Conversations with Adam Driver

[Applause] hey good afternoon everyone I am so so thrilled to be here today with this sag-aftra foundation career conversation with Adam driver this is a actor who in just a few short years has established himself as one of the best actors of his or really any generation he is of course a three-time Emmy Award nominee who has been seen in everything from Patterson to Star Wars and for his work in black clansmen I don't know if I have enough time to list all the nominations he's received but they include BAFTA Golden Globe Spirit Critics Choice and two SAG Award nominations I am so so thrilled to welcome out a driver thank you so much for being here um this is an audience of sag actors so I always like to six I don't even know if you're trying to be funny so I do like to start by asking how did you get your sag card what was the magical job that we talked about there was a TV show called the unusual that was my first was like a episodic cop show that's right with Jeremy Renner and a great cast actually yeah Jeremy Renner and Amber Tamblyn those are my seven partners yeah and were you a bad guy on enter I was I was like a bad guy you I was a fine fine guy it's like the red herring you're like supposed to think maybe he did I actually remember that show very vividly I was a big fan of it but it didn't didn't last very long yeah no no I'm not implying that that's your fault [Applause] yes like we're done yeah we keep it classy here so I want to start at the beginning because I've heard that um I think you were active in like choir as a kid but other than that did you do any kind of performing yes choir kids were you I mean did you imagine yourself a career as an actor or based on yeah hey some kids start out and they know from a young age ya know I didn't I didn't really like um I did theater in high school you did it I liked it but didn't do it often might I didn't get good grades and my parents grounded me a lot so I couldn't I couldn't couldn't do it but when I did do it I really liked it but then didn't seem like a reasonable job to do in Indiana the small town Indiana where I was raised so I you know didn't think about it then I and for Julliard and I didn't get in because I knew that Julliard didn't check grades that they just kind of base it on like your ability of my okay I can just I can do that and then I didn't get instead I didn't work out so that I didn't go to I didn't go to college until later what were some of those high school plays you did I'm really curious my first was why the I had a line in Oklahoma where I played like one of the like curtain oh I play like one of the chorus guys my line was check his heart that was my line as that then the next one was Arsenic and Old Lace yeah my second year we played Mortimer Brewster is he the old guy or the young guy he's the he's like the guy young guy a long time into the woods we Jack no I was I was not Rapunzel's Prince but the other one oh you got to sing agony yeah yeah Cinderella's Prince right oh that's great yeah yeah that one I'm at a loss I think that's it oh no Odd Couple I did The Odd Couple yeah I played them not that I played the sloppier one no I'd feel Oscar Oscar you were Oscar okay you were Walter Matthau yeah I love kids in high school who play like older characters you've drawn the yeah with the pencil that's the best so the jungle book we do the jungle book that's all coming back to me know about my parents drowned apparently you weren't too grounded or speaking out or I was like one or two a year oh that's what it was I basically did a play at the beginning of the year before grades came out then grades came out I was grounded until the end and then by the end they're like okay you can do the last play of the year that was usually the musical so that's how it worked out I was like I'd like to do like a straight play than grades and then no more and then the musical at the end of the year so you had an interest in acting I mean if you applied to Juilliard but you didn't get in the first time yeah and then you was it just working a series of odd job because I you know I've read so much about you in it there's these little facts that jump out like you started a fight club is that true yeah yeah no I really like that movie and thought that was a good idea we're also like you're getting bored in Indiana like a small town there's not really much to do is not like it's not initially like the cultural Haven kind of making up as you go along and that seemed like a good idea just to fight your friends did you really fight that did you get hurt yeah yeah yeah well I mean you like [Laughter] well you know I want talk about 500 yeah but did you ever get seriously hurt oh no no not serious okay no nothing nothing really bad just like you know like I don't remember we just got we got hurt you know yeah nothing serious I know when to the hospital like you know it was just see onthe friendly a friendly neighborhood fight please people that would ride by on their bikes and recruit them in and you know but it was very voluntary you didn't just go up instead no we didn't just like start fighting people go to a car wash and make a thing of it you know no we just like had there was a my friend Noah had a house that was right behind this like a vent space called celebrations unlimited which I don't know if it's there which was like a rental space for you know whatever you birthdays and and there was like a big like field behind it so I mean in my mind it was big was very small but then we would go back out there and like you know it dark and and fight each other fight always so lucky was right but I mean um this may sound strange but it actually sounds like you're a bit of a cinephile even then if you're watching Fight Club and I believe you were you were into Martin Scorsese at a pretty young age oh yeah no I was all during that time in like high school is pretty formative um because there wasn't you know I said there you have to really entertain yourself and I didn't really when I moved to Indiana we lived with my grandparents and my grandfather always had these like tapes where he would you know put the tape over the tab of you know of cassette tapes and record all this stuff and he would record things for me my sister but you know you who didn't want us to actually watch die hard so he wait till O's on like TNT and you know record it like the edited version and he had all these tapes like 500 tapes themselves and on every tape there was five movies or so so it'd be like you know True Grit or an audio fee movie then he would have a description of the movie you know and so I was aware that there was like I knew that like the adults thought that movies were really important and I and they always really kind of like a touchstone throughout my life but I didn't think it was something that so I was interested in it you know but then again it didn't seem like a realistic job or had no idea how to you know from you know being in Indiana could not be farther from well I'm sure there's places are farther but farther from like New York or LA where I knew people were doing that so like the Blockbuster Video or Hollywood video or was like my place that is my connection to the world you know but I mean you knew about Juilliard which is a start I knew but yeah I knew that Julliard was you know like the place that all these like actors that I like to went and it was really hard to get into and but a part for me I knew like Robin Williams and and like Kevin Kline and all these great like you know theater actors went there so I kind of like that was like the the bar I guess I didn't know how you know hard it was or how unrealistic that goal seemed well not completely unrealistic cuz you got in the second time go in the second you just had to take a short detour through the Marines yeah and I know I'm sorry if people always want to talk about this it's just kind of fascinating you joined up shortly after 9/11 yeah yeah like the next the next month like 9/11 happened then all my friends were like we're gonna join it is the only one that did so they do something yeah they mad at you about Fight Club maybe it's a happen when you get groups of guys together the IQ just goes down everyone just grunts at each other and then decides like one guy has a plan and then the other guy follows through everybody else off and you were the guy who went in yeah like I think I was gone by February of the next year so I was like because I just made up my mind that it was gonna do it and like what if I want to do it like what am I waiting around for like I joined so fast that I remember the recruiter was like are you on the run from the police or something like why do you want to Michael just like let's do it I don't know like I don't want to wait you know how does your family feel about that it was good there was like a series of events that were kind of around I wasn't that clean it wasn't like you know I'm gonna go with it I went that like I this is also coming after a trip of like coming out to LA because I'd heard that so many people like you either just like came with their car and yeah it had nothing and I made a career some I'll do that you know if I didn't work out I was here for like my car broke down outside of Amarillo Texas and his like ten miles I had to walk ten miles and then they spent all my money that I had fixing the car it's like a 1990 lincoln town car is huge and then I finally got to Santa Monica not even not even LA and I spend all my money youth hostels and like some like agency where like if you give us all your money we'll find you an apartment so I did that you know so I had no money and no this is terrible tell you about it out loud I haven't talked about isn't well and I'm like calling my parents was not an option to be like I have no money so I just had no money and I had $200 left so I'm like I was there for 48 year for 48 hours yeah and I spent four days driving here from Indiana so I just turned right around and went right back yeah which is really embarrassing because I made like a whole production about leaving I had a girlfriend I'm like goodbye you know I don't know when we'll see each other again our love will find a way you know and then I was back like you know my parents must have been loser I had everything in my car - I had like a mini fridge you know that I had you brought a fridge well yeah because my parents they made me pay rent that that like as soon as I turn 18 like you're in the back of the house you're paying rent yeah you have to get a job so I was doing that like working and paying rent so I just took all my with me and you know and and drove - yeah drove here and it didn't work out so it was it was but it's definitely you know the the impetus of joining the military was definitely a sense of patriotism and you know duty and firm you know but also the I wasn't doing anything and felt really aimless of like both sense of purpose you know which I didn't I didn't really have so what kind of all those things collided it you know at once and I think I've heard you say it was a really positive experience for you I loved it yeah I didn't want to get out but you had to leave you hurt yourself didn't you yeah I broke my sternum and on mountain biking accident not even related to training and then then they like dropped me to a different unit so I wasn't gonna go over season that that really like was kind of devastating so I tried to keep training on on a broken sternum and then it just kept you know wouldn't you wouldn't he'll really so then I got medically separated and all my all my friends went night I stayed yeah were you I mean I it sounds silly to say but we're you bummed out it sounds definitely yeah didn't yours take it over or not I mean still it's like it's like I didn't go I didn't go with my with the group of people the the politics I feel like I mean not to speak from everybody there's a military and on those people have been the military here but whatever the original thing that kind of made me interested in being in the military you know it's kind of out of your mind once you're there with like the guys that you're serving with and it turns into this really small you know nucleus that you know you're just you know with your guys and not to show