Actors Roundtable: Austin Butler, Brendan Fraser, Ke Huy Quan, Adam Sandler & More

you don't want an audience member to waste honest to God I do not want an audience member to go in and waste two hours of their time who knows what babysitter they've got who knows how long it's been since they've been to the cinema you really don't anyone who makes a film I don't care who it is they want to make something that at least entertains if not provokes it's okay to evolve that's the beautiful thing about being an artist you're supposed to evolve so it's okay to reinvent yourself and to go from Comedy to doing more serious stuff because UV lava is a person and you've learned what you've learned we go way back yeah we work together on a movie called Encino Man in 91 yeah we're still here [Music] thank you hi everyone and thank you for tuning in to the Hollywood reporters after Roundtable I'm Scott Feinberg the executive editor of awards at The Hollywood Reporter and my guests today are six actors who gave tremendous performances in 2022 films before we get into the parts that have brought you guys here today I want to ask sort of a big picture question we are sitting down obviously at a time when you are each getting tremendous Acclaim and recognition for your work but I know and you know that it's not always smooth sailing and so I just wonder can you share with us a moment when this moment felt perhaps furthest away in your career I want to perhaps start with key because you have shared this is basically your first role in 20 years well first of all Scott a huge thank you for for inviting me I cannot believe I'm having a seat at this table uh among all of you which I absolutely love and adore uh dude I'm pinching myself I cannot believe I am here uh and yeah for the longest time I I I love acting and I couldn't get a job Hollywood didn't want me uh there were no roles for me and I spent the majority of my time in my late teens and early 20s just waiting for the phone to ring and it really rang so I had no choice but to to step away and and the difficult part was to say goodbye to the dream that I that I always wanted uh but it was just difficult to be an Asian actor at that time uh so yeah I went to film School graduating and started working behind the camera was content doing that didn't think that one day I would revisit this stream of mine it felt so distant and far away for the longest longest time until a movie called The Race crazy rotations came out uh and I realized that um Hollywood has changed dramatically you know the the giving more opportunities for a wider group of people and it was really then that I said ah maybe I should try acting again I was about to turn 50 and I was so worried that you know I would reach like my 60s and looking back and go you know have regrets because I just didn't give voice to this dream that I wanted so I had this long conversation with my wife should I do this again and as you all know it's tough to be an actor uh you know get rejected again and again I was just so hungry for an opportunity to act just a job so cool to hear that man like what a journey it really is yeah so and and yeah and so so being here is is it's beyond anything I I could have imagined we'll get used to it because you have courage absolutely thank you thank you so do you Brandon Frazier because we'll say you've been in this business for 30 some odd years but you also had a period where you kind of Step Back From the business I think it was the night that I was shooting a scene wherein is being mauled by a bear and I was in a porta potty and the porta potty got inverted and I was on my head and all this Gatorade and stuff dropped on my head and it made me have a conversation with myself really quick about is this worth it maybe I should um reprioritize myself and um and stop working with animals look I stepped back for reasons that include that I had some chips and things in the paint and the business had changed a lot to the way that films were being made lost its wow factor because anything you can imagine and as you well know we saw from everything every all at once if you could think it up it can be done but I knew that it was time to hang on to the dream but I had to grow back into it get back to the real hunger that I had to tell stories to have the time to think about it and come back and from a place of wanting to care about stories that I was going to make or you'd be lucky enough to be included became important to me again well Colin uh you were sort of shot out of the Canon at the beginning of your screen career right you've spoken about a moment a couple years after that with Alexander where you sort of said I need to step back and rethink how I'm approaching things I wonder if you can explain what changed in that moment expectation is a dangerous thing there was a load of things that went on with Alexander the most significant thing to be a part of was you know two or three hundred people who traveled the world over six months to tell the story and bring it to life and it was a it was a story that Oliver Stone had dreamed of since he was in college um so as Grand as it was as low but as it was as political as it was and as thrilling as it was and as violent as it was and essential as it was it was really personal it was really personal to Oliver and it was really personal to me when I say expectations we all had our tuxedos ready I'm not even joking there was some of the lads yeah we were all like right Lads we're off to the Oscars this is a sure thing because we had Oliver Stone we had a story of that magnitude we had a script that was really moving and really kind of just brilliant and so muscular and then it came out I was in Toronto and I think I was due a bit of a foot in the ass to be honest right which is not the same as saying I deserve this right right I just want to be clear and I may have that's not the same as saying I didn't and to get too meta but um but the reviews came out we were up in Toronto and I remember sister clothing gone oh God it's not good and Danica who's here today in public school it's really not good I was like what do you mean that guy like there wasn't any shortcut Rotten Tomatoes what percentage are we talking here wasn't that it was what he mean and they had all the printed reviews and it was one after another and it was pack my bags found out Alexander the Dole Alexander the boring Alexander the inarticulate Alexander the weak Alexander there I was like holy shh and I I thought what can I do I felt so much shame I felt really I really did I felt like because also one of the things I've noticed Through The Years is you don't want people to waste their time you don't want an audience member to waste honest to God I do not want an audience member to go in and waste two hours of their time who knows what babysitter they've got who knows how long it's been since they've been to the cinema you really don't anyone who makes a film I don't care who it is they want to make something that at least