THR’s Full Drama Actor Roundtable With Rami Malek, Cuba Gooding Jr. and More

we good all right and welcome to the drama actors roundtable we're here today with Cuba Gooding jr. rami malek vogner Mora Bobby Cannavale a Forest Whitaker Paul Giamatti and I'm your host Laci Rose that was horrible all right we'll jump right in looking back at the early days of your careers what were the worst audition stories Cuba definitely has when everybody what has one but nobody wants to beauty there's going to be the first still I'll never forget I had a McDonald's commercial and they teach you when you go on auditions to slate your name and my agent Coralie jr. just passed away recently my heart and soul says you know when you slate your name it's the first time that they will see you in a tape of people hundreds that look just like you on your audition tape so you always you know you use you show your energy when you slate your Nate so me and two other black actors came in and at the time I didn't know that this director but now I know him and his reputation Joe picker we walk into this audition and the three of us hit our marks and she says okay slate your name and I say hi I'm Cuba Gooding jr. he goes what seriously nice oh okay I was more guessing you didn't get that uh commercially and get it he came yeah I didn't even audition isolated my name he kicked me out of the room [ __ ] him see you coaches right well yeah exactly I had to addition once I mean I have done a lot of commercials when I was seventeen sixteen and one of those was that was real embarrassing because I was supposed to play the wind wind the wind here you know what kind I mean I okay I didn't get the commercial and commercially in a commercial and I didn't know what to do because I have always told that I was supposed to be something some something else and I was trying to play the wind and I just didn't know how does one player win as a winning and he said the guy said okay we went the camera to like you so look at the camera and do something so we can like it because we could have played it win you should have broke with yes hell yeah that isn't even know where to begin I do yeah you don't go yeah here you think yeah someone's been thinking about it for years why don't we cast him right on audition first remember we starship troopers yeah it was like early my career in and it was uh and it was just there was no script never being like wow how am I supposed to prepare and they were like she's gonna be improv and the only all I had to do was I had a react to bug like a big bug screamed oh I remember like doing it and being and they were like ah okay thanks I could hear the sigh yeah and I and I just remember like not wanting to leave the room you did I could do it better I was like it just refused to leave the room and I just kept doing it over and over again bhag bhag bhag I didn't get that's the one thing I used to do a lot is just stay in the room until it was you know you just wore out yeah right like no I another one I'll do another one no I think we've seen it huh yeah yeah yo you were great yeah yeah it's time to read enough and moving on out of there as quick as possible move on what do you guys wish directors were better understood about actors and one of the really good ones get what seems like the guys who understand what each person individually needs like a guy who can talk to each person way they need to be talked to seems like the key thing but that's a real hard thing to be able to do I don't know I mean you know like questions I think when a director asks questions and like there might be rhetorical questions that he already has the answers to but he's making you feel like you're coming up with the answer I find really good directors do that you know what would happen if mm-hmm you know like it's only when you get home later that you're like I tricked me yeah II knew it they act like like a like multi makes you feel like you're collaborating yeah that's nice yeah and that's that quality of the director to bring out an emotion in you and you think you're giving it to him but you even if you feel like you failed he got what he wanted from you like others don't see you famous but Oliver Stone was famous for finding out a person's insecurities and picking on them yeah and getting you so like uh that when you actually did the work I don't know out of insecurity he found something that he could use so I think with me as long as the director knows what he wants be it through mean manipulation or direct do it this way fine because if I give him what he wants that I know that he's gonna use that and if I have something else that I think might be of interest to him I only show him that after he gets what he wants because a lot of times if I working with a director he doesn't know he wants to go what do you want to do when I do it he goes that's great it's like yeah but yeah it's going to be such a work is also weird to feel that you can fail and and the director is gonna be there and you it's okay to feel confidence to try and let's yeah comment about it happen phenomenal he when he was talking about the Oliver Stone that reminds me of an audition story because I remember I've spent a week auditioning for the same part I would come every day I would sit through all the everybody I was just reading with everybody uh-huh but he never gave me the job you know I would sit in the room and they bring in different actors and I'd be reading it was a platoon and then I was leaving when I was walking away to look out the window and he screamed do it better do you have like okay tomorrow oh good tomorrow you know think but it's like the opposite of like this kind of concept of like instilling like where I think I think I know for a direct for me a director that can let me feel that he's listening and watching and that he's got me covered let me cam away I'm talking about just the cute poor it's that security that's really important for me cuz sometimes you go into a vulnerable space and you want to know any and you want to be able to look to somebody sometimes cuz you get insecure yeah you say did I do that did I make that I don't even know if I got that yeah you know somebody you can trust yeah sure I want to be in return empowered not I don't love being broken down never works well the guy who's done negative study dr. thing we're the reducing I don't know where I would take to that you know that's like