Drama Actors Roundtable: Michael B. Jordan, Jason Bateman, Darren Criss | Close Up with THR

hi and welcome to close-up at Hollywood Reporter I'm Lacey Rhodes and I'm joined by JK Simmons Matthew Reese Jason Bateman Darren Criss Jeff Daniels and Michael B Jordan thanks all for joining us so we're gonna start with what I hope is a fun question what is the most amusing or frustrating feedback you've received in trying out for a part I have one don't but nothing was actually said I went to a casting went to a casting and here the casting agent on the phone and the assistant said ash middle of a very important call for you sit down wait the call went on and on and on sitting the assistant apologizing then about a 45 minutes the assistant went can you come into the office and I could hear she was in the middle of a heated heated conversation I walked to the doorway I stand at the door we should go I know I know she looks at me she goes I feel like that's kind of addictive there's a lot of stories that involve like it's less than positive feedback which is not so much actually hearing what it is but not hearing anything at all yes or the proverbial headshake where you go so it was there anything that could have done and there's just no there's nothing and you just don't well I just want anything yeah we just don't like yeah it's kind of great now with the self taping where an actor can just audition on their own computer with their own sort of webcam or their phone or whatever and then basically shoot it to you love it and then send that and you don't have to go through all the nerves of the room and hopefully you do it the way you practiced in the mirror at home like all of that's taken away for for the for the most part I think that the self taping is what's going on so you're not ever actually rejected agent relays a really nice message yeah exactly you must have had one Thank You next I've had a lot I remember I don't know if it's the same but I was doing a play off Broadway and it was god-awful that you even came and this actress friend of ours came in to the dressing room afterwards and we're just we're in a horrible and she just pulled and put her head around the curtain just said Oh God it's an interesting question do you know when something isn't good I think despite yourself I think it or if you don't it's made very clear to you very soon especially in this day and age I think it'll find its way to you whether you like it or not during shooting I hope that's anyone's guess I think more it may be did from the theater the play yeah but you don't know and during that if they interrupt you during you know your lines your editions like no just like try to give you direction in the middle of what you're trying to do I'm feeling like they're like let's just try this or I've never thought about it this way and it's like okay cool maybe my instinct wasn't so Michael you had recently said personally I think are defined by what you say no to what does that mean to you and and how have those decisions defined you and in your career I know I answered that without you can't do everything you know and if it's and then obviously you know you have agents that have their own agenda everybody's kind of like you know trying to push push you and navigate you toward st. or taking a job that you may not feel a hundred percent Khumbu with so for me personally it's just kind of like you know not chasing the money that may look good okay everything on paper that you know may look good in the script or whatnot may not actually turn out that way when it hits the screen so you just gotta have to go with your instinct and uh I don't know stay true to your good so I try to listen to the inner inner voice as much as I can when did you guys to regain the confidence to be able to say no was there a point in your career where you felt comfortable being able to say no I don't need this one I think it's a luxury to be able to yeah yeah it is and but it also for me there was there were two stages in and one of them was very early on when I was just from hunger and I was like waiting tables half the time and doing theater in Buffalo or Cleveland or Atlanta or wherever and and I had an agent in New York and I would go back and I would audition for a few things and I get a job and I'd go off and do a play you know and I got an offer to do a show that I was not interested in doing and it was the only offer I had and I was talking to my agent about it sitting there across the desk from me I'm in the office like in the olden days and and he said well what else you gonna do and I said well I don't know isn't that your job I mean you know I mean he goes look it's a good company it's a good buy you know I mean it might not be your favorite role but you know go it's a job go and I went and I was miserable for you know eight weeks in Cleveland if that's not redundant I've been happier waiting tables at Joe Allen and waiting for something better to come along so really that was when I started I started realizing I can say no because you know whether it serves my career or not it's gonna serve my happiness that's a good point I guess think for me like when I was younger I started off like you know just living at home and it have any real responsibilities and have a mortgage worry about it like bills to pay so you're kind of taking what's in front of you and at that point I've been blessed to like work consistently as a kid even though there was tons of noes and I didn't get you know a lot of the auditions that I went out for the roles that I did get stuck around and kind of pushed me to that next level but once you got older and a little bit more successful the choices that you make really kind of define the way the industry looks at you and kind of how you move forward with your career and those are the times that you got to be a little bit more you know selective with and oftentimes the the choices are at least in my case like it is pretty easy I mean ones are clear you know way and then the other one is well I think I think I can not embarrass myself with that or not be a pain in the ass on that set by trying to make it something that it clearly should be or wants to be so that's where you set the bar what are the things you say I'm not gonna do that musicals yeah you know stuff that is the the real low-hanging fruit that seems like a big payday or or you know something that is it's clearly just about there turander it's just like a sprinter project right they just wanted like a big splash big opening and they're not really too concerned about the merits of it which would sort of lead to like multiple weeks of people going to go see it you know the things I'm drawn to say yes to are less about the role you know even the script as