up to be with those guys is kind of devastating plus you like on top of that I went to acting school so like trying to explain what they were doing versus what I was doing was like a you know the language barrier we actually do have someone from the military uh Greg depetro right says is a veteran of a foreign war I thank you for your service and is there anything from your military experience that directly affects your acting career yeah everything everything and uh from the military I mean not everything because military is you know can you have to cherry but you know like any organization that's run by people it's filled with some you know or you know and you have to like cherry pick the things that are great about it but the things that are great about or like directly applicable to being and to being an actor it's you know all about you have a role and you have to know your role within a team and it's a you know it you have a mission to accomplish that's bigger than any one person and if you don't do your job then someone else is not going to do their job as well you know it's being led by a person or a director and when they know what they're doing what you're doing feels relevant and active and you know with purpose and when they don't it feels like complete waste of resources and unnecessary and dangerous you know but it really takes the pressure off because I'm so used to working as a team as like a cohesive unit and not thinking oh this is my this is my way of working and everyone has to fall in line there's like a bigger picture that's that has nothing to do with any of us that we're kind of working towards and all of it even just like you know the self-discipline this maintenance you know all that but the difference is obviously we're you know in communication there's not there's not enough I think in place for the military environment of like explaining a collective experience we're actors just you know we love to talk about how that felt good but yeah it's totally applicable there don't there's no difference won the stakes actually are life and death and the other you're pretending that their life and death but the work ethic of it is the same and probably a sense of camaraderie too I mean you find your family in the military and also in why I know you did a lot of theater yeah you're forced to be intimate with complete strangers in a short amount of time you're like three months or however just to kind of jump in and then you get to kind of know each other and then when you get to know each other and how people work it's so it's so telling you know you're seeing people in a really stressful environment and I feel like you really get a sense of people's character from that that happened the military all the time we that it doesn't translate to civilian life where you're you know working with these people but then something really dangerous or stressful happens then you watch how maybe somebody that you even have a connection with you know is protecting you and they watch you and then after that you have a very strong bond but you have nothing to talk about outside that thing you know and that's that's that's hard to translate into the civilian world because the stakes are so low you know we're so we're so safe mostly no not everybody but the you don't get a chance to have your friendships tested like them you know and when you think it sometimes it's hard for people in the military because they're looking for that stimulus and camaraderie and it's you can't find that in many of these jobs act acting you kind of can yeah yeah as close and I'm sure there's other jobs I'm not thinking of them so you came back and you audition for Juilliard again and this time you got in um I'm always so curious what is the audition process like for Juilliard do you go and perform for them or is it an essay I have yeah you do yeah it's different now when I want to went and it was like mm when I went in was like 2005 I think we're yet to do two monologues one contemporary one classical you have to sing a song then you have to have two more monologues prepared in case they call you back and they used to do four days in New York four days in Chicago and four days in San Francisco and so I was working full-time at a like at Target warehouse in Indianapolis so I drove to Chicago and in an audition there and anyway when I went it was like you know 8 o'clock in the morning you audition and then you wait for call back so then callbacks aren't until like 10 o'clock that night it's like an all day all day kind of thing so I did like a classical like I was opening a you know now was it winter from bridge of the third of them monologue that I found that a monologue book I hadn't read the play I sang happy birthday it was like you know the Bob Dylan and I had nothing I just saying happy birthday and then then I came back later that night and then you kind of meet some people who might be you know you're in your class you do improv with them and pretend you're playing volleyball or something and then then that's kind of then you then you wait to see if if you got in Wow yeah and they only pick 18 people or well my class is like 18 people a bunch of thousand thousands of people apply this a lot and it might sound silly considering that you were just coming from the military but were you prepared I've heard it's ruthless at Juilliard I've heard it's gotten better but a lot of people don't make it through the whole program yeah they used to have a cut system that actually stopped the year before that I went oh you're kidding yeah yeah it used to be like back in the day like one and two as well all like the first group that you know town was pretty pretty ruthless no no it's now it's less so now it's less so and it but in a good way it was really inhuman now actually because of that the cutting thing they they did away with the cut system but they made it more difficult now so now they have like I think how they do it now is they have an additional week where they ship every one to New York then they do another week of classes with potential students just to see if you know you're crazy or not oh wow yeah because you get like you how can you really make a judgment on someone you know one interaction then put them in a group of 18 people and it's like you know good luck we're with you for next four years and so they they kind of try to make that part difficult and make a commitment to every student that you're gonna be there for four years was it difficult to adjust to life at Juilliard because you're going from one kind of regimen to another that are sort of share similarities but really not I mean I just I think it would be difficult going into Juilliard under any circumstances but this is particularly extreme yeah yeah just cuz I had a little bit more life experience and I was like used to talking to guys and really stressful circumstances you know where you just like have to tone it down a bit you can't yell everything you have to be like you know I was ready to like I'm gonna go there and act like really hard and throw myself into it but for the military it's like it's you know 14 you know you there is no time off you know it's just constantly like so you're and they're you know they're like you know laid and smoke we it was fine it's great yeah great but then we got to do or work you know so I had to calm down a bit and because his 18 year old mostly is like 18 or 16 I was like an older student like 21 or 22 or whatever which is probably ancient yeah yeah but I was like I wanted to have fun I was just that's why I didn't know I did want to have a good time but I was just my work ethic was like oh this is this is the bar set of how the benefits I saw the benefits of discipline and and run into you know plus I had my like you know my freedom in a way I could do whatever I wanted you know which was which was new to me and what's what a career were you envisioning for yourself did you did you always want to do theater it was film and TV always part of the equation my only goal was to make a living as an actor it was like that was my only thing if I felt like if I was making a living as an actor and I call myself an actor professionally then that was that was that was a miracle that was a miracle in and of itself you know and still that's really like that's the my only goal you know I mean now I'd like to work with you know you get the choice to work with people and that's that's great but that was my only my only plan leaving Juilliard I do anything like I was ready to do any any job cuz I had no faith that I was gonna like I wasn't I didn't have the foresight or not not foresight but I don't even know if it's confidence but of like oh no I'm gonna wait for that you know I didn't know my what is it it's like Colgate commercial and you know Iceland I'll do it you know I I wanted the experience was amazing it sounds really cold how soon upon graduation did you start working yeah or did you have to take a lot of survival jobs in the mean time I didn't I yeah I actually didn't i were i like worked at a restaurant when I first moved when I was like I worked full-time or tried to work that's not that's not sure I didn't work full-time but I worked all throughout Juilliard I had the GI Bill which like helped but I was like a waiter at a fancy restaurant but then they kept moving me to like you know the bar because like II cuz I didn't know anything what anything was like any other the greedy inside didn't like was yeah when he's it's like describe but I still couldn't like tell you what like a meal like what's in it I don't know like what I thought was like fancy food I didn't didn't know I got lost on you I'm just curious about survival jobs oh yeah so I was lucky that as soon as I graduated I started working so I never liked all those like odd jobs that I did I didn't have to I didn't have to do I was incredibly lucky to to work also you know my life was less complicated you started working right away in theatres pretty much yeah yeah well I did that unusual job like a like a month after in that that floated me for a while then I did theater I guess which I was always kind of doing a play we're not always but I did a play and like at night and was rehearsing another play during the day it was it was really fun how are you at auditioning I was a auditioning because it's such a separate skill from actually yeah because it really almost has nothing to do with the actual job and I think it was I was pretty good at it because I had a good I think my mind set up auditioning was I hated the power dynamic that I was coming in and asked for the asking for a job so I looked at it as an opportunity for me to act but a lot of it was wasted energy because you don't need to come in and be I one of the helpful things I did was I went in for some I was a reader for some casting directors one time and I would see people come in and at one time this woman who was recording people it was like a whole day of auditions and I was interesting seeing people prepared and not prepared and you know what difference it made it then she was like you know we had a break and she's like what do you do I'm actually gonna audition for this - that one of the woman who was operating the camera and she had you she had spent all night working on it and it was just a I'm like oh that's that's happening people are like you kind of have to do that a little bit that's not that's not really true I just saw the ambition in her of like and I'm like oh you know what sort of it's such a opportunity you know and I never get lost on how amazing it is not just to make a living as an actor but to work and like in a film that you're gonna make a thing that someone from Indiana who has nothing to do with you know an amazing thing about who has nothing to do with that world an amazing thing about you know film is that it eventually finds its audience it's not like theatre where you have to go there and if you don't have 400 dollars to see whatever play it isn't ridiculous and in New York then you're gonna miss it you know like it even if it's not successful when it comes out it eventually will find and what an awesome kind of thing to be a part of so you like I just can't you can't take it for granted I guess so I would always hate people