Miles Teller Rewatches 'Top Gun: Maverick,' 'Whiplash,' 'Eternity' & More

Vanity Fair

"The jean shorts were my idea." Miles Teller takes a walk down memory lane as he rewatches scenes from his classic works including 'Whiplash,' 'Top Gun: Maverick,' 'The Spectacular Now,' 'Footloose,' 'Only the Brave,' and 'Eternity.'   Director: Claire Buss Director of Photography: Dave Sanders Editor: Paul Tael Talent: Miles Teller Producer: Madison Coffey Line Producer: Natasha Soto-Albors Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi Associate Production Manager: Elizabeth Hymes Talent Booker: Lauren Mendoza Camera Operator: Nigel Akam Gaffer: Dave Plank Audio Engineer: Kevin Texieira  Production Assistant: Nicole Murphy Set Designer: Hannah Pak Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Stella Shortino Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araujo Additional Editor: Sam DiVito Assistant Editor: Billy Ward Senior Manager; Creative Development: Hannah Pak Director; Creative Development: Claire Buss Director; Content Production: Lane Williamson Senior Director; Programming &amp; Development: Ella Ruffel Executive Producer: Ruhiya Nuruddin

Transcript

00:00I remember I show up on set and just the boys are getting like lubed up and they're all getting

00:05their pre-pump and there was a couple guys that literally almost started crying when they were

00:10gonna have to wear a shirt because they had just been dieting and working out so much. This was a

00:14very big deal for them. Hi, I'm Miles Teller and today we're going to be watching some scenes

00:20from throughout my career. Let's see how this goes.

00:30All right, gang. Whiplash. A little under tempo, okay? Neiman, just do your best.

00:45Obviously, we know where this scene is going and he's just, don't worry about it. Just,

00:50you know, no stress. Just do your thing, man. Then he turns into a fucking psycho.

00:57I've got Buddy Rich here.

01:00Like a Buddy Rich over here.

01:03JK went to college for conducting. Damien didn't know then. Damien didn't know that I drummed

01:09in like high school rock bands and stuff. I only had about two and a half weeks, I think,

01:12to take drum lessons for this. I guess I emailed Damien. He sent me like Caravan and some of

01:19the music pieces and I said, wow, this is incredible. Who's going to play this? And he's like, you

01:23are. And he said, I responded just like, holy fuck. It's my exact words.

01:29There you go.

01:32Oh, fucking dang.

01:33A little dropper. Let's pick it up at 17.

01:41Not quite my tempo.

01:42The amount of times people now yell that shit to me. I play in this kind of charity celebrity

01:49golf tournament and tempo is a big thing in your golf swing and I'm an okay golfer. And

01:55so they tend to yell that out right after I hit a very poor shot, which they think is very

01:59funny. And I can laugh at it too. But yeah, I hear not my tempo all the damn time. So thank

02:05you, Damien and J.K.

02:12Every single person in this is a real musician. Every single musician is playing live. There's

02:19never a backtrack or anything, which from what I understand, maybe it's the first time that

02:22that was kind of done. That's what Damien was telling me. And for me, it was such a thrill

02:26because I played in like jazz band, but I played sax. I drummed in some rock bands. But for

02:32me, just part of my work every day was like playing with these beautiful concert musicians.

02:39So I loved it. It's like most people when the time when you're drumming, they're telling you

02:43to like turn it down. And this was now we have multiple takes of me doing some fills.

02:50Start counting. Five, six, seven, four. Dammit. Look at me. One, two, three, four. One, two,

02:56three, four. One, two, three. Now, was I rushing or was I dragging? I spent so much

03:02time looking at JK's face. I told him like his face was just always right here. So I felt

03:08like every wrinkle, every line in his, every feature of his face is just kind of burned

03:13into my brain. You are upset. Yeah. Say it. I'm upset. Say it so the whole band can hear

03:20you. I'm upset. Louder. This script is written with such punctuation, like vile, just acidity.

03:31The scene work was so intense that if you were to keep that all day, it would combust. I just don't

03:37think you just can't live. You can't have that much tension at work for that, for that long. At

03:45least not for JK and I. One, two, three, one, two, three, four.