entertains if not provokes or if not both so when I read that I thought what am I going to do what am I going to do what I'm going to do I I wanted I I found myself in a place where I everyone I mess I want to say have you seen Alexander if you have I'm really sorry I'm not even joking I did now I wasn't going to give them their twenty dollars back and then after that yeah I did question I went I'm just I'm just shy at it I did that I went I'm just a I'm just a crap actor I've been found out I came blazing onto the scene with a bit of moxie and a bit of Irish this and a bit of Irish dad and don't care about you know don't give a shout about it you know I was 23 when you're 23 and 24 and you actually care a lot about maybe the world our people or etc etc and you don't know how to articulate that or have a relationship with that care the easiest thing to do is say you don't give and so I was kind of in that and this is not to apologize I was a young man but I it was Alexander made me really go I don't know what I had to do was plug back into uh the column that went into an acting class when he was 17. just that Curiosity I had lost I did the you know I was so lucky man I was shot at the Cannon as you said I was given so much opportunity it was insane how much money I was given how much the keys to this the keys to that and that's why when I hear like you know years ago Justin Bieber threw eggs at his neighbor I'm like he deserves a medal if that's all he's doing well you raced a car on Ocean Drive I'm like if that's all he's doing that kid is trying the best he can to be a good human being so you know it's it's been an interesting trip then I was given the opportunity to to just reconnect with the Simplicity that should never leave the core of what we do and that is curiosity it's just why do we do what we do why do human beings treat themselves and each other the way they treat themselves and each other well you need to be humbled yeah yeah before you can make a decision about whether or not you're going to go forward or stop when you went back to the acting classes was it like you were going back to the academy to figure out how to do this right [ __ ] no I never went back to class in my head though I did like genuinely Brandon like I literally had to I I had to try and remember what that [Music] and that's what acting allows you sometimes ah none of us know what we're doing but we're all moving in the direction of trying to access some authenticity yeah yeah and so the comfort you get from that shared uncertainty for me is a bomb because you know also standardized trying to pretend we know what's going on when we when we threw it well Adam I wonder for you you uh for for so many years have been beloved for comedy work 20 years ago roughly was punch drunk love all times Anderson and you and sort of the beginning of showing this other side of you that we've then seen in everything from Reign Over Me to uncut gems to now hustle that it's that you are stay in your lane could you right yeah so I just wonder though did you always kind of aspire to show that you were more than the comet funny guy or did it take other people to believe it for you to be able to believe it I was pretty lucky it's funny my daughter said this to me the other night because my daughter's she's 16. she why you know what when you first started what did you want to well why did you do it I think the comedian guy the the thing that I've always and I still I'm addicted to I guess I just wanted people to like me maybe that was it I said I said I didn't care if I just kind of wanted their kid an opportunity Go on stage be in front of cameras that kind of stuff I don't know why I was kind of like dying for that to happen I mean I always cared about the comedy I always wanted like you said didn't want to waste anybody's time I was whenever you made a movie I was just like I don't want people coming going what the hell did I waste my night for like you were saying but uh I I guess I started caring about um opening up to other stuff um the older I got I started get thinking about it for different reasons and not just the opportunities but actually just making sure every opportunity I got I did the best work and work that I could say oh I looked at I didn't know I could do that or whatever it was I guess we all know ultimately we can do uh different stuff but it's exciting to do different types of things and that stuff didn't open up in my brain tone it was just like Paul Thomas Anderson wrote that movie for me and uh and um I got excited to do that and I did it and then it made me feel differently about a lot of stuff and it's interesting because he saw something of kind of Rage in the Adam Sandler comedic Persona and said why don't we Channel this into drama right so it wasn't like it was a dropping what he's done before right it was just channeling it absolutely yeah yeah he he he saw it just like a Adam's Sandler Style movie but I was doing something it was it was a dramatic version of it yeah and anyways I I I I it's been very I've been very lucky me and this guy did a movie together back when we were very young yes AirHeads yes we were together and we I wasn't thinking about stuff like this back then we were just like holy cow we're on a movie set we're hanging out there's craft service they give us food we got things that was like they were hanging out every night and having the time time of our life and then we said then you started doing like serious stuff I remember that I was going whoa what the hell oh first a mummy I was like holy cow wow that's a whole other thing that's a monster and then Brenda started doing serious stuff and I was always just going well what's he what's he doing that's that's that I don't remember talking about stuff like that with you I just thought we were lighting and then you went on to that to a different feel and then anyways we all were getting to do that stuff it's nice Jeremy I want to begin by talking to you about just blowing up in your own way like we were talking about with with Colin let's just note that in the history of Broadway there have been six people only who have gotten two acting nominations at the Tonys in one year you are one of them and then you come and do your first TV role in Hollywood for Ryan Murphy you get an Emmy nomination for that so I wonder when you set out into pursue acting was there a specific medium you were thinking about was it always sort of building towards what you're now doing in film or what was the Outlook it's interesting I think this and it's just beautiful to hear everyone's story and journey because I think all of our performances feel a little bit unexpected to what people maybe think we're supposed to give or have given um I think it takes an unbelievable amount of Faith to be an artist and a creator that faith is in yourself but it's more so and I'll speak personally it's faith and what the world doesn't see for you yet I didn't see a lot of representation of black men black openly gay queer individuals