Will Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Ruffalo and More Actors on THR's Roundtables | Oscars 2016

right now on close-up with The Hollywood Reporter with hit from the seasons most intriguing access I just couldn't connect to violence being the answer love had to be the answer I can't watch anything that I do without sitting there and tearing it apart so you really want me to be the most despicable me Michael Caine use samuel l.jackson the hateful eight Mark Ruffalo spotlight and infinitely polar bear Benicio del Toro Sicario joel edgerton black mass Will Smith concussion hello and welcome to close-up with The Hollywood Reporter I'm Steven Galloway executive editor features and I'm Matthew Bellamy executive editor and let's get started with the first question all right I want to open it up with a question for everybody what would you like to have told yourself before you became an actor your today self what would you like to have told yourself before you became an actor mmm that's a good one no matter how bad it gets you gonna get there did he get bad for you yeah how about nine years in Little Theater and I thought I'd never gonna make it to the West End and then I made it to the West End and on the first night an American director called Sian food was in and he gave me a screen test to play I'm playing a cockney working-class Englishman which is what I am and he brought me to a meeting he's I'm terribly sorry and we're gonna cast you as a cockney corporal but it's gone so I said that's fine I've been turned down for everything you know I've made a movie called Alfie I was turned down for that in the theatre yeah and then I was halfway out and he called me back sir can you do posh accent I said yeah and he cast me as an officer in a movie called Zulu which was the start of my movie career and it also said something about British British class system because no English director even if he was a left-wing communist would have cast me as an officer do any better someone I watched a movie when I was a kid I was sitting in the movie theater watching that movie beating on a shield that's only eight of those dudes and it's like 8 million Zulus out a wonderful singing that a bit bit that there's in the opening you see a chorus line of Zulu girls dancing and some of the Zulu girls came from the tribe the actual tribe and some of the Zulu girls who views or educated and they were secretaries in Johannesburg and when we got down to that Zulu goes proper Zulu tribe go would never wear knickers they won't win panties we got to a situation where psy is trying to direct this sequence with the girls topless with no panties on but he had to have panties on because it was you know sensor for the movie so he spent the entire day trying to take the second get the secretaries to take their bras off and trying to get their tribal go to put in some what advice do you wish somebody's given you I would have to tell myself that this job didn't work the way that I thought it did that it's not a normal job I thought this was like every other job you know you started in the mailroom and then you do something else and you get higher and higher so I thought okay I'm doing theater and eventually somebody will see me and I'll get a commercial and then after that commercial I'll do a soap opera and then I'll do a regular TV show and then I'll become a movie star I thought that was the progression I had no clue and after 25 or so years I finally figured it out that it works a whole nother way but I got used to it but I you know fell in love with the theater which was the really wonderful thing that my love for audiences and performing in front of people live gave me a deal of satisfaction that I don't get when I do this mmm that's a very different thing you love theater - yeah that's what I started there - and in a little tiny 30 seat theaters here in Los Angeles of all plays you get stage fright uh I get nervous I definitely my heart's pounding before I go out there yeah but it's more excitement really than fear I think what about the rest feeds you get nervous afraid that needs to get yeah yeah how'd you get over it uh how do I get pumped up I you know you get over it I doing it over and over you get over it by practicing you know get being prepared I think you get over that fear I think you get over that fear music it helps me a little bit yeah been a no-stress little dressing rooms up when you're starting it there's no toilet and so the first thing you do is you ain't get no but you want to pee so the first thing you learn to do as an actor is learn to pee in the sink stage just before we know there was a bucket there what's that bag of ice in case you want to throw up and a couple of times I did I screw up with the bucket I was so nervous she's still got nervous oh yeah yeah yeah yeah what about you chill I I don't get nervous on the movie set so much unless I'm putting pressure on myself for what's needed on that day oh that scene you know those scenes where you start pressure on yourself which is a shame but theater I definitely get nervous and it's mainly opening night or opening night in the new city or the first preview there those first few performances and I get terrified but it stops as soon as the play starts because you have so much to concentrate on but that five or ten minutes before stepping onstage is like a thing I'm gonna have a little bit of a heart attack or something yeah I get frustrated with the rehearsal process it's like okay we've been rehearsing this two three weeks no it's time to get some people in here see them I want to see how people are gonna react to this but that's me I just want people there finding new what we're doing and doing know the stuff we do so I'm anxious for play to start I've never had stage fright it's weird to cuz you go from like no people yeah seeing it to suddenly like a room full of people you know it's something about the shock of that I think is where if you dribbled them in if you had like a few in a few I just get tired of notes okay so today you people are never done theater what we did on The Fresh Prince was a live audience every on Fridays right so we read it it had that that effect but you could stop and go again so it was a little different but do you get nervous or afraid I live in complete terror you know everything for me about this business and a you know about what I've been trying to build and what I've been trying to do with my life keeps me in terror I'm I am deeply motivated by fear easy to do what you just did or is it easy to do this it was it was far easier to do music to be on stage with a hit record because you know what you have right I know when I dropped summertime or when I dropped jiggy anywhere in the world it's I have you know it's like an ace of spades you can do Frankie Beverly you just say the first