a whole it's about the people who or who are doing it because when I feel like I really want to work with somebody it's usually pretty indicative of the quality of the projects you know the people that you associate yourself with so I don't care whether I've got three lines to say in order or thirty it's more about who's directing it with the other actors if it's a studio and like where is it you know is it something that that I would want to go see as a viewer just because of its its quality or its or its its ambition that's a big that's a big go-to now who's in it yeah what does it who you looking at oh it's him is her i'm in i'm he eggs all its net it defines it defines meant that with that with the with the tone of it is because you can you can read a script and there's sixty different ways you can do that script and not all of them are bad and all not all of them are good but but who they're going after says a lot about what their creative intention is for it you know I'm learning something here the script you know a lot of the time and you know which I you know I want to do stuff that you can fail that that's where I'm at now I mean being right you risk something you want to take a chance that's a that's a lean in yeah for you though earlier I mean I remember you talking about your agents were saying don't don't do dumb and dumber don't get off why why and why do you feel so because there were three agents on the phone the night before I was to fly the next morning to do wardrobe for dummy number three agents one in New York two in LA the two in LA we're going we're gonna stop you you're not going to do this you're a serious important actor we're trying to get you to the Oscars you keep defeating us stop doing that and this will be the end of your career frankly Jim Carrey's a comedic genius with all due respect she's gonna wipe you off the screen say no and we'll get we'll take care of it I said you know what I'm bored with the career I want to change it off are you I'm living in Michigan right I need to go from dumb and dumber to anything remotely serious and for my world in between there are all these jobs because if you can do this and you can do that so I said if the if this is a mistake guys it's mine but he's such a good actor and that is what makes him such a great comic as are you I mean the the roles you played in in that movie they were big swings and you needed the acting chops to make the specificity of those characters real I think that's why people say comedies harder than drama because you've got to be real at an even heightened an exaggerated place and so that's probably I don't know what if I were you with your talent probably what I would've been saying to myself and what these agents might not have been factoring in was like I don't know I'm gonna go do this and I'm gonna be great at it because I've got the acting talent to be really just every bit as funny as Jim Carrey which you obviously work they had a good point they're going Jeff this could this could and nobody knows risky yeah 12 year olds would go but that was about it now your you've got Tom Arnold's career you know all due respect to Tom were there times in your career there's specific projects where you sort of tuned everybody else out and said I'm doing this I really want this one they're not being that helpful with know it's you I think he I don't know you I think I've got a very fortunate to have a great team and they're all really good at what they do and I love their advice and that's what you pay them for and you want to be deferential but at the end of the day you've you you're the only one that that it can make the decision based on the things that you know what you're planning on doing and you can't expect them to read your mind and and they know that so you take their opinion and you give it the value that it that it deserves but they can't see what you or what your plans are and and inevitably they they see what you did and they they don't say ah got it but the inevitably they say I understand why you did that I didn't I didn't see it that way and no way you could have explained that to me so there's a there's a place for their advice and it's really it's a valuable place but it shouldn't at least in my case it doesn't doesn't dictate my feelings and gamble every single time there's no surefire anything I mean there's an alternate dimension where that didn't go so well yeah that would have been the lesson you learned oh man I should have really shouldn't have taken that that risk with the comedy thing you took a risk and it paid off so we all win but if there's many different situations where they could've just blew up in your face yeah but there's no way to know I mean that you just all your guns and now that's what keeps me in the business are the challenges of not rude beaten myself you know we didn't see you do whiplash we haven't seen you do that I don't send out of the blue you killing that you just kill it easily could have been way over the top I'll turn the guy down no miles teller was saying that but was he that was an example of a great risk taken and that worked out well I love that stuff I love them I have a question after this is sort of similar to easy easy knows I think there is a certain and a lot of these people I go ask I want to believe that this isn't the case but there's a certain lack of imagination that happens sometimes around town were given the last thing you did if there's a bit of success they go okay perfect JK we got this new role for you it's this kind of manic crazy sort of authority Authority type or similar to any of the roles you've just played to me those are the easy knows where I go come on guys you're smarter than that you must you must know of it life is bigger than whatever I just did it was I think right after Glee there was several teenage roles that were very similar to Glee which hey I'm one hand you go okay I guess you believed it Greg did my job but now that you know but now after Versace it's like oh we got this weird kind of creepy killer type and Mike come on guys react exactly we just did that so where's this there's a branding that happened exactly it's inevitable and that's been around gable was a brand figured out Jimmy Stewart's personality wrote that way that's between that leading man and character character actor right where they're they're an audience I think has a predisposition to to what to expect with you like a a character actor I think their knees are gonna be bent a little bit deeper like I'll go wherever he wants to take me where's a leading man I think the leading man went and did some incredibly arched character audience might be a little bit like a easy pump it a little bit you know walk me into that kind of swing you know