- 20 hours ago
2020 Oscar nominated actors Tom Hanks (two-time Oscar winner) and Adam Driver joined Oscar-winners Robert DeNiro and Jamie Foxx and actors Adam Sandler and Shia LaBeouf for the full Actor Roundtable.
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00:00:00Hi, and welcome to Close Up with the Hollywood Reporter Actors.
00:00:11I'm Stephen Galloway, and I'd like to welcome Adam Sandler.
00:00:15Yes, sir.
00:00:16Robert De Niro.
00:00:17Adam Driver.
00:00:19Tom Hanks.
00:00:20Present.
00:00:21Jamie Foxx.
00:00:21Yes, indeed.
00:00:22And Shia LaBeouf.
00:00:23Thanks so much for being here.
00:00:25I'm sure you know this anecdote.
00:00:27Dying is easy.
00:00:29Comedy is hard.
00:00:30True or false?
00:00:32Comedy is more difficult, yes.
00:00:33I can't do what Billy Crystal does, Eddie Murphy, you, Adam, but I can do other things.
00:00:43I mean, I like to think that I work in, say, in Marty's movies, just situations that are funny in and of themselves, which is like life.
00:00:54You know, there are so many situations.
00:00:55We see we're in a situation all of a sudden, I wish we could have filmed this, or this situation is so crazy, you know, but it's real.
00:01:04Is there anything in real life you wish you could have filmed or that you've then brought into a role?
00:01:09No, I mean, the only thing to say with Marty Scorsese working with him is that you get closer to saying that whatever you want to do, you can actually try and do it.
00:01:23And maybe it'll happen, maybe it'll work.
00:01:26If you had an idea or something, say, let me just try that.
00:01:29I say, Marty, let's just try it.
00:01:31You never know.
00:01:31And so it's something, with some directors, you don't even go there.
00:01:39You don't even, you say, it's too much work to even attempt to bring it up to them to do that.
00:01:47With Marty, it's, this is, well, do it, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work.
00:01:52So that's a great feeling of freedom, and it's just great.
00:02:00Adam, you come from comedy.
00:02:02Yes.
00:02:02Comedy or dying.
00:02:04Yes, yes.
00:02:05Which one sees you?
00:02:08You know, if you have something that, either way, something you're confident with, something that seems like you believe in it, I think it's the same feeling.
00:02:19If you believe in a joke, if you believe in a dramatic scene, you go in there with the same approach, I would think, right, Jamie?
00:02:28Here's the thing.
00:02:29Comedy is a natural thing.
00:02:33Like, I just told him, I was watching him in the comedy store when I was 18 years old, sneaking in the comedy store, watching him go up when it was like titans, it was rock, it was Eddie working out, you know, shit.
00:02:46I remember Eddie had on like a, like this yellow fucking Century 21 jacket.
00:02:53He was working on these jokes, and somebody was like, yo, what's up with that Century 21 jacket?
00:02:57And then you watch Eddie, like, he said, oh, whatever, I'll crush you with my wallet.
00:03:01And then everyone started laughing.
00:03:02So it's interesting, when I look at everybody here, you know, it's this, it's this, it's respect, and then I look at Eddie, I'm like, oh, shit.
00:03:11Before he even said anything, I'm already laughing.
00:03:14So that's one of the first ingredients is that when you have this natural thing of watching him on his guitar at 1.30 in the morning, doing a bit that he's so dedicated to it, motherfuckers, it's like, oh, he's, you know, shit.
00:03:29So that's the first ingredient, right?
00:03:32That's correct.
00:03:33And then the second ingredient is, as comedians, you get a light.
00:03:36Like, you get that liftoff, that launch, where everything that you're saying is funny, it's hilarious.
00:03:43Like, people are giving you that light.
00:03:44I think it only becomes difficult once you reach that top of comedic level.
00:03:52Now people are expecting, you know, the world.
00:03:56You know, when I go talk to Eddie, I was at Eddie's house, and he was talking about getting back into comedy, into stand-up.
00:04:03Yeah.
00:04:03But he's like, how do, you know, I said, well, I said, well, Eddie, if you want to get into it, I could help you.
00:04:08First thing you gotta do, you gotta fix your house.
00:04:10He's like, what you mean?
00:04:11I said, your house is too, too perfect.
00:04:14All your, it's too much.
00:04:15You got the candle scented and all that shit.
00:04:18I said, Eddie, at my crib, I have shit at my house that doesn't work on purpose, so I stay funny.
00:04:23I got this little carpet that's in the kitchen that's sort of ruffled up, and I got a bathroom where you turn on the faucet and it sprays out.
00:04:31And my daughter's like, why don't you fix it?
00:04:33I said, I feel like if I fix all this shit, I won't be funny.
00:04:37So it's like, you have to have that.
00:04:39And then, when he talked about the situation, like when we're watching, you know, Robert De Niro, the situation that you provide for him makes it all the way funny.
00:04:52Does that make sense?
00:04:53Yes.
00:04:54Because now, once you have the ability to be funny, you need the situation in order for it to make sense.
00:05:02Because if not, like this is the worst thing in the world when the director goes like, okay, now just do your thing.
00:05:08Oh.
00:05:08Oh.
00:05:09Yeah, yeah.
00:05:09And now you, you know, fucking.
00:05:11Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:05:11You're doing your shit, and then when you watch it, you're like, I'm doing my shit, but it doesn't make sense.
00:05:15So that's the part where he says.
00:05:16Do they only say that in comedy, or do they say it in drama, too?
00:05:18Oh, dear.
00:05:19They all say, have fun with it.
00:05:20Commit to it.
00:05:20You know.
00:05:22Can you be funny if you grew up with a built-in swimming pool in your backyard?
00:05:26I don't think you can.
00:05:27If you grew up being able to swim any time you wanted to, you experienced none of the shortcomings of life that you'd turn into self-deprecation that you can't do.
00:05:37It's tough.
00:05:37Can you play tragedy, though, if you grew up, if you have it easy?