before I walked into the room and audition I like trained myself did not like them so that way if it didn't work out which it didn't offer to me like why they were talking like those people anyway but I worked really hard like I would try to like know it as best as I could and uh you know like four hours that they gave me to memorize lines then it would be really frustrating when I wouldn't get the job you like I'm wasting all this time I'm spending money at this point to be to be an on actor you know but I was pretty I was pretty good at trying to take control by making it this is my opportunity to to act as opposed to like I'm gonna give you what you want I tried to make them out of the equation I tried to make even things that I didn't like you know I tried to find something about it that was personal to me and then make it about myself as opposed to them which which for me was really helpful but also like you know a lot of them the jobs you don't get but that's that's that's kind of what it is when you kind of shifted your mindset like that did you find you started booking more no not necessarily because because I was lucky enough to work kind of right away I guess but I also kind of the things that I had some little control it's not that I like in my career wouldn't have been totally different I just didn't get those jobs you know like know if I booked up things more or less but I definitely I felt like maybe gave the impression that I wasn't around man I didn't take it lightly there's no there was no arrogance to tied to it I didn't think like this is my you know but it tried to make it just about myself and I really put like the end result of it out of my mind but that was also easier to do because I was doing a play so I kind of had I had if I just did you know downtown theater and black boxes which was what I was doing I was totally fine I was content with that you were doing a lot of theater I know you did the retribution it's you did Angels in America young which is pretty amazing and you won the Lucille Latour Lortel Award for your work and look back in anger which I was lucky enough to see you that's a phenomenal phenomenal show I do a lot of people saw that show are small people so I was in the third row yeah you might have seen my J but it is funny I mean it's so cliche but like even then I was like that guy's gonna be a Star Wars villain no I know but it was it was your talent was very clear the whole cast was fantastic yeah what do you like about the medium of theater um I'm about to do a play again actually I had playing a long time but what I like about it is I mean the playwrights it's a playwrights medium it really is there everyone's like oh it's like an actor's meaning you have more control and monkey I kind of guess that's true I'm you have to use more of your body to tell the story because you see all of you form or you know and then you have to go on a journey from you know for an hour and a half or wherever and then that's it what I like about it is that I've learned and how it applies to film but the opposite really isn't the cases there's no right answer to anything I mean that's obviously not a controversial statement to say about anything you know look we have no answers about almost anything except math except yes that's true yeah good point I didn't think about that it's my worst subject I don't like definite answers all right yeah so we but I would you can every you know you do a run of a play for four or five months and always at the end of a run of a play I'm always like now I have a better sense of what it is I want to do and even though you've been doing it you know seven eight shows a week and you know you've been thinking about it for a month sand months I that there's you can constantly like ask a different question that could lead to something completely different and it's so long as it's in the zone that we've all agreed to kind of tell it can be little it can be different by degrees which is kind of you know in film you don't get that you'd often don't even get rehearsal so you're you're making choices and they you know then you have a limited amount of time to be like okay that feels like it's right but there could be a it couldn't be deeper it could be deeper but we don't have a six month you know we have just we have to get it right the first time so that's what I kind of like about it that there there's a never-ending you know it's a pit of things that you can ask you ask yourself so you're going back is it to do burn this Wow yeah I did that I didn't play actually in my last year at Juilliard that's what I thought so same character same character yep I mean you're just talking about like things are you like watching kids paint on moustaches and that's exactly what ours was where we're saying things in reading it now when I had no idea what I was saying yeah I saw that play first my college didn't we had no business doing it and I didn't understand and I saw the I chose a signature theatre production yeah Jim hound and directed at Norton with Ed Norton yeah first time I've ever seen Ty Burrell and I was like oh no now I get it yeah are you excited to go back and when does it open I don't know okay I like February something is when we start that's all I know then like a month later or whenever we preview so they're not open no that's so it's such a classic play yeah I want to talk a little bit about you have this organization you founded in 2006 I think Arts in the Armed Forces yes yeah it sounds really fascinating can you sort of tell us about it because I don't want to butcher it by trying to explain butcher to if it's something we started at Juilliard my second year at Juilliard were like really for the first time I was working on all these great playwrights like Lanford Wilson who wrote burned this and you know Tony Kushner and things were I was articulating things for myself that I was never able to articulate before now because you know using words wasn't really part of my upbringing you know to express a feeling nor is that really a part of military life explaining a feeling but I really threw up through these plays there was Oh for the first time I was able to label what it was like being in the military through like a shepherd monologue and I'm like how I regretted I saw being in the military how my unit or my group of guys so much anger and tension came from not being able to just you know sayeth to find the words and and put it to a feeling so I I tried to reach out through you know very established veterans organizations like oh maybe we could read this this play true West's wish we wanted to do and I feel like they'll get you know what it is that we're and everyone like know the military there's a place don't fit the military demographic they'd rather see San Diego Chargers cheerleaders on their which is true I mean that's fine you know and I remember those events you know where it's like I'm grateful that cheerleaders are here but even considering that we were like oh like infantry Marines like we could handle like a shepherd bottle log yeah so they didn't think it would be like that then people wouldn't understand what a play was so and that just pissed me off because I whenever a group of people you know especially it's not part of their you know socioeconomic upbringing like won't understand something because it's supposed to be considered like above them you know and because of your background you won't get it just makes me furious so we established this we just paid it for it our own Julie or pay for her first production we went to Camp Pendleton and we just I just picked monologues that I thought that had nothing to do with the military at all that I thought were funny and diverse in age and race like the military audience is and then we read it and they got it immediately you know the Rizzoli's I'd never seen a play it's like it's like the the planted answers that you hope people are that the the answers that won't come out of our burn this production because they've like a New York audience and are all jaded and seen every production but outside you know when you take out theater outside of New York you kind of forget how much of a weapon it is and how people still really care about language and you know and like like I've never seen theater before you know my my husband is never it's too expensive like we did this one monologue from this play called China by Scott org and it's about like an employer reprimanding her employee for not wearing a bra and all of the the male Marines were walking out of it being like I thought the whole thing was good to go I liked it like the plays whenever they I thought that one monologue was an attack on us a little bit that we have a system in place for why we do things and that they read it as like you know you know in an attack on you know be the uniform basically in procedure and like why why things are the way they are and all the female Marines were walking out being I loved all of the monologues especially that one because I know what it's like to be a female in a very male-dominated society I think we're a cover I have to like dress like a man wear shapeless uniform so Michael I think that and I didn't think about that at all so we we pick now it's kind of morphed into I think we did like one performance a year because it's all we can manage in the midst of everything else but now we did 12 last year we did I already have 15 plans for next year we we've traveled ever all the way around the world from you know Japan to Arif John and Kuwait to Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda Maryland to Camp Pendleton two bases domestically and all over the world Germany and we just will read now fully what not to fully realize productions we just read it we'll just pick a great contemporary American play that we think will resonate with the military audience has nothing to do with the military and we read it with note sets or costumes or lights and we get like amazing actors to do it friends of mine or people that we just admire and we you know travel around the world and we started this thing where we give people a $10,000 grant for anyone in the military for writing a play about anything like it'd be about birds or bugs or I don't know what trials keep naming nature things but so we do that after than we do like a film screening series where we like you know show a film like well I asked Soderbergh and Ben Stiller to come and like pick a film that they like and have a talkback afterwards so it's like branched out to this thing yeah it's really fun they're a nightmare to to do to like logistically in the nonprofit world like not good at asking for money I'm getting way way better at it but it's that's kind of a nightmare but the the performances themselves are it's like Elvis is like how rare do you get to be at the forefront watch someone experience you know a new art form or a new way of expressing themselves you know it's pretty it's pretty great I'm surprised to hear there was resistance that because when I think of the Mitzvah military I think of how diverse it is you know men women all ages and colors and sizes and I'm surprised anyone thought that this wouldn't appeal to them yeah I am and I'm not knowing that the you know how bureaucracy in the military can kind of work we have a small group of like old guys who are making decisions that they feel like they have a finger on the pulse of people in the infantry which young I don't know I mean that I don't know what their else is to say about that so it's not surprising how people's reaction I guess I mean I mean it still is kind of surprising it's pretty great I'm not that not the paint everybody in the military with a broad brush of like being resistant to it because now people bases reach out to us and we go to them or first grade to explain like what it what it is that we're doing and there's so much of yeah it is kind of a no-brainer because there is so much so many great artists that are in the military that you know feel like there's not really an avenue to do it which is not a new idea it's like an ancient one that goes back to the Greeks you know Sophocles Aeschylus or Euripides they're all military generals who were elected generals who wrote plays you know and everyone would get