we've gone through in our lives as American and policies we were always able to look at that office and say that's something to aspire to be and to be like if I can't let my kids listen to that person talk then that's where we're off so it's not actually polish nothing wrong with saying hey I'm like this you can have a different you can have a disagreement with me about policy we can both do that cuz I got good old boyfriends that are that are red state guys and I got a Democrat friend I'm a Democrat but I'm in all of those circles because I'm always performing you know that and quietly even if we disagree there's always that point of being a man being being nice being kind and so to his point when you see something that person is bless you when a person is just yo you don't have the dance in the end zone with everything comes less yeah but but I think that's that's what it is and then we all get nervous you know we get nervous because well what's what's what are people going to say about me but then if we don't have someone saying something but if you don't have someone [Laughter] say so it's like it's it's it's not positive it's human beings it's like I know I've looked I I could share this story I did a gig for Jerry Jones who's I'm a cowboy he was cowboy fair and I had to perform for the UH for the owners and NFL and Jerry Jones son-in-law said what are you gonna do here I have to perform for you know no good old boys and I said don't worry about it I'm good I'm from Texas I I think I'll be good so first thing I song was George Strait no next thing you know by the end of the night I had everybody sing his gold digger and blame and I got cold him pausing it but I got a chance to speak with George Bush I'm this close and I was like we spoke and of course we all had our differences but I asked him something I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this story I said would you ever say anything disheartening about President Obama you know he said no I wouldn't it's too hard of a job I learned so much I would never knock his legs out from under him because I know what it is and I watched him and his kids play with Obama's kids that's what it's about you know if we're being if we're taking it that's what so it's just it's a matter of everybody has something that they want to say but we shouldn't be afraid to say it you're not gonna be we should just say hey man that's a saying clearly so when Ellen DeGeneres went to the game with George W Bush do you think that's okay listen it's bigger than that when when I've seen I've been in football games where Jesse Jackson George Bush everybody we're still humans but what happens is it's an interesting thing well you see what media does they always separate and make it something bigger Ellen is sitting with George Bush who she's known for for years it's not a big thing still doesn't still doesn't mean she's gonna compromise what she believes in and you don't have to do that well I think I think it's always been their way only now it's just different because you do go out wow that ain't cool even if you felt that way that part and cool you know I'm saying so it's like we shouldn't be it we shouldn't be afraid we look and like people say like always a snobby actor elitism I came from Terrell Texas no money no nothing that's nothing snobby about me I'm happy that I'm making my massive but for me to get to a position of where I'm at right now and I say nothing like what you know so I'm like I said I'm not running for office but damn we should be able to say whatever we want to say when we want to say it does that make sense yes tell me you have a fourteen cuff going on there it was you know where that came from I was a cop agreement we all I'm gonna give you three more not everybody should be political but everybody must be principled and exactly carry our principles with us in 24 hours a day it's part of the countenance it's a part of part of why we do what we do in the first place and it's in our it's in our choices and I I have to say one of the things I learned from the get-go as an actor in a repertory company of people you worked with it you didn't have to like those people and you did not have to agree with those people you didn't have to hang with those people but you had to respect those people you had to respect their process and you had to respect their opinions and the default setting I think for so much of everything is conflict and and what's the word I'm looking for cynicism that's the first place to think everybody can go so if if Ellen is at a football at a game with George W Bush what's the cynical take on what that is as opposed to is what is the respectful take on that you know I'm not going to assume anybody automatically did agrees with each other because they're at a Dallas Cowboys an Oakland Raiders football game and I think that's that's a that's a different kind of like politics political views are a dime a dozen you know they're absolutely every [Music] you just played the least cynical guy making history uh-huh she called it to play someone that nice than to play a villain they're the same exact beast you know granted mr. Rogers is not Yago but they have their principles and they have their they have their mission statement the story and the movie is really about the journalist that is very cynical about who mr. Rogers is and finds out that he was wrong and there's no nefarious motivation between what Fred Rogers did for a living he viewed it as his ministry and that's like kind of like looking at some combination of Mother Teresa or somebody this is hell-bent for doing just good and in the sphere of which they operate and the cynic walks into that and says what's your what you watch a racket here what are you trying to pull here and if it's actually just what we're trying to feed the