Tom Hanks & Viola Davis - Actors on Actors - Full Conversation

Oh you all right I guess my is the first question I have is the perfect preparation for shooting a movie to have done the same exact text for 800 performances already between what I would say Tom that that probably is not I think that when you do and you have done the text yes you have done the prep work but you what you have to be is still surprised yeah by the time right you cannot do it by rote so you know with fences I did it for 13 weeks and we rehearsed for what four wheels we did what four weeks of previews and so there is a 150 performance there's a knee-jerk response of oh I already know it you know I'm going to come in and I already know it and then something surprises you it's like Lloyd Richards a great director you know out of Yale once said I worked with him my first August Wilson show he said the worst thing for an actor is when you're doing something by rote and then you wake up someone throws you a line in a different way and you're like oh wait a minute this is my response this is you know um it's not alive anymore yes so it is a great preparation and it isn't it's like you have to be so surprised in fences yes because you get you get some you get some huge news there yeah I get some huge and you have already responded to that huge news I'm going to say a thousand times you know between between rehearsals and the performance yes and it's life-changing news oh yeah yes it's big news so what about you what is your what is your preparation what do you do well special because you do so much it's funny because this was my question is because I find that when you no longer are thinking about the dialogue is dialogue I mean that's something that you had to memorize yeah when you know it as well as you know the pleasant Pledge of Allegiance or your favorite song that you've been singing since you were 13 there is a freedom of just starting and it sure wherever it is that you go absolutely um but so so if you've done the play yeah for a hundred fifty performances you don't have to think about the dialogue as dialogue you don't have to think about the dialogue but you still have to think about the character it's like how many years have you spent in your body and at certain points I'm sure in your life you've surprised yourself mm-hmm what does that mean do you actually really know who you are so you have a character that you've played for 150 performances you don't feel like you quite really even know them even when the play is over so you're still discovering yourself as a character on the set with Denzel directing and acting in it with August Wilson right there absolutely well you know in spirit if not you know solutely men and a different actor playing my son you know he's coming at me in a whole different way and actually having to go in the kitchen and actually here's the thing that no actor is willing to admit maybe you are willing to admit is nothing that the parts of the play that I did not hit but I felt like I never discovered on stage so now it's it's an it's a chance to now um I don't want to use the word correct because that's you know a bad word um and acting but it's a chance to discover it and that would be the last moment in the play for me I never hit it on the stage never never and yet if you would probably ask any member of the audience who saw one of those 160 performance you did they will say that that was the ultimate moment for them of your character on stage that fabulous pretense I wouldn't believe on the first do you believe people when they say that was a fantastic performance do you ever actually look at a performance of yourself seriously and say that moment that performance or that moment was pretty little bit that's the bad thing quite frankly about doing things on film that live forever yeah that that that you if you if you're going through the grid you know seven years after you've made the movie and boom there it is on HBO or Showtime or something and you end up catching seven or eight minutes oh that's all I can stand it buddy you know any one of my movies Oh mmm a lot of time you just pray that I have no memory of doing it yeah because if you do have a memory of doing it it's a painful one there's a moment that I didn't land it here's a moment that I never thought was was great absolutely but every night in the play you react to it you react to the moment one time and then it's gone the great thing about doing plays I thought was they're gossamer things and in the wink of an eye they disappear and all they are are memories but every film you've ever made is going to live forever and it doesn't change up and it's over yeah and but you know what I did a play seven guitars Lloyd Richards directed me that first play and I did it for over a year and I didn't feel like I ever got it it's kind of the impostor syndrome that is always coursing through our DNA as actors that we're all frauds we're frauds we're fraud this moment is a fraud you know this you're always trying to it's like David Mamet says if there's an actor on the stage and there's a cat on the stage who are you gonna watch you're gonna watch the cat because the cat is pointless is dream the catch is true and so you're always just trying to be you're always trying to think okay I'm not gonna think about what I just ate for lunch in this moment I'm not going to think about the fact that this actors giving me something so crappy that I can't use it um I'm not going to think about the fact that I'm just scared right now and