some 1970s yeah alright be an industry often likes to sort of lock people into certain lanes keep them serving a box there's there types of roles that they want you to do were there points earlier in your career what were the types of roles that use of caps getting approached or an observe tired up and it sounds like you have an answer to that I played a lot of guys sitting in vans with headsets on watching it really okay did a lot of this like we lost him get out of there Mike Mike get out of my daddy came here I had to do a lot of that shy okay was there a type of role that you kept getting approached more like I guess I play loud it detected and different things that I've been kind of lucky I got a chance to play a lot of different kind of cool parts you know I'm really even for the beginning that's true yeah different kinds of parts true I remember I saw you in a for Steven ray film crying and crying I'd already seen you before but I remember seeing that movie and going hidden blade assembly she's English yes English wild yeah so this guy's played everything yeah yeah don't you guys know we were there things the use of kept getting approached for the box I remember after I did a film boys and hood I got every Street hood kid offer and I chose one which was gladiator which was a box of movies still a street kid but then after that I told myself no more Street kids and wound up playing a deaf-mute in a western movie called lightning Jack only because it was different than nothing else woo you know cuz I didn't want to be the guide to go to street kid guy you know and in the breakdowns for me it was sad always just look for a quirky or weird somewhere and I was like that's what I'm gonna go indoor surely and I presented it for a while and then I kind of thought you know this is something to be proud of that you can be that kind of outsider and anything but at first I was like here we go yeah other doors that you guys feel even at this point this point in your careers where you've had a tremendous amount of success that are still closed mean types of roles that you can't get white guys cowboys yeah callous yeah it's truly oh I just never like I'm always getting any ethnic roles sometimes yeah yeah a mob guy or like a store like a italian-american pizza guy or some [ __ ] like that yeah I never get the doctors and you know and yeah like I never play Italians I never get I would love to play an Italian I am Italian I never get the played aliens yeah I've never been able to get I've had people tell me I'm not Italian enough it's hilarious yeah yeah very funny song we get all the Italian Western like I'd love you know West man and I'm like but I know if I'm in a Western I'm gonna have to play this guy you know that guy was like what do you have relatives on his farm I'm gonna be that good it's like oh yeah baby the tycoon with watch it looks fun I mean you did a lot of you got a few Westerners gonna be with ya but I mean I like it I you know oh yeah stuff ya know it's great horse being on horseback it's like a naturalistic thing you can do really fun so keeping you about the sleep and been open about the fact that you were surveying quote-unquote after his Jail if you had what was that for a period like and what would you do what would you do differently if you had to do it all over again well those are two questions oh oh and the second one first right now work we have an hour all right fine when I when I won the Oscar I was so I you know I fell in that mine said it that this is it was a precious role people are shouting show me the money everywhere it's like you know you have to find the right role I think and it was bred out of that whole thing of boys in the hood of playing the street guys and then not doing that again so I but I was in the opposite frame of mind that I just didn't want anything that could parody the fact that I was like a tagline in a movie I might as well just get to it so when Steven Spielberg offered me Hampstead I said no when Hotel Rwanda came I said no I was like saying no to all of these things because I had in my mind the role I wanted to play now ask me what's the only one to play was looks like I had no [ __ ] so I passed on all of these great directors and wound up offending a bunch uh-huh and what happened was is like you said I went off the list of greenlight if you have this actor in the role so what I do now is I consider the filmmaker making team that's why I'm in this this series now cuz of Ryan Murphy and I considered the director I don't care what the role is and I remember when Ridley Scott called my agent said here's an offer one plain icky Barnes and I don't have to read them in and then what might as well we'll take a day where we didn't comes no no no really Scott called I'm in and then this whole actor jail thing I think it was God's will to go and do direct-to-video trash cuz that's basically what I had done I did a lot of movies what had happened and his producers would come to me and say we have the foreign financing in place for anywhere from five to ten million dollars whatever you want to do I said great I met what writers I developed the script I said here's I want to do we'd shoot it I deaded it direct it I mean I literally learned more about the filmmaking process in that ten years that made me ten times better actor but I fortunately people had to sit through those movies if they you know you know at the time it was blockbuster all these things you watch literally me go back to film school mm-hmm you came out the other side that's that's for sure all right so Paul hmm I'm billions yes hmm the show opens with a dominatrix who we later learn is is your wife Oh feel that that's a yes she is urinating on you which I have since learned is called a golden shower yes it is so glad that I'm glad to have a four-minute century yes and I appreciate it yes ma'am so you read the script and you say yes I'm in the man you used to it yeah absolutely I mean it wasn't that wasn't the only thing the character doesn't the thing that was I it was very interesting because precisely it does end up being her wife what was interesting about it is that we're not gonna make it a sort of freakish thing it was just gonna be this guy this is what he does how does what they do as a couple uh-huh and so it becomes interesting for the couple but it's also a great sort of metaphor for the whole show sure the hold dominance and Submission