Cameron Monaghan Talks Working With Jared Leto in 'Tron: Ares' | SDCC 2025 - video Dailymotion

The Hollywood Reporter

At THR's lounge in San Diego Comic-Con, Cameron Monaghan describes how he prepared for his role in 'Tron: Ares' and dishes on working with "method actor" Jared Leto. Plus, he describes his love for the original 'Tron' films and video game and touches on how much they used practical sets in 'Tron: Ares.'

Transcript

00:00When I was like 16, 17, I had this really embarrassing interview where I went to the

00:07premiere of Tron 2 and I was like going through puberty and I was very excited and very overwhelmed

00:14by a very loud red carpet and so I was like yeah I'm so excited to be here and it's like the most

00:19mortifying video ever which is definitely gonna be brought back. I just like Barbra Streisand

00:24myself there but anyways.

00:30I'm Tiffany Taylor for The Hollywood Reporter here at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 with Cameron

00:38Monaghan to talk all about Tron Aries. What's up? How was the panel for you yesterday? I mean it

00:43really was the talk of Comic-Con with the light show, the footage shown, the Nine Inch Nails

00:48soundtrack. Yeah was it actually? That's actually really good to hear. It's always a trip when you're

00:53in Hall H. I think I've done it two or three times now and every time it's like when you're

00:59up there you can't hear anything including yourself. You can't even hear each other really, you just

01:05kind of hear this like low rumble and all the speakers and everything they're all placed

01:10out for the audience so it's not really for us. So most of the time when you're speaking

01:14you're kind of like am I actually speaking like talking English right now? I just want to make

01:19sure that sentences are coming out but you don't get like a lot of response back you know so it's

01:24it's nice to hear. But that being said like the soundtrack is amazing. It looks awesome. It sounds

01:31awesome. Like this is a movie that's built to be seen on the biggest screen possible. I'm so excited

01:37for seeing it in IMAX and you know getting some friends together to to watch it. I think this is

01:43one of those movies that I'm gonna get a couple crews together to go to the movie theaters and

01:47go check out you know. I'm a fan of the Tron stuff so it's it's cool to be able to be a part of it.

01:52Yeah Jared Leto was saying you know how I mean like the Tron original movie is just so special

01:57to him. What's your relationship with the first two films like? Weirdly I think I have more of a

02:01connection to the second one than I do the first. I had seen the second one before I saw the first

02:07when I was like 16, 17. Man why do I keep mentioning this? Whatever. I had this really embarrassing

02:15interview where I went to the premiere of Tron 2 and I was like going through puberty and I was

02:22very excited and very overwhelmed by a very loud red carpet and so I was like yeah I'm so excited

02:28to be here and it's like the most mortifying video ever which is definitely gonna be brought back. I

02:33just like Barbra Streisand myself there but anyways yeah like I had seen the second one. I loved just

02:40visually what Joseph Kaczynski did with that movie. Went back watched the first and also I'm just like a fan

02:47of like everything related to Tron. I played this video game that was related to Tron for like way

02:52too many hours when I probably should have been doing school when I was a teenager so just a big

02:57fan of Tron stuff. It's just it's cool. The color palette, the sound, the light, everything. It's

03:02awesome. You were saying you've been in Hall H before. When's the last time you were at Comic-Con?

03:07That's a good question. I know that we definitely came to Comic-Con for Shameless. I was on a show

03:15called Gotham that I believe came here. I was in a movie called The Giver with Jeff Bridges who was

03:20also in Tron as well so that was really cool to be able to act with Jeff again. I didn't really have

03:27much with him this time around but it was just nice to be able. He's a good person to have on a set

03:32like he really holds it down. He's just always like yeah man we're just gonna you know we're gonna

03:36jam we're gonna get out there. It's like jazz man. You gotta it's the notes you don't play man. You

03:42know like he's just like it's a beautiful energy and something I love about Jeff is he always he's

03:48the exact same on off-camera on set uh offset like he's a terrific actor but he's so like naturally

03:56unaffected. He doesn't have like this like artifice about him. He's just like here I am. I'm present

04:02and this is he's the dude. The dude abides you know. I saw an article about the panel yesterday

04:07and they were saying he was really just embracing and embodying the dude. Like he brought that

04:11presence. Yeah yeah no I mean he's got like he's written like philosophy books about like the Tao of

