Full Actors Roundtable: Robert Downey Jr., Paul Giamatti, Mark Ruffalo, Colman Domingo & More

I know we made a good piece of Television like I know that and I know it wasn't because of the budget it was because of the story it was because of the heart it was because of of the commitment to it and so you don't need to make a movie for $670 million for it to be good I know that for a fact and and a lot of us come from that that truth thank you hey welcome to offs script with The Hollywood Reporter I am your host Ivan orgy here at the Georgian Hotel hotel in Santa Monica California today we are serving up some hot takes with six aess actors from some of this year's award contending films you're about to hear from Coleman Domingo of Rustin Robert Downey Jr of Oppenheimer Paul Giamatti of the holdovers Mark Ruffalo of poor things Andrew Scott of all of us strangers and Jeffrey Wright of American fiction they are on the record but just little off script with The Hollywood Reporter over to you Scott thank you Ivon it is truly a pleasure to have with us these six actors who did such outstanding work in 2023 films and I want to begin by establishing the fact that there are a lot of connections at this table some of which the general public is well aware of some of which even you guys yourselves may not know because these started early in your career so I'm going to just mention a few movies and if the people people who were part of these hear stuff I don't want to hear 1998 25 years ago Mark Ruffo and Paul Gatti you were both in safeen do we have any memories of that nice stash bro that's it that's the best the movie there you go now that same year 25 years ago Paul Giamatti and Andrew you Andrew Scott were both in Saving Private Ryan how is that even possible yeah I was the guy in green I loved him nice work oh [ __ ] I didn't even know I didn't know that either because we were together subsequently 10 years after that the same two gentlemen John Adams sure John Adams I was the guy in the powdered way that's now Mark Ruffo and Jeffrey Wright almost 25 years ago angle Ride With the Devil any memories of of that that true story yes I lied about being able to ride a horse I remember I remember very vividly walking past you you were tied to a fence post if I'm not mistaken that's right Beautiful Beginning I Remember Now Paul you and Coleman Domingo in 2013 all is bright oh yes yes legendary all is bright that old CH that really yeah wow it's a Christmas movie it's very dark yeah now Paul and Jeffrey dark Christmas movie both in Lady in the Water 2006 and the eyes of March 2011 wow so there may be some uh memories there everything okay you're like the American Michael Kan can you speak to that now Robert and Mark here at the end of the table it started with 2007's zodiac and then there was a whole bunch of movies slow uh company called Marvel I believe you guys were together were you in that oh wow yes after I convinced you that's true though right you were lobbying for Mark to do it I wouldn't be here today without you really in so many ways and finally I will note that this year not only uh is Coleman Domingo terrific in rusting but so is Jeffrey right so there's two right up through the present it's our first time working together that's crazy really yeah so you're not only here because of your great work but you're also here of your great work in the project he's I'm just following Coleman's got two two going now we're going to get into these 2023 performances of each of you but um I want to First go back and ask each of you about sort of a a pivotal Turning Point a decision in your career that maybe laid the groundwork for the uh eventually having a year like you had in 2023 and Robert maybe we can start with you your late father who you made this wonderful uh documentary senior both with and about he was a pillar of the indie film Community you started out very much in the Indie art housee uh scene but there was this moment when you're approached by Marvel about Iron Man because of your background in indie film did you have any hesitation about taking them up on that so my dad raised me in this environment of to be growing up was to be making movies and then doing this documentary about him and then my Mrs who produced it with Chris Smith having the tenacity to tell me that I had to follow through with it and not try to do a puff piece at all because our our history was so complicated that was really a big turning point and then shortly after that Nolan called so you never know what happens when you realize if you deal with the things in your life that are so small but so important it kind of opens gateways for the stuff that we think as important you know or maybe perceived as important you've said and I'm going to quote quote back to you I was raised in a that rebelled against the idea of a summer blockbuster having any Merit I'm happy that I regained my connection with a more purist approach to making movies most recently with with Oppenheimer but before I mean just this idea of stepping into that world was it jarring no because anyone who knows John favro knows that he is I mean I remember seeing swingers and just that monologue he has and I was like and he wrote this I was like who is this guy because there was no real assurity that this was even going to take off Iron Man was like second tier hero they kind of let the lunatics run the Asylum for a little while and we so it was a completely an indie approach to a a genre movie to begin with but I've seen that in all the films this year there's this thing happening I would say particularly this year where I feel like many of us are afforded this opportunity to kind of like there's a little subversion within the accessibility that I so appreciate Coleman let's go back if we can to I believe 2005 you're in newor York away from where your family was based friends I think you're bartending struggling to find acting work and you decide to sort of take matters into your own hands right what can you tell us about oh wow this onean show that really sort of turned things around man I well I was a a bartender at a bar in the West Village called the 55 bar I would do whatever play that I can do and then run across town and finish my start my shift at 9:00 and go until 4:00 in the morning and then when I wasn't working I was writing and I was trying to create something for myself because you know just you just a frustrated artist and um between like when things when things would clear out about 1:00 in the morning I was writing and I was putting on music and I was sort of writing about what was happening in my life both my parents were suffering from different illnesses and they lived in uh Virginia and I was just you know still just trying to you know figure things out I lived in a terrible situation illegal sublet and everything so I was