00:05:40Doesn't it all come from some inner pain, angst?
00:05:44Everybody's.
00:05:44Yeah, sure.
00:05:45You bet.
00:05:48Look, it's like Bertolt Brecht, man.
00:05:51The whole thing is a struggle, and there's where you find your triumph.
00:05:54You hear the thing about it that will kill us all at some point is it's 3 o'clock in the morning, and you have something very specifically that you know, you've known for months you're going to act this beat with this scene.
00:06:05And it's 3 o'clock in the morning, and it could be anything from rain birds going off to, you know, taxi cab drivers or something like that, honking horns.
00:06:13And it's like, all right, the movie is now upon your shoulders.
00:06:17Don't fuck this up.
00:06:19And then they sit back, and you wait, and you've got to go there, man.
00:06:22You've just got to.
00:06:23Tragedy?
00:06:24Comedy?
00:06:24Is there a moment you can think of where that's just a taste of self-deprecation?
00:06:27It happens 10 times a week sometimes, you know, where it's everybody is kind of, everybody's making the same movie you are, you know.
00:06:37The crew, the teamsters, everybody knows that, oh, today's the scene you're going to, you know, oh, wow, this is going to be Bill and Luke.
00:06:42We shut down the whole street for this, you know.
00:06:45All right, 11 o'clock.
00:06:47Okay, we're ready for a rehearsal.
00:06:49Hi.
00:06:49Hey, please, give me a gun so I can shoot myself in the hip and not have to do this movie anymore.
00:06:55You played a comedian in the movie Sally Field.
00:06:59Oh, Punchline.
00:06:59Hey, the Safdie brothers told me to tell you that they love Punchline.
00:07:03Is that right?
00:07:04They watch Punchline a lot.
00:07:06Playing a guy who's supposed to be funny, the only way to do that was to go out and develop funny material.
00:07:14And I probably did six, you know, appearances or something where all I really did was jump up and down on a trampoline.
00:07:21I had no sense of anything.
00:07:22But you were, because I saw you training.
00:07:26I saw you training.
00:07:27I was a young comedian at the comic strip.
00:07:29And you used to come in and go up there with, and Barry Sobel used to go.
00:07:32Yeah, yeah, Barry and I, we ended up.
00:07:35And I ended up after a while.
00:07:37Was he good?
00:07:37Not that night.
00:07:38Not if you saw me at the comic strip.
00:07:39No, I saw you a couple times.
00:07:41And you were good.
00:07:42You came up right away where comedians were mad that you were calm on stage and cool.
00:07:47And you were being yourself.
00:07:48That took a while to get there.
00:07:49But the best I can describe it is you just have to go there.
00:07:53When I was in junior college taking acting classes, and there's ten of us there,
00:07:58and we've all been to the American Conservatory Theater performances of certain things,
00:08:02and we usually look at comedies going, oh, yes, that's very funny.
00:08:06Oh, I appreciate the work behind that joke.
00:08:09But the assignment for one day was, okay, on Wednesday, everybody's going to come,
00:08:14and you're going to be funny, and you're going to make each other laugh.
00:08:17And it was stone, nothing.
00:08:19No one could do anything funny because that was the task at hand.
00:08:23So comedy is hard because you know instantaneously whether or not your soup is good food.
00:08:30Adam, you were in the military.
00:08:33See?
00:08:34Right away.
00:08:37Acting and drama, dying or comedy, do they seem trivial in comparison?
00:08:41Well, I mean, one, the stakes you're pretending are life and death,
00:08:44and the other they kind of are.
00:08:45But the way the process in which you work on them is the exact same.
00:08:49It's a group of people trying to accomplish a mission that's bigger than any one person,
00:08:54and you have a role, and you have to know your role within a gun team,
00:08:58and you're only as good as the people that are there with you.
00:09:01There's someone leading it, and when they know what they're doing,
00:09:04what you're doing feels active and relevant and exciting,
00:09:08and when they don't, it feels like a waste of resources and dangerous,
00:09:11and you're just so aware that you're one part of a bigger picture.
00:09:15How did you switch from being a Marine to being an actor?
00:09:19I was interested in it before being in the military,
00:09:22and then when you get in the military, you get out,
00:09:24you kind of have all this false confidence that civilian problems will be small in comparison,
00:09:27which is an illusion.
00:09:28But then I was lucky enough to get into an acting school
00:09:31and learned about acting and plays and a process.
00:09:36Then I was lucky enough to work.
00:09:38Have you ever felt, Shah, that there's a life and death moment in acting
00:09:41where your whole life depends on you pulling this off?
00:09:44Yes.
00:09:44Which one?
00:09:46Every time.
00:09:46It feels like your neck's on the chopping block every time.
00:09:49How do you get past that anxiety?
00:09:52Prep hard.
00:09:53Yeah.
00:09:54It's like boxing.
00:09:55It's just like boxing.
00:09:56Guys train really hard to go put their neck on the line.
00:10:00Never been in the military, but it feels life and death to me.
00:10:03Yeah.
00:10:04So prep hard, determination.
00:10:07I went last year to the Harry Ransom Center.
00:10:10I don't know if you know what that is, but it's the archive at the University of Texas,
00:10:14which has great papers.
00:10:16And there are Bob's papers.
00:10:20And to actually see your handwriting on the Raging Bull script.
00:10:24And it was amazing because your scripts are covered with notes.
00:10:29What was the toughest character I actually had to prepare for?
00:10:32They're all different.
00:10:33Depends.
00:10:34Some are harder in some ways than others.
00:10:37Raging Bull, because of the weight and all that.
00:10:40And the mission, just the physical stuff, awakenings.
00:10:45There was a lot of physical stuff, too, and studying how my character behaved and what
00:10:50his affliction was.
00:10:52And then Raging Bull, I read the book.
00:10:55Somebody handed me the book, one of the authors.
00:10:57And I read it while I was doing it once in 1900 with Bertolucci.
00:11:01And I called Marty from Italy and I said, you know, the book's not great literature, but
00:11:07it's got a lot of heart.
