Raw, Uncensored: THR's Full, Drama Actor Roundtable With Bob Odenkirk, David Oyelowo and More

right now I'm closed up with the Hollywood Reporter the only time I throw a script is when I wrote it that film didn't get released escaped well here from this year's most buzzed-about drama actors and televisions Clive Owens the Nick John voice ray Donovan Justin Theroux the leftovers Bob Odenkirk better call Saul Timothy Hutton American crime and David Oh yellow nightingale welcome to close stuff with The Hollywood Reporter I'm Stacey Wilson Awards editor at The Hollywood Reporter and your host I want to start with your current roles for which you're here today and I'm gonna put Bob in the hot seat since you're closest to me you took a lot of risk in playing the lead and better call Saul did I you did okay Anna meeting mostly the spin-off of Breaking Bad sure it's a lot might he not have hated me and also you'd been a comedy performing most of your life yeah so I would like to know what were your biggest fear isn't taking on this role I remember thinking what if I'm terrible and how did you overcome that fear I'll try you know yeah I'll try really hard the fear is what exactly what you think it is which is all these people loved Breaking Bad so much and would they even give us a chance would they watch it and and just be mad that we decided to try it you know and and that there's anything similar at all to this thing that they loved so I was I actually I thought I certainly thought about that but not not maybe enough so that I will collect my moronic clients and poof we are gone neither you nor your lovely Eppolito will ever lay eyes on us ever again guaranteed science sealed and delivered assuming you know that they're still breathing I remember when the billboards went up and I thought oh my god people are gonna see this I think over so many years and so many projects that I've made that no one saw I've just gotten used to you know doing the work and thinking about the work and and I forget sometimes that that they actually show these things that we make and spend money marketing them to yeah and then I and and so only really then did it really hit me that I could be in for a worldwide kick in the ass and and it could be bad but but by then we shot and and everyone was feeling good about it yeah I mean look I oh I do I'm a comedy writer and performer and so I sort of feel like I always can do that that's your good emphasizing yeah and so if this didn't pan out I felt like I'd be okay put the clown shoes back and I'll be all right did you so I I and I was just a great opportunity and these are great writers and I'm sure everyone here feels the same way that it all starts with the writing so trusting Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould is not that hard actually to do they're they're great guys they're very serious about what they do it was important to me that they chose to do this show for all the best reasons and they did I mean it was an organic desire of theirs that grew out of writing Breaking Bad to explore this one character and so as long as it came from them in a genuine way then I figured it would be worthwhile and probably great and so they'd and it's very interesting it's a unique show it's offbeat I think it throws you off of the way they played out the story and the choices they made showed a lot of confidence they took their time but also the season started with this little moment that sort of would right after Breaking Bad or a few weeks after that little story ended then and it kind of makes you feel like okay you address that and now you're going to tell a whole new story and they just they just managed it so wonderfully fans are into it I still thought you know it could go anyway and even through the whole season as it played out because such an individual story and somebody said to me you know there's no genre for it there it doesn't matter I've to any genre so what is it and I think the amazing thing is that audiences are ready for these shows I mean it's crazy that audiences our patience and go Shia bring me a whole different era and a whole new set of characters who are not you know just uh tropes you know just things I've seen it's that's the mind-blowing thing is that the audience is willing to is excited great this is a different era in Clive's case and and it's going to be not famous people and it's not a genre there's not a murderer necessarily it's pretty amazing and the audiences are ready to follow character development instead of just holding on to story or plot and get invested in character it's kind of amazing yeah yeah part of that because of the way it can be digested now which is you know there's it's not you know there's must-see TV isn't really the thing anymore you know you you can consume it all in one batch if you prefer it that way or or you can download or whatever yeah and how about the rest of you what were your biggest fears taking on these particular projects how about you David this film nightingale is definitely unlike anything I've ever seen you're the only actor in the piece playing someone suffering from PTSD in a house seriously going through mania not an easy part to take on what were your biggest fears and in doing this well I think with with Nightingale that was a film that was not necessarily made with television in mind and so you know when I first read this script I just thought this simply can't be done you know at one person in a house for 19 minutes having committed this heinous act unraveling talking to himself essentially and you know having come out of the theater you get those opportunities more often there and you know in theater what's wonderful about it is that you make this pact with the audience that we're going to go somewhere fantastical a lot of the time which is basically if I say 500 troops are going to come screaming through this place you just buy into it and so I had had those kind of experiences in the theater when I read this film and just thought this feels like an experiment this feels like something that cinematically is it achievable I jumped on it look I'm not even dressed yet and the police haven't come to arrest turns out there's not a law that says you have to get up every morning at 7 o'clock put on your clothes and you make up a new costume jewelry whoever would I guess that for us as actors half of what enables you to take risks and I think be a good actor is confidence and confidence is born out of taking risks and this was a risk but I never thought it would we didn't start out thinking this is going to be on television millions of people potentially going to get to see it and in a way it typifies what we're all talking about this era of television we're in is that we made this film for an artsy independent minded audience and the place it's found an enthusiastic home is HBO and I don't know that that would always have been the case that this film would find that kind of