in media so to answer your question I didn't know what my way in would be I remember when I graduated college went to Art School everyone's about to audition and do the thing I remember it was like don't let people know you're gay like you got to be this version of a black man to be successful as an artist as an actor so I spent many years doing that and abandoning my truth and trying to you know be what they want me to be in the room do the thing is this funny is this is this it how much space can I take if I can take any at all and I think it was the moment when I started to love on myself and love the evolved version of who I am and the type of art that I want to create and be around collaborators and creators that are doing that that's when all of these things started to happen so it began in 2019 when I met Trail mccraney a really trauma crane I met years before but this is when you know he won the Moonlight the Moonlight Oscar and people started to pay attention to him and bring his show to Broadway which happened to be my Broadway debut and I've been on this ride but it's been just a blessing I think the film that I'm a part of now is just an affirmation to myself of what is possible I Think About Little Jeremy that was just trying to find a way in and just make it happen I think of me watching George at the jungle yeah you know just just it's just beautiful to be around the people because like you just you just don't know you just never know um absolutely but I'm very grateful that I tried and kept trying But ultimately found just that you know that that resolution of self-love self-worth and just doing good [ __ ] doing [ __ ] that I like to do with great collaborators I think keeping that at the Forefront you know and it's okay to evolve that's the beautiful thing about being an artist you're supposed to evolve so it's okay to reinvent yourself and to go from Comedy to doing more serious stuff because UV valve is a person and you've learned what you've learned so I feel like I'm learning to lean into that and to trust that and you know that's great well Austin you started as a kid in this business um on TV uh and then ultimately went to Broadway yourself with Denzel in the Revival of the Iceman Cometh I know he was one of the people who advocated for you to play the role of Elvis ultimately and I guess I wonder for you was there a specific dream when you started out in the business or was it just sort of something you did and it's LED where it's lit well I I started as I mean I was about 12 years old I just stumbled into doing extra work and I was an incredibly shy kid uh if that kid knew that I was sitting around all my heroes right now talking like this in public you you wouldn't believe it you know I I would whisper to my mom and say could you order this for me and she would order for me at a restaurant and right and I yeah I didn't really have a thing that that I felt really uh I could express myself through and um and then somehow I ended up on on this set and it just seemed like I always loved movies and it seemed like a fun thing to do and and something about that process of seeing the entire machine of how filmmaking works and and being around other actors and suddenly I felt like I found my tribe I was 12. and and yeah I felt like oh suddenly I started wanting to be around other people and uh and I felt like we were cut from the same cloth and right it was really it was and my mom saw that in me and I I over for everything because she quit her job and she drove into auditions and uh took me to acting classes and threw going through that process that's that's what that allowed me to start to break the shell and realize that um all those times that I'm self-conscious or insecure um you can only focus on so much at one time so if I can get my attention off of myself and onto how I'm trying to affect someone else or um then I'm not self-conscious I'm other conscious in that moment so that taught me a lot just about how to communicate really and you found your confidence yeah yeah but but then I had years of at first it was just like you say it was like there's free chocolate chip cookies at lunch you know that I like that I tried a chocolate covered Street yeah exactly chocolate covered strawberries at lunch and I thought oh this is amazing wow yeah this is back in the Heyday of Nickelodeon um yeah and I and you make 100 bucks a day or something and as a kid that was huge and then and then as I started to get certain mentors and they they started saying hey you got to watch Raging Bull and watch East of Eden and then I started falling in love with the craft realizing oh there's a way to get more truthful and there's a way of deepening into and learning more about yourself and being able to express truth um but I was stuck in the lane of doing Nickelodeon and Disney and then I moved on to like young adult TV shows and at a certain point I after after my mom passed away where suddenly I I'd never experienced pain like that before and I started to question you know I was suddenly I was around doctors and I was around these people that were hurting a lot and I was in hospitals and I I thought is this a noble profession at all is this should I be doing this or should I give myself in some way that can help people who are dealing with cancer or something like that and my mom passed away and then I went straight to New Zealand to start shooting a young adult TV show and in the show we've got magic and I had I had fun doing the horseback riding in New Zealand and that sort of thing but I would go home and I would just cry every night and I was dealing with grief but it was also this feeling of I didn't it wasn't aligned with something that felt truly fulfilling and I got done with that show once and I I just I said I'm not gonna work I would rather not work as an actor than to ever do something like that how old was I I was 24 or 25 at that time and then I took time off and I thought I'll just you know I got a little bit of money in the bank I'll just take time off I bought this camera and I thought you know I'll make a short film out of this and I'd set it up and I filmed myself and stuff and then and I started sinking into this deeper and deeper depression as I stopped working and my identity and I wasn't getting the roles that I wanted and the opportunities weren't there for the types of things that I wanted to do so I really thought maybe I'll just quit and or maybe I'll I'll try to just make films or that's the moment that's the moment for all these lines are converging perceptions and you start believing what other people say you're like maybe I'm not good enough to do that um and it was about six six or eight months of that and then my agent called and said uh and and I'm notorious for not answering my phone and like not calling him back and stuff and he got me on the phone he said you got to do something you got to put yourself on tape for the Iceman comment Denzel's doing it on Broadway and I just bought this camera and I thought