together and watch you know Sophocles his new play as they were on you know at war on six fronts you know so it's not like it's not a new idea but it's it's maybe new to to us now maybe kind of outside of theater I think obviously your your biggest break on television came in 2012 with girls so can you talk about the process of landing that role and shooting the pilot and would you ever have imagined the impact it was going to have no no I and for that I was doing a play and I'm like I didn't want to do TV because I was evil and wait you were evil or TV was eating he was okay that I agree with yeah yeah and I just auditioned for it I didn't want two of my agents like you should do addition for it and I just read it and and I think it was the first person that they saw for it to then I came back for again and I was kind of it then we shot it and I got him a month or the whole she was my family shot that one day for the pilot on my birthday I think actually we were doing yeah and then then we waited a year and I forgot I'd not forgot about it but I just like it was it took forever to come out was your character always intended to be so significant because I've heard different stories that they really took to you and ended up writing you more and more cuz he ended up being a very lair you changed a lot yeah I didn't I didn't have any sense of it I thought I didn't know if it was gonna stay on or not I think I've heard like I've heard them say that after that they say I kept him in I guess I didn't know yeah there was talk that he might not even be a regular at in the beginning or something like that right I think so yeah I I don't remember being your first regular series gig what was it like to sort of say goodbye to that recently was it like I don't think it really hit me until like the next summer when I was you know cuz for every summer for six years I had this other thing which was really great it kept me in New York for a while as I'm stopping when this gets really boring but but I was just be there and it's it's a kind of stranger I'm so was so used to everyone says the same about their long-running series I guess that it feels familial and things like that but it's totally true it it did it did feel all those things and it's kind of you know felt strange the next summer when you realized you weren't going back yeah 2002 is actually a really big year for you because I know you did Frances ha with Noah Baumbach oh yeah you've gone on to collaborate with several times fantastic filmmaker yeah we just did something together that this something this the beginning of this year that I think it's one of the best things that he's ever really that's the same a lot he's an amazing filmmaker is amazing and you also did Steven Spielberg's Lincoln there yeah I mean yeah Spielberg yeah did you just think I can retire now this is no one glad you did it yeah but can you just sort of tell us about that experiment and a Lewis and Sally Field and yeah I've had a lot of these you know I'm not really good at articulating afterwards cuz it's so many stuff like that has happened since then where I'm like there's no words for what's happening right now I'll just kind of like you know plot on and not screw anything up but I was there for like a week or maybe for four days and you know is great just watching you know the kind of the machine at work no all of it you know though how inventive Spielberg is when he's shooting that he doesn't that he you know looking and he doesn't come in with a set plan that he dictates to everyone which I feel like you totally could feel like he can come in and she'd be like I'm doing this because I'm Steven Spielberg's yeah he's looking at he's taking on everything and a lot of great people that I've been lucky to work with kind of if you'll do that way have know the subject and know their homework and are clear with what the story is overall but how they're going to get there they're totally open to in 2014 you may differ released a film called hungry hearts which is I don't know if anyone has seen it it's a stunning movie you and best actor at the Venice Film Festival the Volpi cup uh-huh what is it like because that's that's such a great movie and I feel like it didn't get the attention that it deserves right is that frustrating for you or like you said you know that everything finds an audience eventually I hear I hear about that movie a lot yeah - like if people talk - they're so like oh by the way I loved hungry hearts the starving baby movie was that the alternate title really hungry I I don't know I guess I was sad about it that not a lot of people saw it but but I liked working on it and you think it's a beautiful movie yeah yeah a very oh Costanzo is really interesting director is it kind of strange because I feel like sometimes you're really pushing two people to go see this movie and then you do something like star wars where you don't you don't have to do why I don't want to say you don't have to do anything but exactly we must be so good at keeping secrets I'm really good at it yeah you know what's you you say what I'm not gonna say you could literally say nothing about that movie like did you say nothing about the movie like that's that's a story somehow could you even tell people you were casted it I didn't tell people I was casting it for a while that I told my immediate family but then I didn't really talk about it for a long time this may sound like a silly question but being that at Star Wars and it's actually an amazing character but and you're working with JJ Abrams yeah but was there any hesitation about stepping into something so high-profile totally I had to think about it for a bit because I'd never worked on anything where I was usually we used to work on like hungry like could you keep that cigarette for the next four months you know I have no clothing budget and I like that part of it where it feels like a small intimate conversation then suddenly he's like a big movie that a lot of people are actually gonna see yeah you know where I like I like the the you know I still had my anonymity a little bit well not after girls but the hungry hearts it was still kind of all but yeah it's just a big and a poster I liked those movies I'm a fan of those movies come on you'd get in there and like mess it up we know which is debatable you know so I was just nervous about the whole thing you know but so I thought about it for a better than you know talk to Cathy again and and JJ Kathy Kennedy and and JJ and and what they had in mind you know I thought it was really interesting did you get to see a script did you have any idea that like how good it was going to be frankly no that was the thing - there was no there was no script - to look at which is like doesn't doesn't really make sense so you know you're talking with them for a month or so where they're walking you through what the script is basically doing everything because it was so top secret at the time that if they gave you the script you're like now you know then someone knows you know then you have to kill him so they couldn't really tell you so you have to like you know that they didn't you know it wasn't until I got the job everything was old settled and I came to London to start shooting where you know I went to a room and read the script Wow did they tell you up front you were gonna kill haunts although they did yeah yeah did you think oh god like yeah piss off people everywhere yeah exactly yeah that was part of it too was he he told me that plot detail you know you trust that it'll yeah makes sense a story yeah I mean it is a big-budget action movie but kylo Ren or sorry can I call him Ben it's a great character yeah he's like weird Lisa but maybe just me and these are my issues but I find him like actually fairly sympathetic relatable committed to a cause I'm gonna stop now because I'm starting being crazy I imagine you didn't look at him as a villain no you can't I mean for me I don't think of that it's like you know and plus like that whenever you walk onto a set that like you know Star Wars iconography is all in your face that you're trying your best to deny that you're in a Star Wars movie that suddenly is like a lightsaber you know it's a fighter yeah so you're trying to like not get didn't make it personal like this the same the same things that you do for hungry hearts or you know Francis all yours so I remember calling JJ actually because I was before we started that was very nervous about that and he he just said this thing it was so great was like you know it's all it's just like a movie so we'll break it into pieces and we'll solve that piece and then I'll leave to the next moment and then we'll solve that moment that'll lead to the next one hopefully by the end we'll have a full thing I'm like oh right yeah right it's like like anything you know even though that you're in this huge big-budget movie you still have to make it do the same thing and make it personal and you know break it into pieces and make sure you're telling the truth as much as you can and the mean--it and figure out where you're kind of going and then what the end result is not your responsibility but yeah there's a lot of things about that that character that I really that I really like also what's it like you have some of your most powerful moments are behind a mask and I imagine probably Juilliard you did mask training as art yeah okay so prepared you there was a guy named mone Hakeem who was the movement teacher who is like most I think known for doing like the movement for Robocop that was latest thing yeah and he did this movement book he's amazing and his wife Mina Hakim was the mask teacher and she had this like closet basically next to the that room which I think was like 301 and get all those long he's like horse masks and all these like demon mask and really creepy and you would everyone we'd Ike have all this you know mask class and they're in our third year so I I was and also excited by that idea yeah must be a fun challenge yeah it is no one can see you screaming you know and so you can kind of show up once and people forget you're there because they don't see you so you can be doing anything under the mask you could be laughing for coloring crying you uh seem to have a pretty good sense of humor I love the first time you hosted sour night live and you did the Undercover Boss which was so brilliant oh but have you seen the emo kylo Ren Twitter account no oh no I know other it's pretty funny oh yeah and you can tell it's done with affection which is something that I like sure how do how do people sort of there are people respectful did you notice I don't know actually the first time I did meet you I don't know if you remember this you were doing actors on actors yeah yeah a little four-year-old boy Oh came up to you and was like I know you're kylo Ren right he did this like total layers intense how'd you get in here I know I where did he come from I don't know oh he disappeared he did you happens to be all the time really yeah little kids come up I have no idea where they're from because you were like you were like oh you know is that okay you kind of like tried to engage you we just looked at you and then walked away you kind of gave you this look like I can take you yeah yeah but did you have to start getting used to that happening no it's mostly good I have a lot of kids in my building that that's really fun it's probably super respectful no no no no they liked it there was like you know good morning kylo Ren like morning you know kylo needs his coffee just give me a second but they're always like it's so it's fun to go down and like the Christmas party I mean I don't go is like kylo Ren or anything but like um no but I like it it's fun for kids in my building so it's only weird when like people when you're like the parents bring their kids like you know you're there's a weird like having dinner with you know people I'm thinking about like a very specific incident where there was like a car crash outside of a like a coffee shop but I've mentioned coffee now like I drink it all the time but there was like a car crash that happened outside a coffee shop in my neighborhood then I went outside and there's like someone in the building across the street was like yelling out their