03:48Russian or dragging? Russian. So you do know the difference. If you deliberately sabotage my band,

03:55I will fuck you like a pig. When JK says, I'm going to fuck you like a pig, the line was,

04:01I'm going to gut you like a pig. And he always said it that way. When he saw the movie and he

04:06hears fuck you like a pig, he's like, Damien, I never said that. He said it one time when they

04:11shot the short film. And Damien took that audio from the short film and put it into this.

04:18But also for my wife and I, her favorite thing to say to me, if she, if, if she feels like I'm

04:23not listening, she's like, for the last father fucking time, Miles. And we always smile.

04:28So for the final father fucking time, say it louder. I'm upset. It's like, there's some,

04:37Damien had a lot of trauma from his high school band experience, I guess.

04:41Yeah, just a little freeze frame on. Well, that's like, that's, that was this dance of me.

05:00My buddies would do. It's kind of like the weekend at Bernie's thing. I don't, I don't really know,

05:05but I, I had no idea it would turn into such a, you know, shared clip. I didn't know.

05:14Yeah, but it's almost, yeah, it's like if Carlton has, you know, you know, Alfonso's got the

05:20Carlton dance. People are always asking, you know, gives the wiggle or something. Um, but it worked.

05:27Yeah. I mean, yeah, it works.

05:34Dude, the boys were, the boys were jacked up. Every other scene we had done, we're all wearing

05:38flight suits and stuff. And you assume people are like getting in good shape, but you don't,

05:42you don't really know. And then I remember I show up on set and just the boys are getting like lubed up

05:47and they're all getting their pre pump going on. But honestly, it was so fun because, you know,

05:53if you do this scene, right, it's like, it's one of those classic scenes in the original. It's a,

05:58it's a classic scene. And then this is our version of it. But originally this was, it was supposed to

06:05be shirts versus skins. So half the guys were going to be wearing shirts and Joe basically picked not

06:11based on physique or anything, but he's just like, okay, you did it. And there was a couple of guys that

06:16literally almost started crying because they had just been dieting and working out so much.

06:21This was their moment. Some of the guys maybe didn't have as many lines or something. This,

06:25this was a very big deal. I think we probably had a little team meeting and we're like,

06:30this is bullshit. We're going to tell them we're all going skins.

06:39Yeah. And Tom and, you know, TC out there running around with us. Yeah. It was just a lot of fun.

06:46The draft that I had first read, you know, it was still a work in, in progress in a lot of ways.

06:57And I vocalized that to Tom. Um, and I probably also said, I think, you know,

07:02my character maybe is a little underwritten here, this and that. And, and Tom said,

07:07Miles, I really respect you for saying that. And trust me, we're going to get it there.

07:10And honestly, for me at the time, I don't think I was necessarily looking to do something on the,

07:16on that scale, which looking back on it was very stupid. Um, and my wife, when I first told her,

07:24I was like, I don't know. She goes, Miles, what are you talking about? This is, this is going to be a

07:30massive movie and it's great. And look, I mean, I'm, I'm so proud of it. I hope that, um,

07:34you know, we'll see. I would love to, I think everybody would love to continue, you know,

07:40kind of on that, on that train. The jean shorts was my choice as well.

07:46Just a personal preference?

07:47Yeah. Jorts. Yeah. I said, I know what I'm wearing.

07:50Go for it. It's pretty strong.

08:02Oh my God. Yeah.

08:03Ew.

08:04Yeah, I know.

08:05Whoa.

08:06I know. I told you.

08:07How do you drink that?

08:08I don't know. I guess I've just been doing it for a while. I don't know.

08:12Shailene's a baby too.

08:14This movie is really interesting for me because originally there was a different director

08:19attached before James Ponzo. It kind of bounced around a lot as a kid, but like middle school

08:23and high school, I grew up in this pretty small town in Florida. And it was very similar to this

08:28world and kids started drinking young. There was not much to do. We would often hang out in places

08:34that look a lot like this. Um, but I felt like I really could play this character. I knew him really

08:39well. So I auditioned for it. I kind of bombed the audition and I begged my agent, you got to get me

08:45another audition for this thing. Like I, I am, I can play Sutter. And, uh, so I got another audition.

08:51It went slightly better, uh, but not good enough. And then they changed directors. James Ponzo came

08:59on and James said, I'm not going to make you audition. I said, good. And he's like, but let's

09:04just meet, you know, where do you want to meet? Um, let's meet at a bar. And so I just met him at a

09:08bar and we just had some apps and a couple of drinks and, and, uh, I was lucky that he,

09:14yeah, he gave me this opportunity. You know, I gave my first beer. Who? My dad. Really? Yeah.