00:11:09And I kind of want to do certain things.
00:11:10I remember I used to see Jake LaMotta.
00:11:14He'd work in a kind of a strip place right on 7th Avenue in the 40s.
00:11:19He'd be standing right out there near the sidewalk and he was overweight and this and
00:11:23that.
00:11:23I said, Jesus, look what happened to him from then.
00:11:26And I thought just the graphic difference of being out of shape and then being a young
00:11:32fighter, really, that was interesting to me.
00:11:35I thought, you know, I'd like to see if I could really just gain that weight actually
00:11:39and do it.
00:11:41So that was my interest in it.
00:11:44Marty had his reasons and both of us just come together on the project.
00:11:50And yeah, so.
00:11:52Have any of you had a dream project that you've taken to a director or another actor?
00:11:56And so like, you must do this.
00:11:58Honey Boy with your project, you wrote it.
00:12:00Yeah.
00:12:00But if you haven't seen it, it's terrific.
00:12:03It's unbelievable.
00:12:04So who did you want to do it with you?
00:12:09My back was against the wall.
00:12:11I was nuclear at this point.
00:12:12So it wasn't like a dream project.
00:12:13It felt like survival.
00:12:16Like there was no other way to go.
00:12:18I didn't have a lot of people talking to me.
00:12:20I was in a mental institution.
00:12:21So it wasn't like, oh, this is my dream project.
00:12:23I'd like to explore this.
00:12:24It was like, my back's against the wall.
00:12:28This is the craft that I love and I can't do it anymore.
00:12:31And I also had a doctor who was pushing me to explore these dirty parts and write it down.
00:12:36And yeah, so it wasn't like a dream project thing.
00:12:40It felt more like necessity, like survival, like something different.
00:12:44You said you're in a mental institution.
00:12:48I don't want to ask you two personal questions, but is there anything you discovered there that's been helpful for your acting?
00:12:55Yeah, empathy for my father, you know, who was always the biggest villain in my life.
00:12:59You know, and I think if you can empathize with the biggest villain in your life and sort of scrape some of these shadows and it makes you lighter and freer.
00:13:07I don't think I was leading with love and my life has changed.
00:13:11You may or may not attest, but I feel like when you lead with lightness and love, you can get to the heavy easier.
00:13:16You know, it's much easier, it's much more accessible.
00:13:19Like anger and the rough shit is very easy.
00:13:21You know, it's the other stuff that feels quite difficult.
00:13:24You know, getting honest laugh is very hard.
00:13:27I'll tell you, when I have to laugh in a movie, I can't do that.
00:13:30Yeah, it's tough.
00:13:31You mean like laugh?
00:13:33If my character's supposed to have a genuine laughing moment, I'd rather get genuine anything else.
00:13:39I'm always just like, you know, yes.
00:13:41Is it easy for you to cry?
00:13:43You had that big moment in Uncut Gems where you're really emotional.
00:13:47Was it easier than laughing?
00:13:49Maybe, maybe not.
00:13:50I'm not great at crying.
00:13:52What are you great at?
00:13:53I'm not sure.
00:13:54I don't even think I should be at this table.
00:13:56No, but yeah, crying when it's written in a script and then he breaks down and this, that kind of, that really gets me tense for a while.
00:14:09You had a massive one in Marriage Story.
00:14:11Every time I see that performance of somebody breaking down, I'm like, oh man, that's incredible.
00:14:17How should you get to that point?
00:14:19It's not something you push for.
00:14:20You don't push for emotion.
00:14:21It either happens or it doesn't.
00:14:23You can't like anticipate it or nothing will happen.
00:14:26But, you know, there's a lot of things that, in that instance, are supporting you.
00:14:29You're, the script is so good and it's well written.
00:14:32If it was badly written, there's only one way to do it.
00:14:34If it's well written, you know, the language is so rich that every time you say it, it opens up an idea for something else.
00:14:43And because Noah has structured, and Adam knows this from working with Noah and Meyerowitz, the text is the text.
00:14:47And I find that incredibly freeing because your intention could be anything.
00:14:51And if you're with another actor as Scarlett, in that instance, and, you know, the set, Noah's giving you another piece of information that maybe you hadn't thought of before, or the line, or you've gotten in a fight with your wife before the scene starts, or maybe nothing.
00:15:06Maybe you're having a good moment before the scene starts.
00:15:09It just opens up your imagination of a different way of reading it.
00:15:13You know, he's taken basically a four-month run of a play and condensed it to two days, you know, so I think that's easier.
00:15:20If it's just having emotion, I don't think I can do that.
00:15:23Do you take that emotion home with you?
00:15:25I don't, I don't think so.
00:15:27I mean, I don't know.
00:15:28It's like a release after it's done.
00:15:29Take the exhaustion home.
00:15:31No.
00:15:31Right, right.
00:15:32Yeah.
00:15:32No, so, I mean, it's a release.
00:15:34It's like you did that, that's there, take a break, come back.
00:15:38Sometimes, though, there is a residual something that you have to be aware of.
00:15:42Do you, too, Tom?
00:15:46There is a, it's a physiological process that incorporates your emotions in the sinews of your body.
00:15:54It's funny, laughing and weeping are two very physical acts.
00:15:58Yeah.
00:15:59You know, they're not up here.
00:16:01I mean, when I cry, man, my face turns into rubber.
00:16:04Oh, yes, yes.
00:16:05You know, you bend over into some kind of thing.
00:16:07And you can only, you can only get there if, literally, the text takes you there.
00:16:14And there's this great commonality of moments like that in which, like I said earlier, everybody's making the movie and everybody knows that tonight or this day is going to be an emotional thing.
00:16:24And your job is to forget that it's on a schedule and just live it and be it and don't, don't, you can't, you can't push it.
00:16:35It actually has to, it has to come out.
00:16:37Well, I'm just, I'm just emotional.
00:16:40Yeah.
00:16:40I'm always crying.
00:16:41I'm just.
00:16:42Really?
00:16:42Yeah.