word the first word and all the way with a movie it's like you never know you can love it you can have done what you think is the best work you've ever done and you put it out on that Friday and everybody hates it you've taken a year and people hate it and they don't just dislike it yeah you know and then they want to be really creative with how they lay you know like 10 years ago they just hated it and they didn't go yeah now they're sitting in the theater going at the mall in your biggest disappointment it's funny because there's been disappointments but every time I was disappointed I came back with a newer fresher attitude but the the first time where it didn't work the way that I wanted was Wild Wild West you know and I was coming off of men in black with Barry Sonnenfeld and everything about we can't lose I'm surprised you say you you live in fear how do you deal with that do you turn somebody for advice do you meditate what how do you get over that you know I'm trying to to develop a more realistic perspective of what this business is I told my mother this the the other day she thought it was hilarious I said when I was 15 years old my first girlfriend cheated on me oh and I remember making a decision that nobody would ever cheat on me again and the way I was going to do that is by being the biggest actor on earth right so is there's there's been this weird psychology that I've always felt like if my movies are number one my life is gonna work out great you know and you feel you know validation of the work when you know that it's so popular you know those movies superheroes and fortunately we're there we're in them and it increases our visibility to align different people but they're not dependent upon us I mean they could put that eyepatch on somebody else and it would work the same way you know the green guy could be put anyway we're all gonna get our shut up the green how would the dark Cheatham and nobody knows yeah so it's not you know part of us Michael do you feel that ordinances confuse you with the paths you play when you did Alfie you're a womanizer a lad around the town yeah well now we just sort of cockney working-class guy which in real life I am you know and I do go out with ladies sometimes no I'm recording this right basically so my best friend my best friend was out for you yeah I mean he was a terrible women you know I became an actor an amateur actor because I noticed I was in a youth club and I notice all the pretty girls are in we're in the drama class so I was about 12 I thought I joined that and I could get a kiss some of them [Applause] you've been confused with a cut with a character with the character you played when yeah I was at I had a Dodge Dart a 1972 Dodge Dart wasn't just a bag of bones it's just a just a brokedown old horse here in LA back in the day and I had my first acting part and was on a television series called due south and of course I get pulled over by a cop and she says don't don't be ask me I know you're wanted listen listen babe I've gone on hundreds auditions here and not gotten one no I've seen you I don't know who you are I've seen you in this in the station I've seen you on a wanted ad and I was like I think you got the wrong guy and then I thought hey dude watch TV she says yeah I said well I was on a show last night where I played a petty criminal she said Oh and I said due south she said oh I'm giving you a ticket one of your signal lights is out have you turned down roles because they were all movies because you felt they conveyed a message that you didn't believe in I did you know what yeah went up when I first came to America I did a picture called gambit Shirley MacLaine bumper here and I was in universe for short I was in Universal and you have a bungalow Lee and I'm my bungalow business a alfred hitchcock and he comes from where I come from my great grandfather knew his father and all that I got very friendly with Alfred Hitchcock and then he offered me a part in a movie to play a sadistic woman killer which was a real story in England this man slaughtered 13 women and cut them up and he wanted me to play and I refused her nc rice frenzy that's it frenzy and he never spoke to me again well what about you yeah it's but you know lots of things I've been offered that didn't really speak to me I'm trying to think of one weren't you offer Django Unchained Django oh yeah you know that was but see that was deep I was trying to avoid that to me it was more that I had said yes to Django but it was more about the creative direction of the story to me it's as perfect a story as you could ever want a guy that learns how to kill to retrieve his wife that has been taken you know as a slave like to me that's a when when I when I choose movies I'm choosing the arc I read the first 35 pages and I read the ending right and to me that idea is perfect and it was just that Quentin and I couldn't see I wanted to make the greatest love story that african-americans had ever seen from American cinema they did that our love job right how do you say no to Quentin do you pick up the phone and call him no you just have your people cut no but we talked we met we can we talk we sat for hours and hours and hours about it I love that one to make that movie so badly but with that story I felt the the only way I could make that movie is it had to be a love story not a vengeance story I don't believe in violence as the reaction to violence so when I'm looking at that it's like no no it has to be for love he has the only way he can retrieve his love is to do this he can't want to be this no no no like violence begets violence for me I just couldn't connect to violence being the answer love had to be the answer what a balanced out that wild wild west scale yeah right exactly talk to since then no no we haven't talked about but Winton's movies and the n-word is everywhere does that ever give you pause and how the impact that might be on the audience no no it's a movie but I mean life is what life is and you know in my world it's a pretty common word what about the amount of violence does it have it both of you know I don't have issues with violence in movies I love it's a movie it's not life you know and I'd like those stories I watched Hong Kong movies all the time that's been third of my life in Asian film you know just sitting around watching Asian films I've read violent novels I reached by novels and mysteries and murders and horror stories I've always liked this the I grew up watching westerns on television you know it used to bother me then when guys got shot on TV they just grabbed the chest and fell down yeah if you playing cowboys with your friends you shoot a mako you miss yeah super just explodes I love that oh you disappoint me when I was sitting there watching Sicario I wanted to see those kids explode okay endeavor to spot Oh no no