homeless people some soup so they get some a hot meal once a day no it's got to be something more than there's not and Fred Rogers was an ordained minister and his principle was such that everything that guided him through his daily behavior and his creative output was based on making people feel safe and a part of something bigger than they actually were in this case two and three year old kids but he never ever said the word God not in not in hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours of of television when you explored that character was there a darker side in him that the that actually pushed him in the other direction there was the same dark side in him that is it any crack Veselin of humankind there is doubt there is there was a sense of failure there is always a degree of self-loathing there was always a question of am i doing enough for the people that I love now is that a dark side I don't know that it's dark in look not everybody says I'm growing tired of this game mr. bond like a tort of art installation before we feed you to the Sharks not ever there that is that is I think that's a dynamic that comes about and that's you know Shakespeare wrote that kind of stuff left and right but the journalists who came and talked to mr. Rogers was paying that no no no there's something in the past and you're doing this for some reason in the future and that's that's an artificial accounting that is required by somebody who is not the person themselves but when you're playing a guy who's killed people as you just did and it's a real based on a real life mmm man is it good for you personally to find the goodness in him or is that a dangerous proposition I don't think I mean he was a guy who happened to have seen a lot of combat in the Second World War so he was a little he was a nerd too killing more than someone else and he found himself in this world that was not what he was from and fit and he was loyal to the people that gave him the love and support and respected him and so that's how and then he was then he had a big conflict which later on not to give it away but that was the whole thing but I think the whole store the story is very simple you could find that kind of situation in any culture loyalty betrayal love all those things are there the price in this world is a little more harsh but you know that that and maybe not so in certain parts of the world I mean this is this is what happens so we have it in this country and America and that mid-year that culture it's it's it's what it is your loyalty in the in the movie to year to your work it was very interesting to see how it affected your home life and your daughter yes yes what was very interesting and different to the fact that you know a person would love you for what what you do and how much you believed in doing the right thing for the guys you were employed by and but at home it was affecting the family and it's heartbreaking heartbreak your your movie does the same thing oh yeah right there really thank you have with your two boys and and your wife man who is just so completely done with you yeah and the real life is a dominatrix the actress in the film you play with did you get from know somebody just told me post that's what you want to get a lot of time of course that was you about that well I'll tell you like Shia said when you're doing it when you do the research and you come into a project and you know everything and what mr. De Niro is saying you when you see when you walk onto a set and you know you've done the homework and you have no fears of like oh if this comes up and I'm gonna be I'm gonna shut down it's just great tonight Ted so of course I spent a lot of time on 47th Street i gamble in the movie a lot so I spent a lot of time with a lot of gamblers who had had problems and lost a lot of things and lost their lives because of it and the game that who-who most surprised you will well the safety brothers the guys who did the movie they did the research and met a lot of guys who were willing to sit down with me and talk and there was nothing you did just it's just their lives get thrown away and their family lives get thrown away and it's about where they are right now and they discuss what what the highs and lows were and and why they couldn't stop and that kind of feel all these guys on the block let me in in their shops and I got to sit with them and watch them and they taught me about the the jewelry and about selling and I watched him all day long and it was it was a lot of fun a lot of a lot of it felt need to learn this new it wasn't boring well no not at all it's good to learn something I walked away thinking I know everything right now it's a year later I'm like I I forgot so much I wish I did well you you played a real life character how when you're playing that role how much do you have to be faithful to him and how did you it's you know you think differently the the process of playing somebody real you have to sort of not do the impersonation because I'm like you know coming from like the in living color background and learn not to do the impersonation and then also not to I didn't I didn't have a chance to see him actually alive but I had to sort of like piece things together through what people would say and then the first thing that helped me was aesthetically we are part of the same tribe innocence our cheekbones are the diamond-shaped head that haircut that he had I had that in the 80s as well so aesthetically we were we were ahead of the game I didn't have a chance to see him actually alive but I had to sort of like piece things together through what people would say and then talking to Brian Stevenson and hearing him talk about who's the real life Italians in real life but their show was based on who you know goes and meets this this guy on death row