00:16:42I just, I cry for everything.
00:16:44That's great.
00:16:45I don't know, but I'll be crying about stuff that really, my accountant just called me and said, you don't have to, you tried to buy a private plane and she was like, fuck, run the scene.
00:16:56But it's like, you know, I mean, I should be going through my life.
00:16:59It all gets us all.
00:17:00Yeah, it should be going on in my life.
00:17:02It just ruins the game.
00:17:04Shit is going on in my life, so I'm easy.
00:17:06I cry easy.
00:17:07What's been your toughest moment?
00:17:08I think the toughest thing being a comedian is watching other comedians blow, like Eddie blow, oh shit, you know, and then Martin.
00:17:17And so I'm like, okay, where's my, where's my thing?
00:17:19But then you see that they've touched all of the comic bases.
00:17:23I remember going in and reading for Russell Simmons for some, for some comedy and I was doing my thing and he was going, that's Eddie.
00:17:33Oh, that's Martin, that's Martin, that's Martin, that's Martin.
00:17:35Oh, no, no, no, no, that's rock, that's rock.
00:17:38And I'm like, what the fuck is going on?
00:17:39And he was, no, I was just saying, you sound like Chris Rock, you sound like Eddie.
00:17:43So that was tough because I was like, damn, I don't have nowhere to go, right?
00:17:47And then like, you know, this cool thing where Oliver Stone opened up.
00:17:51It was, you know, this Any Given Sunday thing, which was more dramatic.
00:17:55And so I don't know if that's a tough thing, but it was just like, man, let me, let me go get with him.
00:18:00And it was an incredible, it opened up a whole nother thing.
00:18:03And then the tough part was getting back to being funny.
00:18:06Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:18:07Yeah, because like, you know, like the young folks, they see me like, oh, here's this dude using Django.
00:18:12Right, right, right.
00:18:13Now I'm doing jokes.
00:18:13Man, why Django being funny like that?
00:18:15So it's like, so now I have to try to get back to.
00:18:19What about you?
00:18:19Do you find that hard too often?
00:18:20I've done so many comedies.
00:18:23I have so many comedies on TV.
00:18:25I don't have a hard time getting back into that.
00:18:27People are just, when I get to do something like this, like Uncut Gems, and I haven't done that many dramas.
00:18:35Maybe I've done like six or seven over 30 years worth.
00:18:38But I'm always excited doing them.
00:18:41It's a different excitement for me because I'm not sure of myself.
00:18:44You know, when you do comedies, you kind of, I mean, you grew up doing them.
00:18:49I grew up as a kid being in comedies.
00:18:52It's a different, lighter feel on the set.
00:18:55It's exciting.
00:18:56There's nothing better for a comedian than going home and going, oh, I think we killed that scene.
00:19:00That's going to be funny.
00:19:01That's how the audience is going to like that.
00:19:03But this drama man, getting it right and feeling like you gave it your all and that excitement of reading script and going, oh, that scene's going to be incredible.
00:19:13Then actually shooting it and it comes out the way you want it to, or maybe not exactly the way you want it to, but something happened big for you.
00:19:21That's as good as it gets.
00:19:22Are you hard on yourself when it doesn't come out that way?
00:19:24Do you go ahead and torch yourself?
00:19:25Oh, my God.
00:19:26If there's something great written that I don't think I got to where I was supposed to get, I'm really mad at myself.
00:19:34Me too?
00:19:35Yeah.
00:19:35Yeah, you're disappointed.
00:19:37The only thing is that you, like you were saying, you don't push for anything.
00:19:41I mean, I don't.
00:19:42If you push, you're not going to get it.
00:19:45So you just have to take what comes and try and find ways to get there, but you just can't be anxious about it.
00:19:51You know, it's like the thing, you know, the actor, he can't remember his line, so he can't act anymore.
00:19:56So he's working in the garage and somebody, an actor, the director comes over and says, listen, I just want you to say, Hark, I hear the cannon roar on the third act.
00:20:03You know, so I said, okay.
00:20:05So I'll go do it.
00:20:06He goes, so he rehearsed, rehearsed.
00:20:07And then at home, you know, he's working.
00:20:09Hark, I hear the cannon roar.
00:20:10Hark, I hear the cannon roar.
00:20:12Hark, I hear the cannon roar.
00:20:13Every variation, every way he's ready.
00:20:15The third act, ready to go after five weeks rehearsal.
00:20:17He goes backstage, he's ready.
00:20:19You know, the first act goes, no problem.
00:20:21He's waiting.
00:20:21Hark, I hear the cannon roar.
00:20:23Second act, everything.
00:20:25Flying.
00:20:26Third act, he's there backstage.
00:20:28Then stage manager comes, okay, ready.
00:20:30And he's hearing the play out there.
00:20:32Boom.
00:20:33Go on.
00:20:33He's going.
00:20:34I'm saying, Hark, I hear the cannon roar.
00:20:35Hark, I hear the cannon roar.
00:20:36Then you hear, bang, turns around.
00:20:38What the fuck was that?
00:20:39LAUGHTER
00:20:40LAUGHTER
00:20:41LAUGHTER
00:20:42Are you self-critical?
00:20:51Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:20:52I mean, I don't think that you ever get over...
00:20:54Because in a way, you kind of know what your potential is more than anybody else, in a sense.
00:20:58I have a lot of regret often when you leave a set.
00:21:02You can't help but, you know, think about it.
00:21:05And, you know, obviously it's film, so film is forever.
00:21:07So you never get a chance to go back and do it again.
00:21:09And I feel like that's the thing about acting, is that regardless of how often you do it
00:21:15or how long you do it, you never figure it out.
00:21:18Do you prefer theatre because of that, or...?
00:21:21I've learned from theatre in that, you know, always at the end of a four-month run of a play,
00:21:25you're always the last performance.
00:21:26It's always the best one.
00:21:27And you're like, okay, now I have a better sense of what I want to do and go back.
00:21:30So I know that there's no right answer.
00:21:32There's no right way to play a scene.