I'm gonna film this like a movie and I'm gonna I'm gonna just give it everything I got I sent that in and and that was like that was on a Friday and they said okay on Sunday we want you to fly out on Monday we want you to meet with Scott Ruden and George wolf who was directing it and uh I met with him and I also kind of had this this these perceptions about an LA actor going to New York there's no way that they'll cast me they're gonna rip me to shreds yeah you always find a hole yeah yeah just you just some reason yeah there's there's no way I don't deserve to be here it was a good tape but I'm not going to be good in the room and one of my acting coaches who's been a mentored of me for a long time Larry mosh and we worked together for three days in a row and just just ran it and ran it and ran it and then I went in the room and then they gave me the job in the room and uh and that's the moment that changed my career and to back up when I used to go to auditions with my mom I would I would print out scripts and I'd read them with her in the car and one of them was Pulp Fiction and it was the first time I remember having that the realization that there's good writing right and I would read The Royale with cheese and everything with my mind and then cut to now I'm doing the play and Quinn's a big fan of theater and and loves acting and I put myself on tape for Quentin and I flew back to LA while I'm doing the play and I didn't even know the audition I didn't know the character I was going out for and Gwen's there and we ran it all day long and at 9pm that night he gave me the job and then I and then I flew back and went back to the plane so that changed me out amazing story yeah no it's all of you guys how the journey here it's it's fascinating and it now brings us to these specific projects that have gone over so tremendously in 2022 and I want to come back to Austin about you were kind of Elvis was on your mind even before you were aware there was going to be a project with baslerman right yeah I mean it was only in the month before people always ask me you know have you for years stock do you look like Elvis or this or that and I said I don't really think I looked that much like Elvis but I uh they never that never really crossed my mind and then the month before I heard the bazers making the movie I I was going to look at Christmas lights I've told this story a couple times today so I was looking at Christmas lights yeah we told each other we're going to have a little Yeah Christmas lights yeah oh so I was looking at Christmas lights and uh and there was an Elvis Christmas song on the radio and I was with a friend of mine and I was singing along and my friend kind of looked over at me and goes you got to play Elvis oh wow and I said oh I mean that's such a long shot I threw it away another one of those moments and then a couple weeks later I was playing the piano and I never really sang for any of my friends or anything and um that same friend was there and I was playing the piano she said I'm serious you got to figure out how you can get the rights to a script and like write something and do Elvis's life who's this friend I need to yeah yeah yeah I'll give you the number um yeah and and then and but still I didn't know baz was making the movie and then a couple days after that my agent called and said so bass lemon is making an Elvis film and the hairs just stood up on my arms and it was that that then made me go all right this is I I gotta it's it's Everest I don't know if I am good enough I don't know if I have a shot at all but I gotta give it everything and so I started working on it like I was doing a job and I hired a movement coach and a singing coach and a dialect coach and I just started working like I had the job and then I met with guys after about a month and then uh and then we had spent five months experimenting trying things and and uh then then eventually I had to do the screen testing and I was like oh I don't have to I don't have it yet in your case the Daniels as they're known the two Daniel directors of this film were wondering I guess what was this guy up to who we grew up on right and how did you know that they were looking for you I I didn't I'm here in Austin's story gives me goosebumps because uh it's very similar to mine everything came around the same time like I just I decided to get back to an acting and then it was when the Daniels saw somebody did a joke on Facebook and it was a picture of Andrew Yang running for president and the caption said Short Round is all grown up and he's running for president and which triggered him to go oh I wonder what key is doing so he's not a searching and he was doing the calculation oh he's about you know he's about the same age as his character and it was at the same time that I called up an agent friend of mine I didn't have an agent for decades so I was practically begging him to to represent me and he said yes and literally two weeks later I got a call about the script and I read it and I was blown away by the script Not only was it beautifully written but it was a script that I wanted to read I was so hungry I was so eager for a script like this for a row like this and I remember reading it till like 5 A.M and I sat there uh and now in my head I was just running like I had all these ideas what I wanted to do with this row and I was watching out the window the sun was Rising uh and I said oh I have to go to sleep because because my audition was in the afternoon and right before I went to bed I go there's no way there's no way they would offer me this that thing there's that thing yeah it was like impossible it starts Michelle yo uh with Jamie Lee Curtis and I go now and my wife was so sweet kept encouraging me and uh and I went on to audition and it's been more than 25 years since I auditioned and I was nervous I was shaking the Daniels was so sweet so if you're in the casting director was amazing uh and I auditioned and I didn't hear from them for two months and that was miserable because I wanted this Rose so bad uh and then finally they got I got a call again I went into audition for the second time uh and then I you know that phone call came and I'm sure as any actor is here you know it's like when you hear those three words you know we want you to play uh for me it was Wayman and I was screaming so loud I was jumping up so high uh and and to this day I still cannot believe how everything came to be it's so cool 25 years brother I mean that's so home intense who did your deal for the movie I did a movie with uh with Jeff Cohen who was in The Goonies with me he's chunk so he's all grown now and he needs entertainment lawyer so he's my Entertainer lawyer so when when yeah so when the when the producer of our movie was trying to make my deal he said uh he would never imagine that he would have to talk to chunk to get data to be in his movie uh yeah it was just so sweet it's uh yeah and I did the whole thing too I was so nervous I hired myself an acting coach uh um of