over the course of two or three movies before you you know go with the limp and the accent in the lazy eye you know no I think the risk that the actor wants to take also you know like how long risk you do they want to what kind of chance do they want to take on the next role do they want to stay safe and do something that they've done before just for you know paychecks or whatever the hell it is and is your career in a position to do that exactly with Fahrenheit it was one where you said sort of initially you were not interested in in in the role in the project why and what got you to yes I wasn't interested in playing an authority figure you know what was going on in the world with like police and like my community you know Sammy a black man I didn't want to play somebody who was a presser you know I did I just didn't want that in my head I just something that I wasn't interested in doing playing you know a firefighter that wasn't going around you know burning books and you know you know just that kind of that that character for me just didn't sit right because I played you know Oscar Grant and I was playing characters that you know meant so much to my community at that time after sitting down with the director remain and you know knowing Michael Shannon was gonna be a part of it - he was incredible back there and understanding the vision and the kind of themes and messages that he wanted to kind of you know to send to the movie and I at that time I didn't I haven't read the book either I hadn't read the book you know I wasn't on my reading list so um I went and read through the book and kind of really understood what barriers were trying to say and I was like okay don't stop reading to me sir next page did you think that one tiny crime you'll be wiped out by thousands of good deeds that there would be no punishment little knowledge is a dangerous thing you read a few lines ready to blow up the world chop heads off destroy authority I know you didn't want to keep dying mom and then also like you know to Jason's point wanting to be a leading man you know I didn't want the you know audiences and people to keep seeing me dying roles you know I can keep playing that role and yeah my mom you know being able to for her just every time I watched you know her watch me die it tore me up as I got older she would just weep and she's very emotional mom I look and I just wanted to play a role so she could see me win no no I don't care about here right next to you so that definitely had an influence on just wanting to you know are there tweaks that you made in those sort of conversation with the director that you said okay and here's here's what we're gonna have to do to make me feel comfortable playing this character in the this world we're living well I kind of wrap my brain around it and kind of once I got know once I saw the full scope of what the movie was supposed to be and what we're trying to say I was kind of on board obviously Guy Montag was not written for you know a 30-year old black guy now I'm so there were certain things that was still very true to the book that we had to you know we had to make a little bit more authentic form so we kind of crafted those up a little bit and once we got that out the way it was a small sail Darrin you played a famously homicidal real person did any part of that give you pause this particular person had very lasting effects on people who are still alive and the echoes of the tragedy and destruction that he wrought you know I couldn't help but think about you know the sons and daughters and cousins and husbands and wives of people that were affected by the sky that I don't know maybe they watched the first season of crime store and they liked the OJ show and now they're like oh god like to doing this about uncle so-and-so this is like we have to revisit this 20 years later and make it pop cultural zeitgeist fodder like a little I'd say so that weighs on me a little bit but once you take the sort of I guess that gravitas of real-life tragedy out of it I mean as an actor and as a craftsman so to speak yeah like those are the projects we wake up for the morning like I can't lose him I can't I just can't bad for him he's a house school he's a future I remember reading how you wanted to find the sort of the in--they endearing qualities that the good pieces to be able to play yeah I mean but that's I mean that's our job like we're in the business of empathy like its it doesn't matter what my personal moral spectrum is it's like you're inhabiting this person you know heroes don't necessarily know that well maybe heroes but crazy people done other crazy you know we're all just we're empathizing with these people regardless of than being real or not or sure obviously you can play off that with looming tower this I mean I don't know if you had the similar concerns you're shooting this thing in New York what are the sort of the conversations the fears going in about how it's going to be received there are plenty of families who may find this cathartic they may find this terrifying I didn't get the vibe that the family or that the family was or extended family was interested so out of respect I just I didn't go there I went to the FBI partners I went to all Asaph on himself I went to ten FBI guys sitting in a bar for three hours just listening about John the good the bad the strength till I had enough to go all right I know how to do this now okay that's only neat thanks more about al Qaeda than anybody WFO we'll be playing catch-up and the report of Alec station Schmidt just wants the case over they're suing direct it remotely on calm down I really wish people would stop telling me to calm down there are bombs going off around the world doesn't make me feel calm I want you to calm down because you're right I'm sorry you're right you should have this case and that kind of opens you up to kind of do what you think John was thinking and all of that but that to me is more important is telling the the narrative I mean the getting the essence of whatever the story is like obviously you don't look exactly like him and speak like you would be impossible to assume that I think there's a bit the spirit you get to get this straight the weaknesses and and based on true events and things they said most some of the time and then you fill in the rest yeah exactly and you're trying to honor the spirit of this emotion it's true and the guy you care about with me / it was Ali sooo fun Ali knew him and studied and was with them for years how did I do and if you get a thumbs up which I did you're done okay that's the end of validation with critics everybody else done do you watch like like will you will you go to playback and watch or even when it's all done will you watch I didn't