compass compass will tell apiece Toula Lila goodbye son oh dear bini so did you have conversations with the director of Sicario about the violence that they were going to show well yeah no no no we I knew that Denis was very elegant with his violence in a very elegant way but you know the thing of the matter is like whether you play a character that you that you agree with or not do you understand the character so I understand that character the character in saqqara I understand it do I agree with him at the end of the day no and that's part of acting I I need to understand the the character I don't need to agree with him and if you are in a good team with a good director and good an actor is that you respect then I I will highly consider that film how did you go about understanding that character well first of all I understand the frustration of and the frustration of what happened to his family his family was killed and so I understand that anger I understand that this man being Mexican would go and join semi covert American group that will invade his own country also because that anger that he feels resonates around his country many other people have fallen victim like him to this drug problem in Mexico so I would understand him going to the United States and then coming back with a group of Americans and breaking every law in Mexico I would understand him being part of that it's happened in history he talks people go through that to prepare yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah who did you talk to for black masks well I have a bit of a problem with you know whether I could have access to John Connolly or not you know John's in federal prison for 40 years for for crimes that you could argue in the smorgasbord of like madmen that were operating at that time you know John Martorano the hit man killed 20 people admitted to it in court and his was having a drink at the bar behind my house one night and John still wear orange overalls for forging papers and you know and for being involved with what would be second-degree murder but whether I had access to him or not I don't know but to go and visit a guy in prison and then say hey I know you have one version of events but I'm actually gonna go over here and make a movie and say that you're a bad guy feels like a dishonest did you have thing to do him no not at all did you try no he's very vocal he was very vocal about his opinion of those events that he was sanctioned under the FBI that he was Skype guarded and the movie was saying something completely different so I would I talk to a lot of his colleagues and I had tons of footage of him and I just felt like it was a wrong idea for me to go and you know milk him and then say oh you you stay here in prison I'm gonna go over here and be you know on a movie set trying to you know what I do the rest ain't rattin Jimmy it's an alliance an alliance between me and the FBI between you and me I can help you Jimmy and you could help me I'm not trying to clean up Southie I will love this place I'm interested in the North End I'm interested in the Mafia and I bet you want to did you spend time with the with the journalists that you play yeah I did I uh I spent a lot of time with them actually because of the nature of the story because it's a journalism story and because we're talking about real people's lives and the stakes are very high there's victims and you have to get that story right otherwise it's just gonna be picked apart like a hunk of bread and a koi pond you know it's just it's just gonna be eaten alive [Laughter] right you about the job Aldo Joan listen I mean what I what I was impressed by was how dedicated these these people are and and how how much of it their lives it actually consumes specifically micros n DS cuz he'd get on the side of a story I mean you're you're going after priests to our raping kids you know so so you're like that that can really get you passionate you know but to always just go for the truth and not make these leaps and to not let your passion overcome your your reason or your Sensibility that's that's journalistic integrity and and a discipline that is was awesome to watch in action because I also watched him work a story too and and and what he always did is he always left space for someone even if they're a bad guy to do the right thing you know that's the only thing that will put an end to this well let's take out the bed let him decide we'll take it to Ben when I say it's time it's time Robby it's time they knew and they let it happen to kids okay it could have been you it could have been me it could have been any of us we gotta nail these scumbags we gotta show people that nobody could get away with this not a priest or a cardinal freaking Pope so if you did play real-life character I played uh oddly and then Chris gardener and pursuit of happiness and now dr. Bennet Omalu for concussion so the doctor play took on the NFL value how much did the NFL take you on with the movie you know so it was it was interesting I didn't have any contact with the the NFL all of the the contact was legal and because the director Peter Landis man was was an investigative reporter he was bulletproof you know he had he had worked the story and done the research and many of the scenes in the movie we did from transcripts it was not not easy but it was we felt comfortable in saying and doing the things that we were we were saying and doing and also we focused more on the doctors story so dr. Bennet Omalu was completely available to us I spent two or three weeks with him and with his family just taken in the story and his mannerisms and and all of that so for uncanny resemblance there wasn't real pressure that they could put to modify the the movie because we were at Sony sony has no affiliation with the NFL Fox and Warner Brothers both have affiliations with the NFL Sony has you know no no connective tissue we used real footage we used the NFL logo all of that and it came down to Sony said just use it they'll have to sue us if you continue to deny my work the world will deny my work but men your men continue to die their families left in ruins the truth the truth you said the other night that you were conflicted about taking the role because you're a football dad yeah so what pushed you over the edge to do it it was just media meeting with with dr. Omalu so that you know the my son was a football player for four years and I loved it the last thing I wanted to do was be the guy who was doing the football is not good movie and i sat with dr. Omalu and he said a line we used in the movie he said when he was a boy growing up in Nigeria heaven was here and America was here he said to him it was the place where God sent all of his favorite people and I was like oh after that it became clear to me it was a story about an immigrant it was a story about