09:19I was probably six years old. He used to take me to baseball games every Saturday and then let me

09:24have a little sip of it. Did you get drunk? No, I didn't get drunk, but I mean, it tasted

09:29really nice. It felt warm. I think we went shopping for a lot of our like wardrobe, just kind of thrift

09:35stores in towns in Athens. And you know, obviously there's like little to no makeup. James wanted it

09:40as natural as possible. Shailene is always an advocate for that. I got into college today,

09:45but there's no way that my mom will let me go. So you got into college today. That's awesome.

09:51Yeah. Thank you. This scene, because we shot it on film, uh, the camera is going to be a little

09:57heavier. It's a one-er. And at the end of the scene, the camera tilts up and people think,

10:02thought that was kind of a choice, but it wasn't. It was because he was walking backwards for however

10:06many minutes this is. It had poured down rain. It was wet and he just kind of fell over, but

10:11it gives itself a nice, um, a nice button. Amy, you're absolutely beautiful. Oh my God. No.

10:24I just really loved the community that you get from not just the film festivals, but when you make

10:30kind of a, you know, a more independent film, because you feel like this kind of

10:34like theater troupe and you get to, you just get to spend more time with each other and people tend

10:40to gravitate towards independent films because they're not as conventional. And I think for,

10:44you know, the actors, you can get handed some material. That's a little riskier. Um, but yeah,

10:49I loved it. I'm not going to tell anyone. I'm serious, Randy. I'm serious. I promise. Just follow

11:00the girls. They know what they're doing and you don't. Those little girls are so cute. The first

11:04play that I ever did was, was Footloose in high school and I was like 16. I played Willard and

11:10honestly, I was so small. I'm pretty sure I wore like my high school drama teacher's like jeans. And

11:19she was like not a very big woman herself, but I, I will always love Footloose. Really, that's kind

11:25of where it all started for me. So to kind of relive a lot of these scenes in the, in the film,

11:30but also we're so young. This was like pretty much all of our first studio film, you know,

11:35in his Paramount Pictures. It just felt like such a classic. I love this whole soundtrack, man. I'm a,

11:51I love Footloose. I think me just pretty much winging it for some of the stuff that Kenny and I do

11:59later, that was a little more choreographed, but honestly, a lot of that was pretty loose. I think

12:03I let everybody know right off the bat. Hey, I'm, I'm very confident in my dancing.

12:07It's going to be hard for me to act like I can't dance.

12:11Hey, walk through the door, little guy. It's fine, man. I didn't see you.

12:13Hey, well, you know, it's like jobs. It's just stick with Flo Trap and I'm nuts.

12:15Maybe if you weren't wearing all that camouflage, I could see it.

12:18You should get one of them orange vests so runners don't shoot you. An orange vest.

12:23I don't wear orange, man. Cause I'm not a Tennessee fan or I'm a George Bulldog.

12:28Where are you from? You talk funny. I talk funny.

12:31I certainly didn't use an accent dialect coach, which I imagine people can probably hear. But

12:36like I said, I probably was just busting out the same Willard accent I did when I was 16,

12:41just like some generic Southern accent. But honestly, yeah, this movie just makes me smile

12:46so much, uh, just cause that cast for all of us, that was our like real jumping off point.

12:51And Craig Brewer too. Craig Brewer is the man, before he starts every film, he invites the whole cast

12:57to his house. And then he makes you watch Purple Rain. He's like, he's the man,

13:02he's the coolest dude on, on every set. Yeah. He's, he's great. I loved everything about this.

13:18I think two times in my career where I, I had the available resource of the person I was playing that

13:41I think two times in my career where I had the available resource of the person I was playing

13:48that was, you know, alive. And so with Brendan, I said, you know, what were you feeling in this

13:55particular moment? And what was that experience like? And he said, Miles, I just found out all

13:59my guys had died too. So I wanted to go to the gym to grieve with everybody. And he said when

14:06he walked in that gym, because people didn't know who the one survivor was, instead of what

14:12he thought he would come in and be accepted. He said, everybody was just looking, some were,

14:17you know, pissed off that it wasn't their husband, their son, you know, they're sad, they're angry,

14:23and all of these emotions. And he just said he instantly felt just so ashamed and like embarrassed