know this was an option because I was never a high enough in a totem pole to where I would dare to ask but it was actually offered to me by a focus player like because I was very concerned with the technical aspect of a very long shot and I was so terrified of having messed something up as I could you mind if I watch it I'm so sorry I know we got to keep going like you know you're allowed to ask at any point really you should have told me that so I did yeah once or twice but I think I've it's just best not to know happy watch this time do you watch your stuff I've only recently started to watch more because the technicality of the boxing stuff or yeah it's technical its technical stuff or but then in watching the box and stuff no I've actually started to pay attention as a performer okay so then another saying I'm like okay let me see if that it stays I think I'm slipping down that slope there's a disconnect it's never satisfying as when between action and cut that's that's the peak right and and I think it has to do with theater I remember I was doing something with somebody who was she was a major star at the time and and they had video village and she'd go over between each tank and it was three minutes yeah that's yeah like that and you know we weren't getting along anyway and she came over says why don't you watch yourself you could learn something I said and I said we have dailies on Broadway also and it's maybe it's getting older is that I don't want to know I don't I don't I want to I want to get to that's why I asked you about and I've directed and acted and written so I know that kind of two hats while you're in front of the camera thing and it's you can do it absolutely can do it but I which works best for me when I get to cut and I don't remember what I did right the impulses that you're doing the flag words are less that you got from the director great boom boom it's between action that's what film acting is right I've learned so much about about what what I can get away with not doing based on watching stuff even just down to size you know I mean yeah well if you gonna ask you know the AC well what's we you know you're gonna 75 is at 32 you know like you're just like if I'm acting nervous with my finger down here well that's not that's not in the frame I better you know be pulling on my collar a little bit or scratch you know stuff like that on the day but then when you see it all coalesce with the final product and you get a sense of oh there's there could be music that comes in this later is it it's just understanding how it all comes together and how you come across versus how you felt that day was really helpful for me to try to constantly try to take everything down down down down down see I feel like I still don't know I can never learned I never studied camera acting because I started I did theater for 20 years and nobody was offering to put a camera right now put me on a camera and when and the first time that I had an opportunity to do something significant on camera was again Tom Fontana guest spot still here a guest spot on homicide the great series with the great cast and and I it was it was like a one-act play we had a scene in the interrogation room there was like 12 pages with Andre Braugher and Kyle's tecora myself and and once that aired and this is back in the you know the VCR days you know I recorded it and I'm and I looked at every single beat and I dissected it over and over and over just to critique my own work because I was new at this and I was a theatre actor and I didn't know you know when I was true and when I was false and I and I I mean I I wore out that VCR tape you know being self-critical and but also giving myself credit for moments that work and it's become ever since then I've gone almost polar opposite not quite as far as Jeff is gone but I've got a point where now where I feel like there's a level of self-consciousness that I that I want to avoid and I don't I don't avoid my work I watch it you know sometimes but not always and and I think I think it's best for me at this point not to not to obsess about the the minutiae of like it was initially was it illuminating that coming from the theatre you got to be able to hit the back row as well as the front row was it illuminating that it's it's all front row with the camera in other words if I if I try to hit the back row I'm gonna be overdoing it for camera acting yeah I mean that was kind of a given going in you know and especially with and I was so fortunate to have such wonderful writing and great scene partners you know early on you know I wasn't doing a you know a guest spot on some schlocky something or on a soap opera or whatever I was it was like doing really good material with really good actor so it was just familiar and I just you know I mean I I knew enough instinctively to know you know there is nobody any farther away that's listening to me yet on going from off-broadway to film there was no I remember in the seven late seventies early eighties there was the old gothic transition you got to bring it down less is more and all these Broadway actors that we were in waiting rooms with you know they were big they were fill in the 1500 Cedars we're filling 150 seats so there was no trans we were already here anytime yeah yeah with you guys man how does have you been surprised by the feedback that you get is it what you anticipated on your shows menu you've got the whole run of your show is it how you thought when you guys are are in production versus once it lands on people's TV sets yeah it was it it was a strange one because it was so heavily steeped in truth uh-huh but it's so fantastical aha so you're the challenge felt was way to land it tonally because you read it you could read as a fast you know this is ridiculous and while the KGB in the United States in the early eighties were doing was farcical so you're going how do I land this in a credible real place the audience follows you and you know cuz as much as I grow the rice is good this is ridiculous and go I know but it happened so you kind of go what do i do then like make it look real you go okay so it was always totally what that was the greatest challenge of going I was always going oh my god how'd you land this things are changing back home opening up and it's not just politics it's it's young people it's music it's it's different I mean they're talking about opening a pizza hut in Moscow you see the papers what the Washington Post you know all this talk kind of strike and glassing us the Americans eat it up they want us to be just like them I don't want to be like them one of the best I clades again was in the third season they were called illegals he won't even call spies so we're having a real illegal who was a guy from