American values and it was things that I really believe in it's like America is the only place on earth that I could exist no other country on earth is producing people that look like me and allowing them to have global michaeljudy that Joe almost okay we're a little bit behind how much do you think prejudice has affected your your career your many of you here rooms in careers has it history will inform everything really I mean if you read the history of the United States you know there's a prejudice and it's is evolving his change that's a great thing and yeah that is you grow up from a - it's a we could talk about it for a long time what time but I think I've definitely felt you know one of the first things that they said to me when I when I came here was change your name on microfiche hate his name by change mom I am mother mommy's Marsh McCourt was just an awkward night that maybe that's not the biggest mistakes I've ever done not changing my name got a great name do you still feel that prejudice today and you do do an extent you do you do you do an extent you know I think that I think that like he says is somewhere I'm like will was saying you know this is a great country that allows for well you see accent thing again like we I had to cockney accent so I couldn't play Shakespeare and all that but when they say your name they think you speak like a Mexican or Spanish you know and they do you've been such a big star for so long have you felt prejudice in any way well well prejudice my wife and I were just having this conversation and we were gone to the dictionary for presidents versus racism everybody's prejudice mmm-hmm everybody's prejudice everybody has their life experiences that make them prefer one thing over another makes them prefer blonde hair over brunette right if you see somebody with dark skin walking down the street you have a different reaction then you have someone who's 5-1 and white so we all have our prejudices but there's a connotation and racism of superiority that you feel that your race generally just based on your race is superior and I have to say I live with constant prejudice but racism is actually rare right for someone that actually thinks their race is superior to you I don't want to work for them I don't want to work at that company and the times that I have come in contact with them you get away from those people when you face whether to is social media because back in the day when there was such thing as Twitter the commentators were just the media and you weren't really coming up against public opinion on a constant basis but you know like what haven't recently uncle B Jordan in Fantastic Four and I don't like people you know actively being racist making those sort of comments about Star Wars and also on Twitter and those people can then find a way into the media because they're being the same particular things but you constantly met with that public opinion which is kind of strange that's what happens when everybody's got a forum like I said before all those people who sit in the basement and dirty drawers didn't have that form that can use that just do anything to combat that or do you feel that your your passive in that area we are not really not read it that's one thing you can do the one power you do have is to not not read it but it's still there no no but I think I think that as actors we have the ultimate power I think historically story combined with imagery moves humanity forward right so I think that what we do not that it's a responsibility but it is that it is the ultimate forum for changing people's hearts and minds so when I'm when I'm choosing a movie I understand the global power of being able to send imagery around the world America is viewed the way that America is viewed globally a large part is from the historical imagery that we've sent around the world through cinema right there was a time that cinema was the only picture of America that the rest of the world had you know Hollywood pate played a huge part in depicting you know John Wayne was what America was people wanted to get here why people were absolutely you know people were looking at our images through our cinema do you hope concussion will cause change anytime I anytime I put something in the world I am always connecting to an idea I'm always asked why am i making this what why so I'm putting this out in the world why so with with concussion dr. Bennet Omalu was deeply connected to tell the truth and he said that truth doesn't have a side and that's what he kept saying I thought that was such a powerful that me idea that there you know whose side are you on you're Republican or Democrat I'm trying to tell the truth truth the truth doesn't have a side right so that I really but but but but there is a point of view with truth so if you say truth is that racism is wrong that does take a side that takes a side against racism right well to make a political side no to say to say racism is wrong to me that that's very it's ambiguous racism could be the absolute right thing for a certain circumstance so for me with this film repetitive head trauma can cause permanent brain damage right so that that that's that's almost an irrefutable old truth if not even banging your head you know seventy thousand times like Mike Webster did playing football let's see let's see what happens what work would you've done if you had not become at us and do you think you would have been more vulnerable to all those issues in society well I should have been a fish market border because for three hundred years that's what my family had been you know and my mother was a cleaner you never Minh you see in the hotel comes in after you go out and so I had no great ambitions I had a very good education for my class I went to grammar school and and matriculated and all that and I was quite smart and and and that sort of thing but I was still working in a factory all the time when the only the only way I became an actor I was working with an old guy in a factory he said to me I just come out of the army I was 20 and he said what do you want to be you want to work in a fire said no I want to be an actor but I don't know how to do it he said I'll tell you what to do he said you grew up to a West End which is our Broadway he said you buy a paper called the stage and his adverts in the back for actors and I went up and he said assistant stage manager small parts two pounds a week and I did that I was well defined you have what would you learn if you had not been an actor I'd have probably been I would probably tried to be an architect I loved architecture and my heroes are architects and so I would been some count kind of dumb us in the back room of some great architect's office or something just to be close to my eyes what about you can you see what would you have done well I don't know what you know