I don't really even know what this moment is who knows what it is right you've touched on something that is undeniable the process of making films of how important it is to be getting something from the people that you're in there yeah ensemble moment you actually are playing catch with someone absolutely and if they are not putting anything on on the ball in trouble Denzel I must say he's a king of sandbagging man you you you he's a he's an absolute man and mister when he's off camera apps and you're on and even when you're inside you're working with him I said the the fact he's like you're trying to water-ski behind a boat the denzel's driving he's going like this and slowing down and speeding up he's going to try to take you off your skin you got to catch up you and yeah I'm keep up yeah absolutely in some ways it's like thank God I'm alone in this moment now yes yes because I could take as much time as I want I can you know slowly get there because but it's all the elements of acting which is what truly makes it a collaborative process right it's having a terrific script because if you don't you're working against it you have to problem-solve up your behind you have to sit down and go okay how am I going to make this work because it's not there you have to problem-solve with a bad director you know you have the problem solved with other actors you have the problem solved with the lighting and and the Wardrobe all of it has to work I always say a great performance doesn't happen by accident a great performance is a lot of elements that come and they culminate together and they make a perfect storm that's why I always feel like the people who should get nominated forwards of people in crappy narratives crappy failures and we could still make it work that's a good actors directors who you come up to a mister in that moment where I'm reacting would you like would you like me to like I think what I can find is just a sense of self-loathing gay person I'd come out and they are looking at you like you don't understand you at least say the words just please say the words just say the words that don't fall down and I'll be fine because I have so many shots we have to get today then I'm not even paying attention to it Arnie the Union is pulling out all the big guns today talk to Dan Vassili gotta count 155 with August Wilson you have a language that is you know let's call it Shakespeare and it's been incredibly well-crafted it's it's tiny little phrases pay massive dividends both in the moment and then later on and in the story in the movie absolutely with with a guy like Clint Eastwood I'm supposed to say Clint Eastwood yeah there is absolutely no rehearsal and absolutely no preparation whatsoever and yet what look what you get well there is what what he has is it's odd it's it's strangely enough it's the same alchemy it comes down to you must inhabit the space and you must you must display the behavior absolutely and if you don't it's horrible absolutely it's like is it better is it it's never easy because it's all we all lose sleep over this all night long is it better to be able to to have this great verbiage you know this great prose that you get to care use to carry you into the moment or to better have nothing no nothing to say and only have the procedure of you know the job you're playing the pile or what absolutely that minimum of this is who you are yes and this is who you have to believe yourself to be but listen I'd rather have the great narrative I because I've had both and I always find I always this is a really crappy analogy but you know it's the first thing that was our job yeah I look crappy you know happy today it would be like having a great body and wanting to showcase it in a burlap sack mm-hmm you know it's you I don't feel like your your work can come through in a bad narrative I think that you're always kind of like going to be the third girl from the left who maybe has Meryl Streep Titanic size talent that nobody sees and you know actors you just don't want to be invisible and for me that's what a great narrative does it just makes to shine your light the thing that I feel that is really difficult about August Wilson is and I've been saying this a lot it's big but it's honest yeah and a lot of times with actors this is I find that acting on screen is small you know because the cameras there they say you just don't need much to be honest understated people say that a lot write less and then less when you see that person who's a great actor who's understated and you throw high stakes at them you see how a lot of actors crumble and there is a fear I think of fighting for your life that's how I call it and you know when a parent dies I don't know divorce whenever you you've been in those moments in life where you feel like the next stop is death that's a frightening place to be the only time you could go there is if someone has a boot up your behind and they're actually kicking kicking you into that to that place there there are there are times in moments times in moments the moments in film like the greatest example of this is in a on the waterfront when Marlon Brando was Taylor Terry Malloy has tail Eva Marie Saint that he was responsible for her brother's death yeah and there were no there was no dialogue that could do that moment justice absolutely so they played it against nothing they played it to get sounds of whistles in the wind and whatnot and what you just saw them communicating and then you know what the was what was what was being said I sometimes I've