East Germany who was trained trained six years in Moscow adopted in American accent spent time in Canada brought into New York with the most ridiculous mandates from the KGB mm-hm and he just went you got it right and you go oh great yeah sadly that's only one man that's not the I know but you do you go great great so that those it's those moments you go off yeah you're hanging a yes no I'll write that on the mirror yeah and what about what about you what's the preparation process there's two different guys what is it is there one you're more comfortable in well yeah I was actually drawn to this before I got the script and and as my agent has learned I don't want to know anything else before I read the script so I didn't realize that there was this you're playing two guys so I read the first 20 pages and I'm falling in love with this the way Justin is telling the story of this sad-sack lowly cog in this Fritz Lang awful you know dystopia and and then I get to page 20 and I go you know I mean and I had this moment that I wished audiences could have you know that of course they don't because because you have to market the show just whatever you do don't panic this is a bad idea I thought it was like this domestic drama now it's become this spy thing and a sci-fi aspect of an alternate universe or parallel ish universe and I went back and immediately we had the whole thing again from beginning to end from the point of view of the other version of Howard to the character and and you know that dichotomy was you know doubly interesting I'm glad I mean I really I would have signed up just to play for you Jason obviously you're wearing many many hats and this one does does that make it easier in some ways it's certainly more time-consuming but how does it change sort of your approach to the character and and the story knowing that that I'm doing more than than just the acting on it I I I'm I'm sorry just be it just by doing more more than the acting of in it allows me I think I hope to hit this this tonal target that I I wanted to when I want to read the the first two episodes which were the ones that were written it was a it was a directing hope for me I wanted to direct a 600-page movie you know I said well I'll do it if they'd let me direct all the episodes because I just kind of love this world I wanted to be able to like figure out what it looked like what it sounded like and all itself and I knew that by playing the central character I might by having two hands on the wheel you know one in front of the camera one behind it might increase my odds of hitting that that that bill targets sir there's no business opportunities that require that much cash that legal once well I agree to disagree where's my money as we told you we can't cover that amount within 24 hours okay there's two federal agents here which means you wouldn't take the chance that there was a kidnapping and not have my money so if you don't produce it immediately I'm gonna walk into that Lobby and I'm gonna tell these people that I can't get my money out and we'll see how long that takes to go viral and you get a good old-fashioned run on this Bank it changed the way in which I performed the character because I knew I would just be noting myself I could I could I could be super subtle in this scene cuz I know I'll be in the editing room and I'll be able to kind of make sure I steal that look which means I don't have to lean into that line or I can cut that line and I'll play it with less be nice so that was kind of the excitement of that drive so let me get this you're in front of the camera editing just looked away I won't you guys are all talented enough to know what I'm talking about where you're you're you're sort of playing with shading something or juxtaposing a line with a look and you just hope that either the director the editor are gonna kind of see that and either use that and or make sure that the music doesn't doesn't overdo it and now you look like you've overplayed the line there's a lot of trust cuz there's so much more work downstream and and then the shooting and so that's that's the exciting part of this first when you hit them and tell them that you know in your head the biggest surprises of doing more film and TV stuff of late is the fact that you know because in theatre it's it's kind of all in the actors hands for better for worse and even with this [ __ ] with the American crime story there was so many times where I was like man look a lot better than I remember being I was great or conversely where I go gosh I you know there's that music cue that is much more terrifying and I remember being you're in a quiet room playing a scene in a very quiet moment all of a sudden it's cool and it's great like wow this is really intense and scary I don't remember it being that way and there's so many things are out of your control I and I envy that ability is sort of being really fun but again trust you trust the people you're with and I'm pleased as punch I'm also not trying to throw anybody under the bus you don't like my music you what makes you uncomfortable is not sure or their lines you won't cross things you won't do whether it's whatever it is to say I was on Oz so clearly but that was god bless Tom Fontana I know I'm looking up he's joy you know the thing that he always always bragged on about that show was that his actors were courageous you know and we were just a bunch of young dumb asses that that signed up I mean I was one of the older guys you know most of us had a theater background and and and here we were on HBO and trying to pretend to be tough guy huh everybody except Chuck Zito who you know was the only actual tough guy and we just you know as directed you know we just we just went where he pointed us and and there was there was one time in 56 episodes where Tom actually called me ahead of time to say I want to know if you're okay with it and this was in like season four and I'm like okay well you've had me rape men you've had me murder man you can tattoo man you've had me crucify man face oh my god and he said and that I said what the hell do you want me to do he said I want to do a musical lips oh really it was an episode where because because what I don't know he let people go do their thing you know somebody got it and Harold Perrineau had an opportunity to go do the Matrix movie huh Harold was our Greek chorus he was the man in the box right so he had to do some other version of the Greek chorus and he and he decided he had a bunch he had a we had Patti LuPone we had Joel Grey we had all these like Broadway you know singers and so he thought all right that's that's what we're gonna do this year we're gonna Harold's going to be in Australia making money doing the big movie and the face