just you know hustling New York story it's such a New York story oh yeah so I started writing and I started writing what was going on and about the music I was putting on I I really still can't to this day remember if stories came first or the song came first but I was putting this thing together that eventually I I'm one of those people like if you give me a space I will figure out something to do so the owner said um hey Coleman I want to do some theater some projects on Sundays you have anything I'm like yeah let me try this stuff out so I would do weird things like serve fried chicken and put on music and it's weird I would make it like sort of like a salon and then I would I would read these pieces and so I read them and then friends of mine was say I think what is it I'm like is it a play what they're like I think it's a solo show you're the event and you have to follow this through I started working with that and I worked with the director and it became a show called a boy in a soul when it started out it was about like how music was helping me to find different moments and anchor me in certain things and part of sort of keeping your records keeping your soul your song music then eventually my parents passed away they passed away while I was finishing this uh they both passed six months apart and the show was the thing that became the gift that kept on giving I found I found my voice I feel like as a as a writer and I started perform performed at the vineyard theater in New York and and in London and in Australia and it really gave me more grounding of like who I was and what I could do and so I really created this thing where I played my family members myself and all that and and it felt like it's something that I wanted to be in conversation with with audiences like how how do we do it how do we move through grief how do we build when there's nothing but it really I don't know then I was solidifi as a playwright in New York and um people started to see me as the artist that I was because I've always been a character actor and so I would play seven characters literally at one time so so so that was fun and wonderful and it really gave me some new footing for my career um and then it's the thing that I think is the greatest gift that I learned from that is to create something uh not only for myself but for others so if like it gave me more agency in this industry and you you worked at the 55 bar yeah we we we might have done some work together prior to ruson and I spent a lot of time at the 55 I was bartending there I was there for for four years lot of good music there a lot of great music there yeah Andrew the math doesn't add up because I don't know how it's possible you're making movies 25 years ago you look so uh youthful great yeah I came but I think it makes the it hammers home the point like this is I think there certain people who flipped on season 2 of flea bag and it became this phenomenon the the hot priest and they thought this is like a a new guy uh you'd been doing this for a while and I wonder when that moment happened where suddenly there's unprecedented levels of interest in you how did you handle it personally and then also in terms of choices because you could have uh probably done more things than ever before in that moment how did you decide what to do I don't know I've always found like I started out really young I was 17 or 18 when I was at the ABY the National Theater in Dublin and I don't whatever it was when I was very young I remember being offered a part after I'd done maybe two plays and I was only a little skit of a thing and I was like I don't really want to do that and I was I think I was still living at home so maybe I felt like I don't want to do that again and quite early on I suppose this word is courage go I don't want to just play the same note if I don't have to because it always seemed to me that what's of value to you is to be able to play as many different kind of notes as as as you could and so all the time where I wasn't sort of more what's the word I suppose recognizable I never felt like I was failing really I was always just so delighted to be to be working and then I suppose when you get a bit more choice I never really think that I was I'm kind of was winning or you know wasn't really that particularly different except I do think there's a kind of thing that I think a lot of actors have which is a sort of quiet thing where you I love that thing that that Merill Street says and she's a Great Hero Of Mine which is to sort of pack your own suitcase you know that even if you're not getting the opportunities that you decide what you're going to put in your suitcase and even if someone isn't asking you to go on holidays you got your little bag you got it there and you go and so when some an opportunity comes up you go I recognize them I've packed for that slightly and and I think I think I think it's it's a kind of it's a beautiful thing isn't it and and uh and I I suppose then you just have a thing inside and you just go I don't want to do the same thing again and that's it is it's a cliche but I do think that's our biggest power is we to say no I'm just not going to do that again for those for the wrong for the wrong reasons so it was beautiful don't get me wrong but I don't know to try and keep it keep it keep it level Paul long before American Splendor sideways Cinderella Man John Adams private life billions all the stuff that you know many people know and love you for you're a a guy recently out of the ale School of drama you've done from Broadway and then the film opportunities you were making the most of them but I don't imagine that at the beginning the dream was if I may just remind uh Pig vomit in private parts or an orangutan in uh in the Planet of the Apes when for you oh that was a dream that was a no that was that was a that was the strange fulfillment of a deep dream seriously to be an orangutang to be an ape and Planet of the Apes it was was if that had been it for me I would be I would die happy well this is where I could believe I was going to be able to play a talking arang T and my agents were like don't you want to be a human so they can see your face and I was like if you tell them I want to be a human I'm going to burn the agency I was like who wants to be the human in Planet of the no that was a huge like you know and then what was the role that was in your mind kind of the the thing that I'm sure maybe you had something like it in your mind when you're going through the training that I've just talked about I actually think I mean you say pig vomit and you laugh but it's like I that was such a crazy being fired out of the craziest cannon in the world it was I couldn't believe I was being allowed off the chain like that you know I just been in a drama school where it was like I was it was very confining and