dialogue coach a voice coach because I'm playing three different versions of Team character and then I also hire a body movement coach did you yeah and and he had this like amazing technique called the Alexander yeah that's a great and so he would pick like different animals for me to rehearse in practice and one of the animals that he picked was a squirrel so I would watch countless videos of nothing but squirrels and just like just like you know I was on all four trying to you know do the movement eat talk and move I mean you know like move like a squirrel and then that's how I I got into character uh because I just wanted to I I was just so hungry for this role and I wanted to do it justice and and do it you know give it all my best because I didn't think I would get another opportunity again um so yeah well Colin you and Martin McDonough had worked together twice before had you guys kept in touch were you looking for another thing to do or did this just come out of the blue came out of the blue yeah yeah and the the rains are in Martha's hands at all times you know as the writer and director so yeah Bruges came out of the blue I was it was actually around the time abroad I tried to talk Martin out of hiring me for in Rouge I sat at the Hudson hotel with them in New York and I said you really shouldn't hire me you should hire someone else and he said that's interesting why and I said uh because I come in with a certain amount of baggage I said the audience I've done a certain amount of damn it reputation whatever there's a certain narrative I said I said there's a narrative and I said this script is so good you don't want anyone coming in with the baggage that I have so to cast someone else that's great noted I want you and I said okay and that Bruges kind of personally creatively and and career and all that jazz it kind of was a big turning point for me so then no I mean like Martin is so wonderful at what he does and he's such a unique and singular voice and myself and Brandon are always just anytime you call yeah anytime Brandon I Brandon I adore Brendan's like we called her home in Ireland Adam Cara you know so a soul mate he's one of those people sometimes we share intimacy with them sometimes it's platonic it's Eros it's whatever it is but there are people in your life that come in and you just make sense to each other in some way and it doesn't make sense that we make the sense to each other no we do because we're so different looking and age and I mean different looking I mean I actually mean kind of energy but we are different looking but energetically yeah and and it we come from very differently live very different lives we move to the world in a very different way and yet I swear to God I I I know I'm longer than the 46 years of my life there's something about the man's soul that speaks to me in musical kind of movements that just is a bomb and an agitator Brandon like he's an amazing creative do you know what I mean he's he has great deaths with him if he exposes that to you you just feel you know he's not a grump but you know in Grumpy people smile it feels like the world is instantly a better place you know this the clouds apart and Brandon's not a grump but he can be tough at times as well but he's he's the softest but Martin yeah we had no idea that was coming Martin had written the script seven years before and it was different the version of vinish Aaron was better than the majority of things you read what Martin thought it was shite and here we are and 10 years gap between Bruges and 14 15. excuse me yeah 14 15. a long time oh my God it doesn't feel like that man it's all wow I want to find I'd love to be able to pump the brakes it's all gone way too fast wow well uh Adam I want to talk to you about the fact that you are super into basketball in your own life um it uh takes a toll on the body I think you've recently got a new hit got a new hit congratulations yeah three months ago moving just fine right but uh I mean this feels like hustle must have been like a chance to go to Fantasy Basketball Camp or something what was the uh impetus for pursuing this man just like uh just lock somebody LeBron and um and Joe Roth these guys they had the script together they they it was about a scout they thought I might be interested in it and then I got excited from there and like you said I love basketball I love I love this guy that I was going to get to play some of you who's you know cares cares a lot about another human being and cares about himself but also kind of Falls for this guy uh boat cruise and just wants the best for him and is selfless and just like he'll get it you know go go as far as he can to make sure this kid uh lives up to his potential and it was exciting to play that guy yeah a different kind of character than we've ever seen you put um and Jeremy you have a unusual thing with your filming that you are essentially playing your writer director uh Elegance Bratton who really did have this situation of being kicked out of his home for being gay how did you guys find each other and what's that like when you're when you're playing this guy who's just a few feet away feet away yeah um at an agent send me this script I was like we hope you love it as much as I do this is kind of during the pandemic so everyone's doing you know zooms to connect talk about what the future might be artistically um but ultimately she was like if you don't love the script I just think you should meet this human I think you guys are of the same Minds creatively um I read the script fell in love with the words but I had so many questions I wanted to know what happened after boot camp what did you reconnect with your mom where were you and he was just such a light we instantly just bonded um and he was excited for me to you know be interested in the project and I was like let's do it I felt instinctually after reading the script like this I should this is mine I would love to do this in nine months of waiting wow it was hard not much but you got it's like at some point I don't know three weeks you'll try to like let it go and try to be like well maybe it wasn't for me that was tough that was really tough for me because I was I thought we connected I thought we were fam what happened um but it was just life doing life and Studios doing Studio things and you know I I do believe who's meant to be in the room will be in the room and once I got the call that we would be able to go on the journey together I was like Sam in order for this to work you have to trust me because you're the writer and you're the director and it's your first film so I was like and it's your story and I was like and I my job I can open myself up and make bandwidth emotionally for us to to dance but like I want to know that you trust where I'm gonna start and where I'm gonna end up and he was fully in um so I'm very grateful for the experience I think one of the reasons I said yes to this job of service you know Indie movies it's like you know it's not about the money you