00:21:35That's my part of it.
00:21:36I like the making of it.
00:21:37And it's someone else's responsibility to make the choice of what is the best version of it.
00:21:41But I know that there's no right way.
00:21:44And you would just have to feel comfortable with failing.
00:21:48And you either get easier on yourself, I think, about like, okay, then I'll just let it go, or you don't.
00:21:54But I don't think you'll ever figure that out.
00:21:56So I think people keep doing it, I think.
00:22:00But I don't know.
00:22:01I'm looking at you, Tom.
00:22:02Are you self-critical?
00:22:04Did you go home and arrive, or?
00:22:07There have been too many times where I thought I really cracked something over the fence.
00:22:12And then I saw it, and I said, well, that is just as exciting as a closing door.
00:22:18And there's other times that I had no, I didn't, I didn't, all I could do is stumble around a day.
00:22:24And it's fantastic.
00:22:26And there's no, it's odd, you almost have no control.
00:22:30For me, it has come down to whether or not the procedure and the behavior that was asked of you is authentic.
00:22:38And if it is, then you've got to leave it up to serendipity.
00:22:42And those fabulous people that are willing to look at your, you know, every eyebrow and pour on your face and decide what's going to be the best take, or what's going to end up being in the movie.
00:22:55Do you know when it directs?
00:22:56I would even say, in a way, it's not even your job, really.
00:22:59I mean, I think it's not your job to feel anything.
00:23:05It's the audience's job.
00:23:06So I obviously have been thinking about something for a long time, and you finally get there and do it.
00:23:11You want to feel something just because you feel like you put the effort in.
00:23:14But it's not really my responsibility to feel something.
00:23:17It's to telegraph that something is being felt.
00:23:20But it's hard to reconcile that, to not feel like you got there and you actually,
00:23:24it feels like it's going to be more authentic.
00:23:27But, I mean, to your point, you could be having all the feeling you want, but no one is feeling anything.
00:23:32And your job is to tell the story, not have a feeling in front of people.
00:23:37When we were doing Captain Phillips, and we were in this lifeboat,
00:23:41the script had all these great moments where Rich Phillips looked through the porthole of the lifeboat
00:23:46as his son was going down and was thinking of his family at home and whether or not he was going to see them.
00:23:51So you could sit around in Malta, you know, where we were shooting,
00:23:55oh, that's going to be a powerful moment because I'm going to line up in the porthole
00:24:00and it's just going to be like this, you know, it's going to be really great.
00:24:03Then you go to work and there is no porthole in the lifeboat.
00:24:09So you got to like take away, it's almost, oh, you cannot prepare.
00:24:14You can only just be there.
00:24:15The movie process, it's a little bit different, if you know what I mean.
00:24:20It's like...
00:24:21You mean it's in theater?
00:24:22No, just not even that.
00:24:23Just like when I was on Any Given Sunday, I remember Oliver Stone, when I first auditioned,
00:24:29was like, you're horrible when I auditioned.
00:24:33And I was like, what?
00:24:35Because I was a television actor, so everything I did was loud.
00:24:38Yeah, so you better understand this with the football in the air, man.
00:24:44And he was like, get the fuck out of the air, man.
00:24:47Oliver can be tough.
00:24:48Huh?
00:24:48Oliver can be tough.
00:24:49No, but it was, but I learned from that toughness.
00:24:53Meaning like when he finally decided to, you know, make the decision for me to be the lead,
00:24:59he still would grill me.
00:25:00He said, that's not it.
00:25:01That's not it.
00:25:02That's not it.
00:25:03Like working with Quentin Tarantino, and I watched an actor struggle
00:25:07because the set was like, it was heavy.
00:25:11I mean, you had Samuel Jackson here.
00:25:14You had Leo.
00:25:15I mean, it was some juggernauts, you know.
00:25:17Come on, motherfucker, say that shit.
00:25:19And the dude was trying to say, come on, come on, get it.
00:25:22Oh, yeah.
00:25:22And the guy was trying to get his line, and I watched Quentin Tarantino go to him.
00:25:26No, everything's fine.
00:25:27Just say line.
00:25:28Right, yeah.
00:25:28And I was like, damn, this shit ain't going to work out, right?
00:25:30But then you see the movie.
00:25:34I said, God damn.
00:25:36And Quentin said, all I need is one.
00:25:38Sure.
00:25:39Even working with Christoph, Christoph Waltz, watching him work,
00:25:42I learned a little more about movie.
00:25:45I watched him fold a paper.
00:25:48This motherfucker wrote on a thing and was just supposed to put it in his pocket.
00:25:52It seemed like it took him forever to do it.
00:25:54He was like...
00:25:55And he had...
00:26:01It was nothing else existed but that moment, right?
00:26:07Christoph Waltz's process wasn't that I'm going to have all of these things memorized
00:26:11and do all of these things at once.
00:26:14He would give you these...
00:26:16Calm yourselves, gentlemen.
00:26:17One more time.
00:26:19Calm yourselves, gentlemen.
00:26:21I am but a weary traveler.
00:26:23And we were watching it, and Leo was like...
00:26:26I said, Leo, you think you got it?
00:26:29He's got something, pal.
00:26:30Just keep watching.
00:26:33Some shit is going on, pal.
00:26:35And you see all these little bits of things, and then all of a sudden in the movie, boom.
00:26:41Calm yourselves, gentlemen.
00:26:43I was like, oh, shit.
00:26:44And then I'd like to thank the Academy.
00:26:49I like to think about Oliver because you hear so many stories about people who've worked with him.
00:26:53Who shy has most intimidated you that you've worked with, and who have you learned from the most?
00:26:59Everyone's intimidated by Oliver, right?
00:27:01Yeah, different.
00:27:03Not intimidated.
00:27:04He would never look me in the eyes.
00:27:06He always looked just above my eyelid.
00:27:08Really?
00:27:09Yeah.
00:27:10Why?
00:27:11It's just his way.
00:27:12Maybe just with me.
00:27:14But probably being around Hardy.