and finds out all these incredible these horrible things that he's on death row without a trial they say he killed a white woman in the city they didn't ever been in in like he couldn't believe that this existed but he told me how Walter was he felt like you know since I'm in this situation I might as well do everything I can to help so when you see in the movies talking to all the prisoners and everything like that trying to keep up their morale these guys on death row so I took that is the the spirit of it and then it was a matter of the vernacular being in you know Alabama and the way they talk like that the way they say things and you know and to make that not be caricature I remember Michael B Jordan listen I don't do that because it started sounding like something to do where we really couldn't understand me so we sort of dial that in so sometimes you have to rely on the people that are around you to say what what makes the most sense that in real experience to draw upon I mean you know I was akin to the one of the screenings who you know he was educated for 25 years in the hood in high school and everything he dedicated his life to saving black kids in the hood they end up putting him in jail for $25 worth of illegal substance for seven years Wow so here he is in jail with kids that he had taught Wow the very judge that he would bring into the school and say hey I want you to shake these kids up tell them the repercussions of anything that Judge presided over his case put him in jail so when you have something like that the person that taught you how to throw a football the black man that taught you how to play tennis in Texas when we weren't allowed to go to the the country club so I gotta learn tennis because you don't know all of this you know how to swim tennis all of the stuff that they say we can't do you do and so that was a that was a huge thing that I carried inside didn't share it with a lot of people because when my pops I wrote him a letter because I was telling somebody see people in jail I wrote him one letter you get out I'll save your life he came to live with me when he went in I wasn't who I was he comes out on and I got a chance to take him to the US Open and having much Venus play you know and you know watch the twos you know down it so those types of things now I was lucky enough to be able to have that moment but in Walter McMillian situation you know it works out but it doesn't work out it's still an entertaining movie but you still sit with like wow Walter McMillian didn't have a chance and there's a lot of Walter McMillian you shot in the real life person yeah right because those presence scenes are phenomenal but they are really incredible the one moment when the cuffs was being put on me and they had a guy who was part of the prison system I wasn't part of the movie yeah yeah squeeze it tighter mm-hmm oh yeah squeeze it tighter cousin he's a he's a bigger one he doesn't know that he's saying something that is taking me to yeah I'll come out these cuffs it yeah but that's his everyday life uh-huh so those moments when we were going into those prisons that was for personhood on our own I don't do the jail [ __ ] you know it was a couple of times on the hey man don't squeeze them don't they're tight enough mm-hmm you know so he doesn't know that he's saying something that is taking me to yeah I'll come out these cuffs it but that's his everyday life uh-huh we become so used to it too cuz we're talking to Brian as Brian Steve isn't talking about changing the perception because the perception kills us it's like the reason I don't want to go see somebody in jail is because I don't want to get used to that but so many people are just used to seeing their father their brother the who of their mother's in jail and the next thing you know we start rapping about it we should rap about being there cuz we don't have we don't have any other thing this is all we see so it's it's a it's a you know it was a tough it's a tough thing you know such a wonderful film you played your own father and he was I don't this is fair but it seems that in your real life he was the pretty fill in the sky oh I didn't know is that true no he's sweet or he's a teddy bear he's just little crooked lot of cracks there yeah did you did you have to change how you saw him to play the role and did playing the role change the way you saw him yeah for sure yeah I hadn't talked to my dad for seven years before it started this up so I didn't really I didn't really know my dad too well and didn't have a relationship with him at all and and my coming into this industry you know my dad wanted to be in this industry sort of separated those you know there was like a lot of a lot of competitive me my dad were quite competitive with each other and yeah I guess I guess yeah I guess you always got to empathize with whoever you're playing but I wouldn't call him a villainous character no way yeah and I hadn't really looked at him from that side you know I was young and and in a victim type you know I was using my dad at work you know which was the wrong way to go about work but also the road even you you think it well you know I was working with material that wasn't necessarily you know Bombeck and this material would ask of you things that you couldn't really get in the material so then you're left with and I didn't have any technique and I'd read all these stories you know easy riders raging bulls and you know you kind of you come up with an amalgamation of a way to do something and for me it was a lot of transposing my pain from my father and it it would work in front of a camera for me for a long time and didn't have much more technique than that and I was scared to sort of clean it up because I thought well you know I don't want to I don't want to lose my only thing I got which