a home and you know it's incredibly encouraging that not only you know um is there is a company like HBO prepared to to jump on board this film but that they know there's an audience out there for it so I was terrified before taking on the prospect now that it has this kind of platform the tariff occation is multiplied of one that's okay and the rest of you what were your biggest fears in these taking on these projects Clive you had never been the centerpiece of a television show before certainly not on Cinemax which is rebranded itself from the Cinemax we knew and loved back in the day what were your biggest fears doing this piece um I didn't really have money to tell you the truth um I mean it's on your side but some Steven Soderbergh but you know the fear of being good in it and doing the job well but you know the usual fear of everything no I was I wasn't looking at all to sort of do television Steven Soderbergh called me up he'd read this one script and he said I think I want to turn it into a ten hour TV show let me know what you think and 15 minutes later there was no way I would not be doing it it's been tried once before on a Labrador Retriever what happened there is no day goes by where I don't miss that dog if you could attempt to suppress your car it was such a fantastic piece of writing such an original look at that period a look at the world of Medicine at the time the century which I'd done a very small film years ago which dealt in the world of Medicine in 1900 and I knew that was a really important time where things were developing really quickly and that it was hugely exciting in the world of Medicine and the guy they got me on the phone with the guys that wrote that script and Steven as well and they've done so much research about that time that world what was happening in New York as well and it was like you know it could have been anything if it was a play if it was a film if it was a TV series it kind of you know I think every now and again you come across a piece of material that awakens why you do what you do you know it's sort of galvanized me I read this thing and I go god that's why I want to do this you know yeah and it was one of those pieces of writing and I would have you know I just knew I had to do it Stephen said that after he read that original script he knew that the next director to read it would direct it if he didn't say yes and I felt similarly I just felt it was too good a piece of writing and I did a lot of TV when I was young and the thing I was always fearful about doing TV is that just the amount of exposure really that as an actor you show your wares you show everything you show everything you can do and people get very used to what you can do and I think there's something about you know the format of film where you sort of arrive in something he plays a specific character you then appear in something else that you can hold your card that's a bit closer and on TV it's demanding it's a lot and you're constantly revealing in a way and that that was a concern but it was such a wild original piece of materials and a character that I didn't feel was particularly close to me that I felt absolutely fine about her and in the rest of you you had all transition from film but what's been your experience doing television start Tim yeah the same here it's about the exposure factor of being out there I guess well not in the case of of American crime I mean we were talking about you know what what the fear was going into it and it was it was such an amazing piece of material that John really wrote and the character was I mean out of the starting gate the the the pilot opens with this this man getting a phone call in the middle of the night saying that his son has died and he's got to go to another state and identify the body and I just thought as a starting point for a character it was great amazing very complex you don't know anything about this man gets on a plane with this knowledge goes to Modesto California and has to identify this body and then as an emotional reaction to it then he has to meet his ex-wife who hasn't seen for 20 years Felicity Huffman is character and they have to deal with this sudden tragic event that has happened so for me I read it I thought this is really that the whole script all the characters it was really an extraordinary piece of writing and then it kind of hit me what I would have to do very interesting at the very beginning in the bathroom which is just heart wrenching that's mad that's him why don't we go sit down somewhere I'm Sarah Matthews all of that was you know and all that was filmed in the same day John really made sure that it was filmed in such a way that it made sense continuity wise which isn't always the case right to do that but like we've all been talking about it starts with the material and it was just very strong and the fact that it was going to be this kind of this story there was going to take place over 11 episodes a long movie or a great novel 11 chapters was really interesting to me and we didn't know anything about the future episodes we were kept in the dark about it he wanted us just to live in the moment of the day of the character which was challenging at first but then became kind of interesting to play a character that you don't know anything about their past for a very long time no no back story no exposition was was really interesting to me and in Justin what's been your transitions we were talking about shows that don't really have a genre I think the leftovers typifies it that was my biggest concern I was a quorum and we're actors house we were all concerned about we did the best job that we can do but you know my biggest concern was that it's the leftovers is essentially a sort of a sci-fi piece but with very little sides mostly you know it's it's it had to be grounded in this reality so I'm talking to the creators of the show Damon and Pete Berg who directed the pilot it was making sure that it was grounded in a in a reality because the concept is so sort of insane and you know knowing that we weren't going to really be revisiting that moment of when everyone disappears and all the rest of it it was making sure that that it had to be as rooted as possible and even the way it's kind of shot in this sort of Verret a sort of style lends itself and also the material like you know they were all smart actors so when we when we're looking through things that were tracking attracted to us you know we're safeguarding ourselves with fantastic showrunners and and fantastic you know writers as well my feet have closely followed his steps I have kept to his way without turning aside I have not departed not departed from the commandment of his lips I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread I read the script and it read very quickly and so of course I was nervous about just all the other stuff but also the form just the you know other thing most of our shows do 10 or 12 or whatever