00:27:16Hardy's a bit of a gorilla on a set.
00:27:18Tom Hardy.
00:27:18Yeah, probably.
00:27:19I was most intimidated by him.
00:27:22What do you mean a bit of a gorilla?
00:27:24Well, he runs a set.
00:27:25You know, he pee in the corners.
00:27:26It's his set.
00:27:26You know it when you get there.
00:27:27Oh.
00:27:28Yeah.
00:27:29Don't feel like a shared space.
00:27:30It feels like his space.
00:27:32And, you know, and he's a very good actor.
00:27:34And also super loving, but on a set, you're in his church.
00:27:38Oh.
00:27:39Who has taught you the most?
00:27:41Bob.
00:27:42Really?
00:27:42Yeah, definitely.
00:27:43From a flower.
00:27:44If I really like that, I'm not surprised.
00:27:45We could all just be quiet.
00:27:47Yeah.
00:27:51We have some great actors around this table, let's face it.
00:27:54And what did he teach you?
00:27:56Well, through the performances, I watched him reveal himself and be a presenter of a soul and explore who he was through the work.
00:28:06And I've always just, he made it feel sacred to me.
00:28:13So it felt like he lifted the craft into something that felt like a, it's wild to hear you say you're not religious, but I know you're spiritual and I don't have to ask you because I watch the work and I can feel it.
00:28:25So I'd say, and not to, you know, kiss ass, but through the work, having a guy to look towards.
00:28:32Are you intimidated by anyone?
00:28:33Um, well, there's always somebody, I guess.
00:28:39I don't know.
00:28:42But I, I, as you get older, you don't want to be intimidated by anybody who shouldn't intimidate you.
00:28:47Um, if you, uh, you know, we're in a political situation now.
00:28:51We have the best example of that where I feel that you must stand up to this kind of person, um, not to make a speech about this here, but it's, it's necessary to stand up and not, because people are nonplussed.
00:29:07It's like, they say, did this guy just do that?
00:29:11He did it.
00:29:12I, I don't even know how to react, react to that because I'm like, that's not within my world of common sense or, or right and wrong or what's being fair.
00:29:20So I, I have to find a way.
00:29:22I just have to, you gotta, you gotta push him back.
00:29:24You gotta, you gotta snuff him out.
00:29:27You gotta get rid of him.
00:29:29He's, he's, uh, you know, it's, it's, you gotta deal with it because, but people are so, so nonplussed by this behavior.
00:29:37Uh, and that's how crazy people like him can get even further.
00:29:42Imagine him getting a second term.
00:29:44He'll want, he's even said, I want to be president for life.
00:29:47He choked about it.
00:29:48Uh, and so then he'll, he'll go for that.
00:29:51He'll, he'll pardon himself.
00:29:52He'll do anything.
00:29:54I thought in the beginning, you know, well, you know, he's a New Yorker.
00:29:57Maybe he's got common sense somewhere in there.
00:29:59He's a liberal actually, supposedly.
00:30:02But then, you know, after he, you know, he just got worse and worse and worse and worse.
00:30:07And we, we, we've got to get rid of him.
00:30:09Adam, should access be political?
00:30:12Uh, I'm not great at that.
00:30:14I, I, I, I, I listen to Bob talk and I, I go, okay.
00:30:18I listen to, I, I have, I, I, when I, when I, when I, I, my conviction's not great.
00:30:23I do, I do believe in, uh, I, my, my way of being, uh, I just try to be, uh, as good of a person I can be and try to conduct myself a certain way.
00:30:38I don't think I always do that right.
00:30:40But, um, when it comes to me discussing politics, I don't think I'm, I don't think I'm knowledgeable enough to, to go at it.
00:30:47It's an interesting thing because it's actually not politics.
00:30:51What he's talking about is me letting my kids watch someone who is supposed to be from mayor, whatever, they're supposed to be different.
00:31:00He's not talking about politics.
00:31:01He's talking about the human nature of things.
00:31:03And so we should all have an opportunity to say or not say, but I, I got kids, so I got to tell my kids, I say, hey, listen, this is not the way things are supposed to be when it comes to the human nature of it.
00:31:16Because when you do ascend to these levels of, of running things, we look to that.
00:31:22Look, all of what we, what we've gone through in our lives as, as American and politics, we were always able to look at that office and say, that's something to aspire to be and to be like.
00:31:36If I can't let my kids listen to that person talk, then that's where we're off.
00:31:41So it's not actually politics.
00:31:43There's nothing wrong with saying, hey, I'm like this, you can have a different, you can have a disagreement with me about policy.
00:31:51We can both do that because I got good old boyfriends that are, that are red state guys and I got Democrat friends.
00:31:59I'm a Democrat, but I'm in all of those circles because I'm always performing, you know what I'm saying?
00:32:03And quietly, even if we disagree, there's always that point of being a man, being, being nice, being kind.
00:32:14And so to his point, when you see something, when a person is, bless you, when a person is just, yo, you don't have to dance in the end zone with everything.
00:32:23God bless you again.
00:32:23But I think that's, that's what it is.
00:32:27And then we all get nervous, you know, we get nervous because, well, what's, what's, what are people going to say about me?
00:32:35But then if we don't have someone saying something, bless you, it's all good.
00:32:42But if, if you don't have so much, no, I don't got it, go ahead.
00:32:49But you understand what I'm saying?
00:32:51So it's like, it's, it's, it's, it's not politics, it's human beings.
00:32:56It's like, I know, I, I, look, I, I, I can share this story.
00:33:02I did a gig for Jerry Jones, who's, I'm a cowboy, huge cowboy fan.
00:33:07And I had to perform for the, for the owners in the NFL.
00:33:13And Jerry Jones' son-in-law said, what are you going to do here?
00:33:16I have to perform for, you know, you know, some good old boys.
00:33:21And I said, don't worry about it.
00:33:22I'm good.
00:33:22I'm from Texas.
00:33:23I, I think I'll be good.
00:33:24So the first thing I sung was George Strait.