and it always felt terrible confining I mean look at me man I'm not like a Shakespeare guy and stuff like that I I tried but I I felt very confined a lot of the time and I got out and I got this opportunity to do something it was absolutely bananas and it was like there was no top on the thing it was it spoiled me in a lot of ways because I thought oh this is what this is like doing a movie is can actually be like because Betty Thomas I mean we rehearsed a lot she was incredibly caring it was like the camera guys were wonderful Howard stern was great I mean he was lovely and it was like and I got to do the dumbest accent in the world and like there was nothing I could just go bananas so I felt really freed coming out of something and I just it felt theatrical too she made all literal space so you could just get Huger and Huger and crazier and crazier and it was just fantastic wow yeah well Jeffrey uh you start out really uh on most people's radar probably with Angel in America winning Tony for that on Broadway you come out with basat in your first film role and within about 5 years though you have said that your attitude towards basically the business if we can generalize really had changed and your priorities the things that you were interested in doing as an actor as a person totally got upended can you just explain cuz it does seem from the way you've talked about it that there was a before and after what happened this is what I've learned and we spoke about this a little earlier this is the thing that I have come to Value above all other things in in this stuff that we do and it's the collaboration it's the people that that I have the opportunity to do it with I learned that because early on there were some collaborations that uh you know might have been uh uh better diplomacy throughout and it's you it comes with u you know with the territory in terms of the lessons that you're you know you're required to learn and eventually you get through it but yeah there were some you know where I'd walk into a place and go yeah o this is not my beautiful house you know this is not what I expected you know when you talked about being in this environment that was supportive and that was creative and spontaneous and that it was like I found myself a couple of times in some really what I thought were very cynical places and I think the way that I kind of um was able to articulate it at the time was that these were places that rooms that aspired to be dumber than what was possible within the room and I was like oh wow man this is kind of weird um yeah kind of pulled back but also there were other priorities and other considerations that you make in terms of what you want to do like you know oh wow there's a human being that was just born into my life you know and a lot of work in Africa uh there was a lot of work that I yeah that was a part of you know let me you know it kind of Drew Me In I was trying to find something else that was um I had interests going back to you know college in um in in in issues that were related to the work that we were doing and so I kind of got drawn in and and it but it felt very creative at the same time in fact the first time that I went to Africa though speaking of grounding which is kind of related to what we're doing here was when I went to the Venice Film Festival um with bosot in 96 and I was like oh man okay this is all this stuff and you know this here's the here we guys said so I said to uh I said to the producer at the time I said okay fly me to Sagal fly me to dhar cuz I've never been to Africa I've never been to Europe before so fly me to darar and I'll meet you in Venice in a week you know so that that place was always there I kind of wanted to like kind of invade Europe like a Moore or something like that so there was always that you know there was always that Temptation and I think maybe always a bit of the suspicion of you know some of the the trappings of what we do you know um it's a much simpler thing at its core but it's surrounded by things that sometimes are not so simple mark it sounds like you had your own period of kind of questioning things around 08 09 2010 where as you put it you pretty much had had it with acting and shed a lot of the things that agents and representatives of All Sorts what was going on that made you step away and then what made you I think with the kids are all right come back in relation to what um Jeffrey was talking about was you know there's you have your dreams um of it and then those start to become realized but they're not what you thought it was going to be at some point you know it gets away from you and next thing you realize is like you're it's the all about the business and someone's idea someone else's idea of your career that really didn't have much to do with what your idea idea was and then you lose what your idea was of what your career was going to be and I was already feeling that way and then my brother passed away and I uh it passed away just before I was going to direct a film um that I've been working on for a long time and during the course of that I was like I don't know if I want to go back to acting I kind of feel more much more comfortable here in this place you know just the the WTH of creativity that opened up to you as a director you're working with all the you know the department heads you're working with music you're working with movement you're working with the camera you're it was just it was like a feast of um creativity I got a great part the kind of part of movie that I I wanted to do and I was like this is going to be my last acting gig and it was the kids are all right and I was just like [ __ ] it I'm going to do whatever I want here I I'm I don't there's no rules anymore more I don't have to be anybody for anybody else and so I just kind of just did what I wanted with it and it was really freeing feeling and we went to Sundance and I had my the movie I directed premiered and then two days later the kids are all right premiered and I was sitting in that audience and I was like this experience is so honest this movie is about something so important at a coming into the world at a moment you know about gay marriage when all of these people were voting on gay marriage and it was saying you know we're the same and and there's no difference between straight marriages and gay marriages and it did it in a funny way that was just a human story that people could all relate to and I heard it in the laughter like the laughter tells you everything you know the laughter and the silence right and I heard everyone laughing whether they were straight or gay or whatever the religion was their background everyone were all laughing at the same thing and I was like that's what I want to do that's that's why I came here and then no one was like hey do you want to make another movie you want a