14:29and, you know, really upset at himself in that moment for being the one survivor and the survivor's

14:34guilt and all these things just kind of flooding over him. And for this particular scene, like

14:39when you see, when I come through, the camera's just right there, and I have to walk into this

14:43close-up. And the focus was very specific. I had to, you know, walk into this close-up. The camera's

14:49like right here. I couldn't even see the other people in the room. And so I was getting very pissed

14:54off at Joe Kaczynski, who obviously we've done many movies now. That's my guy. But I was getting so

15:00pissed off because for this scene, I was like, Joe, I need to, I need to be able to feel, I need

15:05to be able to look around and really take this in. And I, all I'm seeing is a camera lens. Yeah,

15:10I think I would finish each take just like pissed, not feeling like I was able to give the performance

15:15feel all of the emotions I felt were right for the scene because I couldn't play off anybody.

15:20And then one take, Joe, I think, told Jeff Bridges to kind of put me in this like almost dream state,

15:27like, what is going on? And Bridges is behind the camera, the one take, and he's going,

15:31they're all dead, Donut. You killed them all, man. And this shit. And I was like, that pissed

15:37me off even more because I just, in general, I don't like gimmicks. Yeah, no, this was tough.

15:45Brandon!

15:52Should have been me.

15:53No.

15:54Yeah, he was better than me. They were all better than me.

15:59No, shh. Don't say that.

16:02From the moment you step on that set, step into training camp, you know, this, these are

16:07very real men that were eulogizing. That's how I always think of it. I said, you know,

16:11we're eulogizing and, you know, memorializing these, these people on screen.

16:15Listen, so I was sitting with my family and then I, uh, died. No, and I, whatever you're

16:26trying to pull, it's not sore. Look, Larry.

16:30How is this happening?

16:34When you get here, your phone reverts to its happiest self. It could be any age. That's

16:40where lots of 10-year-old boys, but not a lot of teenagers, though.

16:43Ah, shit. Joan. Joan, my wife. I need to, I need to go back.

16:46Honestly, I thought it was just one of the funniest and not, not just funny, but really

16:52highly original. Um, I felt for everybody involved. Obviously the part that Callum plays

16:59who passed away before he, you know, as soon as they got married and he goes off to war

17:03and he never got to have that life. I have also such an affinity for kind of elderly couples

17:11still in love who, like, hold hands and stuff. It's very heartfelt, very funny. I love Dave

17:16Vine. She cracks me up, dude. We had so much fun.

17:19Oh, Larry, look on the bright side. At least your penis works again.

17:22Man, my, my penis always worked.

17:25There's no need to feel shame here. We've seen it all.

17:28There was a good amount of riffing. Yeah, it was one of the most fun times I've had making

17:33a movie. Everything just kind of flowed and David, our director, he just had a very clear

17:37idea of what he wanted to do. Um, and we kind of were off and running because for smaller

17:43films, you don't have a ton of time usually. And I also just love a good ensemble. I like,

17:49I like firing off other people.

17:51Larry, what is a soul?

17:53I don't know. I suppose it's the perfect version of yourself.

18:01No, it's just you.

18:05No, that can't be right.

18:07I mean, it's a thought provoking piece. I think you want audiences to kind of maybe go back and forth a little bit.

18:13From Larry's point of view, he's like, what do you mean? We've been married for, you know, 65 years, honey.

18:18But yeah, it is a unique concept that you then have to kind of audition for your wife and kind of go on competing first dates to try and win her back,

18:28even though it's like, we've, we've been together this whole time. When did it, when did that stop?

18:34My grandparents were staying with me out in California and then I pretty much went off to do this film.

18:39So I was talking with them a lot about it while they were there. Um, my grandma has never carried her own bag once.

18:47She's never opened her own door once. And Kelly and I, my wife, we have a saying, you know, what would Poppy do?

18:53And really that just means just be a gentleman. And he, he just passed away in December. Um, we'll screen this for my grandmother in a, in a few months.

19:04And so this movie is just always, it was kind of the last one I really got to talk to both of them about. Um, so it always be special to me.

19:12And I used a lot of their interactions and some behavior to just embody it a little bit to wonder what it would be like to be 80 something years old with somebody for 65 years.

19:21And you know, yeah, I use them a lot.

19:30All right. Well, thanks for watching. We'll see you at the movies. Hopefully you guys were able to check out Eternity in theaters.

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