made movies where I said can we just do this with a look please because whatever is written here it can embody the moment better than simple behavior can oh absolutely a longtime companion I always say use that example of Bruce Davidson and oh yeah um sitting at the bedside of his dying partner and just holding his hand that's it and most deathbed scenes are like that but here's the thing it's the actor who actually embodies that and the actor who just does it and they nothing happening how are you gonna play ball when you were over 40 sometimes I can't get no sense out of you I got good sense woman I got sense enough not to let that boy get hurt playing those sports your mother and the boy too much worrying about whether people like him or not everything that boy do he do for you let's talk about fencing specifically yeah I got the play that is all I mean look the theater is about language yeah that's what mm-hmm then you have the film in which a lot of times the best the best moment is one that is silent without that is not played with that words did August Wilson and Denzel did they rip stuff out of there and just say we're going to play this with a look and in a moment and her beat or was it was it there were some moments there were some moments like that in the film there were some moments that had to be played like that in the film there is you know a moment where you know he leaves the house he's frustrated there's a lot of things internally that's going on that I don't even know about with you know the woman that he's you know having an affair with and all of that he's also we never say by the way exactly which I love because but because and she still has power it's still another character and still an end the frustration with his brother who is disabled you know he feels like he's failed Atlas Micheal T Williams Micheal T Williams in is awesome and and so he's frustrated he throws something he leaves you know the house and then I'm left alone the day of that woman I'm sorry the dignity of that woman who has made that home and has kept that house hmm and has what's that what's the word I'm looking for it did in union with with her man is I'm sorry it's a tower of strength and it's one of the other things that can come along with these types of films is that because you say there's an awful lot of people out there says I'm playing no housewife I'm not going to play some ladies as oh honey you'll figure it out what time are you coming home which is what an awful lot of you know the roles for women are when are you coming home honey when you're going to come home I know I know you have a big trial that you're trying to put in the Med in jail but when are you coming home that woman you created that that that what's what's the word on maker doesn't do it right but that protectress of her of her castle and her and her her life ends up surpassing everybody else in the play at that moment particularly what it by the time you get to the end when you find out the news that you find out but I was about to ask you that because in Sully you are playing a man who is labeled a hero a life saver and you know as an actor at least you know in my neck of the woods when you're playing someone heroic and strong how much of that do you play against do you know what I'm saying because it's your job as an actor to humanize it's almost your job as an actor to fly to find the mess but you're finding the mess and someone there is this for you there is little a specific moment in when Clint Eastwood the boss came up to me and said alright Pappy he was doing a John Wayne imitation no this is the Duke coming into town you know make sure you make sure that everybody knows that you're the man in charge and he was joking but it was the moment where I'm just walking down the jet way onto the plane for the first time and the what he was commenting on is like there's a way in order to do this in which you're going to Telegraph everything that's going to come off for the rest of the movie and you're going to tell everybody I'm the big guy I'm the big cheese I'm the hero and I'm ready for this well that's one way of doing it the other thing is just to be the guy walking on the plan yes it's like job I'm going to walk on the plane have done the six thousand times this is a routine thing this was dual engine loss at 2,800 feet followed by an immediate water landing with 155 souls on board no one has ever trained for an incident like that no one Sully himself the man was was fascinating because to talk to because number one we're making a movie of his life yes and not only of his life but the defining moments I was up all of his all of his life as an aviator and as a man and as a husband and he had he had long ago made his peace with a great paradox of his heroic status which is the only thing I did was my job to the best of my ability absolutely that's it was yet that's it you uh and everybody was calling me hero and everybody was saying let me touch your cape you know he had almost like and I I created like yet an out-of-body perspective of it is that he says I know I'm this guy that is being having projected upon him this great super power of heroism and and but what he knew he went through was a lifetime of his body experiencing when am I going up when am I going down what am i turning left he said when when he talked about is that he didn't need to look at any of the instruments on the plane because he felt in his literally in his in his sinews the rate of descent of the plane yeah angle of the flight of the