doesn't get a phone call but through music but will you sing I was like had a very memorable episode of girls in the final season believe yeah with that easy yes what was what was that like on set did you have concerns yeah you know there's obviously this is you know I take my penis at the end of the episode when you say yeah in the conversation we go if I choose that took away the element of of great greater concern did you think it was real I knew it wasn't you know I think I mean that's your I think you're explicitly target specifically speaking about things that personally you're unreachable but I think in a service our way those are tied to sort of like grandeur challenges hopefully if it's done tastefully I mean if we're specifically looking at nudity but I think in general anytime somebody goes okay I have something that might make you I'm like bring it yep like what's what could possibly make you shaky like I'm interested in that yeah but the grain of salt obviously but you know it's dead but it is compelling to know what compels other people ya know so I know I've never had that happen to me personally if something's been approached I've been approached with something that was I want it's like two categories I think there's like scary scary and excited scary yeah sure like me dancing is scary and then like you know playing other parts is exciting scary challenging I'm like I didn't even dance at my own wedding oh I was up so obviously where the world has changed Hollywood world and the world beyond and in the last however many months whether you define it as the me2 era or the time's up era how is your perspective your conversations be it on set or off changed in that time I'm just gonna jump in there because that because I think the the perception I mean Hollywood is you know obviously a self-obsessed place and then the perception of this as a Hollywood issue you know is is the main thing that that I take issue with and I don't think I mean obviously having a heightened awareness of this and people being you know discovered and called on the carpet and and prosecuted you know presumably it is good for everybody involved except for the culprits who are deserving but it but it's it's way way way way beyond Hollywood and and anywhere where anyone is taking advantage of their position of power in order to usurp others is you know criminal and and and that's why I'm glad this light is is shining on that issue I mean one of the things that came out of it is the sort of discussion about pay parity is that a conversation you guys will start to have with with your producers with your co-stars do you feel a responsibility to be having those conversations I think the industry has become much more concept driven premise driven IP driven as opposed to star driven is even more of a fertile ground for the the the the no-brainer of parody it's like there's there's if they were ever saying well you know dudes bring in more audience than girls it's that's crazy always has been and now those idiots have even less of about stand up I was gonna say that I think any anything that affects the cultural landscape at all whether it's it's Hollywood or just in the world landscape what's interesting is the way that it's shaping the narratives that were interested in on the same way that you know when we were in wartime the way out that that shaped a lot of the narratives of films that during that time in the earlier half of the 20th century and how you know stories of you know KGB and American relationship you know these were things that were very hot button issues and things too that took that had a lot of popular interest in the 80s I mean in the same way we're seeing this wonderful rise of female voices in film and television and that's cool I mean that's the flip side of all of this I mean it's the the silver lining if you can call it that of this happening to being centralized a lot if in our industry is that we're an industry that tells stories and and actually has emotional weight and you know if you're working in a corporate setup hopefully there's infrastructural changes that are being made but things that you don't see on the front lines and in culture that can really affect the sort of next generation in an emotional way so uh so that's really cool I think that's been fun to see this kind of awakening and shift in the way we're prioritizing our storytelling in the way that more things will happen that will shift what we're interested in who's who gets the loudspeaker and it's cool I think it's going to the right people to a preparation process jeff god this was your first Western what was the preparation process like how long does it take to learn to ride a horse like that I had to train for three months just because I had read the scripts and knew that I was galloping through rivers with one arm and all itself I live in Michigan so I got a rodeo guy who trains the mounted the County Mounted Police guys so he was a real stop saying real life and so he got me so I could gallop and all of that and it's it's a whole well you get the rhythm and you're there and you got to look cool and you got it's all rhythm and then you get there and it's the Kentucky Derby as well as the Wranglers say he's going to be energized yeah thirty thirty horses up and over the wrists you're going up fifteen feet and then 200 yards yeah and they all think they're in the Kentucky Derby he said the horses think they're in a race so they're going and we had one guy first take first day first scene first morning flipped off the back of BAM I got there I hit the mark I made it and you can see the ambulance coming around from behind the cameras before they've said cut he's already concussion protocol because he said yeah I can ride again and the last second last day of shooting fell off the horse broke my wrist still broke broke broke a you have one more day of shooting so I'm on morphine that's how I act at 11:00 in the morning ten degree windchill in the middle of New Mexico and I'm sitting there and the wrist is like a steak knife is in the back of it and I also thought I tore my knee so I was just standing on a mark saying what I had to say on the last day of shooting with but you're recommending writing yeah yeah it's a Western is something to have done yeah yeah sometime to have done yeah but that the prep is yeah if it's I knew I knew I had to prep hard on that and because I did I I only broke a risk everybody flew off the horses even the Wranglers flew off I mean it happens just a matter [Music] complete the sentence I wish Hollywood would cast me as I feel like if I say and I jinx it no go oh I know every you know my goal is everything as a departure everything has to be what would be the thing now honestly get on a horse