five picture movie deal as a director and so I like um I oh I found my way oh there's a there's a little a little glimmer of a the path go there go there young man go there and that was kind of yeah having talked a little bit about the foundations that may have uh somewhat shaped the the decisions regarding these 2023 performances let's get into those and Jeffrey you work very selectively which is a that's a great thing and so I wonder though here's a guy CT Jefferson who's a terrific TV writer succession the good place one and Emy for Watchmen who says he wants to make his feature directorial debut how does a firsttime filmmaker convince you to sign up to collaborate with him in this case to play uh a college professor who has been told that the reasons his books are not selling is because they are not quote unquote black enough and then decides to try to write one that is I believe the book that is based on persal ever Sera talks with this idea about him the narrator hating WR hating stories that are about writers as he writes the story cord had taken that book and adapted it into this script that he gave me and uh yes uh uh you know it's a story about a writer it's a story about someone who uh does all of those things you you said but it was first it was like really just beautifully drawn the architecture was like so sharp you know it was clear that cord knew his way around a story but what really drew me in wasn't like kind of that like for me first level stuff I mean it's glittering it's it's it's satirical it's great for me it was the the story of this man who's all of a sudden burdened with the responsibilities of family I mean you guys have talked about you know how these things affect my mom passed not too sure not too long before I got that script and so it was uh you know the caretaking yeah of the one who was once caretaker that for me was what the story um how the story resonated that's what like plucked me I said I know that story I know that man and I know the difficulties and the sacrifices that that asks not only like creatively professionally but also personally and you know I can play that music and may you know maybe it'll be helpful to me and maybe and maybe uh you know someone else I don't know but um yeah it's not all the you know it's not it was just that and also I think in some ways that that is the most subversive aspect of the film because it really is a portrait that I'd never been asked to play Within before a portrait of a goofy mad you know dysfunctional at times functional loving frustrated but together family that happens to be black it's you know it's a family that's what that really is what the neon is pointing to that's the meal for me so you know yeah it was easy to say yes to that nice uh Paul it's been 19 years since you and Alexander Payne made the terrific movie Sideways I know there had been conversations about maybe doing other things over the intervening years but here we are he comes to you with the holdovers in which you're playing this boarding school teacher cranky guy who is made further cranky by having to spend the holiday break with a a grieving cafeteria worker and a and a grieved student was the fact that it was Alexander coming back uh and asking you to do this enough or did was there something um particularly about this character where you said I'm particularly gungho to do this well yeah I mean him coming back and saying I want to work again was pretty good I mean I would have done pretty much anything for the guy but he was showing me this script as it was coming along and he said you know I'm writing this thing for you and I kept saying he smells like fish he's got sweaty Palms he's got a crazy eye you know and all of that I was saying all of that all of that's wonderful and it was great and you know but he kept saying and I've been thinking about it you know he was writing this for me it was an extraordinary thing to be able to work with a friend and the story had a lot of resonances for me but that I think he knows about cuz he knows me and so it was something I was drawing in a deep well well of my past which almost made I was saying made me feel like it wasn't work in some strange way but I I think the thing that I thought was really amazing about it was it's a Christmas story it's genuinely A Christmas Story and because it's about selflessness ultimately these people all act selflessly towards each other so they can take a next step towards something it doesn't get resolved because he doesn't make movies that resolve very easily you know and it's like we don't know what's going to happen but they get a little bit forward but I thought this guy was very interesting it was very familiar to me to see this person who constructed this incredibly elaborate Persona you know and he's got all of these ideals and he's he's put together this whole kind of [ __ ] shtick you know and to watch somebody start to drop their stick but what's great about his movies is the mask goes away but it doesn't totally go away and it's so [ __ ] great the line of what he walks but to watch somebody watch all of these people in this thing lose their stick a little bit and connect and we were talking I was saying it's like you watch people just shed their [ __ ] and start to connect and I just thought this is beautiful and beautifully done so you know and yes I smell like fish and all that stuff but it was like was that was just a covering his f c yeah exactly exactly yeah well Mark uh you with poor things are signing up to join director yorgos Lanos writer Tony MC actress Emma Stone who had all previously done the favorite now they're getting back together and they need a guy to come in and play Duncan wurn a narcissistic ladies man who has an accent an attitude he's just such a colorful character and I wonder for you when the opportunity arose is it on one level intimidating to be joining that group of folks who are is it and then also I mean how what a fun character though yeah I uh I was like yo say I don't think I'm the right person for this yeah I tried to talk him out of it and he just laughed at me yeah it was just nothing that I'd ever I mean you know we a lot of us did come from theater right so you know when you're in theater no one ever is like oh you can't go from romantic comedy tragedia and you know like it just but but like in the movie business you started you started you feel like you're you're a little bit in a in a box sometimes and but I never played anything like that either and and I was scared I mean I saw his movies and I was in awe of them so I was really scared and he just laughed at me and so I was like okay it was such a great turn and I get to do so much fun stuff in it and uh break all the perceptions of me or what people want from me or you know you start to do something and people you you like all all a sudden