thing is a big thing in the whole show so there's no hesitation when you read moments like that not for me know if somebody's gonna peeing on me in a movie I will sign on the car you look forward it does know I do I thought this will be really interesting and I have done anything like it before and Maggie hadn't done anything like it before it was actually it was a very interesting part of it I'm the goddamn US Attorney Wendy so I've been working there since before we were married and long before you were in office look not that we're there but we did always discuss that day might come when there was conflict that was before I was making eight times what you make and before you started making Chuck senior plays like this I'm out of it okay it's you know it's not if they're erotic scenes they're not sort of sexy I mean I don't have to do a whole lot of those those are harder this is you know it's it's it's unusual you know what was more disturbing was a cigarette burn fist nothing oh yeah yeah I mean that's mild I mean for what those people actually do yes and you know no it's a really interesting part of the Camrys yes yeah and it was fascinating to find her stuff it was really interesting did you to learn about what a golden shower was to this I knew what a golden showers around familiy don't know water goat cheese I'm sorry somebody here any it's on somebody else these it's all somebody pees on you you act like you did know what are the things that you guys have that are that you read in a skip and you say you know what not gonna do that I mean are they are they're the things that make you sort of too uncomfortable that you don't want to do whether it's a type of role or us seems we kids suffering yes I can except kids so for it I can I can't yeah I've been offered a lot of really some real psychopathic cards and thought of doing things that I'm like it doesn't seem necessary I mean like I say this is me this is it's like a path a good side oh but this is very much a part of the whole [ __ ] or don't offer things that are really just brutally violent and stuff that no yeah well I'm care to do unless there's some real reason sure um a rape I think is like unless it's really purposeful and obviously if it's in a movie you know that you appreciate or working with a director that you appreciate it it's probably necessary but that's a difficult thing to be in a situation have to do with someone I think but most of the time with us it's the scary stuff that kind of draws us to the role right the thing I was gonna say most offended by I'll do anything yeah yeah I'll do absolutely anything and it wasn't always that way cuz I was I met with a camera of the directors name of six degrees of separation we sat and he said I want to know that you're committed to doing this role you know there's there's this scene where he kisses a man and I said listen I when I get into character I go all the way in and I'm not comfortable with it I'll be honest with you and now I see how childish it was to think that way but you know a young black actor in LA who represented the manliness of that time period I just felt oh I'm gonna alienate people yeah you know but then you grow and mature and you realize how immature it was to even think that and rapes and abuse to children and all of these things I wouldn't want to do but I come from the Lee Daniels school of film and you know when he'll find out something you don't want to do cast you a thank you yeah you know and that's his thing and after you do it you go uh but then he finds the grace in it so question like for myself and from yeah the character has really dark character I do sometimes consider if I want to live in that space for that length of time I think that's actually more what it is but some of these things I've been offered I'm like I don't think I want to play that same Yeller and hence I hate to say it we're all saying the same thing I truly believe that you don't like that you don't like those things but we got to do them yeah yeah it took me a month and a half to shake OJ Simpson from my psyche yeah it really did because it was the darkest room that I had ever done and yet I still am proud of what I did ya know I still feel the residual in my psyche Oh see no pisses me off I got the juice and egg cups I was inked up for five seconds ain't got no other footage of me this situation is very worrisome what's the lawyers saying I don't know I don't even know where the hell our did Hey where's Howard AC I couldn't find him a come on we tried oh joy me here you need your counsel Robert are you a lawyer yes yeah well I used to be but not criminal anything a little part of it stays with you I mean from everything and you I'll go one further if you look at the roles that really affected my life from boys about Jerry Maguire and now we'll say the OJ Simpson thing when I was doing boys night I was in the streets in South Central I was a breakdancer I was I've been thrown on the floor by police I've had guns stuck in my face when I did Jerry Maguire I hadn't done anything of note since then so I was like worried about losing my house and then I got the big contract which was that movie and then it set me apart and then I went to a personal you know thing with my wife during the filming of this and I'll tell her story real quick I don't talk talking a lot but do you good I was upon on Friday after we wrapped filming I got two tickets to see the Blackhawks in Chicago a Saturday I went to my daughter's dance recital she's 10 my wife and I she didn't have a ticket for me I got upset so I said don't think about her just focus on Piper it's Piper's day and then I marched in the net night got on a plane to Chicago and it hit me the Saturday before the murders Oh Jay went to his daughter's dance recital and went off he's confused and she didn't have a seat for him and then that night the murders happens he flew to Chicago no he went for a golf agency I want to see that and it was just and I'm doing patterns like that well you cuz we live in patterns in a way I mean there are appetites that we fall into in his energetic we like so sure move inside absolutely absolutely yeah absolutely I believe that that's why I think we have to we have the right not to do it yeah because and you have to be careful you do it we're gonna be careful deep doing that and this will sometimes I just say I just can't it's a nice part it's cool what I don't wanna