window like is everybody okay is everybody okay and then there was the guy the SUV who crashed into the he kind of got out and he was dazed and she the woman who was in the car she was crying and in the midst of that somebody brought up their kid and was like hi you know a big star Wars fan I don't know I'm supposed to do and I randomly had like a hundred dollar bill in my I don't have a hundred dollar bills that I just in my pockets but I had in my coffee and like word picture with his kid was like a hundred dollar bill with the paramedics rushing in the background very strange that's when it gets weird say the least yeah uh you followed that with two widely different but but spectacular movies um first I want to talk about silence oh yeah with Martin Scorsese this is cuz it just looks like a beautiful film but it looks like it was arduous on you even just preparing for that role yeah that was probably the hardest hardest thing really yeah you're gonna ask that yeah just losing the way it sucks it's really really helpful when you're doing it because you have no energy to do anything but just say say it you know to say it it kind of even though you can't put anything on top of it because you'll pass out but but he's just like he's one of those people who you know he's like a unsaid and he's like I know these crickets what are these crickets you know I've never heard these crickets before they got to be in the thing you know he's he's he's been wanting to make that movie for 28 years so you would think it would be and he did do shots where he's like I've been thinking about this shot for 28 years but still he's going showing up on set and like I had no idea but well let's figure it out as as we kind of go so that that's that was helpful music going back to theater earlier it's like I've seen a lot of people just regardless of where you are in your career that I have no answer I haven't come to a conclusion about anything and because of which you're kind of open to be wrong which is the best I think the best a great example that I got I feel early in life to don't go for be open to not be right I mean have an idea in an opinion but but you have to be ready to let it all go you know and and feel like that wasn't wasted time and you're a big fan of Scorsese's right I mean yeah he's the top of the pyramid in my life I saw an interview where I think you mentioned Alice doesn't live here anymore I say that's the movie that like I don't think people talk about enough cuz we think of Raging Bull and taxi driver there okay yeah but that's really an amazing I mean yeah all of his movies so couldn't be like that there after hours you know that was this like meet that's the same person who did Main streets who did you know aviator you know in like a v8 er it's just he he's you can tell he's an interested person and that's why his movies and their work ethic him and Thelma Schoonmaker was his longtime editor you know it's just like I was talking about this actually recently with someone on Sunset were they were talking about his movies and he said something really great that oh my god so he's like he's consistent which is really difficult because consistency and I was saying is saying this also about spike too because the consistency requires incredible discipline you know now it's kind of common to be inconsistent to be like how is that thing you know because there's so much you know so you like can kind of be you can ease off the gas sometimes or you know it's just you're not focused or whatever's going on but they have such incredible discipline in time that they give it that is taxing and hard but because of which it's it's just better you know I mean in my opinion I think it's more unique and even if it doesn't work it works in the in the right direction yeah you know I like that that is really hard and incredible especially if are how long he's been doing and you know I don't work for how long spike has been doing it to be that that that consistent you know it requires a lot of discipline and focus as professional as you are did you ever have a moment where you were like oh my god I'm geeking out on Martin Scorsese or do you have to like have it be a completely professional relationship to get through the day I'm sure that that I was like giggling to myself while we're shooting it I've never said giggling actually I love giggling is a weird way yeah giggling to me yourself but I don't remember probably when I first met him I was very like you know yeah I can't believe it plus he's so forthcoming with stories that you can't help but like is anybody listening to this but you're alone you know he's talking about like taxi driver or Raging Bull and you're like you know is pretty great and I when I first met him I thought it was just a meeting too I was told it was between me and somebody else and I II just wanted to to meet and talk about it and at the end of the means like so you want to do this and I'm like well yeah yeah yeah like I'm ready to yeah I'll think about it no I'm like eh of course I want to do it well I mean I guess you probably wouldn't have said no to Martin Scorsese but did you know what an undertaking this movie would be I mean not just physically a it's very rare to make a big studio movie about faith yeah sure it's so hard to do yeah yeah and not you know three hours long and I think I heard like in your in preparation didn't you an Andrew Garfield like was it you go to it on a silence retreat or am i yeah we did no we totally did Wow yeah how long did that last I've actually done a silent retreat before at Julliard they did I don't know if they do this anymore but it's like actors getting together a silent retreat was like a joke cause instead of using words it was like pantomiming you know like tea and washing yourself we went on like a to a Jesuit retreat in Wales in like this amazing like the pinnacle of Jesuit retreat so always like you know you know young actors and all these people who were like that part of the novitiate you know serious and we were kind of just taking it all in and possibly more eating really and but it was so you know we get together still at lunch time and like pantomime passing each other salt but it was pretty great it was really yeah great we're there for a week without talking and Wow walking around the amazing you know and it's pretty like Spartan to your rooms there it's just I got bed in a desk and yet to share the shower no not like together at the same time would have been great but no we didn't do that would you ever forget and speak because I think I would just forget no no that's amazing that same year you started Patterson from Jim Jarmusch yeah it was a good year I am such a fan of him as a filmmaker yeah yeah I don't know it's just did he come to you did you pursue him yeah he came to me about it I think if I remember correctly since we I mean in my mind we met as kind of like a formality I would have done you know anything that he was it was doing but he was like you should read it you know we met and we talked about him I loved it and it was like he sent it to my house and I read it immediately and immediately called him was like yeah I want to do this what I mean you've worked with so many amazing directors there's some I haven't even mentioned you worked with the Coen brothers yeah what do you hope for from a director when you arrive on a set for mmm I don't know hope for that's a good question I don't know what I hope for I mean I hope it'll be good like I hope that we'll get along I guess not necessarily I don't know I'll think about that do you like a lot of guidance or hands-off or it probably varies from project to project does like with Soderbergh or Spike they they move so fast Soderbergh in particular he's he's lighting it he's operating the camera he's editing it at night when you know back at the hotel where everyone's staying at the bar so everyone's like we shoot we're like they we break for lunch and that's the end of her day basically you know like shoot for after the first week of shooting Logan lucky what do I do with him we we had like 30 minutes of the movie done he just worked so fast that and it's there's no mystery to what it is he's doing other than the fact that normally when you're on set you can kind of gauge what is happening because the calm there's dialogue happening with you know the DP and you know but because he is all of those things everyone's just kind of watching where he's moving you know then he'll just put a beanbag down and put a camera on top of it it's all practical lights mostly he'll just just every we we go there's nobody's retreating to the trailer to like you know call your you know whoever and read a book and then come back there's no momentum that's lost and people want to stay on set so it's so fast to the point they're like what the are we doing with all this other on sets we're wasting so much time but at the same time you know it really encourages you to do first impulses and thing with spike it's just like just go with it trust your instincts which is really great but at the same time I'll work with someone like like Scorsese who will do a lot but or Noah Baumbach will you know I remember in Francis on some other things and while we're young we you know do 50 or 70 takes sometimes because it's a really long shot and it's very much like ballet and and and because I done theater I know that we can keep doing it and keep you know ask yourself a different question you can move you know somewhere different you know you can waste a couple takes on trying to trying something out and maybe that doesn't work and you find your I don't know I see the advantages and disadvantages or not disadvantage is the that's why I've learned to not come in with a way a set way of I like how I like to work and then start imposing it on everybody else because I feel like you have to be open to a new idea you know or or if you don't like working like maybe there's some value to that sometimes I feel like the best version of a movie is the first or a play is the first time we all sit around and yeah and in Rita because no one's thinking so much they're just you know just they're just they're just getting it out well you worked with Clint Eastwood I think your first movie actually was with him yeah and he often shoots rehearsals and uses that yeah yeah that can be jarring actually yeah yeah another another experience where it was pretty much in a coma for the day yeah he just kind of looks at you okay and then you shoot it and everyone told me that there was gonna be like oh it's gonna be like one or two takes we did like five or six takes and I started to panic yeah you know my I'm messing it you know it was like a sound thing was like a gas I was like a gas station boring stories are trying to liven this up this of course brings us to black Klansmen which is like I don't even know where to begin another brilliant film film from a brilliant writer in black lands has anyone here not seen it just out of curiosity like everyone is no no I figured everyone has seen it I mean ya know it's it's such a fantastic movie I don't like your character is based on a real person but I don't know if you Mets I know his name isn't Flip Zimmerman um where you even began with research for this yeah he didn't want to be involved in it he's he knew it was happening I think and didn't want to be involved the only thing I knew is that he were a lot of flannel yeah so that's very kind of like okay we're flannel but apart from that you know it was like finding it we have the luxury of like a couple weeks of rehearsal before we started and so we were going through the scripted then when we get to the end we'd go back to the beginning and started again I think we did two table reads it's kind of like unheard of and you don't have that much time when you first heard of the story of Ron Stallworth story did you know it was a true story because it's so outrageous on the surface yeah yeah no I knew it was a true story mmhmm yeah but yeah and yes it's outrageous yeah and and so much of what happens really happened like things that I think like well maybe they exaggerated there sometimes I think they actually under played the story because it is so outrageous even this stuff when he's like you know coughing