00:33:27Man, oh, next thing you know, by the end of the night, I had everybody singing Gold Digger and Blame It On It.
00:33:31I got Colin Powell singing it.
00:33:33But I got a chance to speak with George Bush.
00:33:38I'm this close.
00:33:39And I was like, we spoke.
00:33:41And, of course, we all had our differences.
00:33:45But I asked him something.
00:33:46I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this story.
00:33:48I said, would you ever say anything disheartening about President Obama?
00:33:53You know what he said?
00:33:54No, I wouldn't.
00:33:56It's too hard of a job.
00:33:57I learned so much.
00:33:59I would never knock his legs out from under him because I know what it is.
00:34:03And then I watched him and his kids play with Obama's kids.
00:34:07That's what it's about.
00:34:09You know, if we're being, if we're taking it there, that's what it's about.
00:34:11So it's just, it's a matter of everybody has something that they want to say, but we shouldn't be afraid to say it.
00:34:18You're not going to be, we should just say, hey, man, that's just saying cool.
00:34:20So when Ellen DeGeneres went to the game with George W. Bush, do you think that's okay?
00:34:25Listen, it's bigger than that.
00:34:26When we're in, I've seen, I've been in football games where Jesse Jackson, George Bush, everybody, they're still humans.
00:34:35But what happens is, it's an interesting thing.
00:34:38When you see what media does, they always separate and make it something bigger.
00:34:44Ellen sitting with George Bush, who she's known for years, that's not a big thing.
00:34:50Still doesn't mean she's going to compromise what she believes in.
00:34:54And you don't have to do that.
00:34:56I think it's always been that way.
00:34:59Only now, it's just different because you do go like, wow, that ain't cool.
00:35:04Even if you felt that way, that part ain't cool.
00:35:07You know what I'm saying?
00:35:08So it's like, we shouldn't be afraid.
00:35:10Look, and people say, oh, he's a snobby actor, elitist.
00:35:16What the fuck are you talking about, man?
00:35:17I came from Terrell, Texas.
00:35:19No money, no nothing.
00:35:21I said, nothing snobby about me.
00:35:22I'm happy that I'm making my money.
00:35:24I said, but for me to get to a position of where I'm at right now and not say nothing?
00:35:29Like, what, you know?
00:35:32So like I said, I'm not running for office.
00:35:33But damn, we should be able to say whatever we want to say when we want to say it.
00:35:37Does that make sense?
00:35:37Yes.
00:35:38Tom, you had a little Freudian cough going on there.
00:35:40I don't know where that came from.
00:35:43It was a cough of agreement, what was going on.
00:35:46We all have...
00:35:49I'm going to give you three more of those.
00:35:55Those are freebies after that.
00:35:58But not everybody should be political, but everybody must be principled.
00:36:04And we carry our principles with us 24 hours a day.
00:36:08It's part of the countenance.
00:36:09It's part of why we do what we do in the first place.
00:36:13And it's in our choices.
00:36:15And I have to say one of the things I learned from the get-go as an actor in a repertory company,
00:36:23people you worked with, you didn't have to like those people.
00:36:26And you did not have to agree with those people.
00:36:28You didn't have to hang with those people.
00:36:29But you had to respect those people.
00:36:31You had to respect their process.
00:36:33And you had to respect their opinions.
00:36:36And the default setting, I think, for so much of everything is conflict.
00:36:43And what's the word I'm looking for?
00:36:46Cynicism.
00:36:47That's the first place I think everybody can go.
00:36:50So if Ellen is at a football, at a game with George W. Bush, what's the cynical take on what that is?
00:36:59As opposed to what is the respectful take on that?
00:37:03I'm not going to assume anybody automatically agrees with each other because they're at a Dallas Cowboys and Oakland Raiders football game.
00:37:10And I think that's a difference.
00:37:13And also, kind of like political views are a dime a dozen.
00:37:17They're absolutely everywhere.
00:37:18You just played the least cynical guy, maybe, in history.
00:37:29Is it actually harder to play someone that nice than to play a villain?
00:37:35They're the same exact beast, you know.
00:37:39Granted, Mr. Rogers is not Iago.
00:37:43But they have their principles.
00:37:45And they have their mission statement.
00:37:49The story in the movie is really about the journalist that is very cynical about who Mr. Rogers is and finds out that he was wrong.
00:37:59And there's no nefarious motivation between what Fred Rogers did for a living.
00:38:06He viewed it as his ministry.
00:38:08And that's kind of like looking at some combination of Mother Teresa or somebody that is hell-bent for doing just good in the sphere of which they operate.
00:38:19And the cynic walks into that and says, what's your racket here?
00:38:24What are you trying to pull here?
00:38:26And if it's actually just, well, we're trying to feed the homeless people some soup so they get a hot meal once a day.
00:38:32No, there's got to be something more to that.
00:38:33There's not.
00:38:34And Fred Rogers was an ordained minister, and his principle was such that everything that guided him through his daily behavior and his creative output was based on making people feel safe and a part of something bigger than they actually were.
00:38:51In his case, two- and three-year-old kids.
00:38:52But he never, ever said the word God.
00:38:56Not in hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hours of television.
00:39:01Hello, Lloyd.
00:39:03Oh, it's nice to meet you.
00:39:05Are you all right?
00:39:07Plate the plate.
00:39:08Oh, I see.
00:39:09That looks like it hurts.
00:39:10Let's chat afterwards.
00:39:11We need to keep moving.
00:39:12Maybe we could have Evan take a look at him.
00:39:14No, I'm good.
00:39:15I'm good.
00:39:16Sorry, Fred.
00:39:16Yeah.
00:39:17Me too.
00:39:18All right.
00:39:18All right.
00:39:19It's wonderful to meet you.
00:39:22I'm so glad you're here, Lloyd.
00:39:23I'm looking forward to talking with your, I truly am.
00:39:28After this.
00:39:30When you explored that character, was there a darker side in him that actually pushed him in the other direction?
00:39:37There was the same dark side in him that is in any cracked vessel of humankind.