Springs up a brand or whatever Persona yeah and um I got to bash that Robert I guess it's not a totally different situation with Oppenheimer where you are as Lewis struss but it's been a few years since you've played this type of a a character and I want to read you something that Christopher Nolan has said and then ask you to react if you would sure can you say it in accent please not not a good enough I'll try to make it register anyway here we go quote he's one of our great actors and though a generation of kids know what a great movie star he is they've not seen his subtlety and Brilliance I wanted to get him to do something completely different to lose himself in another human being when was the last time we've seen that chaplain directors are very aware of how talented Downey is but because of his incredible energy that can punch through the screen finding the right thing for him is difficult close quote do you think that's uh what do you make of that well first of all I didn't write that um Jeffrey said it it's it's all so small like there's all these trappings oh what's this and here's the genre and here's the character and here's what happens in the story you go no I made my decision based on this thing that nobody would ever know if I didn't tell them and that's almost always it I think you know he called a call from Nolan is a thing he asked me to come over and read the script on red paper with black type which was like doing sudoku while drowning and um but I read it and it was written in first person I was like this is this is masterful and I just thought the meditation for me was on that horrible thing that I I'm just going to venture a guess and say we all tend to do which is comparison comparing my insides to someone else's outsides how they're perceived they're special they're this and that and particularly in the context of that time period Hot War Cold War you know this is why this affected the way my parents counterculture was so anyway to me it was a it was it was a logical thing from senior going back into what is this thing that my dad's generation rebelled against and it was like a 100 people making a watch together every day and uh you know it's fun to realize what you're becoming accustomed to like it's okay so just a let's talk about my perks there are none okay well hold on a second you can have $300 a day to spend it however you like I was like that's my d cleaning bu so first of all I think you know maximum humility is where we get that spot whether we can choose to do it or the situation requires it's like you should be scared you should have approach anxiety to this because this is real [ __ ] if you do it right like I've seen this year you know like I've seen I love that you were saying it was a meditation on Grief and caretaking that's what I saw and dude what you were able to do with this thing of the horror wish fulfillment of being able to actually go back and talk to that which bore you and this Fable you did in this history where you constructed this character so just masterfully I mean dude a guy who wants to be freed but doesn't even know that he's trapped and and by giving and giving and giving he's it's his salvation it's like [ __ ] so it's always small Coleman you did 2020 film Mar's black bottom for George C wolf a guy who Jeffrey knows quite well as well works all the time I know him fairly well yeah George C wolf is looking to cast the part of by Russen who is unfairly kind of not remembered as much as he should be this is a black gay civil rights leader who was the principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington so he comes to you you had one an Emmy for Euphoria you'd been Tony nominated for acting in the Scots World boys and producing Fatam you'd been in important movies like Lincoln and Selma but you had never been offered the chance to be at the top of a call sheet of a film prior to this so what did it mean to you when that opportunity came from George I had to learn deeply the principle of being in service and just in service to the story and that's what any journeyman has learned that it's not about the size of the role but it's about how do I help serve a function in the theater y'all know who the equity Deputy is it's usually me thank you where's my I appreciate it and that's exactly it that's the thing I've always I've always been the equity Deputy I've always been the one that had to look out for the other actors or or throw the parties or bring people together so it's a skill set that I've had deeply so when Rustin came along I knew that had to tap into that that part of service that part of service of making sure that I looked after the whole and I also took a leadership role and you know that role took everything I was I was able to give honestly there's those roles that we we we I don't know if we wish for but we hope for that we were able to give everything and I know that I've I've given everything in the in the 32 years that I've been in this industry from Regional Theaters to Off Broadway to writing to direct you name it it's in this film it called on everything that I had and more than anything it called on my spirit that truly believes in service and trying to be make sure that people feel heard and seen and that we're doing it in in a heartful mindful way because that's what the character by Rustin did he gave his life his life was about being in service to others and then history put him in the shadows and I thought it was my opportunity to really bring him out fully and construct a complex character that's loving and interesting and intelligent and messy and wild but spirited you know because I know that this film can have an impact I know who I am in a room and what I can do and what I can give and at the at the highest level I know that I'm a teacher and I'm in service to to work as an artist so it was truly my privilege to just give everything I could Andrew all of us strangers it's about a gay man living in present day London who visits his childh at home and finds living there the parents who he lost 30 years earlier very sudden you were basically being asked by Andrew he the filmmaker to play a version of himself this and I wonder if you can talk about both the idea that you're you're the person who you're playing is on the other side of the camera and also the sort of the challenges of that in particular where you know you're literally shooting in his childhood home I suppose I didn't really think of it like I was playing Andrew I felt like that we weirdly kind of co- parented the character considering that that's the sort of theme in the yeah in in the film um but I certainly looked to him he's like a comrade you know in in uh in in in the telling of the story and I suppose the challenge actually for me was to not pretend to be anybody else but to you know find out go back to a place