there's something that feels manageable about that I did a television show a long time ago in like the early 90s of a cop procedural and the volume of work that you had to do to do 24 I was just crushing you know and it's not necessarily the material that you're loving and you're just and you're showing up at you know 4 a.m. on a Monday and leaving it 4 a.m. on a Friday and you really lose content and like Clive is saying you know it's like you you're you're having to cycle through your bag of tricks so much that you start to fall into bad habits and whatever and that for some reason that sort of 10 to 12 episode format really feels manageable and just when you're kind of at the end of your tether you're able to sort of you know pull the cord and get out of that you know like right um you know the material is just usually much better because the writer themselves is not being forced to just create note that it creates bad habits for everybody you know mm-hmm and you've you've all talked about what the feelings you get when you know you want to do something I'd love to know what is your biggest turnoff when you're reading the script and you just think oh god I definitely don't want to do this like what are the warning signs early on is that a you know is it not necessarily specific to the character you might be playing but just in general like what makes you just like want to throw the script across the room I hate when I think I know what's going to happen and then it's happening okay it's never happen to any of us the screenwriter the only time I throw a script is when I wrote it I pretty much do that every time it's why my arm muscles so big uh it's when you I hate that feeling of like ah I think this is just going this one place but it can't be right I'm just I'm just my brains putting this many facets yeah read to me script and then it's just doing that whatever that for saying what you're doing you know obvious thing is yeah and yeah that's it just makes me feel let down I feel bad I don't want to know I don't want to figure it out I want it I want it when it happens to whatever the turns or the depth of the growth of it or when of the story evolves I want it to make sense emotional sense but I want to not have predicted it right and you can and also you you kind of want the character keep moving you you want the character to keep evolving and moving and and and showing you as you're reading the script showing you new things about who the character is right well also you want to be able to bring something to it that's not kind of plainly stated yeah but if it you see the same thing happening an overall winner and it's the same position of the character is being taken and as you said you know where it's going you don't connect with it then I think as actors you're looking to inhabit worlds that are interesting to you which but as a by-product will hopefully be interesting to an audience and you know one of the themes that I'm hearing around the table is the fact that it wasn't just the character but it was the world it was the fact that you know whether it's sci-fi it comes out in this is this circuitous way or whether it's back in the the 1900s or whatever it is it's it's an angle that you haven't seen before you don't get to see a lot and then the characters work within it you are enabled as an actor to grow on a journey that is unexpected you know and I think that that's one of the really interesting things that's going on with television as a juxtapose with with film there is so much fear in film of going in a direction that will be prohibitive to an audience paying money to go to the movie theater that it's it's often well trodden worlds and now what's happening in television I think the audience is telling all of us as artists as film television what they actually want you know we have a smaller world now we've seen it all and so therefore when you take me on a journey that's unexpected I will sign up for that because we have seen the procedurals so many times and that we generally wanted to go into a different world and that to me anyway as an actor is also it's the I have my three P's it's the part the people in the project and so you know the project is like what what is this journey we're gonna go on and then I think like I say the audience hopefully want to go in that journey as well how about you dawn what bugs you the most when you get sent a script for the first time well nothing bugs me about getting a script you know actors never as I'm speaking you know I'm very impressed with all these guys by the way that as anyone can see that is tuned in actors are quite intelligent and they they're you know we respect each other and we respect the craft and it's very specific we all understand something we were all quite alike in some ways we - nique of course but we're all quite quite alike we have this challenge ahead of us and we have our method of going into the story and trying to find the life of this character and have all these questions which we we bring to a piece and and the questions come from the piece itself so it's always new for for me it's always new terrain i Doan is a stew do a Donna v'n I was given a script it was very spare for this character of mine but very powerful whoa because when I was non screen doing something completely outrageous I was being talked about so was an important character and I had to find a way to do it a good man feels bad when he does something wrong you understand yes what do you find to say about what happened you're supposed to take me to the kids house to apologize apologize donna's don't apologize but you just said good man feels bad when he does something wrong but he don't don't know what about in the in the process of finding Micky you know I understood why they sent it to me because it was a character who had some danger to him and then some charm as well and I had at one point my career I was getting older and changing from a leading man of sorts when trying to find you know what would my persona was going to be as I got older and I took the turn when I did runaway train and I did a very you know I mean people looking at the script runaway train they said jon voight is gonna do this what it's the matter with you people it looked like a complete failure was about to be given birth and and but I had to change myself for the character and going into that direction I there were many that was a route for many other characters that came about character and heat character and anaconda holes the only character came from that that route that I had taken and this character came from that too so why I looked at it and I didn't know how he's going to do some of this stuff you know how is going to come out through me but you know you you make it yourself and you go through this process and I was very fortunate to work with very very good people and and I must say that the cast was impressive to me as well Liev Schreiber was