you know give me a sword and our armor our put me in it and a hat and in addition something genre II and totally off what I just did I mean yeah just something totally wacky that sounds great I think something different from whatever it is yes I just got done doing which you know I mean especially those of us who've been around doing it for a while you know most of us are here partly because we've been able to not get have to repeat ourselves constantly and then have been given the opportunities to play different kinds of characters their lanes that Hollywood seems to want you guys in same but different same but definitely there I think different lanes that different people want to see you in if there's enough different people that want to see you in the land they want to see you and then you you got multiple lights yeah yeah I'm really enjoying being in this one specific Lane which is the the audience is proxy like sort of just a normal guy that gets to inhabit the center of the story and and is your your lens through which you are observing and experiencing this odd plot or group of people or scary guy or funny guy I like to be us and maybe that's that's just an extension of my my my direction fascination right now but I'm really enjoying that as opposed to playing a bunch of different characters and maybe you know two years five years ten years whatever that'll change but that's I'm digging that right now having said that as soon as he said I said I'd love to play a woman it would be really I I would really enjoy it but like in or in a very real way I mean a Tutsi version of it would be pretty cool where there's there's there's a wink to it but then there's also the plane lands every once in a while and there's some real sort of introspection there not to suggest that that film needs to get redone which it should never but it will because that's the world we're living in now you just play the husband scenario versus you have the questions in there like I don't know what it is but uh I love animation so I think being able to like you know voice a pretty dope animated character would be a lot of fun I think that is so tough just to like bring through that emotion you know to sit in the you know in a studio and actually try to like you know embody animated Kari it's a trip because you're reliant on the animator down process to actually either match what you've done with your voice or or go against it it's it's it's this teamwork that you are you you're completely hands off it was guys are you obviously just come off a very long run yeah god I don't know I'm trying it back on the stage that's that's another one oh yeah yeah yeah very much so but what do you wish Holly they because she was very specifically for a long time I mean I've been telling this project made about the guy you know Griffith Park in LA the guy who gave Griffith Park to the observatory - yeah - Ellis was a Welsh guy Cole Griffith Jenkins Griffin and his life reads like the script okay and you can't get a man trying to get amazed okay so Hollywood I would like to get this one yeah I just it was literally just I have to mention this because just yesterday I was telling my friends what I was doing and my friends like ha Jason Bay we know he's you should play a woman he's but the answer questions like what you want to be cast as I feel like every project is a constant negotiation between what you want what you see yourself as against what people see what people think you're capable of and what you want them to know you're capable of it's always this dance between what how that launches off from the next project and it's interesting that that you are really that you're aware of the way that you are perceived and because yesterday's like Jason Bateman he's just like we were talking about Jimmy's story he was like he's just the ultimate Jimmy Stewart straight man he's like the 21st century straight man and he does it so well and with such variance but he's always in that and I was thinking like I don't think he would appreciate it if that was said to him but the fact that you're aware of that yeah something that you like is very cool to me I love it I love it because because without it there's a lot of stuff can't work so I like just the responsibility of interest out of that knowing who you are okay if you're looking at the landscape of the last year film or TV what was your favorite performance or one of your favorite performances not yours oh you can't you can't work with my favorite actor this I [Laughter] can think of the movie and but there were like a few different performances in the movie which was three billboards I mean Sam Rockwell I guess was just the first name out of my mouth yeah he took a big swing brilliant I just yeah squared it up Sam's been he always does his ball hard yeah he's great nobody doesn't like something Rob well it sounds like beloved by acquiescing woody every yeah yeah well I mean having everybody down looking really really I mean they're they're really good you could name five six seven eight after a project it doesn't mmm this is so tough is nothing that it not the one I'm looking for I'm going back to New York in May and I'm looking forward to seeing Denzel you know it's nice man looking forward to seeing three tall women and seeing Glenda Jackson badly head Billy Crudup it's just incredible as one-man show I mean those these are things you don't want to hear know that that works too if your co-stars were going to describe you in a few words that's what they'd say they might Oh God candlelight force delight both of you and I hope it's favorable yes yeah I'm still thinking of performances that I like this pass yeah when you run on a show right it starts at the top you set the tone right you try but news and I cringe about newsroom was so demanding from a dialog standpoint I don't know about Americans but it was we were loaded loaded yeah there was no room for not knowing it in a good way I mean you know like you know today Shakespeare drown if you aren't completely off book for every single day every single episode for seven months you're studying for the finals for seven months that's what you have to do so at being number one on the call sheet which there is a responsibility in that you come in and you stand there at 6:30 morning with no sides going and still who's with me yeah and you find out real quickly on that show yeah because of the amount of dialogue that that's the only way to do it and on day two all the sides were going hmm and that was all those theatres April Sadowski and pill and all those people were just Sam I mean they Oakley that's what we're going to do great so that's a harder place to go to work because it's not going to be tolerated if you come in and you don't quite