have to care about the art let's real talk you have to care about what's on the page um but I wanted to protect him because I knew that he was being so vulnerable by giving us this story and once you give things away you can't get it back and this was his feature debut as a black queer man going I want to be in Hollywood I want to tell my story so I thought let me be the person I have to meet before they see you and that was kind of why I said yes to the job because I wanted to make sure he felt safe in the room and that he felt like we were going to take care of him so we did we shot our movie in 19 days 19 days and Jackson Mississippi in the summer 117 degree weather and while we're all just like barely making and I'd look across the room and he'd be there in tears smiling because this is someone who got kicked out of his house for being gay and lived on the streets for 10 years so he didn't see this he didn't see that for himself so I think that was the part two those are the questions I had what happens after this that's what happened Elegance Brad and gets to make his debut yeah you know what I mean and that's just such a blessing and such a gift and I believe his mother who obviously yeah the movie yeah it was I mean his mother and him had a complicated relationship and this was an attempt at reconnecting with her he knew that if we make this movie and Gabrielle Union is playing you you'll find out on the streets that there's a movie about us and you have to see me I think the movie got green lit on February 14th and she passed away on February 18th so there was a lot of space you know there was a lot of you never got the chance to have that closure or connection with her so this job was of service it was about just showing up for him and trying to be there for him and get the story told in the best way so I'm super grateful and proud of the film of the people that made it happen I mean 19 days it was that's very ambitious that's very very ambitious you were phenomenal in that in that role was it was it uh when you were filming it was the filmmaker like like very emotional I think he did all right I think the things that were the most emotional were the scenes with me and gab who plays his mother because all of that dialogue were things that were said to him and he they recreated the space to look like the home that he got kicked out of and then there's my baby picture so we were all kind of having the the shared experience is extremely vulnerable just to put it out there and the world to kind of critique your movie but really is your truth how do you separate it like you know what I mean how do you not do their talking about me they're talking that I'm not enough right exactly what I mean that's what personalized right right well Brennan uh Darren has said darn enough he has said that there was a decade roughly I think between when he saw Samuel Hunter's play the whale and when we come to see you in the role and during much of that time he was trying to figure out is there anyone who can actually play this part uh he looked at a ton of people and didn't feel it was right until he came to you and I wonder how he communicated that to you what what was it that made you both feel that this was worth taking the jump together he didn't know if he was going to make a movie or not when I met him the word was on Street Aaron's going to make a movie he wants to meet you do you want to answer yeah world-class filmmaker yeah and I I need did I needed something to do like I said earlier that I really cared about and that much was come my way that spoke to me um in the way that this did but I'm getting ahead of myself I didn't even know side of the screenplay before um I met him I just knew that it was a story about a guy who had been living along for a considerable amount of time and he had been harming himself by overeating he had certain regrets for Life Choices he had made in and he has Monday to Friday to live the audience knows this from the onset and is salvation he realizes is to reconnect with his estranged daughter who you hurt horribly because he fell irrevocably in love with a man and he abandoned his family and that that's a lot to wrap your arms around just you know as a byline goes um but on top of that the character Charlie had to be created whether it was from an actor of um considerable size or or creating it as you would do with any kind of creature or you know special effects makeup and from a film filmmaking standpoint that that was the direction he had to go in so I mean I was glad that he was interested in me doing this because um he did intimate that you know as he I guess he had done with Mickey and the wrestler he reintroduced um an actor and it was important to him to hire someone who as he says was hungry and I was and no pun intended by that but he wanted someone who would do the work and when I did I decided to the screenplay it it made like you guys say you felt it just made my teeth sweat I wanted to do this and it just seemed like such a far-reaching impossibility like this is not in my personal mythology we didn't know that so he staged reading with Sadie sink and some other actors um for Sam Hunter who wrote it it is um like Elegance it is his story um Sam grew up uh as he as he says a gay kid in Idaho of a family um who were religious uh he went to a school that was cruel to him that outed him he self-medicated by eating and um he was quite heavy by the time he was in his early 20s um and uh he had a family who loved him but he had a lot more to say and that birth the screenplay of the whale about a man who's on a journey of redemption who seeks authenticity as his salvation and we desperately wants to connect with in this case his daughters um we needed to uh create surely there was a rehearsal that was three weeks you know like 824 gave us three weeks to it's kind of unheard of they give you they give you McDonald always insists because he's from the theater and he just thinks that it's so this is like you know your job I mean imagine that rehearsing to make your film right well no you get to talk like you said you get to develop this care you get to figure out what it is a build and you're like well you know what would be cool because a lot of times like when you show up on set right you kind of need that time to find your character yeah and that rehearsal gives you that yeah I think I would love that yeah that was that was this process you said we're a theater company and we weren't allowed to walk through the tape set that indicated the walls we had to go through the entrances in the exits he was that strict about it and creating Charlie's body because he's a man who weighs hundreds and hundreds of pounds man scans and digital applications created you know a lot of early calls makeup calls the gear itself was cumbersome appropriately so because it was um in a band so the laws of gravity and physics and in films that pretty much all the ones that I saw where waking costumes had been created they were never treated