do is I wanna take myself if you talk to shines okay man after day before he passed away he said is the darkest roll ever done yeah yeah yeah it seemed like you know we all have to go to very dark place your character isn't exactly yeah I do quite an eerie role no I went before that I got a lovely break of doing the Pacific which I talked about quite a bit because it was such indelible moment for me but got to go to do the boot camp that everybody's doing these days when they go to war did you ever do that for Mattoon we like we were like the beginning of all that and they like put it was a jungle I think we had the same gut was a Dale died that day boot camp with this yeah hope Africa yeah interesting I think yes yes so you do that and then I remember you know just being we were in Australia for so long and ice you know I was new and I and I couldn't really step out of it I kept all that going on in my head and you know there are days I'm picking out gold teeth from these prosthetic bodies but they were done so well it felt so real and you know after doing it like seven eight takes and you're you know I'm just like I got to stop I'm not supposed to be crying in this scene because he's like a hardened guy but I found myself tearing and taking that home every day and just kind of being method when going into this I was like I can't do that anymore because it physically and psychologically really had a kind of a negative impact on have you been able to separate on this yeah on this I show up to work and I you know I think you get all the work done ahead of time so I can enjoy myself there and have regular conversations I mean not everybody's like that but I know that I need that to get through the day now I'm not saying anything then we all know why we do this not because Hunger Games books makes us happy but because we want to be sedated because it's painful not to pretend because we're cowards I think since the day we wrapped the first season I've been thinking about the second season and feeling like there was an immense amount of pressure it it really had a cultural impact on so many people on so many levels and you know you want to be able to retain that or improve upon it there's something scary about coming out of the gate so strong the only way to alleviate myself of that pressure is just to keep working keep discovering keep researching and go to that place you know every chance I could and I feel like if you step on set that that next season and you have all that then no matter what happens you can't get mad at yourself it'll hopefully be no fault of your own right yeah I think we have a great group of people that it feels like everybody came back with that mindset that said not only can we do as good a job we can do better and feeling pretty good those are so does some of it's a he figured it out because like I was even recently I was asked to play the - a film with early onset dementia and like the few times that I've played some money with schizophrenia or or polar put you know bipolar issues and its really affected me and I just I just couldn't I literally said I can't do this film for you even though the role is interesting it'll be good but I'm just a little nervous I haven't figured out all the blocks of how to like put myself there because I was really susceptible to myself some to do things you know so if I just tell myself I'm not remembering and I started like not remembering for like a month and I don't know what it would do to like the neurology of my own system so I get nervous is I think it's something I've been trying to figure out what trying to figure it out with the play I try to think how you can just be it's just there and then like [ __ ] priests you know damn another pilot yeah exactly I know I know something yeah theatre was hard in that way I mean I felt like I did damage to myself sometimes yeah physically and psychologically it got really hard to do you have to make sure that I have like space to be alone yeah like and so I kind of inadvertently push people away I think I send out a signal that tells people I need to like I need space I can't get home from work from a 18-hour day or whatever it is and be bothered yeah so I just happen to have like space to be able to I like working in New York so much you know I can just go out and and walk walk around and and yeah it's absolutely necessary I couldn't just come here and absolutely no that's hard I mean buddy you're definitely that's really hard and how I mean what do you worry about it's a repercussions of playing a character like Pablo Escobar yeah there's yeah there's dis and there is also this personal because I mean it's not that you you were you bring the character to your house or anything like that but we actors we I mean painters they paint their thing it's outside their bodies musicians they do it it's also our thing is here so our bodies they have a memory of what you're doing mm-hmm so body doesn't know you're acting exist yeah no I love this yeah but it doesn't know yeah here you do you do a strong scene an emotional scene anyway it says we're gonna have a coffee in hand a residue of it says you give information to your body and everybody doesn't know it's a lie no so you keep that thing in your cemento psychologically yeah have you really care - you know - it's nice not nice in the other way a third Presidente della republica de Colombia ibn Meghan oh la vie de acción de negocio de ce que puedas fresco tranquilo stead espuelas Sept army negocio Oh a Sept are las consecuencias Plata o Plomo narcos was a very different experience because we all went move to Bogota Colombia we shoe in locations we didn't really know exactly what we were doing in the first season actually I think you know a now I think that production wise and scripts wise and character wise we are all more prepared to do what we were supposed to do now that we have seen the first screen and with it for me personally this it felt that we all know what's gonna happen with Pablo Escobar it's like it's a it's a character that we it's like I felt like when I finish the first season that I had that I had to finish it in he felt like a film edit shot like chill the middle off the film and go to go to the end of it it's like accomplishing a something a mission okay it's been a big part of my life yeah the craziest thing I have ever done when I didn't speak Spanish Ellis Athena wasn't the obvious choice