plane so it was all you know it was it was this manifestation of everything he'd ever known on then after that he he had made the peace with that paradox that he didn't feel like a hero for a moment but he understood why everybody considered him a hero and if you asked me said the real heroes were those the people who showed up to save everybody off the plane I actually met the fellow who was the very first person out on the far end of the left hand wing he stood out there and then I said what was it like what was I says it was really cold because you know they were up in their ankles into you know Hudson River in January and it was really slick and they did not want to fall off and they were all sort of holding onto each other I said how long were you out there for is it if you would ask would have said I was out there for half an hour but he had gone back and looked at the actual real-time footage of the rescue and he was only on that wing for seven minutes seven minutes between getting out there and everybody else coming out and then being in the safety of a boat so that Sully himself would say the fact that everybody those first responders who all showed up on their tugboats and the police boats and what have you getting everybody out of water they they really did save anybody from falling in getting hypothermia possibly drowning or whatever so Sully's Sully's position of this was it's a humble bumble is probably a I'm excited I'm trying to find actually the words in order to the practical yeah exactly I think he understands the human behavior and he knows that there were people out there that were specifically looking for the narrative fiction or the the fictional narrative of it all would have been different had it not been you there is truth to that of y'all is Anna Lee and yet he just he he was not thinking about how do I be a hero and you know what's really interesting as an actor too it's it's it's what therapists say that they say that you have to have an a healthy image of yourself internally how you see yourself but also how other people see you but as an actor often times especially if you're playing a real person um the first kind of thing that you get is how other people see you yeah but you can't build the character on that right no you can't no you have to you you have to voluntarily put on some sort of like ninja cloak of invisibility and I think that's the trap of biopic is that sometimes that's what you play you play you play you play the hero you play the person and then you can't um you can't stain them in any way you can't reduce them in any way so the audience can't say oh yeah but you know I don't want her to do that I want him to do that I don't want Oh No are you ruining my image yeah you know but then your job as an actor is almost to ruin the image because truth is in fact is stranger than fiction yeah I always think that I've played other people you know who I've met them before I you know played them in movies you know Charlie Wilson the politician yes yes Jim Lovell and and Richard Phillips yep and I said look I'm going to say things you never said I'm going to do things you never did I'm going to be places you never were in this movie but in spite of that I want to make this as realistic as possible yeah I want it to be as accurate as possible but what they're really is you're trying to you try and let Cley doing an authenticity yes that is belied by the fact that everybody knows how the story ended well exactly exactly you have to like bring into those modes in those moments of just pure human behavior by way of their their their expertise without putting a hat on a hat or gilding a lily or you know stirring a pot that doesn't need to be stirred and that is a lot of time that's that's contrary to cinematic narrative you know let's raise the stakes here I think it a bigger moment than it needs to be so again I don't I don't think we need to raise this day I don't think we need to raise let's just let's just try to try to find it and and make it real working with with Clint Eastwood that was that was kind of great by the way this is how Clint Eastwood directs you know how I don't know how it is but you know everybody all right we're ready and we're rolling everybody stand by here we go and action that's the way that Clint Eastwood you you hear a voice over your shoulder behind the cameras okay go ahead it's like all right and then when it's done it does work and I said what's that about he said it on rawhide these old movie directors his TV show rawhide would make a big deal about screaming action because that was your job and it would always scare the horses you know they'd be on horses and somebody action they had like bring it back and Sierra said and I said Thank You Clint for treating us as versus I think that's very you know what I get it better than cattle yeah but you know what no no absolutely because then it's like you're ready I'm in Brett you know in acting school they always said we always know when an actor is getting ready to talk because you could see the breathing breathing breathing that totally relaxed and then it stops and they take a big deep breath and they go you know and um that moment we got a walk on stage you know and do you walk on stage you know well it with a swagger just kind of like you know it's kind of like slink on but when you're doing that okay so your television show however this is all about this is that you know they it's the writers medium it's the producers meeting and it's this constant constant pages coming