Adam Driver Explains His Acting Method to Bill Burr

just grind you all right well how come people don't seem to understand that a person wouldn't want to watch themselves cuz I when I saw that whole that whole [ __ ] it's just like why would you want to sit there cuz I have a theory that if you look if you're looking at the side of your head while you're talking it's like that Native American thing where they didn't want to get a picture it takes a piece of your soul there's like something that that you should never do that yeah yeah I mean some people watch themselves and they benefit from it and I've started to do that now too where I've now I've started to watch things that I'm in just because I I realize that even when I watch it in retrospect I don't like it and I feel like I could have had a time when we were putting it together to fight for their part a little bit like prot protect your performance cuz usually before I'm like okay I did it I absolve all responsibility it's your movie and I'm going to go away now I like that that's like denial yeah yeah yeah yeah it's a way of coping I think with when it doesn't work then I don't then it's not my responsibility but I mean it's lots of trauma inspired because that's how I go through life I just keep marching forward to stay cuz if I slow down like the fog of what has happened in the past catches up to me so I just keep going like all right you know I don't I don't need to look at it you know I'm sure it's fine no matter what it is it's going to make me cringe so I wish I was that way but I'm I'm not I get I get all obsessed about a detail and go over and over again and I'll I'll drive myself crazy and everybody else around me crazy asking them to explain what the what the thing was as opposed to just [ __ ] watching it but at the same time I also came from theater where you don't get to see what it looks like ex you're only you know deal you're on a stage and you do it and always at the last performance is the I'm sure you feel this with standup I mean maybe not you get you do it for so long and every time you do it it's something new and then it just gets better and better and you become more relaxed there's a part where you're like oh I I need to be over here at this part of the stage when I say that as opposed to over there or I was tense in this part and now now I found a way to relax and that's what I feel about the film it's permanent you can't go back and do it again you you're it's at the same time improvisational but permanent it's a document that lives forever right then you make it and you made a mistake or you thought you were going to do something that that wasn't operating it's [ __ ] it is tra traumatic when you watch it and like and I can't go back and redo it that's it that's what it is now it lives forever but in the same but in this also the other end it's not about you and how you feel about it it's about how audience responds to it so I you know I try to absolve responsibility but now I think that's healthy I I think so too some it turns into this thing where people ask me about it all the time as if it's like very you know odd but to me it makes sense to not watch things if you don't want to yeah not wanting to see yourself retiring like figuring a way out of this business and just being able to sit and be quiet like stuff like that makes sense um one thing that does as far as like like with like standup um and and you doing when I watched you on burn this uh on Broadway it's the same thing where it's live okay and there's like no doovers but me I can adjust to a screw up I can call it out I'm breaking the fourth wall the entire time the entire time I'm talking to the crowd I'm not creating this this world that you guys are doing so if there's like a mistake it's very easily handled once you're seasoned and and and you you can you're you're relaxed so when you were doing that play cuz this is what's I've always wanted to ask someone that's acting on Broadway what happens what do you do like if the other actor forgets their line and you see them in a panic looking at you or you and like right before you're going out you're like what the [ __ ] do I say and there's this crowd there and go there's your queue like how do you uh like what is that night like that first night no matter how many times you've rehearsed it there has to be that thought of like what if I I I forget my lines yeah not so much now when I first did a play on Broadway that was that Terror that uh that I was not going to memorize you know know my lines but now I don't feel that way like I feel like I know my line and all but but that happened let's talk about the terror so what what what was that like how did did it happen did it where I lost my lines yeah no no no no I remember the first play I ever did was called play called Mrs Warren's profession it's a Robert Shaw play and I was sitting backstage and it was with cherry Jones and Sally Hawkins and they were acting and I there's the mic my dressing room or the speaker in my dressing room and somebody said something that was funny and for the first time I heard a crowd that that size laugh and I was [ __ ] terrified because it was cuz it's immense you know and very uh deep and and I just was I blacked out or I know if I really blacked out but I was terrified and then I uh had to go out and I stumbled through it and that was it it wasn't it was not a good did have you ever gotten mad at yourself for choosing this profession all the time in those moments cuz I do that all the time yeah yeah it's all self-induced no one asked me no and and no one is asking for it that's what and that's what I was always saying I would always be sitting there like when I was getting called on stage horrible crowd or or like you know you're going to do do Letterman and it's freezing cold and he doesn't look like he's in a good mood and I'm just like why I'm a [ __ ] shy person why did I decide to do this this is stupid yeah yeah oh yeah all the time yeah but then when it's over then you're like you feel amazing for like 20 minutes yeah yeah then that's it I always the best part of getting of of of jobs is the first 20 minutes when I realize I'm going to do the job but then after that it's just misery until it's over yeah you're like oh [ __ ] now I have to go do it yeah yeah yeah it has to be great and it has to be something that was worth all the effort to get there well I got to tell you when I saw you on that like dude you came out and that play burned this it was like you know it was already a good play you didn't come on I felt for like the first 10 minutes and when your character comes in I fig he was hammered or whatever he's just an erratic crazy crazy [ __ ] person and you came in and it was just like electr the whole thing just it just was flying after that and I'm not you know oh thanks I'm a comedian so like I'm going to Broadway and we have like I think we confuse you know cats with everything else on Broadway so we just think it's going to be like oh my God I had a dream oh no how am I going to lie to this guy afterwards and be like oh yeah that was that was that was fantastic I got I got my little cat's doll here and uh I I now I want to be on the great white way I was so uh like psyched like two that's only happened two times oh really um your play and then uh when I first moved to LA my neighbor across the street wrote a play and put it out up here in LA and you know La theater is not known to does not have a reputation and I was I was in a [ __ ] panic because it wasn't Not only would I have to say that I liked it after the show the guy lived across the street from me so like how long could I keep the lie on my face and fortunately I went there and I loved it and it was really hilarious and it was really smart really funny and uh I was like gushing afterwards and like most of it was my relief right right that oh my God thank God I I I not only did I like it I actually loved it and um so I I've gone to you know that kind of opened me up because up until then I'd only seen like uh I I just seen like off off off Broadway plays

Channel: Fans of Bill Burr

Views: 276,724

Keywords: bill burr, podcast, monday morning podcast, Fans of Bill Burr

Id: TBKdSIjf28s

Length: 7min 32sec (452 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 13 2024