04:17the dude and kind of how you know like this like living uh centered and without attachment and it's it's

04:25a really beautiful it's like very Buddhist way of uh existing and you know you really see it with

04:31the guy. He's just he's centered and he's there and uh it's a joy to be around. It's a really nice

04:36energy. Yesterday Jeff was talking about working with Jared on the film who's known to be a method

04:41actor. For you what was it like working with Jared Leto? I mean yeah it was nice you know I really in

04:47scenes uh I only really knew him as Ares and my character is a fellow um program that were were kind of

04:57these militant uh programs that were are engaging in a mission together and so he was commander and it

05:03was kind of nice to be able to like going into the project I had prepared a lot uh for five months

05:10beforehand. I had like a very strict sort of like diet and schedule and workout regimen and all these

05:16things. I just wanted to like strip back and kind of just live like a soldier basically leading up to

05:22it and so it was nice because when we got to set it was like all right I I've got my like officer

05:28who's going to now like give me commands on the set and so we only really interacted with each other

05:34in that way and then really like we've met each other now for the first time like at comic con which

05:41was cool. Did you keep that soldier routine going off camera while you were filming? Yeah yeah no that

05:46was uh I was I was working out twice a day every day for for four months leading up to production

05:54and then during production as well uh wasn't really like hanging out or talking to anybody else I was

06:00just like I want to just like live in Tron and for a little bit I'm going to be connected into like

06:05the computer plug into the grid and you know be this guy um but I wish I could say more there's more

06:12to the character uh but I can't say the thing with him but anyways it doesn't matter. You were saying

06:18yesterday that you know digital is better than analog you liked being in the grid rather than in

06:22the real world for you are you like a digital tech gadget guide you always want the latest technology or

06:28are you a little old school sometimes? I am actually really old school so I don't know it was a good

06:33bit though right but um no I'm I'm like I I love like cameras and like anything that has like gears

06:41and winding levers and that kind of stuff and I really like old film cameras so I collect them

06:47and I like to refurbish them and rebuild them a lot I look at like parts and put them back together

06:52and um I specifically love like medium format film cameras so I'm a big believer in film I think that

06:59you can do just as much wonderful stuff with like digital cameras but I just really like how film

07:05functions I think it's just mechanically really amazing and that's just like that's my geeky stuff

07:10right now it's just I I absolutely love cameras so you like a gadget but a an old school gadget

07:16yeah yeah is it an artifact I don't know like I think even now some of the most amazing most of

07:23like the I think it was the majority of the best picture nominees and most of the Oscar nominees

07:28were still shot on film now they're doing like the Vista Vision stuff and the um the IMAX stuff and

07:34all of that because there's still needs to be like a gimmick but I think like 35 millimeter film is

07:39still kind of the gold standard there's cool stuff that you can do with all sorts of camera technology

07:44anyways this is now just getting very nerdy on that front but I can talk about this all day

07:48yeah I didn't mean to say it was bad in an artifact way but just yeah like

07:51oh dear you I know but like the film community is really upset with you all 12 of us we're up in arms

07:56all right Harry our camera guy might be upset he's a he's a camera aficionado but uh for you with this

08:03movie you know you're talking about uh film versus digital but with Tron Aries you know how much of it

08:09was practical sets or practical effects versus CGI it was honestly I was surprised by there was more

08:16practical stuff built than what I thought there would be I mean there's a lot of stuff uh that takes

08:22place in the real world which uh I may or may not really be interacting with that much but when

08:29we're on the grid I was still surprised there's some really beautiful sets that they had built in

08:34Vancouver and like on my downtime um I would love to just like go and walk around the sets and take a

08:40look at them because the craftsmanship was gorgeous and they did a lot of stuff with color for this one

08:46as well that was really amazing that they had a very um unique version of red there was a very

08:52specific version of red that Yoakam the director really wanted to hit so we had all these beautiful

08:57sets painted with this gorgeous red and it was just it was really amazing uh but that being said all

09:03the digital craftsmen as well there's a lot of stuff that you can that you do in the grid that you can

09:09only do digitally and with Tron it's sort of like this thing where every generation kind of gets this

09:16Tron movie that's sort of a milestone marker of the technology of computer generated stuff you know