and he's like oh I you know your voice sounds different I think I have a cold that's that's actually true you know that little details works like this is bad writing but no actually happened was it one of those things where when it came to you you just would have said yes to anything Spike Lee had or kind of yeah but I there's there's time when you meet people where you're like you know I've had that too where you you've always wanted to work with them and then the thing is is not like I you know I like I'm not gonna be I won't be able to do it you know I sigh you don't connect with it or you feel like it's yeah you'll be bad but so it was oh I wanted to always want to work with Spike because I love his movies and then it's always the advantage when you like the character or you yeah you find something about it that you can you know that you can play so aside from Spike Lee I probably helped that it was an amazing script and I don't know if he let you read it in advance we had a meeting oh okay so you know what you were getting into I know who's getting into but we it changed a lot from when we started to win it when it yeah that two weeks we really were shaping it and plus John David and I hadn't met each other before so it was really good us finding a rhythm yeah you guys have such great chemistry and I know he adores you yeah and I think you like him sweet guy I mean you've met Emmys oh it's fantastic yeah and so joyous yeah I know he's so positive and I forget how negative I am until you meet John baby yeah I wish I'd like viewed the world that way but it makes for a nice dynamic oh sure honey yeah it is yes chemistry is such a strange thing and it also feels strange to be talking about chemistry but you guys were both cast before you ever met mm-hmm how did you know it would work I mean you didn't you just kind of like with any of these things you kind of hope even if you meet them before it doesn't necessarily mean it's gonna work you know hopefully that you with us and we you know like what keep stop saying we like each other but they're you know it's always good when you like them but when you know when you're working it's a you know can be a little stressful as the stakes are really high but you know if you hopefully if you find good seem partners who are making it about this other thing and not about your own you know journey then it's it's really easy to connect and he is very much a you know a perfect example of that where he it is really all about the that there's a it's an ambition that is high for the thing as a whole he's not he's not you don't meet a lot of people like him that are very much about how can we make this other thing better and not focus on just my the thing that I have to do well I mean that's one of the reasons I was so happy you guys were nominated for Best ensemble because it is such an ensemble piece every single role is just cast so perfectly and of course you and John were individually nominated which is wonderful but I think there's something really special about this this group of actors and I don't know if that you know you felt that on sets that you were doing something special yeah I didn't I didn't get to see a lot of them I know I know Corey Hawkins cuz he was at Juilliard like a couple classes below me when I was there and Mike Buscemi who was my other partner I mostly he's great yeah but apart from that I didn't really interact with many of the other people so I mostly had John David which was fine you know a little bit of Topher Grace oh yeah but I imagine people stayed away from him on set no I mean everyone was I was gonna make a bad job girl shit-faced [Laughter] yeah yeah no we were all around each I forgot about that yeah at what point did you get to meet the real Ron stallworth and what was that like first day he showed up yeah for the table read and then we didn't see him until you know all this stuff you know after the movie I mean and I know you've played characters who you know who were real people but this is still fairly current and it's such an amazing story did you sort of feel that pressure or do you have to just put that out of your mind when you're working on a movie no you try to put it on your mind I mean I've maybe it cuz I've had that experience of playing real people before where you you kind of get a steal information from them that that helps you know that opens up your imagination and then really disregard the things that don't you know like you have to cherry-pick details so you're not doing an an impression or impersonation of them and then they understandably can get it can get a little complicated because they have something invested in it because you're playing them but then then it's kind of you have to you know be democratic and hearing what they have to say but also take ownership of it for yourself you know which can be kind of tricky but it's also you know it's also the different the other way to where you have just a nugget of information and then you have to build a life outside of it just the boundaries are a little different what was the most challenging part of playing this character because there's there's so much going on with him you know there's a wonderful scene where Ron you know talk so about like you should be invested you're Jewish you know and why aren't why don't you care more and it's just it's it's such a testament to great writing great directing great acting all coming together there's so much going on in that moment yeah I like that character from the beginning because he there's like a work ideology where he's like [Music] this is his job so he's figured out a way to not take it personal because he wants to self preserve you know where he is I don't I don't take it you know you don't take it home with me that this is totally separate from life and also this personal you know our rebound by genetics or you know is for some people they have the luxury of not really thinking about their their history because it's not something that they're confronted with a lot in it for flip it takes something actually he has to see hate in front of him for him to really start to take ownership and I feel like I understand that even just as an actor where you feel like oh I have this job I have to do for four months I have to shut out the world and shut everything out and just focus on this thing and by by sheer focus it's gonna be better but sometimes actually life obviously it inevitably works its way in and that actually makes you better at maybe more enriched as an actor because you're not you're having experience and living life and it's not such like in a bubble and maybe that makes him a better police officer because he does make it personal you know which I feel like sometimes in acting you're kind of told not to make take it personal but you can't help but bring yourself to what it is you're doing so that ideology I don't think he's really thought about until til he's confronted with it by and I loved that about it and also just in the scenes he really has to be he has to be a good liar and and be what it is that they want him to be in a sense and them as the story goes on when he does make it more personal he can't he gets it's harder to maintain the the illusion yeah yeah it is a very funny movie in addition to being very serious and I think it kind of needs that levity because it is so tense in some parts are you the kind of actor it takes your work home with you I mean was this was this a fun movie to make I'm not good at not taking it home yeah I mean I don't think I'd come home and I'm like freeze you know but I it's inevitably like you know when we were shooting Patterson like I feel like I was a nicer person to be around and when we're shooting silence it wasn't so great you know yeah so you're just so hungry but but there's a lot of things going out with like with silence in particular about you know faith and whatever just you're just wasting time or we just screaming into the darkness do you think about that 14 hours a day you don't go home and like you know Yahtzee you know so I think I do but it's not a conscious thing I just I just can't help but you know you're thinking about it for so long and you've been prepped you've been thinking about it you're you're even if you're you know like with girls or Star Wars even when there's breaks in-between it's always in the back of my mind like I always it so you never quite let it go until it's over you know so or at least I don't not that that's the right way that's just how I that's how I think were you able to see the movie before it's can premiere no I haven't seen it I haven't seen the movie what you haven't seen black Klansmen mm-hmm no no no no you reckon you read the can premiere I know yeah I what I do is I go for the pictures of then when the lights go down I go to like a little room and I wait there until it's over and drink and I go back I go back and then they sneak in right as the the thing or happening and then you like pop out as if you were there the entire time so you just not like to watch yourself I can tell you're punking me or you know yeah yeah yeah I can it's really difficult because it's so formal that's why yeah you have to you have to like come back usually you just like I just leave and I see everybody later but do you just not like to watch yourself I hate it yeah yeah have you seen any of your movies yes yeah I've seen some that's how I know it's I've seen earlier things and then and then I watch Star Wars because there's a lot of things on set that are just going on that I have no idea they're like trust us there's like you know space behind you um so after like you know six eight months of like what are we doing you know I can't I can't see anything outside that or I guess you can't see things but like you there's so much it's so visual that you don't you don't there's so much of the story that you're missing so I watched those you aren't curious about black glances no no but no I am I'm curious too I don't know this is the right way of doing it but I just know it's yeah I'm never I'm never curious I feel it's not my job I'd show up and I do my part of it and then whatever happens with it as being my responsibility and I the things that I've watched I like you know I know what happens I was there you know I mean not to sound flippant but like I've no I don't want to see myself making mistakes forever on film I don't want to get self-conscious when we're doing it again that I'm like oh I need to make it look a certain way because it you know things that I like are imperfect and look kind of messy and ugly and not not as planned and I don't want to start thinking of a I'm good at putting out the that that we're on a set sometimes you know like their camera but some things that I've seen like you kind of have to watch it like five times to divorce the the fact that you're in it I think it's just pure terror the first time and so you're like why am i doing all those things that and when you think about it you're like oh right that we did say that at the time and some sometimes the story's coming across and I didn't realize it so I'm not gonna watch things I'm in five times so I can like not think that it's me doing it so it's just a lot of like it's a lot of energy that I don't plus and also I mean there's lots of reasons I guess but also when talking about it afterwards people are looking for you to explain share the movie look we just saw your movie now tell us about your movie and that's not that's not really I don't feel like it's it's my job because it might be different for you for you what you took of it it might be different so I want to shortchange your experience by telling you what it is so I I just decide to avoid at all did spike tell you or maybe you don't know to this day that he was going to end the movie with real-life footage know that then I actually because when I was coming back to sit in my seat is when they were showing the the footage so I saw it kind of with everyone else so like I write when they were you know that a tracking shot of JD and the guns in it I thought that was the end of the movie but when they cut to that I was it was pretty it was pretty moving yeah yeah he didn't give you guys a heads up at all or no no he didn't I don't thought that I remember