where where I was and so it was sort of like a a marriage between our our two personalities and uh it was difficult because I I think I have a good imagination um but I think I but I think I do think I'm pleased with that because I do think that's the most I think it's the most important thing you can have as an actor that and and a sense of humor I really think that those they are the two things that well certainly for me that you keep going back to but there was a duality to because there's two sections to the to the film and one of them is about going back to Childish feelings and the other one is about very adult almost physic falling in love yeah and so how do you sort of do that without um making that being a boyish kind of gross or I don't know like gilding the Lily somewhat but uh because he was so generous in filming it in its family little Suburban home with one camera it's such a vulnerable thing to do and I could tell that uh all the brutality that comes within families accidental or not really was raw for him and I think he sees that in me and we were very sensitive with with each other and I could tell if I was affecting him that that M that really really mattered to him because he's not a Sentimental uh person but uh it's sort of shamelessly about the the tenderness of um of of families and the tenderness of love and the it's very feels very vulnerable so when I because because of the strike we didn't get to ever see it with a with an audience and we went to see it the first time the other night with with like 350 people and I was like I really did feel like oh God I feel like I was sitting there in the in the in the theater with no clothes on like um I was as well I just want to piggyback on there's so many times in in in this where it's that thing we're afraid of and you want to calibrate where you have to lose it you have to have these huge expulsions of emotion and you want them to be varied otherwise it just feels like you're hitting note number two so I want to know a the trust for that the intimacy the all that like that the risk factor I mean I heard that you trusted the guy but I'm just want to say but like how how did you navigate all that honestly I suppose uh I never thought that I would be able to be in a film to play that kind of character at least uh when I was growing up I was so obsessed with with films and acting in films um just watching great great acting and uh I suppose to be able to play a character just look what you what you just said there about I can play that I can play that music that's exactly the way I felt I feel like I can play those play those notes so I suppose the attempt it's like we were saying earlier I feel like is how do you not act how do you how do you not do that and I don't think he can really do that without some sort of support within the script I I just don't think or the other actors um and then I suppose you just let go and you you use your use your imagination don't we I don't know um but it's a weird thing is that sometimes with certain certain projects they just have magic some of them and you can work on things and you can feel real hope and uh huge love for them and they just don't and then some of them just you know just the light and it just ignites that's it's it's a strange thing isn't it one of the really beautiful scenes in this movie all of us strangers is when your character gets to come out to his parents who he was never able to do that to in real time and I I do want to bring up something that I think is fairly noteworthy which is and sadly still somewhat of a rarity even in 2023 but both Andrew you and Coleman you are openly gay actors playing openly gay characters who are at the center of important films to actors who may not yet be in a place where they feel they can be open about their sexuality worry that could hinder their prospects in this business do you believe that things have gotten better over the course of your decades in this business from the very beginning I've always been exactly who I was there was never a coming out story but also I thought that I always wanted to lead in rooms with my intelligence and kindness and what I do MH and it wasn't really something that was actually on the table you know in the beginning you're challenged because you you think you look around and you feel kind of rare like other people are sort of like hiding that aspect and I thought well why I remember somebody asked me this years ago and I thought it was a weirdest question after I work with um a very well-known director who's straight and some interviews said so how does um how does so- and so feel about you being gay it was the weirdest question I thought he's my brother he's like my brother what are you talk but also I was like what world do you live in you know what I mean so I just thought like what does that matter and I still feel that way I feel like you know being gay is just like one aspect of me but it's not everything and I feel like I've and I've never put limitations on what I do it's like I've had you know I play you played pimps I've played in The Color Purple I played Mis and but I also and maybe that's the thing I've always believed if I don't put limitations on myself this industry won't put limitations on me but if I'm walking around with the secret and hiding but I think you see that I need to be my fullest self to access everything you feel that way I I'm going to make a pitch for getting rid of the expression openly gay yeah yes hear me out here we go I'm with you it's an expression that we actually only ever hear in the media you are never at a party and you say this is my openly gay trans has that ever happened never you never say it not once why do we put openly in front of that adjective you know we don't say you're openly Irish you don't say you're openly left-handed whatever don't even say hi it's two steps away from sh it's there there's something that's in it that's a little near shamelessly you're sh you're open about it you know what I'm saying and I just you know I nearly prefer I nearly prefer Shameless I near I nearly I prefer that and sometimes I just feel like like if you got to say it to understand to understand it just say you know Ju Just say out possibly or you know what sometimes just don't say anything at all say I get it but I just I think there's something about it that that is you're you're openly get now I think it's just time to to sort of to sort of park it I mean and I think that's the the the strange thing exactly as you're saying representation is a wonderful thing but you know we're talking an awful lot here about transformation representation of transformation and look I wouldn't be here if if if representation hadn't um improved but I do think transformation is very important for actors we love it we love it when our our mother is reading us a