somebody I'd wanted to work with for since I'd worked with him before but somebody whose career I was watching I was saying this guy is a great also transitioning to television he had never done television but you know I don't this time in our careers television and film is not the same as when I started out people did television or they did film they didn't mix the two now we mix you know we because and television is giving us the opportunity to do serious stuff and adventurous stuff that is not quite not being offered the actor and the because of what David expressed in terms of the commercial aspect so anyway I was very fortunate to have this adventure and turned out pretty good so I'm just interested is that something you feel is necessitous as an actor at some point you have to reinvent yourself is that is that is that something that happens externally or it's just part of the actor's journey well each of us just is very different I was always a character actor even when I was a young fellow I would my first my birth was into some kind of attention as an actor was in film was Midnight Cowboy and that was a character rule that was you know it was wonderful to have a character role at the center of a piece coming home he's come to your home had that too but coming home was close as I could get it to a leading man but are you saying that as opposed to say Redford at the time who is the consummate leading man or any of these great guys I mean listen I have the greatest respect for the so-called leading men guys you know Newman and Redford and those fellows and the guys today it's one it's wonderful and they have to didn't have to know what they're doing with but I've always been a character actor I'm always looking at each part that I get in saying who is he well I guess it's not me with a different name who is this yeah who is this fellow and and leading men by the way they they develop a style from as you know that they develop a style from their own personal life and things and they they make adjustments they don't they don't think they're playing the same character all the time either but but they just have a you know a smaller palette and they very subtle and and sometimes they pride themselves in doing less and less and less and it's a wonderful thing to see and kind of poise so so I have a great respect for that aspect but for me I was a character actor I was getting older and I wasn't being offered the same kinds of parts and then I was offered this part and I knew that I would have to change myself physically in every way and an approach this and to see if I can do this mountain you know and it was you know was successful so and become comfortable dancing in the towel - yes we had nothing it was trying to make this a dignified you know black version of this turn round table but you the photoshoot they had this music they had music on Bill Withers or someone and I or I know who was but I was dancing and because that taozi i was exposed as a dancer not your time passed forever I would like to know and I'm sure you've all had numerous but what would you say was the biggest turning point in your careers whether it was you know that the role you consider your breakout performance or a relationship you made or you know an education that you had what would you say is a turning point hmm for me it was a it was a weird because it was kind of a hidden turning point in 2010 I was cast as Martin Luther King in the film summer and then the film didn't happen for another four years but just being cast in that role had such a dramatic effect on my career I went from someone who no one knew about to literally the next day you know having come over from the UK and though okay I'm gonna try for a career in this are you done numerous films in America I done I done films but they'd been smaller things that people hadn't seen supporting roles or whatever but it typifies that thing that we call in Hollywood heat you know I I had heard about it it was this sort of weird mythological thing and suddenly there was heat and it was on the basis of nothing other than a Hollywood Reporter announced well that's my terrifying that yeah you know I always loved auditioning for something cuz at least then you know you earned the part whenever an offer comes in you I was like oh God ha ha ha exact exact and that's what happened I started getting offers and it was really early on that announcement based purely on the announcement of some actor who no one could say his name no one knew where he was from and I started getting offers and it really threw me and I almost needed to catch up with it and in a way it was a blessing that the film didn't then happen for another four years because it's still I'm in the midst of what I can feel is a turning point in my career having done selma but it was the world was told it was happening they didn't happen for another four years I've sort of had times gonna go okay I've kind of grown yeah a little bit but that was but what roles were you offered right after the announcement where they suddenly leading man roles were there you know other characters with gravitas that maybe you hadn't been offered before um they were they were roles in studio movies so which hadn't happened up until that point his Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a film for Fox and they were going after actors who I really admired and I heard about this and an offer came through the director of the helped literally phoned me up and said so we're doing this film we need a preacher in it and I need someone with this sort of a Martin Luther King energy you're about to do this practice or not literally and so I did you know and as seen in the help and it was just you know this film Nina that I did with their zoe saldana where she plays Nina Simone that that came in as a straight offer and and before anyone had it can what if summit had fallen apart or not even happened at that point I mean it would have been my my being smuggled into Hollywood but it was still work right truth of the matter and then I had another one a film that no one saw a film called who do you love which I played Muddy Waters and and none of them never really came out because it clashed with another film go Cadillac Records where Jeffrey Wright played muddy waters and that film was seen so a film never saw the light of day but the director who cast me in Jack Reacher saw that on my reel and I walk in with this accent you know my demeanor and people think can he play someone from the south they saw that in a clip and went oh four he'll be fine you know a film that no one really was a resume builder nonetheless yes exactly was something that people saw that gave them confidence people there is so much fear in what we do that literally people want a reason to be able to tell their boss that this was a no brainer you can't fire me for having you know we'll do that come on I had to make the decision or a clip will do that and