in do you do you find that the the TV show has that balance of of the words as well as just the the cinematic narrative no I don't I don't think that TV has that balance at least network TV I think you're fighting a huge beast which is way bigger than narrative and words in and being cinematic you're fighting ratings you're fighting censors the stories have to be told in broad strokes I mean do you get to be you get to be as subtle you don't win on subtle material I guess kind of I feel I feel more in in television people have a problem with silence yeah because then you don't feel like the audience is going to get what's going on in that silence and they have to know what's going on and also you know it's I I'm one of those actors if I'm in a scene I'm not a woman who's a size two if I'm in a sex scene I want to play the sex scene I want to say this is why I'm attracted to you this is why it's gotten to this point you know this is what my body looks like and then all of a sudden on TV you you could be doing all that work as an actor and then the actor that you're playing with who's wonderful by the way could be is wonderful what out of bed and looked like they've been in the gym for the last year that's yeah and then finally they show in the scene and then you're on TV characters at the gym working out you know they always just they all just have a great body that's why I hate nude scenes even on oh yeah yeah I look at them I'm like okay you've been in the gym yes you know and turn those lights down so don't actually happily this stretch marks yeah I mean come on I just like all those sags that are really you know weird that's typing radio that I've earned those sex exactly there's the there's one thing about all the a lot of times the men and women are in far too good a shape and the problem I have is the women's lipgloss is always just perfectly applied yeah it is that there's everybody I don't know they if you're if you're working hard in a legal office sometimes don't you touch your clothes should be wrinkled then your hair should be askew well I have made I made at a point when I got that role because I saw it as an opportunity that was way bigger than doing really good work I saw it as an opportunity for a dark-skinned actress of 50 to be in a role that sexualized not sexy yeah there's a difference between sexualized and sexy and messy and maybe sociopathic when I used to you know I'm used to playing housewives and maids and crackheads mm-hmm and um I saw it as an opportunity a blank palette or a blank canvas to put my mark on mm-hmm I was not interested in boundaries I was not interested in saying this is who she is this is how she acts this is I wasn't interested in any of that I was just interested in just taking the ball and running with it even if I took it in the wrong direction that's why I took my wig off I take my makeup off I mean this year she's an alcoholic which you know but um which is kind of like a crackhead face then you got you got to be careful with oh you know but television for all the the righteous and and honest criticism of films lack of diversity you're fighting in order to get some degree university television is almost a bonanza when it comes down to the birth absolutely because of color both genders it's crazy there's this multiple choice and it goes on and on yeah which is fantastic but the economics of a movie coming along a movie that has to play in China or have to play you know overseas simply in order to make its investment back it ends up being one of those barriers or that's not one of the boundaries of being as as as diverse you just said it how many times did you play a maid or a or policeman sorry yeah and how many times of hi I had moments you know that I could make my mark and even in roles that were fabulous I mean even in doubt it was still one scene yes do you know what I'm saying I would I would rather get a role that is well I shouldn't say I would rather get a role but playing a lead role and I don't care there's a part of me that literally you have to dare to fail when you're an actor if you because otherwise you get way too precious I just saw it as an opportunity for redefinition and what happens is your imagination is absolutely the biggest tool you have as an actor and a writer and I'm sorry that is the one tool that gets tossed out the window when it comes to people of color uh-huh you see them on screen even in fabulous roles and they're still within the confines of being strong a device mm-hmm arm funny that's another one funny yeah if it is a biopic thing or overtly early you know and if it is a black movie at best it's a biopic because it it makes the audience feel comfortable that I'm investing in this black person's humanity who I already know has made a mark in the world yeah yeah it's not easy for me to admit that I've been standing in the same place for eighteen years I've been standing with you I'm in right here with your toy I got a life too I gave eighteen years of my life to stand in the same spot as you there is nothing more more to the question was like ponder was what are your fears when you can do this and if you have any fear in this get out don't even show up you you you cannot be afraid of failing you cannot be afraid of not getting that you have to just give it some degree of 100% of your behavior and it a lot of times it cannot cannot be overt I've had conversations with with directors and it can it go off into a theoretical kind of like discussion about what you're going to try to do in the scene and