now well I mean since this film premiered at Ken which was I think May people are maybe even April yes yeah yeah sure I mean people are still talking about it have you been surprised at the response to the movie someone's asked me this earlier I'm always surprised that people well but this in particular was it's just a test I'm so glad I mean we worked you know I don't want to say the movies all about one thing but it's a it's a battle a lot of things but the people what people have been saying to us afterwards has been pretty moving and it's like really I'm proud to be a lot of things but this one is is a little different you know it feels great but it's also a testament to everyone who worked on it and spikes singular voice and his films and it's pretty pretty proud to be a part of it it's pretty amazing that Spike Lee just gets better and better like you think he can't possibly get any better he's reached the pinnacle then he comes out with a movie like this yeah and it's you know and I've heard such wonderful things about him as a director you know and how great he is with actors he's great he isn't he had usually sometimes there's like a there's like a there's no different person but who he is as you talk to him or you see him on TV or in interviews that he is under as a director he's he's come totally impulsive and like a kind of a collage artist at times and he loves referencing things that cuz he has like an encyclopedic knowledge not just of like American history but of a film history that he he's so energetic like watching him at a monitor as a pretty is a pretty fun thing to to see and he creates an atmosphere where there's all there's all love there's no there's no like if there's an argument like we squash it immediately or if there's a like there's no like Oh someone else is gonna come talk to you cuz spike wants that like spikes coming to you to talk to you and then if you have a something's not working you come right to him and he's like he drops everything and and loves momentum looks like momentum one on set there's no there's no sitting back on his sets and if it's like he works its way into his movies take some questions from the audience and I apologize in advance if I mispronounce anyone's name is it Alessandra oh right in the front great wants to know have you found your acting style changing over the years and have you stayed with the same technique you learned at Julliard I try not to have like this is sound like a I don't know what else not like but but I try not to have a process other than knowing my lines and showing up on time then how we get there is always kind of I think dictated by what the set is like you know because I can Star Wars for example that turnarounds for some of the they're so long you know where as like I was saying with Soderbergh gets five minutes and but Star Wars it can be like a so you really have to like adjust to if it's a whatever the scene is you have to keep your motor going for longer and sometimes so it just requires something different and then being available for your partners and not I'm really big on like you know I'm a logic police person like I can't on the said it's hard for me to say something if it doesn't make sense to me or if it doesn't make sense this story overall so I like I'm pretty militant about that because I know it'll just I I can't make it work you know and then showing up for my partner's like I like I'm really big on that because I feel like you can always tell you know if but for me that's just so but I don't have like a set sometimes they're they're more in reality you know they're more closer so I don't have to do a lot and then I always like to calm my nerves by doing as much research as I can about a thing but then I have to put it all away if it doesn't apply which cut which kind of sucks and feels like wasted time but it's usually never wasted time I guess so but it's always to like manage nerves is to know as much as I can so I feel like there's no possible thing I could have overturned you know in the time that I had to do it I know this might sound like an impossible question but do you have a favorite character you've played no and please say the oil baron oil baron yes you that was fun oh my god yeah yeah no no I don't have a favorite saying I think it was fun but it was also you you really committed to that like it was it was funny but also like believable if that makes sense yeah going back to those days when you would like draw you know a blinds on your head yeah do you know when you're hosting sir Night Live do you know if the sketch is gonna work yes on paper I bet that was weird no I thought that was funny right away I thought that was funny yeah you never really know cuz it's like that's what's so great about it is some of them don't work there's no institutions that are like that it's like live anymore or I mean unless I'm totally missing something but like live kind of theater in a way where it's really incredibly stressful for a short amount of time the second time you do it I feel like you know when to get nervous the first I was Lorne said that to me oh my god that's totally right the first time you're just like sheer panic the entire time but then the second time you know when it's coming up to get nervous I'm like the Wednesday or whatever but ya know I love that do they talk to you about writing the monologue do you ever say in that because the monologue was kind of a joke about how intense you are and obviously you're doing Sarah Knightley you can't be that intense right yeah yeah like tone it down there too no yeah they do they always like they always ask you if you have ideas too coming in and I always have no ideas so then they write something that you know for you and then you kind of change it after that a little bit you have a lot of say but they change that all the way up into the when you walk out on stage like both the times I've done it when you do the monologue which I feel I was like the most nerve-wracking part cause you do that because it's yourself you know and I have nothing to say right before you go out there they're changing it all the way up but you're so tired at that point it was like whatever yeah I've been to a dress rehearsal and then seen two hours later when the show airs they cut things and changes you're crazy yeah we have a question from is it Kate oh good do you have an interest in delving into any behind the scene roles like writing producing or directing no no no interest at all nine done not even I've not even no no not even a little bit I don't want to talk to actors for that long I don't want to answer all those questions you know I feel like I'm barely understanding my job like to be able to take on somebody else's and I met really like worked with really amazing writers and directors like that I'm like oh I can't do that I got I'll see the world that they do so I'm not gonna like fill it with more like mediocre or half-baked you know if that makes sense like I like working on it as with everybody else but like there hasn't been a thing that I've been like you know I need to direct this no what do you do to create a sustained your creative drive and that there are two pretty much easy questions because they're kind of like you know how do you how do you be a human about my answers okay I try to give don't know you I try to I watch a lot of movies and I that always keeps me excited you know or actors or you know art architecture is really I'm really interested in that furniture or something I'm also interested in I really like yeah like building it no no no you know just like be surrounding yourself I was always kind of had that philosophy if you're in the actor you have to try to live an artful life and that that means not just your job but with everything so it's around yourself you know with with beauty and and that always made sense to me and it always is like a source you know of inspiration I always can be better you know you can always you know I see a lot of theater i watch a lot of plays and love a you know going to the museum and I have a dog you know he's like a he's like a pit mix he's like a pit Rottweiler I feel like everyone's going to sleep he's pretty great yeah he's he's a big dog he's 70 pounds I love big dogs what's the point of a little one get a cat yeah yeah yeah yeah I had small dogs as a kid I just wanted a big one I could you know actually I want to keep the dog like a children the other person doesn't that was a maze yeah may she rest in peace yeah yeah died well let's end on that yeah yeah like actually she won posthumously the popular the palm dog with that board that's yeah they started yeah yeah she was playing a he if I remember correctly and then they told us actually to keep us away from each other because we're supposed to be like you know contentious but that never works is we we always like each other then it died Wow I'm not going to end on that no yeah lost a leg for a while just keep going yeah lost a leg it was under three for a while with an it's just so dark it's hilarious yeah they wanted it to be a dog that like worked in movies but then it didn't work out yeah it's like James Dean right as its career was gonna take yeah yeah one song it didn't know it thank you question from Stephanie Walters how do you maintain your authenticity as a person and as an actor in an industry commiserate with image and social media following oh I'm not on social media so I don't so I guess that you know like I don't get involved so that's the end of that answer how I maintain I mean I'm I have a good group of people around me that I feel keep me grounded you know like it's weird thing to say about yourself but I pretty choose Eve you know who people that you let in your life and try not to take it seriously like I try to take what it is that you do really seriously then how that comes across it's you know be way beyond my control too serious that's it I can't so whatever but I know I don't you know I know how lucky I am to be doing what it is I doing so then the people I got to work with it on a tribute to any particular thing about myself it's a combination of like you know working really hard but then also just being available and that working out timing wise so I know the the incredible amount of luck that goes into too so I try not to take you know anything is like a signifier of like you know ability or but having people around you who are real people I mean whatever that means is is helpful what words of wisdom can you offer your fellow actors who are struggling I'm bad at this because it's also different you can offer something completely different so it's hard to say what was the crush your enemies crush your hero yeah that's a good one fresh or anything who's that from actually they didn't leave a name oh I don't know I've school for me was really helpful I don't know if people have already gone to school so you're like what I did that but I didn't know anything about like acting or plays or how to talk about I have like a process you know have a technique which I've found was really helpful Plus at school you have like you know two or four years to work on something you have no pressure of the outside world you know judging it or making you know some end results commentary you like you even if it's bad like you know what that that feels like and so that would always helpful and I think technique is a huge thing and not just for one thing but to have a long career I mean I haven't had a long career but in the people that I had met I can see how you know people who were trained actors just were had a longer life because they were being able to be self maintain and adapt and all that so so school was helpful for me and before we go just tell us everything that happens in episode 9 yeah okay actually if I'm being honest I don't want to know that's the annoying thing about it too like if you like true fans of those movies don't want to know anything yeah so I try to keep it under under wraps well I can't wait to see what you do next I can't wait to see burn this I'd love that play I'm super excited that you're doing it I want to congratulate you on a great year all the ativy because it's I'll see you later I'll see you and thank you guys for being such a great audience [Applause]

