Mike Faist Interview: West Side Story

currently i'm in ohio with my family at the moment oh that's lovely yeah have they all seen the movie uh not everyone but we're getting there oh my gosh well you are fantastic in this movie just a total standout i've seen it twice now it's even better the second time the premiere was the other night audiences start to see it reception being fantastic what does that feel like yeah i don't know specifics because i tell people i i can't really like you know read into that stuff more like self-preservation you know like good or bad it's just like that but overall i hear it's going well and people like it and um you know i think what it is honestly for us uh making the film was very genuinely a wonderful experience um and it did come from a place of love making the film and so um the fact that it is being not just well received but i think um that energy is coming across the film uh and i think people are receiving that uh it's just affirming right that like we're not one we're not crazy like that experience was like magical for us um and that is coming across um and it's it's lovely i mean it's everything you could hope for you can feel it watching it somebody somebody said this and i think it's the most accurate thing is like i don't feel like i'm watching actors in a movie i just feel like i'm watching these people exist in this world like you really get immersed in it wow that's wonderful wow to back it all the way up when did you first hear they were recreating west side story and how did your audition process begin at this point okay this is how i found out that they were doing it it was uh i was doing dear evan hansen off broadway uh in new york and uh michael grife who's the director of that is very good friends with tony kushner and i think this was maybe previews or something and tony had come to see the show and came backstage and we were introduced and michael had said oh he's working on the new west side story and i'm like oh that's crazy cool well best of luck that was really good you know and that was at this point five years ago maybe yeah something like that um and then um gosh maybe longer i don't even know it might have been like six years ago now in a journey yeah yeah yeah that might have been a very long time ago and um i was leaving the show now and um cindy tolen's office called me in to audition and uh i think my first tape was in february of 2018 and then they called me back in in like june july to do another tape and finally it was november uh and i was doing an off-broadway play um at the time and they were saying hey come on in and read for stephen i just remember doing the play and going back you know going to work that night and telling my cast mates like i get to audition in front of steven spielberg tomorrow like i was very excited about that i wasn't you know thinking like i'm gonna book this thing i was like i get to audition in front of the man himself i'm very much looking forward to that and i had met steven once before he came back stage you know for um dear evan hansen when we were on broadway and he was lovely uh he he made a joke about you know loving a ghost story uh you know with that show and me and so you know but it was honestly the whole time it wasn't ever something that i had thought was going to come into fruition it sounds like he had you in mind so well you know maybe i don't know um i think i think it's honestly one of those things i keep saying like i think we as a cast especially the theater people oh cindy tolen uh uh a big favor for that because we're not movie stars we're i i keep using the term we're like blue collar theater actors you know and i mean like you know where well maybe you know but like to to i think it's interesting that stephen had went with um theater actors to portray these roles and do that and you know personally i owe cindy um i think the uh the the props in terms of making sure that we were all on his radar i saw this quote yesterday from spielberg i think it was entertainment tonight where he said he was considering delaying the movie just so that you could be in it yeah there was a there was a there's potentially some uh complications i we were it was that's so i had shot a pilot at the time and we didn't know whether or not the pilot was going to get picked up i remember at that audition after reading he he said mike why don't you you know stick around a little bit and he pulled his chair up right next to me and he said so what's the deal with this pilot i don't know i i have no idea what's gonna happen with it we just got done shooting it and i don't know if it's gonna get picked up he kind of like looked at me and was like searching in my eyes i think he was trying to see whether or not i was lying to him you know you know but i was like i genuinely don't know and later he told me you know that he was advised to not quote fall in love with me because it wasn't going to be available it was this kind of back and forth for months really from november and then i was shooting a film in february in atlantic city and i got a call on a friday for my agent being saying they want you in rehearsal on monday and so that was it and that's what started my my rehearsal process all of a sudden i was just in rehearsals for this thing it was happening damn so i i interviewed steven spielberg for the first time when i was in like my early 20s i was so nervous and he's like start i'm on a car but he starts walking towards me i'm like come on ash like you can do this you can do this and then as soon as he starts talking to you it's like all the nerves just go away because he's so like just down to earth and easy to talk to what was your experience like just kind of being around him being in his orbit yeah i mean it was certainly um yeah it is a little nerve-wracking at first right because and then he just disarms you yeah well he's so giving and he's so uh he's so giving with his energy and i i think very lovely just a kind of a wonderful person um and has no like ego about him whatsoever you know at the end like it really i think everything that he does it comes from a genuine place of love there's something just so wonderful and infectious about that and uh yeah he ca i remember you know starting that rehearsal process kind of you know guarded and [Music] removed and bat and you know he's just so open that you know you can't help but let your guard down and want to bask in that energy he's he's wonderful he's a wonderful guy oh yeah i feel like i'd be like okay i'm gonna be professional and then a little bit and i'd be like okay so indiana jones like yeah totally right like that's absolutely the case day two of shooting i asked him i was like okay you got to tell