one thing I was doing right before I turned to acting was painting painting painting but real finding go you know and but I was more of a I wasn't that good if you like mud how was your man you know I think I would have liked try hard to be good mm-hmm what about you Jill uh I was I was almost gonna go off to art school I mean I would have been some kind of I don't know if I would have made a great artist I still paint and I do it as a personal thing I was really interested in doing that or becoming an actor the thing with me was my father had had started very much working-class when I was growing up like very very you know came from very poor family by the time I graduated high school they were quite well-off he had become a lawyer he'd been on his way to become a sheep farmer and some guys said oh we're gonna go and enroll in law and he just did that on a whim so by the time I finished high school he was quite wealthy and I felt this debt to him to to make out like I was gonna do something responsible with my life like something that that would guarantee that I'd have an income and I was terrified to tell him that that what I really want to do is either paint pictures or become an actor and he found out and he dragged me out of this not dragged me out of a room but he took me aside one night he said look I know what you want to do and I think you should follow your dreams and then money and all that other stuff it comes as a byproduct and what I found out really is that deep down he had wanted to be an actor very much I think the reason why I'm interested in storytelling is because as a kid growing up he made the most fantastic speeches and he told the most wonderful jokes and the most wonderful stories and he knew how to tell those stories and capture people's imagination but he never had that opportunity himself because he he felt this debtor's ability to create a good life for my brother and I and strangely when I went to drama school the same year that I thought the heap was going to come down on me for choosing that path my brother quit electrical engineering and became a stuntman and all the attention film this year I'd like to do moving my brothers directed movies like we we have a company we inspire each other and I don't think that I'd be sitting here if it wasn't for that kind of you know collision of people working together the the collective of people that I work with because you know I was never like someone forging my own path that when I have friends that are creating good stuff it makes me want to do stuff and you know I I made a movie this year and again it's like my brothers encouragement and you know learning from example by watching friends won't make movies it made me so I think in general I would have told stories somehow and activewear like one part of the watch you know but as a director I feel like the watch maker and that felt pretty cool I'd like to do that again you wrote it - yeah I love writing writing Superman what did you learn about acting from the experience of directing I just realized how how great a problem-solver and actor is and when you get two great actors together how great a team of problem solving those two actors are so when I would come to work I thought I had to do all the homework and have all the answers we should do you won't have an answer for everything but to actually hand the floor over to two actors who you've hired who are incredibly smart and in my case I'm talking about Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall and find out what solution they have first before I tell them what I think because then is still a really good idea what do you think you might have done if you weren't an actor I don't know I I was well on my way to being a bartender but me and Benicio started acting school together and I Eve watched him and I and I saw him and I yeah you could see which happened Stella and I could see the talent flying off him and I said to myself I'll never do it I'll never be able to do that I'll never be able to do one thing I remember about him is that when I was I came from San Diego I quit college and got this to go to Stella Adler and there by the way one day I asked him what are you doing tonight and he goes I I gotta go home and I don't want you come out he goes well I gotta like III gotta go to San Diego and I go like what you say you got to go home and he was traveling two hours every day back and forth to go to school and I knew I knew right away I went like this kid is strong you know and I and I always knew you were like you were like really someone that I just looked up to send me retired from acting but you came back to youth yeah why and to miss it when you're not doing it I know I don't miss her when I'm not doing her but I keep retiring and then something comes up that this youth is by a man called Paolo Sorrentino whoo-hoo the year before I got the scripted one the best foreign film for a movie called great beauty which I loved and I'd seen all these work without realizing I'd seen it you know once I looked him up I'd seen all the movies and then I got this script Powell have seemed to me to be on it on a plane where he wouldn't have heard of anyone like me you know to me and then my agent said he's written it for you and if you don't do it he's not doing it I like I felt like I would don't bother to send the script I'll do it it's okay just what exactly is the problem the problem is that I compose the simple songs for my wife and only she has ever performed them and only she had recorded them and as long as I lived she will be the only one to sing them the problem is dear sir my wife can't sing anymore you say Michael semi-retire so that means he's like don't only three movies a year we thought we fell out of love with acting oh no never I never fell out of love with acting because I watch everybody you know I'm I'm the biggest film fan and actors fan you know when I was a little boy I would sneak off from school I went to the movies every day maybe III don't remember a day when I didn't go to movies because now you sit in the home you've got with ten thousand movies to watch you're gonna I mean I I'm the most amazing because I'm a member of the European Academy you know and you get all those this 76 this you get to look at and this year they said there'll be no disc they're all on your iPad and like I have a cinema with AirPlay and I don't even have to push a plug-in I'll just go to airplay play the iPad and these films come on in high-definition have a lull and your interest in acting and how to revise well I had I had a brief period of probably about four years ago and in retrospect I've realized I had hit a ceiling in my talent I had a great run that I thought was fantastic and I realized that I had done everything that I could do with the me that I had and I didn't work for about