to play this character Portuguese is that right was it yes mr. Borchardt oh yeah what it so I had to learn it lay there let you play a character craziest it's cool that's why we moved to took along Ben they did right before everyone just stay there so it's being a very deep and Mars area so in the first season I didn't want my family to be there so that I had to be there alone it was also really tough yeah it's good as it was difficult for public just to be away from his family time now I feel more comfortable so I brought them there my kids are there learning Spanish and going to school does it say about that coke I'm curious with vinyl um is there something sort of liberating to playing a character who's that big into that extreme or is it scary to have a character who has so few limitations if you will well for me it's it's very freeing it's very nice I've never gotten to play a role that's that's this dimensional really that's this bigger role I'm for like I'm putting it easier way I mean so it's a pretty big role I've never I've never been leaving anything before and and and that's that's kind of what the role calls for you know I really could do anything in this part and I was set up that way by Terry winter yeah Martin Scorsese and they told me from the beginning like this guy is out of his mind so just go and run with it and you can you can you can play everything in this role you're all here in this the same way yeah no of course three bars three bars I can tell they'll be filling football stadiums come on Richie where are we with the good rats and what do you draw from to get to that sort of extreme place I think just just experience I just you know I feel like I've I feel like maybe twenty years ago I wouldn't have been ready to do this part and I just feel like I've gotten I played a lot of different roles in the years leading up to this and and I think those roles really sort of prepared me for it you know I've gotten to play leads on stage before um and in the bin the last let's say ten years I've gotten to play bigger roles and more interesting supporting roles and I think they've all kind of led me to this character in a way you know I feel like I've gotten to play elements of this character in other parts and I'm not really get to put it all together now and really have fun with it sure sure and force with you with with roots what was it about it that you wanted to say okay it's time to revisit this again I mean I think is like a few things I mean it's more inside of I think of the contains character in his mind it starts to show you their history in the back history in a way that I hadn't understood before I didn't even understand his religion I didn't know he was a Muslim you know what I mean so he chooses to compromise and give away parts of himself to function to have a good life and it has to confront like his own identity he loses identity at the end of the at least my character's life he regains his identity and I think this issue of identity is something that I've been playing with a lot of different things I'm trying to understand you know about being the core of like the being the essence you know so I decided to give him a shot a lot of challenges you know with the violin itself with other instruments as I started aside to add on other instruments you know like to express like this transition from the past that the contain go which the African guitar to the violin the piece itself I think is important for the legacy of what it is you know people have the use today I haven't seen this I think it's very important for them to look at this and remember this it's a source of identity to move on to the next phase of the progression of tove where we're moving to quite a Kenta no no no listen to me the masses wife don't named you Toby Quinta Kenta younger taller more Kenta ding couple Ooty bigger turn I'll [ __ ] away any muscle Tina - it can't be better Toby Toby Toby Toby Toby Toby Toby you're gonna be told me now and you gonna be told me forever I don't care nothin about your Africa wings and did you remember the impact that it had on you well yeah I mean I watched it like with my family I mean with everybody whatever family everybody wants yeah so I would sit with my whole family though and I sit in front of the TV and watched it then we'd all talk about it at school and I'd say something like that it's things that you've never seen before in what ways do you hope it sort of changes the dialogue whether it's in Hollywood or Beyond with a project like this I think it just frames like the situation so you can understand this sort of alcohol to the Holocaust in a way that what happened in the passage and and how we progressed and where we've moved to - today the piece allows us to historically move from era to era and see the progression of our culture and how we become either more taller or less tolerant or question if that is if we've moved past those same issues you can't you can't watch it without being confronted with with the issue of civil rights issue of human rights and it's not possible - to watch someone be beat to death and then can we happen to be forced into a new identity by having to say a new name for himself having to take a new life being powerless you know I think those are all like things that we have to explore you know because this is going on everywhere from refugees from from from issues of slavery or in this country in other countries all kinds of things that are touchable that are relatable that are happening right now that we need to like try to understand still in this dialogue in the shower absolutely what are the sort of the upsides and the downsides of inhabiting a real character is that something that excites you or terrifies you I love it you do I always love I mean I played a few Ben Carson and mm-hmm Master Chief Carl Bashir and now OJ and I think it's because we as actors try to find an emotional truth to the character in whatever situation you put him in right mm-hmm so you do your research and you try to get his mannerisms down you try to get the you know the hair to look as much like that character but when you connect with that character truthfully the audience will forget what he looks like mm-hmm you know I've said some stuff about your show I absolutely adored it I really did but if I gave it one critique and I've said this impresses when they go to the real Pablo Escobar I feel like they betray