was this pain that felt very real for me and so um yeah I had I had a whole mixed bag of I had a strange way of viewing my pain with my father and I also used used it at work so I didn't want to clean it up yeah has it changed of thinking about him or anything yeah and made me better in my craft and created a relationship and yeah did you ever think of not playing the part did you ever think of directing it never thought of directing it because that's just not my gig but definitely didn't think I'd be able to play it you know I was not in a spot where people were like hey let's put some money on this kid's bag and have him carry movie so I thought my acting crew was done I was gonna join the Peace Corps I wasn't really trying to yeah I was out really yeah and yeah sent it to Mel Gibson and yeah I thought he was the guy to play my dad and my dad was also thinking along the same lines it's one thing to want to play your dad's another thing to go stand in front of your father after seven years of not talking to go hey man I'm gonna play you mmm when there's contention already and we weren't on good terms so I lied to him and told him hey Mel Gibson's going to play you son right here so my dad signed the paper under the auspices that he was gonna be played by my Braveheart well you had the Noah Baumbach script but this is an autobiography so in some ways were you play Noah in the film I mean like all of these things there Noah wrote a script he did that hat trick that people I think tried to do of writing something that's incredibly specific but it reaches a broader audience I mean like you like anything he like meyerwitz like you know the squid in the way of while we're young they're all in a sense out of biographical then but he wrote something that I think we all projected or our history or onto well what was the toughest moment for you in that film it was the one that you really struggled with usually there's like one scene in the in a movie or maybe two that you're dreading with this one every scene felt like oh it's all too early in the schedule it's like okay well then we can maybe put it to next week but then next week's was was worse you know so so and again that's I think a testament to good writing every scene felt the stakes were incredibly high they all felt urgent they all felt necessary there wasn't a part that you could take out where the movie would survive without it and so that that fit I think it was our first sign of all this felt like it always should be this urgent hopefully last question for all of you who could go back to your younger self well you in a way went back to a younger stuff younger than that what piece of advice would you give yourself well I was saying something to my grandson the other day because you know that things just become when things are going well become don't think you're on top of the world in the sense you always got to be wary because I've seen it I've seen people come I've seen people go I've seen them come I've seen them go you gotta be chill you gotta like just take what's good in your life and move forward cautiously and carefully and and thank God that you that you have that just it's very very important not to to overextend yourself when you when you think you you know you've got it that's no such thing everybody's dispensable I wish I had known that this too shall pass you feel bad right now you feel this table you feel angry yes I feel great you feel like you know all finally gets time is your ally hmm and if nothing else just wait just wait just wait it out just lost take Tom's yeah being more economical I think I would I wish I could be things that I think I need I don't whether it be acting or you know life economical autistic me financially emotional we could say artistically I guess if you think that you need to certain things have to be in place for you to do your job but then actually none of that's true we were using the example earlier of a porthole having it worked up in your mind and then realize you're getting in there you have no control over any other you know so or doing homework and research and like you know losing weight and putting a bunch of weight and then feeling comfortable to let it all go because none of that is helpful because your scene partner is drunk that's not something that's happened but but being more economical with you know okay well all that time I after you either get better about that I've wasted or I shouldn't just waste that time and actually should prioritize in a different way so I think that's kind of the same thing Adam I can say what they could you ask them to put a porthole in their was relatively common experience enough that I didn't do this is there anybody someone had put in this there's no don't poor you did have that extraordinary moment everybody talked about in the film where you cry and I remember you said at the lost round table that you'd had ten minutes to prepare for it not even that we just kind of like went down and Adam lost been sitting I was thinking because I stretch should have stretched more have a very bad no no no fine with all that stuff but I really can't get a scar when there's a loose ball on a basketball court cannot get the ball everyone else grabs it before me because I can't bend so that and and my coaches always growing up with like always talking about stretching I never did I never did I we jumped I jump right into the game did you stretch before playing no no three ball with them yeah thank you that is what is it used to be good but all of you thank you so much this was truly terrific round two I really appreciate it thank you very much hey I'm Charla buff hey I'm Jamie Foxx I'm Tom hey i'm adam sandler thank you for watching Hollywood Reporter round tables round tables on youtube or on YouTube if that's the one right there