two years marriage counseling 50 parenting books all at that type of stuff and I just really I just dived into me and then all of a sudden it was like all and I found the connection between like you really you can't your work can never really be better than you are your work can't be deeper than you are don't you need it for that what I needed was a play a play see what was the moment that brought you out of it then changed it was really a moment where you know I've always been really product oriented you know it's like I want to win when I do something I want to win I wanted to be number one and I want to smash it and I had a period I have a daughter and I was a 15 year old daughter and she really she got me and shifted my focus from product to people it took a couple of years but as soon as I gotten knocked off of product and started shifting to people the whole world opened up for me again and acting opened up in a whole new way to not go into day one of a movie trying to figure out what everybody has to do so we win versus opening up and every person's a new it's a whole new world meaning the character you play all the people you work with both absolutely you know generally when I went into a product when I went into a meeting with a director my focus was can this guy win can this girl win and that it was a it was a you know who's a pathology that got broken for me a couple of years ago and then releasing that and just wanting to connect with people and wanting to grow and wanted to get new ideas and have new experiences that don't have to have an outcome it just opened up a whole new world for me and I fell in love and then I couldn't imagine what else I could do in acting that could add so much to my life other than acting Sam you work with Tarantino a lot when when he has a new film do you just automatically say yes yeah or does he send you a script didn't you read it and then you say yes well he called me first and says I wrote a new script and I wrote a part for you I know okay which one is and he'll give me a character name and then he'll say I'll send you script I did that with Chris knowledge I pretty much know you want to do it I mean yeah there's no question he's not calling me to say will you be in my movie he's called me see this is the part that I just wrote for you and I'm like okay great couple months when you taught me about Django I knew I was gonna be Django because he started talking about her go okay I'm 15 years too late for my plan he said Stephen who is he read script great so you really want me to be the most despicable meat got room for one more they call him the hanger when the handbill said did allowed to rest of us just shoot you in the back come up on top of perch somewhere and bring you a dead over saddle but when John Ruth the hangman catches you you hate how his Tarantino changed from when you first worked with him to now and hateful eight well he got more money to work with they give them bigger films has he changed not really Quentin Quentin loves movies he loves the process he loves the process he loves actors he loves crew members he loves everything about making movies and when you do it you get infused with that joy have you on a set have I changed I'm constantly evolving mmm well I've grown as an actor of getting older I'm a little less patient with with people that I don't feel I have to be patient with um so I speak my mind a lot more than I used to I used to think I'd get fired now I know I'm not dead he was the smartest person in the movie and he is you know it's very many people say a lot of things about Quentin he's racist but you know every character that he's ever written for me it's been a very intelligent very driven person Jules is like the height of his professionalism John's like a flake you know that's why he gets killed on a toilet or Dale smartest guy in movies making money he's making money great guy to hang out with you just don't want to cross him Stephen was the head of that plantation Leo's out you know fighting fighting brothers and you know running his little Club somebody's got to run the plantation I made sure the cotton got grown cut so took care of plantation that's my kingdom you know I'm smarter than you I would've changed Michael have you changed over the years if you feel oh yeah you did with your mom in a very specific moment for me when I got a script and I read it and I send it back to the producer as I said the part is too small it's not worth doing for me so he send it back to me said I didn't want you to read the lover I wanted you to read the father and I suddenly went oh my god yeah I know where I am now girl and and I thought I sort of retired for a couple of years and I kept getting a load of scripts and not much money a load of crap you know and and and I was down in Miami Beach and I was with Jack Nicholson and we became great friends down there and and suddenly got a movie script he said do it with me dude so I did it and I came back and started making movies again due to Jack who to me as a friend is fabulous and to work with is one of the greatest actors I've ever worked with and he brought me out of this loud despond as they say and I came back you know I mean I made two movies now one Academy of course I thought I said I don't get the girl I get the part now the most of you about acting or said something changed your feelings about how to from Marlon Brando I was a big fan of Marlon Brando's you know and I loved doing what he used to do is always like this and he'd be talking and then suddenly he'd say that did poignant bit and it go like that and he just look at you girl and I remember my first movie I did big movie where I had a part with Zulu and I played a British obviously one of those white helmets you know and I had it on and the camera man kept saying push it further back I can't a cut in there light's not going in and I said I'll hold it there and I'll say when the lights going I said what do you think Brando oh yeah I did yeah what was he like I didn't understand him at all I was like a young go without wish Presley with Marlon Brando is completely overwhelmed during I doubt I sort of waited my turn to speak and everything and then said something wrong you know but I was fascinated by Marlon two days before 9/11 Michael Jackson was having these concerts in New York for some reason I was introducing rushar and Whitney and I'm standing backstage waiting it's going to introduce him and somebody comes up behind me and starts doing the Ezekiel speech and I turn around that's my own Brando conversation he gives me phone call me we need to talk so immediately you know I go back to working and I call that number and I call a number and somebody has a Chinese restaurant it was Chinese Laundry mr. brandalynn and I realized he just filtered his calls through people by doing that they would