you every time I finally got still got that image um and I'll be frank giant and then they jump back to the real guy and I didn't just say yeah I think it's one of those things where the audience will go on you the truth of your journey it's just like take up to take wheat you know Marlon Brando says that he wants the on the waterfront and he said in and out in and out and they were like what does that mean he's like I was in and out truthfully I you know and it could have been just because of the different tasted they use but it really is that when we see our work we look for the truth when we really like caught up in it you know so yeah I'm curious about the Apple did you try to imitate him or to talk like him or to what well as much as I could you know Ryan and I had this agreement early on I said you know I look like him as much as I can but uh you know I will be the actor that will give you a truth for whatever you want so you tell me you know we had a shorthand right he'd say do this take where he's guilty did this take nowhere he's frustrated yeah undid it like he literally told me to come so I had to put myself in that mindset and that was the truth that I I felt was my job and it's like we had a videographer on the set every day and especially when we're doing the courtroom stuff so we would watch what we were about to shoot real time yeah you know and there were certain loud [ __ ] like biggest is Sol really not guilty verdict when he did it I have to tell a story so I don't know if anybody seen the show but I'm not my character you'll see emotional rollercoaster right so it but in that verdict he was so hard and drugged up and doped up that they said not guilty well you saw how he laid in it so I tried to mimic his reaction to a tee and I'm you know between takes I want from you know you're walking around this set just trying to stay away from it I went by one of the actor jurors that she goes uh but it was because trying to make at that moment I was really if it was Cuba Gooding jr. felt like you know I prayed thank God but it wasn't it was just men so yes she want to look like it but it's more about the no that's complicated I mean you've obviously you've played real characters before I mean is it to you is there pressure that comes with that or is it actually like it allows you to find a connect to that character yeah sure it can be really freeing I mean I'll I've played some historical characters Jonathan you know that her long dad so we have no idea what they really sound like and stuff so you know you have a certain amount of its kind of really circumscribed I've done a lot of it you have a lot of freedom and in some ways that kind of confinement of like I got to look like this and talk like this frees you up in a funny way too so it's it's interesting um but I also love the idea of inhabiting a real person a historical character there's a it's an exciting kind of story to step into the fact that so I just love doing stuff like that sure David McCullough knows what he probably looks awesome okay yeah was really fun to invent all of that like what did these people sound like a need to make all that up we made up accent since I mean was really fast is that kind of research stuff is really fun and um there's too much of it well you know I mean and then it's like a certain point you have to stop cuz you can't just play the guy you have to then create and pretend and make it up to sure um Ronnie obviously that this role for you has been wildly sort of an impactful and I imagine sort of game changing I'm curious as the offers are probably coming when you look around and an infant when you think about careers you want emulating in decisions you want to make about what to do next and how are you thinking about what to say yes and and what to say no to it's such a good question I don't know if any actor ever figures out like what exactly they want but again out doors have definitely been opened and gotten to read scripts and meet with directors they not never would have had the opportunity to a year ago and I've just always I wanted to just work on really great content great material with capable inspiring artistic directors and if something moved me or scared me then I was drawn to it I don't need to work all the time I would much rather wait on something really special that speaks to me and I think I do look for things I can shine it but ultimately now that I work on this show that has really provoked people in such a way that I want to do that more I want to have it be so socially conscious the way you know something like roots is something that has an impact not just as a piece of entertainment but you know affects us on a social level and three-issue yeah it empowers people and I mean that's my favorite thing about it sorry no no I mean it definitely doesn't it deals with the culture and the people and the movement of the culture like that as we're growing and expanding and understanding privacy and all colors you see it's this really intense crazy stuff yeah yeah yeah so if we had your agents sitting around this table if I asked them about you know how you react when they present you with with projects what would they say I think my agent would say they'd never know how I'm gonna react cuz I never know how I'm gonna react part of what I enjoy about this is not knowing what's gonna happen next and what I'm gonna get next oh what's gonna suddenly be interesting to me what are projects that have come your way that you've been you're not sort of thinking that this would be something they'd want you for and then you've been delighted and done it oh jeez I don't know so many things I don't know I did a movie called The Illusionist which is a small little movie and I remember getting that and thinking nobody's ever wanted me to play a German police detective before this isn't a little movie it's a wonderful my man but I remember thinking like wow nobody's ever want me and I'm and I love doing that things I have no idea I'm gonna be running around with ha the pipe and like a cape and [ __ ] and jumping on a train and stuff I was like this is fantastic I just didn't ever see that coming uh hello and it's so that's wonderful that's a big part of it to me is this enjoyment of I have no idea of really what's gonna happen to me if I'm lucky two leagues issed in a place where I don't know if that answers your question they wouldn't know he'll always be