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 466,113

Rating: 4.9549093 out of 5

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, Star Wars, Q&A, Interview, Career

Id: b5wmoYWB4b0

Length: 88min 29sec (5309 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 14 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/These_Boys]

I love these interviews where he is comfortable and humorous and Jenelle Riley was really good - prepared and asking good questions. Loved her "Can I call him Ben?"....

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[u/Pavleena]

Adam is so sincere and funny. If may sound corny but I could listen to him talking for hours.

Also kudos to the lady interviewing him, she did her homework on Adam's early roles including the stage ones (I imagine a lot of interviewers don't bother), but also seemed to be genuinely excited about Hungry Hearts, Ben Solo, and Abraham H Parnassus. She sounded like one of us!

[u/Kylo-The-Optimist]

This is great, Janeela Riley is so personable and asks interesting questions. Adam's personality really shines in the interview as a result :)

[u/march221]

A full hour of Adam speaking omfgsiwuahgahajdjsjwbwba

[u/purpletiebinds]

A really great interview....he was really funny. He's got a really dry sense of humor!

[u/nellabella27]

I finally got around to watching, thank the lord I waited until I was home so I could watch on tv, was totally worth it 😰 he is truly a jem, so adorable when he starts babbling and sooo attractive when he gets passionate, yeah I could just play this in the background while I'm doing stuff around my house or play before I^gotobed

[u/rjlik]

ThNks. Really great Interview. He’s funny

[u/coshol]

Fantastic interview. He’s so relaxed, great see him looking so happy.