so that's basically what there's soon tears for me hmm how about the rest of you turning points how about you cry I mean I think when you look back at a career is probably a number of them I would say probably the biggest and most important was for me getting into drama school as a young kid who come from a very working-class family in a working-class town fell in love with acting had a little Youth Theatre in my hometown which I sort of fell into and sort of got the passion for acting and then was unemployed in my hometown and suddenly realized God you know this passion it's not going to happen where I am and I got lucky I spent two years in my hometown unemployed I made one application to Rada and I got in and it was like somebody saying you're going from there on this route and there I was thrown in with a group of people who was crazy about it as me and it felt like that of everything that happened in my life was the biggest thing in terms of ending up with a career in acting you know I I spot I did a big TV show when I was quite young that was a sort of quite a sort of gear shift and then really the film thing was a very tiny phil medical croupier which was made for no money which wasn't really given a release in the UK and there was one guy who'd come who became a very good friend called mike kaplan and he came from the world of marketing it put out a wall of Kubrick's films and he worked with Altman and he fell in love with this little film croupier and he championed it in America and he showed it to Altman showed it to various people it got the tiniest release any film could but he got some really great reviews big deal I saw a big deal yeah Peter but it was it was tiny I mean I think when it was the deal when it was originally released was with a company were putting out about fours low-budget films in one week and if any of them hit with a refute or something they would carry it on a croupier got lucky and he got some reviews but single-handedly this guy shaped the campaign and it was in those days where film stayed around for a while so it ended up being in the cinema for you know months and months and although it was tiny it was for me the opening up of film and the opening up in America for me I've done a lot of TV and theatre and and very small films back at home but that tiny little film which somebody once said didn't get released escaped sort of changed things for me quite a long Tim I would imagine that when in an Oscar at age twenty was a bit of a turning point for you one of the youngest Oscar winners in history for ordinary people which is one of the most beautiful movies ever made how hard was it for you - I guess recover from that hype and move on and decide what your next move was because that had to have been a lot of pressure well yeah I mean you know that was an incredible incredible book an incredible role the script that Alvin Sargent wrote was it was just amazing I mean Redford it was his first film that he directed and getting cast in it you know there were at least 10 auditions and they were very involved with him I mean you had to act the whole script and that was the third audition and then the then there was you know bringing in other people like Elizabeth McGovern and pairing you up and things like that I remember a very bizarre screen test with an Margaret I would you say your mom to play to play The Mary Tyler Moore played so the process of getting the part was something that was quite quite something and then when that happened I mean of course was incredibly excited and then I realized well I know I have to go do it because it was very challenging you know this is kid in the story was just you know torn apart and the places that he had to go but Redford was quite amazing with the rehearsal process once we got to Chicago we started working I felt very isolated throughout the experience I found out later that Redford had said to everybody and the show stay away from Tim Wow you know don't don't don't say hey great job today don't say that scene went really well he just he wanted you know to create a kind of isolation really and and he thought that that would be very and it certainly was it put me in a place where I'd go back to my hotel room and I was pacing in the Waukegan Sheridan wondering if I was doing a half-ass you know if I was doing okay did he give you feedback at the end of the day no never nothing never Wow never anything to this day he's never spoken to you he just waved from across a thousand he saw you at the Oscars how'd I do yeah no he would occasionally he would occasionally say what happened today in that scene I want you to remember he would give a specific example he wanted it to come from him you know he so he did communicate to me about how the work was going and upcoming scenes and things like that he just didn't want to have anybody you know he didn't want to have the whole social part of it going on he wanted me to sort of stay in a bubble I guess you know then the movie was received quite well came out and you know affected a lot of people the awards came but I was lucky because you asked how I you know handled it at the time you know the Academy Awards and all that I was working I was in the middle of rehearsing taps and I remember flying back from Valley Forge Pennsylvania - for the Oscars after we were in the middle of harrassing taps and yeah the Academy Awards were going to happen on a I think was a Sunday or Monday I forget but it was the year that Reagan was shot oh right and they postponed the Oscars for a couple of days and it was it was everybody was was obviously it was postponed and everybody was very concerned it know was gonna happen the show went on a couple of days later and then the following morning I went back to Valley Forge to continue rehearsing this new job and I think that what really helped me then is that I I recognized it as kind of a singular time and event associated with a movie with a role and I didn't put anything more on it than that I I was I realize that I had to get back and start this new role this new job and I think that that really kind of kept me from you know whatever dangers might be lurking getting carried away with something like that and then film that movie and and then right after another thing that I think kind of grounded me a bit in that time was it after taps I went to New York to work with City Lynette and do a movie called Daniel movie that nobody saw PL doctor wrote the book and the screenplay and just an amazing cast so going to work with Lu met right after taps and sort of having a work period really I think kind of put me in a good frame of mind did you see a lot of offers coming in in the same way David just described post Oscar win was the suddenly the just a flood of offers yeah uh yeah I mean I got offered a script called risky business I've heard about and nobody's know nobody saw no yeah indie movie yeah and I remember I remember was the same it was gonna