me like come on give me the dirt you know like tell me the stories because he's such a at the end of the day he's just a big nerd about this stuff too and he loves doing it and he loves telling those stories too because you know they're they are special experiences no you're right he is a nerd i remember asking i was like what's your favorite john williams score that like he was like he was like star wars and i was like like not your movie for sure 100 at the end of the day he just loves this and it's so like genuine there's nothing else about it and he just wants to share that he's wonderful uh so what did you ask him day two i asked him about uh the scene in raiders where uh harrison ford you know is supposed to fight this guy with the twirling sword and he just pulls his gun out and shoots him and i was like you gotta tell me because there's that famous story and so he told me that you know it was the night before and harrison had come down with food poisoning and kind of told stephen i can only give you an hour because i am sick and stephen jokingly kind of said an hour what do you want to do just pull your gun out and shoot the guy and he said that's kind of what i was thinking and then he did this great harrison ford impression i'll never forget because steven was really nervous about indiana jones killing a man and he said i don't know do you think we could get away with it and he like did this thing he like did jazz hands and he's like it's only a movie and seeing steven spielberg do an impersonation of harrison ford was really awesome i need like a like a get back style documentary about west side story just so we can get all the stories with everybody i think there's gonna be i think there's gonna be one right i think there is gonna be a west side documentary coming oh really so they were they were up filming around you guys and stuff they're the entire process that's awesome i hope i'm not spoiling anything but he said it at the premiere so i just assume uh it's out there it's fair game it's out there did you have any moment like that with riff where you know you kind of alter something that he was supposed to do or anything that you can think of i think what it was working and shooting on the film it really was just uh just a collaborative kind of thing it was a give and take uh where you know i'd come up with something and from what tony brought and then stephen would add a layer to that and then we would just kind of keep doing this this this this this and it just kind of became we just played you know we just kind of kept like doing this thing and he was really open to that and he he welcomed it and he wanted that and i think you know someone else in his position wanting to tell this story in particular um would want to hold on more would want to uh you know not be so uh giving with the reigns a little bit because of insecurities or nerves or whatever but he was fully let go and let us play which allowed him to play and just did this really wonderful thing so you're no stranger to like you know intricate choreography but in this one there's some some very specific things i was watching where i'm like oh my gosh like like the cool choreography i was like how did they even pull this off what was that like was that as tough as it looked yes it was it really was you know ansel and i were in rehearsals for that for four months and i hadn't danced in like 10 years like you know i kind of gave that all up and said i don't really you can never tell you know we got in shape is what we did we got in shape and that was really um one justin's choreography is so well thought out and beautiful a beautiful homage i think to jerry robbins uh and also great in terms of propelling the story forward uh and he did a wonderful job and then his whole team really did a better job in terms of making ansel and i look good and getting us into shape uh because it took a lot of work to get us into shape and we were in ballet class every morning with the rest of the company who were very giving and you know cheering us on to get better and do our best and support us and i mean yeah we we did a lot in order to get to at least you know where where we ended up i'm sure we maybe could have done a little bit better if we both you know had more time or whatever but um it was it was a process for sure to get us into shape to be able to pull that stuff off it was awesome and like the gym just watching it the second time kind of knowing what's coming and i'm like oh i'm with my friend i'm like we're going into the gym this is gonna be awesome yeah yeah um just going from the the stage to the screen what would you say is like the biggest adjustment that you had to make or something that kind of stuck out to you as a difference there's not much of one truthfully it's the same game it's just a different playground you know i think the biggest thing is that when you're doing a show eight times a week you go home and you think about what you did and you're kind of like well i get to try this again tomorrow uh so that's okay i get to try it again tomorrow right it's like cut moving on that's it i'm kind of like oh gosh all right well i guess that's it you know so it is that practice of letting go and you know just kind of accepting and being like yeah that's it can you watch yourself on screen not really yeah i can't even watch my own interviews back i hate it yeah right like no one likes to do it you know people talk like you know however about actors watching themselves but no no one likes to watch themselves no we all hate our voices just yeah exactly you'd be a complete sociopath if you were you know what i'm amazing like you know what great go for it but no it's extremely difficult you can't help but uh i think pick apart yourself right yeah we all do it if you weren't an actor what do you think you would be doing i'd be screwed that's what i'd be doing i'd be really screwed yeah yeah well i don't think you're gonna be screwed i think we're gonna see a lot of you going forward so hopefully we'll get to do this again and again okay i hope so too yeah so nice talking to you thank you so much for taking the time and i just love you so much thank you ash thanks again you

Channel: Screen Rant Plus

Views: 42,843

Keywords: west side story, mike faist, ansel elgort, rachel zegler, steven spielberg, david alvarez, west side story 2021, rita moreno, ariana debose, steven spielberg west side story, screen rant, screen rant interviews, west side story 2021 interview, west side story cast interview, west side story 2021 cast interview, mike faist west side story, tony kushner, stephen sondheim

Id: y7ai9ysS884

Length: 13min 55sec (835 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 16 2021