surprised and sometimes they'll be like why the [ __ ] do you want to do that you know I'll be like because I want to do a thing where I have a bird and I play with a bird yes yeah that's true my agent always afraid to bring me things that are like a detective or a mob guy yeah cuz they know I'm gonna be like a lot of pizza or pizza guys yeah yeah I've actually got a pizza mob guy a guy a mob guy who like protection as I sure and they were like but he's in witness protection in Arizona and I'm like I could go now to zone it's not that [ __ ] crazy no but thank everybody at this table has gone through that transition when I started this business I was conditioned to for failure and no and to hear no so you go to a billion auditions and then you get one and you know [ __ ] I got a job I got a job you know and so you just are conditioned to be insecure and I in this is gonna work then the transition that I spoke of is now your agent calls you and say now you have to choose from a plethora of things and you're like so I have to say no to myself on those things yeah when you do that you're saying no maybe to something you should be doing or you shouldn't be so that's why I let go of the scripts and what are the filmmakers I want to know cuz let them tell me what I should be doing because when I started at this business I was just trying to win any role any ball it is you know right you know so it ships sort of quickly yeah it are there projects of yours that sir virtually nobody has seen the illusionist does not count um told you what today eight years I was probably there's a lot that nobody has seen that one and what is it about that specific project that was that made it so special to you and and then flip side of that is why didn't it connect with with a broader audience is there a little movie called um Fast Food Nation that I'm really proud of that Rick Linklater made yeah well my favorite filmmakers I had just coincidentally read that book a couple years earlier and I'd given up on I haven't touched fast food since I read that book it just chills me like that book and then I was doing a play in New York called hurly-burly and I was playing up like a kind of a nasty guy another coke guy and um and it was like crazy and I had never played that kind of role before I'd played like nice guys before I had done what I had done like third watching station aging and that was it and Rick and ethan hawke was in that play and Rickon Ethan are good friends and Rick came to see that play and was he didn't know me and he was like wow you're really nasty you want to play this nasty guy in this movie and that was the first opportunity I ever got to play a nasty guy until a point I'd only been getting these nice guy roles and they were kind of bland and hmm you know like Paul says it's the surprises really like you just have to be open to anything because I was typecast for two years playing a nice guy and then I was typecast as I was playing like the guy that was really straight but he ends up being gay at the end yeah I did like for those guys and then I was a pop guy from there you go you just never know yeah minute there I thought I was just gonna be a nice guy and then Rick gave me this opportunity and that kind of led to a certain another certain kind of personality but I was really grateful for that cuz I got to work with Linkletter and nobody like nobody saw that movie for whatever reason and I'm still really proud of that film sure force is there one that comes to mind for you but it was way back in time or more recently you I mean I did a film called uh my own love song Renee Zellweger which is with filmmaker Olivier Dahan and directed a love Ian rose it was a really unique from a heart to a point of view of perspective I mean in the way he saw the universe in the world I really thought the movie was really special and uh but it didn't even get released here yeah I never heard of that think yes we were talking about never coming back how about girls don't yes Richard that's why it's not fall through the cracks no no no it is like a strong cold father yeah it's like we're working with some great you know how to directors that their their sensibilities were maybe not right for the distribution system in the US I love the movies you know I love the did something cool thing I did with this director called baltha goes our komak or who I thought he was a really interesting director from Iceland mm-hmm you know there's number of films you know and I thought throughout a year my career is old so I've been doing it for like 30-something years so and there's been federal to see you I have to say I want to do more of those films like it doesn't never bothers me who sees them I don't want to work with interesting filmmakers like that you guys work with all those filmmakers huh I want to do that I'm gonna work with some obscure Norwegian filmmaker you know nobody sees the movie I I don't feel I mean you say they didn't come out yeah I feel good about the films and with the existing world ya know they learn inevitably from each one whether they see it her you know I feel when they I wanted to add is like all the auditions I almost wish that sometimes people back hey I saw you addition for that even though you didn't get it those are some you know I think we've got some good performances that for one reason or should be an awards see all these my best fakes her off camera yeah what is covered there one that you felt like I nailed this I'm definitely gonna get this and I never feel like I definitely get I'm gonna get it better like I got a good shot at that one I think and then I can oh you weren't even close I got zeroes as an audition reader really an audition reader when I was like much younger and I got to and I got a movie in a play from being the reader that's all I remember when I was first auditioning like the readers were always terrible and I remember being like [ __ ] I want to try to be a reader and like that and I did I got a job gonna be here like I made ice elementadd like my income like working in a bar and being an audition leader and I got to jog off okay then I'll do stuff with great readers me feel like why don't you just put that I always think that about my stand-in when I see a standeth I see him on the monitor I'm like that guy all right so we are gonna go to a lighter point when you were coming up and you get the first big role it was the first room big