09:22and we had it in the 80s and we had it 15 years ago and now we're having it again where we're seeing

09:27just how far filmmakers can go people at the top of their game to be able to create something that's

09:33I think it's going to blow some people's minds and I mean and already the presentation at comic con just

09:38all the promotion here has blown people's minds I saw a video of a bunch of like motorcycles

09:42looking like light cycles driving around San Diego did you see that oh yeah yeah the uh the

09:47motorcycle gang came by we had a cast dinner last night and we all came out and checked out the

09:53motorcycles which was really cool I mean it's it's hard not to look cool when you're in black and lit

09:59up with like these red lights I mean um yeah it's it's it's really nice I mean there's still so much

10:05cool stuff that they haven't even revealed in this movie so I can't wait for people to see that

10:09do you ride a light cycle in the movie I wouldn't be able to say either way but I can say that I did

10:16a bunch of really cool stuff like specifically action stuff that I was super excited to get to do

10:22I've kind of always wanted to get like a cool action set piece in a movie and so uh we worked

10:27with a stunt team for a couple weeks leading up to to the shoot and that stuff I'm really excited for

10:33people to see we know you can't tease too much but we're so excited to see it and since we're here at

10:38comic con I want to do some fun uh popcorn bucket questions with our crypto superman popcorn bucket

10:44so pull one out all right what's something that makes you hulk out your biggest pet peeve oh my god

10:51okay uh not using your turn signal all right that's why we have them we we have the little lever

10:57all you have to do is you just you flick your freaking your pinky just your pinky finger you just

11:03you flip that okay that's what you have to do man sorry the sound guy is pulling down the thing

11:09right now but hey I hulked out you see this is you don't want to make me angry you won't like me

11:13that was perfect you killed it what's your favorite comic con memory I mean you always remember your

11:21first and uh I came here with the shameless cast maybe season three I want to say and the shameless

11:29cast you know like to roll deep they were a good group of people and we had a lot of fun that not

11:36only the the panel but then the night after I remember we kind of painted San Diego red so that

11:43was a good time it's no surprise that they party hard I like to hear that yeah that we you know we're

11:48still responsible but we partied in our own ways um let's see if you could have one superpower what would

11:54it be and why uh teleportation because then I wouldn't have to see the guy that doesn't use his

12:00turn signal when I'm in traffic I would just be able to go to the destination if we can just get

12:04can we just invent teleportation you know like forget flying cars let's just get right to I'm here I want

12:10to go there and we skip all the middlemen is that a plan that really would be the dream I'm always late

12:15for everything so I could definitely yeah use that that's my I feel like even if there was teleportation

12:21I'd still end up being five minutes late to everything it's just how it would always wind up

12:25a couple more questions about uh Tron Aries I did want to ask you you know why do you think Nine Inch

12:29Nails is just the right group to soundtrack this movie because the soundtracks you know of the first

12:34two films are so iconic yeah of course I mean you know the last one death daft punk I used to I still

12:40do I like I would put that on when I was like studying a lot that would be something that if I was

12:46reading and I just kind of wanted to get into like a nice flow state I would put on that daft punk

12:52soundtrack but you know now that they're broken up uh looking at who's like the best film scorers around

12:59right now to me it is Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross you know like the stuff that they did for challengers

13:04recently I don't think that they got enough flowers for it it was really absolutely unbelievable and

13:10what I like too is they're bringing a different vibe this movie is a little bit more sinister a

13:16little bit more dangerous and they have kind of like a darker harder edge to some of the music

13:21that they're bringing as well but still being like really driving and really exciting and energetic so

13:25I can't wait for people to see it especially or hear it on that IMAX sound system is going to sound

13:31absolutely amazing have you heard more of the music than what we've heard is the I've I've heard a

13:36couple pieces they also they gave me a really nice uh 45 LP of a couple of the the tracks that is

13:44shaped like one of the Tron data discs so that one's definitely gonna sit in my collection that's

13:50going to be a centerpiece in with the vinyl so speaking of some analog stuff we know it's the

13:54marriage of analog and digital right there that's amazing we can't wait to see the movie Cameron thanks

14:00so much for hanging out in our comic account lunch with us thanks for having me

14:06you

Cameron Monaghan Talks Working With Jared Leto in 'Tron: Ares' | SDCC 2025

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