story and she turns into a wolf and you go because it speaks to our empathy it speaks to our and I think it frightens us some sometimes to be able to sort of go okay well I can't because I don't have the same biographical um story as else that I can't think of because that's what connects us and I think there's a danger of of us all actually just being separated a little bit more because I think it's a dangerous idea to put a clamp on transformation because that's not the shouldn't be the priority the the priority should be clamping down on the Prejudice within our industry and looking at who gets to transform not the transformation itself wow yeah so so just that's my I don't want to offend anybody openly gay but bye-bye bye-bye see you late see you later I'm openly straight yeah exactly thank you for saying that shess I'm almost shamelessly straight Sho now I'm getting to the point where I can almost be Shameless heterosexual by default so another thing that may be shifting in our business I guess is the mid-range budget movie which some of these fall into but are becoming increasingly endangered there's you know the movies that I think EST you know were part of establishing many of the people at this table I don't know if they would be made today and I I'd love to hear your thoughts on that and also the repercussions of that is it is the fact that that project today May well be made on TV something that makes you more interested in doing TV or or just uh Mark take us away because I can just I saw you nodding a little bit and I think like I I don't know would you can count on me kids are all right we could go on and on are these would they be made today you know I do think the one one of the good things that came out of the strike was these interim Indie this kind of preferential um treatment towards interim Indie projects I went out and did one it was a 10 episodes of independent television for $5 million wow and that was about the so that's you know six hours of Television that was uh less than what we made you can count on me for or around the same and it was doable I mean it was a grind and I haven't done that in a long time but it was doable and they were able to give the actors everything that Screen Actors Guild had asked for the production company agreed to do it it wasn't like Breaking the Bank wasn't impossible and I do feel like what happened with streaming was was we all ran to do it because it was another kind of freedom and it was an economic freedom and it was directors and writers had another kind of Freedom that they didn't in the studio world right and and so we all ran to do it but what happened was it just created a vacuum in the Indie world and and now I feel like there's a chance to have this Resurgence of that and there's a more of a I hope more of a thoughtfulness about the possibility of that now now I'll I'll look at an indie picture much different than I did two or three years ago how so like I know we made a good piece of Television like I know that and I know it wasn't n because of the budget it was because of the story it was because of the heart it was because of of the commitment to it and so you don't need to make a movie for 6070 million for it to be good you don't you don't need that I know that for a fact and and a lot of us come from that that truth and so I hope that you know I didn't mind taking the I didn't mind working seg low budget I mean I can afford it you know but I didn't mind it did mhm let me add this too I think the model has to change and just recently like me and my partners we we produced a film called Sing Sing that premiered at Tiff and we kept the budget very low and want to tell you we kept it very low but we made sure it was Equitable for everyone every single every single person had a point that's what we did above the line below the line we sold it to a24 and we're selling internationally and it's like everyone feels a part of this so we keep it low but but it makes it Equitable for everyone so every Rises when we win and everyone gives a full heart and have some ownership if it does good they do we all do good okay why not it's a simple model isn't it fair it's simple you know exactly what it is ex everything's transparent every you know the problem with that though it's too much like doing the right thing right to much doing the right thing that's why that's why it's not industry standard you know I mean it's a very it's just shared Equity yeah I mean you can make a living but you can't make a killing but more make a living yeah yeah let's close with something that hopefully will be a little fun the worst audition that you ever went on I went in for a Dr Pepper commercial they came out in the hallway and they said okay you're the pi Piper and everybody wants to be like you and I just stood up and and walked so I didn't have a chance to be bad there you go who else right decision PA did you ever have something audition for one musical Once A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the for yeah and I just was like every time you came to that the you're supposed to burst into song I just started laughing I couldn't do it and I walked out of the room I was like I I just thought I can't do a musical but I'll go in I I just couldn't do it I couldn't do it was really embarrassing I've got a story this I don't know if it translates so well it may sound fairly entitled or something like this but maybe not so I I there was this role I'm not going to be specific there was this role based on on this book that was really interesting subject that was really interesting is being directed by this super uh well regged uh somewhat of a legend director you might be able to figure this out I don't know anyway so I'd read at audition a couple okay we're going to do a read through out in La I'm in New York great okay cool W this is good I we we fly on this director's plane his private plane where he's got a you know he's a part of a uh you know Syndicate or you owning the plane he wasn't wow but we fly we fly out with the TA number we do I'll tell you I'll tell you I'll I'll tell you why I don't know I'll tell you why I don't we get out we do the reading we're all gathered around that thing we do the reading okay I'm going I don't know how that went okay I go back to my hotel room I get a phone call yeah um so uh Jeffrey that was interesting I don't think you're going back on the plane we're going to fly you back SE no like oh okay commercial wow I commercial I have to fly first [Laughter] class yeah that was but that was that was a kick in the uh oh boy in the things okay ended up working with that director later like on something few years later but okay next one best piece of advice you've gotten from a fellow actor or at Le let's say most memorable piece of advice you've gotten from a fellow actor the best piece of advice