ask who is it not gonna say I'm John linka oh hello and then he comes in phones but who's told you the boss both of you taught me the most between Lloyd Richards who was director of the Yale Drama School you know I didn't go to Yale Java school I did to a place for him I was the original boy Willie and August Wilson's piano lesson and I was the original wolf then two trains running at Yale while I was working in New York so I had Lloyd and I had Douglas turn award at the Negro Ensemble Company and they both taught me how to ask myself the right questions huh when I'm preparing to do a role or how to sit down and read a script and figure out who that person is writing autobiography give him a complete life from birth family who they were what their economic status is the educational backgrounds my own do you have any service background what kind of people do you like what kind of food do you eat you know what we were doing before you entered this scene and where are you going when you leave there so they taught me to ask myself the right questions and how to sit down and break down a scene or break down a script from from beet - beet - beet - beet so that I'd be able to do that and those things have served me and I continue to do one because they work for me and they help audiences audiences are interested in particular people sometimes you know sometimes you know you're on screen and you might actually go to movies watch them with audiences so I spend money go sit in the back and people want to leave with certain people and certain people you don't want to stay on the screen which one oh go with you yeah you know where he's going I want people to feel that way when they see me on screen look who told you the most my teacher at Stella Adler her name was joy and linville and she was she was a great live theater actress in the 50s but also did all the live television and she was that rare combination of acting teacher who actually knew how to act and that is rare it's incredibly why is it I don't know I actually work I studied before I got here and but well you know what it's always ask them you know what's that person been in that you take classes you know what is on his head you see Lee Strasberg in The Godfather no it's amazing oh my god and what did what did she really teach you she taught me how the truth and to to feel what it was like to have the truth and to to constantly strive for it and then the other thing is that you're always working it's never done mmm-hmm I can't watch anything that I do without sitting there and tearing it apart and seeing everything that needs to be improved upon I can't watch anything you do without doing any role that one of you looked back looks back on and says and I would have done that completely differently of mocs 21 to screw it in in 19 and say how they could have done it better is to me and when I see people going to acting classes like well I'm not doing a scene to dance what do you mean you don't have seen today I said most men this other person we're getting to do a seen it in so how long has it been since you did a scene well other people are doing scenes too so it's been about 10 days 12 days that's a class you learned a bit critic you taught one acting class the master class on the BBC were just really extraordinary do booktuber came from that thing that I did and what they did with me is they gave me a studio and cameras and then there was two casts of place Alfie and sleuth and they both did the young actors in their theatre performances and then I changed it and put it on screen mm-hm and that that seemed to have worked okay especially the I bit about the camera and the eye and all that what do you think it's the biggest mistake young actress or inexperienced actors make I think thinking that they've got to have a masterpiece every time go ahead and do the bloody thing if it flops you've had the experience anyway and you've got the money you know and you because what happens is is I had a friend who shall be nameless because of what I'm going to say and he waited he wouldn't you wish you know you can't do that it's gonna be a load of crap I've got to learn how to be a movie actor and he said well I'm gonna wait you know in any waited he waited for great directors you know and every two years some great director would give him a role and comes Monday morning he's in front of the cameras you know what the bloody hell he was doing and so you know you've got to be experienced at something you know you must do experience and that's what I think so I just couldn't man like not acting I know yeah it's like yeah I just I just can't imagine not getting up every day wanting to charge out there and do it but that's what I was saying about you know theatres doing a play yeah there's just something about that showing up every day for that play and there's a different group of people coming to watching you yeah yeah yeah sent you off that cliff and put you in their hands because you feel the ebb and flow of the energy of an audience while you're up there doing that yeah yes you don't feel when you're on absolutely which can be kind of banal and it seems like with the with the young actor question in that also the the the idea of trying not to fail I think it's like that is that that is the killer for an actor of trying not to fail because the camera feels that thing it feels that that you're uncertain and not sure it's like let it rip like fail hard and fail wow you know a lot of them do now because they all think they came off YouTube or whatever reality show they want or you know even I mean I used to have this bad reputation because I wouldn't work with rappers rappers yeah I know you know I started as a rapper you know yeah I was offended by that I was offended by that back in the day I wasn't offended lost question do you ever learn political leaders presidents past presents think one of these would make a great actor and if so which one Reagan won the great actors not very good all of them know like the whole thing is an act right they're very poor actors my experience with that has been is there's a lot of things that are hard to do but you know acting is excruciatingly ly difficult to deliver human emotion back to human beings who live in motion all day long and you're gonna try that you're gonna take a fake one and you're gonna deliver it back to them and you're gonna try to have them have an emotional experience that says real and as the emotional experiences they're having in real life like when when you see someone who can do that it's it's a it's a unicorn you know you're you're looking at the Northern Lights you know it there is a very perfect Austin a great way to end and I'd like to thank all if you've taken part in close up with The Hollywood Reporter thank you so much thank you this is great guys okay [Music] [Music]