with I think a sense of dignity frankly they were sort of a silhouette of an athletic actor in something that's filled with like cotton batting and and our brains are so finely tuned to you know see the inauthenticity of something so it had to have um frankly just the gravity and the weight of of creating a man who would present that way and it was I heard 300 pounds at one a couple of shots when when Charlie stands to go to his bedroom oh wow um I I mean if I it's [ __ ] then I could not get up I mean they would have to pick me up seriously but I mean like it was for real and appropriately so it was a film frankly that was made in the time of covid we were all there we don't have to talk about it but strangely something happened wherein we all I cared about one another and took care of one another even more and it's just right about Five Characters in Search of Salvation in a two-bedroom apartment as it was staged wasn't expanded you know to take it to the hospital or elsewhere it was important that you look into Charlie's world because it's a story that's told behind closed doors all over the country the world and we know very little about that for the simple fact that we can be cruel to each other and dismiss people who present in that way and we've just rarely seen their stories period in any until until the whale until the whale and um that that was that was the purposefulness of it getting that job um I I I had no feelings of like let's get our tuxedos in line or anything like that it was it was put about you know my stories in but but everything you've you've got into it uh on the day because the existential threat we lived under is there might not be it tomorrow so you might as well just swing for the fences and give it everything you've got and I I that was the spirit of it yeah well with our remaining time I want to do something a little looser complete this sentence I knew I'd made it in Hollywood when dot dot dot I I don't know if I can complete that sentence because uh like I said I started out when I was a little kid and I thought you know uh everything will be that easy when you know when you work with Spielberg and Lucas and Harrison before and I followed that up with The Goonies and it was just all downhill from there and uh uh I'm afraid that it might be down here from here again I don't know if I can finish that sentence okay Colin oh God the list is so grotesque no I maybe I had a bit of a issue with somebody who was creating discomfort I believe the common parlance is a stalker oh and and so when that happened I was kind of like oh this is the the dark side it didn't I mean it didn't get too nasty but it got a bit uncomfortable okay that's a that's a legitimate answer Brennan kind of the same thing well I mean it's not like yeah yeah you know right everything is free yeah Jesus people you know waiting staking you out right you know and you want to be polite and take care of everyone in the right way and also the same time as emergency yeah you're gonna screw loose right right right and uh remember the first time I got an autograph asked for an autograph yeah on the yeah on O'Connell bridge in Dublin when I was 22 and I'd done this TV show Bali Cassandra yeah and it's not it's not hugely less bizarre today than it was back then really yeah there's a through there's a very clear through line interesting yeah Jeremy and Austin what's been the most kind of notable thing this season I mean I think last night you were with Priscilla not that it was the first time ever Priscilla Presley but I mean that's that's been that's been really surreal is you know Priscilla and Lisa Marie weren't involved in the making of the film at all and I felt such a responsibility to her and to Lisa Marie and to their their you know Riley and and other entire family and and I always I always knew that and then it really it hit home when I first met Lisa Murray because I didn't meet her until after the film and she she hugged me with tears in her eyes and uh and she just said Thank you and uh and then and then she took me upstairs and we went into Elvis's bedroom and just sat on his bed and just talked about it all right I went to Graceland once yeah yeah I think that stuck with me man it made me so sad the other day that's the thing you damn your shoes yeah when you realize it he's this guy that has been either thought of as this icon Godlike figure or people just see him as a Halloween costume and then it Dawns on you that he's a father and he's a son and he's right a husband that's that responsibility [Music] um for me I turned 30 this year which is amazing congratulations um and I was talking to my therapist and I was saying to her I was in a like a low just feeling slow I sat there like I really want to control I hate that my highs feel so high my life and the lows feel so low just wanted to be like in the middle just be nice he says you have to realize if you're looking at a heart monitor it's going up and down and if you were in control you put it in the middle that means you flatlined oh so what you need to remember right so what you remember is like life is all about the highs and lows that's a good one whenever you're in a low or a high life has told you and will remind you that you'll go to the opposite at any given time so I was turning 30 I was at the lake just like all right I'm gonna be in my low I'm gonna be in my low and then the phone rang and it was like Hey 24 letting me know the inspection is coming out this year we're opening uh Tiff we're closing at New York Film Festival you're gonna do this and it was like holy crap we're about to go on the ride so but I had found that that that like roof that that thing of like yeah like well let me be grounded in this and just get on the ride and know that some days will be so so high like today seeing y'all I'm being with y'all I've got one more it was when AirHeads came out I was in a bank um depositing a check and there was a lady behind me and she said oh I just saw your film it was awful that's funny man thank you for your thoughts man I've arrived yeah it was awful okay next of the films you've seen in 2022 one that you would recommend to people watching that's not represented at this table so nobody has to feel like they have to say something but just one here's a chance to highlight a great movie that people might not or else the Fable ones with my son last night we went to the yeah I went to The Grove and saw us really moving so moving so gentle and yet so honest was beautiful yeah I I I I saw the trailer the fablements and I and I and I I don't think I've ever seen a trailer where I cried because uh because of my history with Spielberg he's the whole third Act is about you yeah you know he changed my life did I hear that through the years you hear from him once a year yeah believe it or not uh uh we did Indiana Jones in 83 and every year after that like never stopped every single Christmas I get a present from him uh with a with a card and it's just so sweet that man is uh I'm so