Channel: The Hollywood Reporter

Views: 5,726,718

Rating: 4.8933606 out of 5

Keywords: thr, the hollywood reporter, hollywood reporter, entertainment, hollywood, close up, close up with thr, thr roundtable, roudntable, thr roundtables, interview, adam driver, shai labeouf, robert de niro, tom hanks, jamie foxx, adam sandler, marriage story, the report, honey boy, the irishman, a beautiful day in the neighborhood, just mercy, uncut gems, actors, actors roundtable, roundtables, close up with the hollywood reporter, the hollywood reporter roundtable, film, movie, 2020

Id: ibPkLdbG4VU

Length: 58min 35sec (3515 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 20 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

I really love how Sandler is constantly nodding and smiling at people and giving them constant affirmations to what they’re saying while a lot of them just sort of sit there in known agreement at times. He just seems like such a friendly guy.

[u/James_Locke]

Adam Sandler: I don't even think I should be at this table...

Shia?:That's bullshit.

Bro moment right there, said with total conviction. What a great group.

[u/CashWho]

Jeez, I love these things every year. This year in particuar has given me a greater appreciation for Adam Driver (Marriage Story and his Actor on Actor interview with Charlize Theron were both great) and Shia LaBeouf (His Hot Ones interview and his Actor on Actor with Kristen Stewart were also good). Also, Adam Sandler was really great in this and makes me want to see an interview about his bad stuff. He's clearly really smart and humble so I'd love to see him honestly talk about those movies.

Edit: I should provide links.

• Adam Driver & Charlize Theron - Actors on Actors
• Shia LaBeouf - Hot Ones
• Shia LaBeouf & Kristen Stewart - Actors on Actors

[u/ElamenoPQRSTUVWXYZ]

What I really like about these is when we get to see them gush over each other's work (especially the work the year that's the reason they are on it). Adam Sandler took the time to praise each of them on their performances and you could tell that his praise was based upon seeing their respective films.

I also liked Jamie Foxx fanboying over Sandler's stand-up and how he kinda feels similar in that he wants to do the comedy & stand-up (which I wasn't aware of) but also balances it with his dramatic roles.

Tom Hanks talking about when he did some trial stand-up sets and then Sandler mentions catching one of them (similar to how Foxx used to sneak in his stand-up sets in NYC) shows how interconnected these guys are even in an indirect manner.

I think my favourite part was Jamie Foxx saying how he hates when a director says "just do your thing" and all the other guys made the same exact groan and gesture of frustration. It shows that even though they likely all have different methods to their craft there's a singular phrase that they all hate. A bit similar when Sandler mentioned he hates being scripted to laugh in a scene and he got a few groans too.

[u/Enterthesavage]

Great. Now we have to round out our cast for 12 Angry Men. Who should direct?

[u/dmun]

"Adam Driver, you were in the military. Dying or comedy, do they feel trivial in comparison?"

"Well one is pretending life or death and the other kinda is."

I love you Adam Driver.

[u/[deleted]]

I like the mix of legends with younger actors. Nice group!

[u/0-27]

The bit where Adam Driver ignored role call was hilarious.

[u/UpsetViking]

Bro these Reddit ninja posters are relentless.

Whenever I watch these roundtables I appreciate the level of respect and posture that these actors have not to freak out in front of their idols.