shoot his at exactly the same time that Daniel was gonna shoot in New York so I God and I mean risky business was a great script yeah that's a great and it was you know a great character great part so different from ordinary people or taps yes but um and Sue Mengers was my agent at the time and she and she she just thought I was out of my mind to not to risky business and go to New York and do Daniel with Cindy Lynette but it's what I want to do and and I'm glad I did it that way Wow it's it's it this brings up what you said there about what Redford did while you were doing the film you know is really interesting because you see that film and you see the results of not having your your back patted throughout the whole thing it kept you in an uncomfortable place it's kind of a thing that that hits my mind it's amazing that at the age of 20 you won and managed to somehow put that away and just keep on with the work but in the era now of campaigning for awards and it becoming it's become this thing you were in the belly of the beast this year well it's really and something that really strikes me is that I don't know how you go on to win or be celebrated in that way and that very small group of people you've campaigned in order for them to pat you on the back don't creep into your head the next time you're on a set trying to give a good performance it's one of the dangers I think of of what we do and how much noise is now around because I've seen people win or be very much in that conversation and it has affected you know there was a judge point about thank you know always thinking of himself as a character actor which i think is valuable for any actor right I always think of themselves a character because then yeah the minute you sort of start trying to assume some kind of a leading man or leading woman part your sandbox starts to shrink exactly you start to get into this the confines of a really strange space its death and then even worse and you've seen I mean we've all seen it with other people you know the material itself the scripts it cells start to grab it it's sort of you know creates this terrible kind of gravity where the material starts to play to that actor or actress comfort zone and then eventually you're just not you're kind of you're really painting inside the lines as much as possible to maintain that whatever perception thing or whatever award thing that you build yeah you know yeah David I agree I think there's us there's something to you know you have to always when you start a new project you always have to go back and realize go back to square one and realize okay I've even if you've done a lot of work you have to you have to think yourself I've done that I've done that but I've never done this yeah so it was you have to you have to come back to the starting point and realize that you haven't played this character with these people and if you start to if you get if if you get into a mindset of thinking that you know a new role is going to be easy because it's familiar or anything like that then then I think that or if you go through some sort of award season and you get patted on the back a lot and you're in a successful movie or TV show it's it's very hard to kind of move away from that and and I think that you were talking about not knowing where the story's going yeah and I and and things like or how you were treated by Redford but isolated a little bit not not encouraged to perceive yourself in the role but just to play the moment-to-moment yeah and I think that's really so so important right just as one of the reasons why I they always want to send me scripts ahead and tell me what the outline is I mean I thought yeah I don't want to know what happens in the next you know as the story evolves I just want to know what I want right now today in this character and another good thing for that is to shoot in Albuquerque distractions David had a follow-up question for you um you know a lot of people perceived you're not being nominated for an Oscar as the snub I would say everyone here would agree that you deserved it but I'm wondering are you relieved at all that you didn't get to that point that where you can now sort of retain that piece of you know yourself as an actor that maybe wouldn't have been overexposed how do you feel about it now well it's exactly the point I'm making I think one of the blessings of there are two blessings that came from that you know if people perceive that something they wish for you didn't happen for you that's a lot of goodwill you're storing up with a lot of people there are people out there rooting for you and as an actor that's priceless you want to be doing work that people go there's that guy who did that job I liked and I'm gonna go and see the next one but the other thing for me is to really put that whole thing in its place you know to to have people constantly saying to me I think you should have got this and in there and you kind of go behold on I've been to Nigeria with that film and watched two electoral candidates sign a piece a pledge after seeing the film I've seen people sending me stuff from Hong Kong where they've watched the film and they are now embracing it as a beacon of hope for them considering what's going on in Hong Kong right now you know I've been to Harlem I've been to Washington I've been to the White House with that film a hundred years after birth of the Birth of a Nation was the Birth of a Nation was the first film ever shown at the White House I watched some with President Obama and Michelle Obama a hundred years like hundred years later you know everything that I went to my 10-year olds poetry recital the other day and he gave this amazing poem about Martin Luther King that I didn't know he was going to do you know that's why you make a film like that and there was a danger that if I had been nominated or even won with a world that is different to the one you inhabited where there is so much noise it's now a six to nine month journey if you're campaigning that whole thing all year long on it yeah and then you go on to win do those six thousand something people creep into your head the next time you're giving a performance well I have now had my performance validated beyond all of that in a way that I will never let go of and it's a great lesson to learn at this stage of my career cuz I'm never gonna let it in you know cuz I've learned that lesson it's it's great it's wonderful you you know we all love our backs being patted for what we do such a subjective with artistic endeavor but I think to keep your powder dry to shoot in Albuquerque to find your Albuquerque I think they have a new license plate switching gears a little bit I wanted to talk about your relationships with the media which you know coming up with what you were just saying have just gotten more difficult for everyone working in the business there's so much pressure and John I sort of love how candid you are about your political