I got from a fellow actor it was a pilot it was with James uh fantino and I had a little bit of a monologue and and I I didn't know it really well and he just turned to me and he's like learn your [ __ ] lines yeah yeah yeah yeah and I should have known better I did long day journey into tonight on in the in the theater and Donald muffett played um what's he called the the father and it's all about the frugality of of um drinking it's all about the whiskey bottle and the father's he's obsessed with how much people have some has somebody drunk his whiskey and I was doing the same you doing blah blah blah and he turned around to me and he said I don't believe the way you pour that was such a good note because I was pouring the [ __ ] whiskey in like as if where these people would have been and I remember 20 years old at the time and I was like what I don't even I couldn't even I couldn't even understand that that detail was but of course that's stuff that you have to think about that's not about what you're saying but about how you're behaving so um and uh so then like it was a good one which living actor who you've not worked with before would you most like to work with Coleman immediately I I thought Emma Stone oh yeah immediately I thought that she's so uh I I'm sure I can feel it I can feel that she's inventive and kind and generous and quirky and weird and you feel like she's going to just give you a gift every day and you're like how am I going to respond yeah yep y good good call she's Precious Precious artist yeah I wish I could have worked with Robert Duval I mean you you've worked with him right and yeah I wish I could have I mean I very old now so I don't know that I will but I wish I could have sure I'll say this Dustin Hoffman yeah mhm simply because when I started off doing this stuff it was like that he was like the guy that I you know from papon to uh you know to to to Midnight Cowboy to these transformative roles you know in which he you know he just you know he just refashioned a new every time that that that's what made it that's what I thought it was that this stuff that you know this acting stuff i' yeah I'd love to do that if you could change lives for a day with someone at this table just to see what it's like to be them who would it be and why really Coleman saying I do I think you're such a fascinating person I was gonna say I want to be the guy who's willing to be the EP de I'm serious I'm not kidding I was like I want to be you cuz I want to be that guy I want to be the guy was like yes [ __ ] it I'll do that you know me said the guy was like no no seriously I I'm serious I was like you because I want to be that guy I want to be that guy who's willing to do to do that no no no it would be fun to be Mr wri and just be in a psyche where I'm always capable of tying someone up like a pretzel with a thought if I need to put them in check oh boy oh boy sorry I I think you you know those those moves I projected them on you then so it would just be like i' be like oh my God that's the same place look at that would you mind swapping swap let's do it openly swapping openly swapping Let's Make a Deal let's make a anybody want to ratify this come on we have you all okay last two if you had not become an actor what would you be doing today oh my gosh I don't know I wanted to be an animator but I don't know yeah I that's what I wanted to yeah I know that's what I wanted to do but talk about something that's even harder than this and is even more crazy but I did want to be an animator whether I would have been I don't know but that's what I wanted to do I tried but it didn't work out I got into Johnson and Wales uh to be a chef actually that's what I wanted to be I really thought you I still I'm I think I'm a really really good cook I feel like I'm a good cook and I'm a great good host but also I want to be you I want to be this guy but it's funny already I'm thinking like that third Act of my life I feel like I want to investigate architecture I'm just an architecture nerd and I'm always thinking maybe I go back to school and learn that and do that when I'm like 70 you know I don't know yeah I started taking art classes of sculpture classes at the art students league in New York City I recently yeah and I love that and I um it gives me a lot of what I get from this and if that was a possibility I would throw that would be a good second act you know or teaching nice I'd love to teach maybe robertt if I wasn't an actor I would be doing a hard time I want know what crimes he would have committed though I trumped up felony possession again but I this this time it was on a Hummer these cops set up but still jury you know whatever judge got pissed off bench warrant oh [ __ ] I was the same guy from the other stuff so Ed a cumulative Ed it's really weird there's a there's a theme my mother was an art teacher on when I got my first film when I was 17 on exactly the same day it was a little Irish film on exactly the same day I won this burer to educate myself as a as a painter for like five years a big burer and I chose [ __ ] show business so i' go but you would do that I would definitely do that because it's so frustrating now I don't know if you do do you I don't painting yeah it's really it's really hard because if you don't exercise those muscles you lose them it's so frustrating but that's what I do that's what I do yeah uh you know I mean I I started acting my junior year college I was a political science major you I grew up in DC what else you going to do um my mom was a lawyer for the government um so that was the idea and probably if I weren't doing this I'd be a lawyer maybe I don't know maybe a a criminal lawyer I'd be I'd be uh i' be Robert I'd be your father I'd be I'd be defending now you can make a career it's a growth industry well guys on on behalf of The Hollywood Reporter thank you so much for all right so I feel like we learned a lot from today's round table first order of business please keep Robert Downey Jor GL as an actor because of the alternative not so great until next time I'm Ivan orgy and I am openly single and this has been off script with The Hollywood Reporter oh thank you have you been here the whole time oh

Channel: The Hollywood Reporter

Views: 810,948

Keywords: thr, the hollywood reporter, hollywood reporter, entertainment, hollywood, Andrew Scott, Robert Downey Jr., Paul Giamatti, Mark Ruffalo, Jeffrey Wright, Colman Domingo, All of Us Strangers, American Fiction, Rustin, Oppenheimer, Poor Things, The Holdovers, Close up with the hollywood reporter, the hollywood reporter roundtable, hollywood reporter roundtable, 2024, hollywood reporter roundtable 2024, the hollywood reporter roundtable 2024, hollywood reporter actors roundtable

Id: K_mMjGiChLs

Length: 57min 45sec (3465 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 11 2024