I just say okay I've got it justjust just watch this because I can't talk about it anymore exactly if I talk about it I'm going to try to sort of start rationalizing and meeting out these emotions and moments of behavior that cannot should not be censored because if we go to censor them in front of one of these cameras it will be self-evident you haven't been a hundred percent and not care about failing you will trust that the director is not going to use it you know which is fine but that's what I've always said look don't worry about if it's no good it won't be used but if you're going to approach it with any degree of hesitation you're doomed or maybe maybe if you dare to do it it could be perfect because here's the bottom line is it's like a famous motivational speaker Lisa Nichols said if you're afraid to dive just dive afraid and I think that that is the bottom line for actors you know if I had to do a nude scene I would be absolutely petrified but just jump afraid yeah dare to do it and maybe you'll land maybe you'll may be in it there will be a five moments that are crappy that will be left on the editing room floor but maybe there's going to be that one moment that's going to be the defining moment in your career mm-hmm and if you are trying to create a defining moment in your career you will fail oh yeah absolutely if if you are just open to the needs of the moment that I being in the moment is like the it's the only true advice I think I could forgive any other actor it's like do it learn everything you have to and forget everything you can't ever get and just go there so all you are you're not trying to do anything you were actually being and there there's those there's moments on in films in which is okay we really got established this moment here so don't forget about this moment make sure you sell this because we really got a clock this thing like that says look I'm just going to try to be in the moment as best you turn it on if it's any good well yeah it will be and you know what's interesting I gotta say this that's why I remember I was approached to write a book about my life first of all I said I'm not old enough to write a book about my life Kotler thus far yes I don't want to call it nothing I didn't want to say anything because I wasn't ready to show people my mess mmm-hmm I wasn't willing to share the bad bad part of my story and I feel like that really is another thing that I want to say to actors you know because I feel that's what we do with the makeup but yeah yeah and you know putting ourselves in the right angle because we do a lot of it oh yeah we do we do a lot of this so after a while you think this is what you do and you know I had a conversion I'm so glad that I'm sitting in with my good side we came it took me because I know the difference one of the things that happens with people in our position because we have to go off and talk about what we do is there they ask us like how did you do that moment what was the secret of coming and I have to say I haven't the faintest idea I know and if there was a secret to it do you think I'd share it with you coca-cola has a formula that they don't share with anybody I'm not gonna oh here's exactly what I did I thought I'd my dog that died when I was 8 years old and I'd you know transpose that to the lonely feelings I'm not going to tell anybody how I got there what is because I don't know and said if I if I was to think about how would get there I would never be able to get there again this alone I don't I did it it's like when I start every job I'm starting with a blank slate totally it it's just I'm like I will tell you this great thing this it was one motion powering moments I've ever had on a set I made a movie called the with Sam Mendes Road to Perdition with Paul Newman with Paul Newman ladies and gentlemen and not everybody in the world is intimidated with a Paul Newman and everybody can't believe they're in the same room with Paul demand it was it was truly it was it was it was a miracle every step of the way Sam Mandy's directing and the Paul Newman's first day was this we were having this wake there was a lot of Irish people dancing and drinking and carrying on and Paul Newman had to get up and he had to give a toast and care you know that was that that was a scene and when he did it as soon as he cut he turned to us all and said it feels really self-conscious the first day doesn't and I said that God Paul no it feels the same I don't we all really I always feel like we're not really making the movie until three days oh my goodness absolutely absolutely

Channel: Variety

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Rating: 4.9543734 out of 5

Keywords: Variety, Variety Studio, tom hanks interview, tom hanks viola davis, tom hanks, viola davis, viola davis interview, viola davis fences, viola davis how to get away with murder, tom hanks sully, tom hanks movies

Id: lk-H3VZQpsY

Length: 36min 16sec (2176 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 29 2016

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[u/Black_Gay_Man]

Here's a selection of particularly inspirational mojo. I think this applies to all other performing arts.

"If you're going to approach it [acting] with any degree of hesitation you're doomed." Tom Hanks

"Or maybe . . .maybe if you dare to do it, it could be perfect. Because here's the bottom line, it's like a famous motivational speaker Lisa Nichols said, 'If you're afraid to dive just dive afraid.' And I think that is the bottom line for actors." Viola Davis