beliefs in the media you're when a few conservative minded gentlemen who actually share those beliefs and you seem to embrace it and it doesn't seem to be hindering your career at all I'm wondering not so far I'm wondering with with people being so careful about getting involved in things that are hot-button issues how is how of those moments affected you when you have shared opinions about Israel or written a column here and there what's been the fallout for you well look um I was very blessed to be a citizen of the United States grown you know my grandfather came over here in a boat from Czechoslovakia in the bottom of a boat and I I sound like I'm 106 but you look great I've seen some you know I've been through so many things and and part of it is the politics when I was a young phone my dad said you know you'd best not talk about politics or religion you know but I never and I said when I was like 8 what's more important than the way we govern ourselves and what our beliefs are what's more important than that what are we going to talk about nonsense I felt that that way then you know so it's really been part of part of my understandings in a certain way but everybody who is here at this table is a came from someplace else at some point and their families experienced a lot of hardship and difficulty to get here paid the dues to get some roots here you know had challenges and and made a contribution in this country so I want to pass it on and that's and that's the that's why I think feel that's my responsibility as a citizen you know when I speak out I try to be clear I do a lot of thinking about it and I but I feel responsibility to say what I does your team discourage you from doing such things my team they're your reps or agent know the people that are around me are encouraging and at a time of a dad doing awful lot of research to stay up on with what's happening so anyway I'm I'm just a citizen the United States I was right when I think of it was a citizen the United States I remember my mother people talk about women having difficulty in this societies holy smokes when I look around the world as a lot of people have trouble across the world in the United States I listen look at my mother my mother did what you wanted to do you know to me and she you know you can do what you want to do here that's what's a great thing but that you really can do you can set your sights and work hard and you can get there too so I want that to be passed on when I see young kids anyway little kids I want people to say hey you're fantastic you can do anything you want yeah what is what do you what do you what do you think you should be doing this like what would you like to do go ahead go do it you can do it you know to me not somebody saying well you I don't know if you can get naked I don't know if you know know you're in America go for it mmm mmm and there nothing you know everybody's have everybody has difficulties everybody has to has challenges if not I hope we're not at the place where someone can I mean I don't know our politics are probably different but for at least the sake of discussion and hope we're not in a place where people are not getting hired for expressing an opinion mm I hope so too there's just enough as it is thank you can have your number yeah uh on the subject of Hollywood um who do you most trust in your life to give you advice or a realistic feedback about the jobs you're choosing your performances I think you'd all agree my wife she knows you know she has a talent manager she reads more scripts on read she's pretty good as she uh what's up so you're you're very lucky done yeah anyone else I pray about it for me personally I really do turns out God has very good taste you know you know the reamer I have for myself is quite specific you know my wife and I talk about this a lot I want to put in the world things that I can defend my children when they're of age to watch them and I'm not a subscriber to the idea that mmm you can make whatever and it doesn't affect culture you know what we do is so powerful I think and I think it does shape culture I think it does shape people's worldview I've been to Africa and seen places where they don't have running water but they have a tiny little screen with a satellite dish on a rickety sort of tin shack and a lot of what they're consuming is what we put out in the world and so you know people who are outside of Hollywood actually inform a lot a lot of that because uh you know we have a very myopic world which is about you know what's they're going to do to my standing as an actor is that going to get me better opportunities is that all the things that we're looking at sometimes internally are not actually engaging with what the effect of the work is having culturally and so you know like I say prayer is a big one for me but you know does my dad want me want me doing that that that influences things for me anyway how about you Justin I don't know I mean I I just know I usually it's a gut thing I mean I'll check it also depends what it is if it's something kinetic I'll check with some of your also writers so you're getting right sometimes and I've made mistakes when people send like you should do this this would be really smart you know or this is a great director I know the parts not what you want but you should do that I've rude many days on set where I've been like Wyatt I just want to know why did I do so that's I think it sounds like mistakes I made as a younger actor where you go like you know you've signed up for a play or something anything uh well don't love that that or this and then you're stuck doing it for six months or something you know or or on a set you know I've been in many sad situations early TV show I did you know like which was that cop procedural I mean it was just like I wanted to hang myself on the second on the phone like chief you're gonna want to hear this that's [ __ ] like that you gotta go I can't but it was uh but it was a tough job to do and it and it was a waste of time before you learned that you didn't want to do it again I learned I didn't want to do it again you know and writing kind of afforded me a little bit more sort of a selective ability to sort of pick and choose roles you know because I could sort of squeeze things between the cracks what do you wish agents better understood about working with actors how great we are I don't know agents maybe have so I feel sorry for that they work in these companies that have just grown and grown and and expanded and they have so many projects coming through and I think they so many people in this business whether it's agents or studio people they they do start with a genuine love of the work and the craft and not everyone mmm but a lot of mostly yeah yeah and I think it gets beaten out of them and then they just get swarmed and swamped with projects and and demands and extraneous needs of the company and I think they kind of it's got to be very hard