Channel: The Hollywood Reporter

Views: 3,675,816

Rating: 4.897656 out of 5

Keywords: thr, the hollywood reporter, the hollywood reporter roundtable, hollywood reporter, roundtable, the hollywood reporter oscar roundtable, samuel l. jackson, will smith, benicio del toro, mark ruffalo, michael caine, awards, entertainment, movies, oscars, the hateful eight, joel edgerton, spotlight, infinitely polar bear, concussion, youth, sicario, black mass, the gift, batman, hulk, avengers, snatch, actors, race, racism, warrior, jada smith, smith, bad boys, stephen galloway, matt belloni

Id: df9RU8mtYaM

Length: 59min 35sec (3575 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 18 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Was hoping to see Leo in this, but he doesn't usually do these kind of things..

[u/hazychestnutz]

Interviewer anoyying as fuck.

[u/laststance]

Micheal Cain's reaction to Will Smith's "I was going to be the best actor in the world" line was hilarious.

[u/darienrude_dankstorm]

God I hate the moderation in THR's videos. You gather some of the most iconic actors of the past decade and ask them questions that might as well have been taken from a tabloid personality quiz. Just let the genius flow, it's so much better to listen to organic conversation between peers.

[u/[deleted]]

Will Smith speaks eerily like Lou Bloom from Nightcrawler.

[u/pooroldben]

I wish they would release these as podcasts

[u/ten_inch_pianist]

Del toro mentioned that his character was Mexican. I thought he was Columbian?

[u/SnatchDragon]

Anyone know what Michael Caine was talking about when he was speaking about films on his ipad and seemed to be saying "airplate"?