splurge or whether that was you bought something for yourself you did something for yourself no not really I mean I've been working in Brazil since I was 15 16 years old and um I was thinking about the the characters I the question about the characters I would like to play it's exactly I mean I don't I never I didn't have my was a poor kid and it was started working and I don't need money I mean I don't need money - I mean if as soon as I have money to feed my kids I'm okay uh-huh so I was thinking here that what I'm looking therefore is experiences uh-huh you know to have experiences that bring something to my life this narcos think this means such a gay change in my in terms not in terms of career and I don't even like to think about my little career because it's my life sure it's not my career it's my the fact that I'm Brazilian and then we are so wise elated in Brazil because we speak Portuguese and then I was you know feeling for first time that I was South American you know working with Max connectors and Chilean Argentinians Colombian people that's the kind of thing I'm looking for is to bring something to you know to give me feel your life easily like you're trying to do they say well we all have bought a car we've got nicer houses we fly first-class whatever so you go oh that's when it happened for you but there's also a currency in working with a like an icon of some kind and him telling you a story of a iconic director here and you hear a story you know no one else other than the president he's not working what has heard the story those will give me away house always make me go this is this is the day right here yeah for me it's always when somebody knows my name first time I remember the island that's when it blew me away and I knew who I was easy to play and he knew my word a playing yeah and I was like wow it's good it's cool yeah all right so if a gun was to your head you couldn't be an actor anymore what would you guys do own a bar you go far yeah I'd be in Bob's bar you could find me Bobby's I'd be impoverished far away oh you guys what would what would you do something creative it would still be I feel I won't it would be something associated with film TV or stage in some way writing directing craft service but a few concepts but if I couldn't they say you clean me in anything artistic anything artistic that what you're saying artistic this you know you have to pay my bills somebody physical construction us yeah yeah anything artistic would be hard would be horribly hard did you feel like oh I'm just have no other viable skills can really go I think construction - for some reason most Ron I guess building something yeah you know there's something about that uh-huh always been athletic my whole life boxing and ice hockey in other sports so maybe an athletic thing pro athletes it's so scary cuz your career ends woman that you're done I know in your 35 yeah and you're yeah you're young and you're like okay would I do that I hope where do you go for us and that to sit down aha yeah I know I would I would probably be working with the UN or or uh with some NGO somewhere in the field I'd do that now I'm just kidding around that's what we're all gonna do I love it then the last one the thing that people would be surprised to know about you well can't say I mean I can let's no no no no no but oh no no in fact there's that I can tell you I mean as a child I was a competitive figure skater and I traveled around the world competing so that's mine well that's not surprising go oh yeah yeah I Club baby seals I've been doing jujitsu since it was ah you stay when Tracy's regressing you're not absolutely but Brazilian things and I don't think it's such a surprise I love since I was 23 for to hell don't work out there's no many Gracie's right there's a problem yeah they're all around oh yeah yeah yeah you do that too yeah I have that I have that I can get for much less figured out when I was a kid ophtho it's a good secret but I mean you're talking about years how long you been I'm 39 Wow okay who's 20 not a black belt you you blue subsists known purple you look like well guys are black belt nada used to train with me example always traveling and so but you know it's hard and that style to get a black well it takes a long long time this is if you're there all the time we're gonna let we've got the rest you can force you obviously musical talents there's definitely wouldn't know that I have a been for 25 years this is something I've been playing with this guy this is if the artistic thing wasn't out of the last question I would say I would play me my band I'm playing with this guy for 26 25 - it's not a minute it's it's a kitsch resilient music with British rock so it's a weird hole it's yeah he's got his musical things going on oh you know you guys I send clubbing baby seals was was not a sincere and serious okay hold on a minute you gotta gonna rap brother leg got it Rowley what you got what I like to cook and I would say my specialty is just making something out of number Devers left in the fridge what do you got I'm a woman now wait a minute if you are because I think you do agile I wish I don't know I can't think of anything particularly interesting um sorry I had to take the violin when I was a kid I hated it though so you know no I don't have any particularly hidden talents they're all right out there for the world I'm not thanking them so much uh yeah thank you thanks for watching make sure to subscribe for more videos from The Hollywood Reporter this guy get out of there Mike Mike get out that coke

Channel: The Hollywood Reporter

Views: 460,345

Rating: 4.9449134 out of 5

Keywords: thr roundtable drama actors, the hollywood reporter roundtable drama actors, cuba gooding jr, paul giamatti, forest whitaker, rami malek, wagner moura, bobby cannavale, the people v oj simpson american crime story, mr robot, billions, roots, narcos, vinyl, tv actors, career mistakes, thr roundtable, the hollywood reporter roundtable, the hollywood reporter roundtable 2016, roundtable the hollywood reporter, THR, hollywood reporter, the hollywood reporter, thehollywoodreporter

Id: rQqoR5CZutY

Length: 55min 59sec (3359 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 05 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/m33ster_robot]

Not an actor but still found it pretty interesting.

[u/SadieTheWonderDog]

That was fantastic! Thank you so much for posting this!