to not lose touch with what you cared about when you started when when you're on that side of the business and you're seeing so much product and again there's so many demands from your company so I feel bad for them I think their their desire to make something or to see things made and help things get made is genuine or it came from a genuine place at maybe at one time you know we can sequester ourselves from the public awareness of us or how we you know participate in the award season or our publicity presentations and we can especially it helps if you I think you're older to realize that that's just this little bubble thing and then then tomorrow I'm going to be on sets and I have to figure out that role and I have to play those moments honestly and and they're just very separate things totally don't really it's like and we can sequester ourselves and then do that do our work and care about our work in a in a pure way and I just think with those people and especially in agencies these agencies are huge and they represent actors and musicians and sports onions and we need you to do we need to sell more onions so can your vegetables yeah but they will evening you you get the representation you deserve in this in a sense I think one of the mistakes that actors can sometimes make is to feel like an employee as a person and MP yeah you're right you know I pay you a wage to do that job and so therefore get on board with how I run my company and what I want that company to represent and we're gonna have a great time and I think that actually agents want that they want you to tell them which way you want to go otherwise they are in a corporate situation whereby it's just the sausage factory hardware but I have found that the people I have had as reps I tell them what I want to do and that actually empowers them to go and do something probably a little bit different than they're doing with everyone else so you know that's that that's and I think as young actors that's a big one you you think oh my goodness I got an agent and so suddenly everything they're saying to you is like something you feel like you have to lean into as opposed to no no no this is where I want to go help me facilitate that right great advice and amazingly we're at our final question today just incredible if you stopped acting today what would you do with the rest of your life hmm start with Justin Oh God um if I stop that I'm probably right I'd hope you know do you have that good back at work yes hopefully I just probably writes up I don't know I mean there's I'm not very good at many things I'm not a very bright man um no but I wouldn't be able to do anything is to do it nobody think we're gonna let you get away with that took a couple of bg4 but I mean like I don't think you know I don't know I I don't think I could work in a corporate environment or be an agent or something like that but I would have to be something creative but I hope I don't have to stop acting very good no no Jake I think I'd probably want to build things tree house furniture it's something I do and I enjoy doing that when I'm not acting so I'd be very happy to have a wood shop and make things I think that's what I probably want to do I probably want to write as well and yeah but as a as a job that I'd be happy doing that very good well I would do comedy right bunch of silly stuff that's just what I do and where I'd be at the dog park I don't know if like way to get paid for vena talk how are you closed I was thinking I was quite a scary question because often comes up because uh it's the only thing I've ever wanted to do you have a hobby not really no I mean I enjoys you know I watch a lot of sport and I you know do things but not that I can make a career out maybe you can walk down how about you don't I probably spend the rest of my life being a babysitter yeah I love children I like to spend as much time as I can with kids then I can be anything I would be how about you David for me I'm very consciously trying to get to the point where I'm gonna be allowed to produce you know I just love creating and I love the process of seeing something come to fruition it's so hard to get movies made but when you do there's just nothing quite like it you can still do both yeah hopefully I think we all found our Albuquerque and then for our final bonus round question which is very hard-hitting so yourself if you could only eat one food for the rest of your life what would it be and I'm gonna start with David on this one fried plantain it's a delicacy in Nigeria and mam I could I could have in fact the idea of actually makes me happy yeah you're just eating quite pleasant yes how are you doing well I hate to live and not live to eat you know oh come on Am I yeah sounds good don't it what we had you know as you get older fellows things happen to your body and you have to protect yourself against different kinds of things so then you and I'm not much of a guy for medicines so I find I have to have certain vegetables and the vegetable that I've stuck on that doesn't seem to be doing many Harmen with my little different difficulties is broccoli and I'm one of those kids in the beginning of my life I didn't want a broccoli and now I'm just having broccoli my vegetables for today Wow forget you it moves that's all your happen often he's probably fresh truffle on very good pasta no very good glass of red wine Wow oh he's do you want to change it it's a white truffle white truffle when you season the pasta a great yeah a great Italian red no B I'm gonna have the Clive Owen special Bobby can't get it in Albuquerque my ice cream I'm not a connoisseur and chocolate very good Justin a pasta take it anyway yeah well it looks like Clive's hosting a different way got all dressed up thank you all for being here it was an honor to speak with you thank you and best of luck in your future endeavors so much there'll be many thank you thank well done Stace oh thanks guys

Channel: The Hollywood Reporter

Views: 205,931

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Keywords: thr, The Hollywood Reporter (Magazine), roundtables, thr roundtables, emmy roundtables, full uncensored roundtable

Id: m7FUwnEXoiU

Length: 63min 5sec (3785 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 10 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Love the Hollywood Reporter Roundtables. Didn't know they did them for television too. Wish they could have had Jon Hamm, given the Mad Men final season and his guest spot of Unbreakbale Kimmy Schmidt.

[u/SetYourGoals]

Here is the actress one as well. That has Taraji P. Henson (Empire), Viola Davis (How to Get Away with Murder), Jessica Lange (American Horror Story: Freak Show), Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Honorable Woman), Ruth Wilson (The Affair) and Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex).

I really like these roundtables. Always great. The showrunner and executive ones are even better usually.