know it especially in a scene with me cuz I'll chew you up oh I will yeah we just just based on not maliciously but just out of pure now I'm not ready you're gonna get exposed because gonna bury you knows what he's doing yeah I'm gonna bury it cuz this is my show I said this is how we do it here I don't care what you do elsewhere yeah this is how we do it here and it worked we had a couple day players who came in and the flop sweat started because they didn't quite and and it's for their own benefit yeah ten pages sort of know it and of course yeah Michael you've said you've come you and you you've done the backstory that you have notebooks and notebooks full of backstory yeah right uh Mead notebooks like I have like a whole bunch of like a diaries of all my characters from like the earliest memory to the page one of the scripts and everything would what I ate what's my favorite color what was my experience if yeah there's have any siblings what their relationship is like you know I how is he treated at school what you know just just literally the most colorful imagination that you can have for each character that fits you know and then you actually you know you talk to the director whatever his idea for the character is and it's a kind of a collaboration and you just kind of just just make it up you know and this kind of gives you you know contextually what to go to if you ever get lost you know so like you know if you're in a specific scene and you're feeling you know lost and you're trying to find it I'll just write on the back of sides like what I did that day that morning before or whatever the hell is with that character all my character's perspective POV in that I just found that for me um the easiest way to kind of stay locked on to what - who else playing which is awesome first of all I mean great you know taking your work seriously it and and in a feature you know where you're where you're collaborating with your director in your writer you know that's that's a beautiful thing to be able to do and when you when you have that because I do not as I mean it's varied you know a by project and by sort of whatever period in my in my life but when you're doing that in long-form storytelling you know when you're doing you know broadcast news or Oz or you know whatever it is you're you create that backstory for yourself and then in episode 34 you know they write something you go oh [ __ ] okay yeah didn't you get the back story that I wrote it no books makes total sense I guess that's only been four characters that I've played in that case yeah yeah when you know beginning middle and I think that makes sense all right we're ending with if you could go back and tell your younger self I'm starting out in this industry what would you say what's the advice you would give what would you well don't do it oh yes sciences I wish that I hadn't bought the attitude that I should have been renting there are peaks and there are valleys and and how you enter into that valley dictates how you get out of it your ability to get out of it as far as confidence and self-esteem and identity and and if that is wrapped up into your ability to be employed then things could be challenging because you can't control that and it's it's not a meritocracy you know so if you're really good at what you do you can't count on being hired so whatever confidence you have should be you know substantiate it by something above and beyond you know getting hired sure yeah I have no idea I mean I'm I'm still comparatively new at this and I'm constantly learning so I feel like I've made it this is a bit of a cliche answer but I've made all the right mistakes you know so like I wouldn't want to disrupt the the time continuum by a by by by by rerouting it I feel like all the things that I did got me to this round table with you guys I mean like I'm you've all been the contributor to my career as an actor so as I feel okay his younger self is 11 I would I would tell him not to let the business kill the love for why you got into it and you haven't though oh no there's that media there I to the college kids sometimes and I'd referenced Aaron cuz he went to university initials on that but you can't teach him about the rejection you can't prepare him for that and the end we're gonna go with someone else you know the cottage just and you you the bitterness the depression the day all that stuff that that comes because of the peaks and valleys of a career don't let it kill the love for between action and cut hang on to that because you're gonna need that that's what I would tell them yeah you haven't screwed up hard enough yet maybe more mistakes and when you do fail and when you do good actor that you were before that came on hang on hang on to that I know I'm sorry I'm gonna buddy because I know my glib response to what would I tell my younger self about what it would be to don't do it but but honestly and this is I'll give credit to the guy that I first heard say this was Mark Ruffalo who said I I would I would I would look my young you know aspiring actor in the eyes and see it'll be okay whether that means you're gonna have this fabulous career and become Mark Ruffalo and become a you know a lot of you know actor who you know or not you know or end up going a different direction but it's it'll be okay yeah thank you guys thank you thank you hi I'm JK Simmons pace Michael B Jordan thank you for watching The Hollywood Reporter The Hollywood Reporter The Hollywood Reporter round tables on YouTube

Channel: The Hollywood Reporter

Views: 1,353,807

Rating: 4.9322462 out of 5

Keywords: thr, the hollywood reporter, roundtable, close up with the hollywood reporter, close up, jason bateman, matthew rhys, michael b. jordan, darren criss, hollywood, close up with thr, thr roundtable, thr roundtables, farenheit 451, hollywood reporter, actors roundtable, ozark, jeff daniels, godless, looming towers, j.k. simmons, entertainment, counterpart, assassination of gianni versace american crime story, the americans, actors, celebrity, interview, celebrities, tv, emmy, drama, 2018

Id: HZ8H29-lpu0

Length: 60min 32sec (3632 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 10 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/CarcosanAnarchist]

Man, I’m am so proud of Criss. I just wish a few of the other Starkid crew managed to break through like he has. Especially Joey Richter and Lauren Lopez.

[u/Galoofy]

The moderator is great! She leads the conversation but also lets it naturally run its course. One of the least intrusive/annoying moderators I've come across in these types of events.

Wish Matthew Rhys was a little more talkative here but other than that minor quibble I really enjoyed this convo. Interesting and entertaining to listen to.