grateful to that man and and every time I needed help he's always there or he you know or he hasn't forgotten me uh so yeah I'm I'm I'm anxious to uh to see him again and ask him what do you think about uh everything everywhere all at once yeah that's great and also I know you had a movie of that a good one yeah yeah I saw a living yeah built with Bill yeah it was so beautiful yeah yeah this is one of a great guy he's such a good guy we had a good time with him yeah it was yeah he's so beautiful in that movie but you know I mean honestly I know you said we we can't mention any of the movies here but there was one thing I have to say I saw the whale uh I made one mistake watching that movie is not bringing any tissue I was a complete mess at the end of the movie and I walked out of the theater and I was on the phone for two hours calling everybody that I know and I said you have got to see this movie that's what it comes out that's good I was just blown away by a performance Brandon I really you know because we go way back we go yeah uh we work together on a movie called Encino Man in the 90s yeah we're still here that's awesome yeah yeah yeah you broke me with that line we saw each other out there for the first time after all these years we gave each other a hug and uh and he said key was still here ah we're still here absolutely well we're gonna close this with the best piece of advice that you've received we can go around the horn awesome um the first thing that comes to mind is uh is make it about the work you know there's so much noise around it we were talking about that before you know there's there's so much that can end up blowing you like a flag in the wind and just making it about the work and about the truth and I mean each one of your films when I walked out of it the world felt brighter and felt I felt more empathetic and I felt more loving and I felt inspired and that's the beauty of filmmaking and of Storytelling and um so I'm I'm so grateful to be here with you Allen thanks man insane and Pierce brosn got me in a bear hug when I was I think I think was before I'd done tigerland so it's before I done my first American film and and he just picked me up and he said keep being bold now I he I don't know that he knew that I was bold or I don't know that I was bold at the time but it was a lovely thing to hear from a man whose work I was aware of especially as an Irishman for all those years and for me now 46 what is bold I think the boldest thing I can do or any of us can do in life is is to to look like a two-prong thing to locate what has meaning for us and to really pursue with as much honesty and even the discomfort that can come about from honesty to pursue the things that really hold meaning for us and that's whether that's being a friend a father an artist a lover all the above you know and so keep being bold because because life can be and the world very privileged and yet I know nothing about your lives and the losses and the pains that you all have I know about my own and to a certain degree but yeah likely hard life can sometimes just want you to lie down under it and do nothing and and not leave the house just keep being bold push through push through push through okay I can't think of any in particular I just know a lot of the guys I've worked with over the years older actors and actresses always like to go they'll say before we move on let's go one more and see what happens that's always nice as an actor going like all right let's see we're here it's set up let's let's go after something different sometimes you land on something that you weren't yeah yeah I love that yeah yeah yeah and they call it a freebie yeah yeah what does that mean like freebie means it's free of consequences because they already have what we have and in life I put so much consequence if I do this do that you know and if you of course we have to think of the outcome and when we step into something the potential outcomes but to take that weight off ourselves and live in the presence as you were saying I love that man that's cool yeah yeah young people ask me that I I always go back to the advice that I was given when I was a student and I used to have courage and that doesn't mean you have a sword and a shield and a big helmet on you know you you really have to embolden yourself and acknowledge that there are some challenges there are obstacles and it takes courage to stand up for yourself to do that also see plays go to the theater find out if you really care see see if it inspires you because you're going to draw on that early on and you know films are splashing it big and wonderful but you know earn your chops early on um Ian McKellen said that you need to approach this as if it's the first and the last time you ever will and that stayed with me the thing that's coming to mind audiences are unreliable you are not something to like really manifest and especially for actors and creators because there can be so much noise and I can throw you off your Center but I think when you do the work and you investigate and you excavate and you find out your why understanding your why the sky can be the limit so I try to remember that they will always be unreliable but when you do those things when you do the work you are not key you want to close this out you know I mean honestly I I said this in the very beginning uh for me being at this table is is unbelievable uh had you told me you know a year ago that key you'll be talking you'll be among these you know amazing actors I always say get the F out of here never it would never happen winning the lottery will be easier than them being at this table for me this was a dream of mine for for many many years for decades um and uh and it was a dream that I had to let go uh didn't think uh uh I would I would revisit this so if anything I think I hope the people out there uh hearing my story would Inspire them would would if they have any doubts about what they can accomplish what they can do what if the dream can ever come true well look at me my dream came true so all I wanted to say is be patient be patient your time will come that's what I would say thanks okay well thank you guys all so much for the Great Performances and for taking the time to be here today and uh just really appreciate it thank you [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: The Hollywood Reporter

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Keywords: thr, the hollywood reporter, hollywood reporter, entertainment, hollywood, close up with the hollywood reporter, the hollywood reporter roundtable, the hollywood roundtable actors, hollywood roundtable actors 2022, hollywood reporter roundtable, hollywood reporter roundtable actors, 2023, austin butler, austin butler interview, adam sandler interview, brendan fraser interview, colin farrell interview, jeremy pope interview, ke huy quan interview, adam sandler, brendan fraser

Id: hJH2EyvvEBA

Length: 59min 0sec (3540 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 10 2023