00:39:42There is doubt.
00:39:45There is a sense of failure.
00:39:47There is always a degree of self-loathing.
00:39:49There was always a question of, am I doing enough for the people that I love?
00:39:54Now, is that a dark side?
00:39:57I don't know that it's dark.
00:39:58And look, not everybody says, I'm growing tired of this game, Mr. Bond.
00:40:02Perhaps you'd like a tour of our installation before we feed you to the sharks.
00:40:06Not every, there, that is, that is, I think that's a dynamic that comes about and that's, you know, Shakespeare wrote that kind of stuff left and right.
00:40:13But the journalist who came and talked to Mr. Rogers was paying that, no, no, no, there's something in the past and you're doing this for some reason in the future.
00:40:21And that's, that's an artificial accounting that is required by somebody who is not the person themselves.
00:40:28Well, when you're playing a guy who's killed people, as you just did, and it's a real, based on a real life man, is it good for you personally to find the goodness in him?
00:40:38Or is that a dangerous proposition?
00:40:42I don't think, I mean, he was a guy who happened to have seen a lot of combat in the Second World War.
00:40:47So he was a little, he was inured to killing more than someone else.
00:40:54And he found himself in this world that was not what he was from.
00:40:59And it fit, and he was loyal to the people that gave him love and support and respected him.
00:41:07And so that's how, and then he was, then he had a big conflict, which later on, not to give it away, but that was the whole thing.
00:41:16But I think the whole story, the story is very simple.
00:41:20You could find that kind of situation in any culture.
00:41:25I can't tell you what this means to me to get this honor from you.
00:41:29The highlight of my life, thank you very, very, very, very much.
00:41:33And this man, James Riddlehoffer, is the guy that gets the job done.
00:41:41I'm behind you, Jimmy.
00:41:43All the way.
00:41:46Any case, from the deepest part of my heart, I thank you all, because I don't really deserve all this.
00:41:52But I have bursitis, and I don't deserve that either.
00:41:58Loyalty, betrayal, love, all those things are there.
00:42:03The price in this world is a little more harsh.
00:42:06But, you know, and maybe not so in certain parts of the world.
00:42:13I mean, this is what happens.
00:42:15So we have it in this country, in America, in that milieu, that culture.
00:42:21It's what it is.
00:42:23So your loyalty in the movie to your work, it was very interesting to see how it affected your home life and your daughter.
00:42:33Yes, yes.
00:42:34That was what was very interesting and different to the fact that, you know, a person would love you for what you do
00:42:43and how much you believed in doing the right thing for the guys you were employed by.
00:42:48Right.
00:42:48And that, but at home, it was affecting the family.
00:42:53It's heartbreaking, heartbreaking.
00:42:55Your movie does the same thing.
00:42:57Oh, yeah, right.
00:42:58That relationship that you have with your two boys and your wife, man, who is just so completely done with you.
00:43:05Yeah, yeah.
00:43:06And she in real life is a dominatrix, I heard?
00:43:11No.
00:43:12Maybe not.
00:43:13Who's a dominatrix?
00:43:14Yes.
00:43:15Yes, she is.
00:43:15Who is?
00:43:16Who's a dominatrix?
00:43:17And the actress in the film that you play with.
00:43:19Oh, you have to ask her, but.
00:43:25I'm going to check that before we run it.
00:43:27Yeah, you might want to be a little bit more specific on these notes, man.
00:43:31Adam Sandler.
00:43:33You said something about editing.
00:43:36How much research did you do for that part?
00:43:37Did you go into this?
00:43:38All right, let's give Adam a test.
00:43:40How much is Jenny's watch?
00:43:41Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:43:43That's a real thing.
00:43:44I would.
00:43:45You know, this is a gift.
00:43:46Instagram.
00:43:47That's a gift from.
00:43:49No, somebody just told me post.
00:43:50And I was like, hey.
00:43:51Yeah.
00:43:51Oh, there you go.
00:43:52Shia.
00:43:53That's a good one.
00:43:54That's what you want to get.
00:43:56Did you spend a lot of time?
00:43:57I spent a lot of time, of course.
00:43:58Really?
00:43:59What surprised you about that?
00:44:00Well, I'll tell you.
00:44:01Like Shia said, when you do the research and you come into a project,
00:44:06and you know everything, and what Mr. De Niro was saying, when you see, when you walk onto
00:44:13a set and you know you've done the homework and you have no fears of like, oh, if this
00:44:19comes up, I'm going to be, I'm going to shut down.
00:44:22It's just great to, so of course, I spent a lot of time on 47th Street.
00:44:26I gamble in the movie a lot, so I spent a lot of time with a lot of gamblers who had
00:44:30bad problems and lost a lot of things and lost their lives because of it.
00:44:35The gamblers you met, who most surprised you?
00:44:39Well, the Safdie brothers, the guys who did the movie, they did the research and met a lot
00:44:45of guys who were willing to sit down with me and talk.
00:44:47There was nothing, it's just their lives get thrown away and their family lives get thrown
00:44:53away and it's about where they are right now and they discussed what the highs and lows
00:44:59were and why they couldn't stop and that kind of feeling.
00:45:04Take a look.
00:45:05Let's see.
00:45:05Are you serious?
00:45:06You're going to pull this up right here?
00:45:07Look at this shit.
00:45:08The Sixers are supposed to win the game tonight, they think.
00:45:11We don't keep tracking on that shit.
00:45:12Who gives a fuck?
00:45:13They think on game seven you're not going to get fucking 18 points?
00:45:16They don't think you're going to get eight rebounds?
00:45:18These guys don't know shit about both.
00:45:19What the fuck are they doing?
00:45:21Doesn't that make you want to fucking kill them?
00:45:23Doesn't that make you want to say fuck you for doubting me?
00:45:26Doesn't that make you want to step on fucking Elton Brand's fucking neck?
00:45:30All these guys on the block let me in their shops and I got to sit with them and watch
00:45:34them and they taught me about the jewelry and about selling and I watched them all day long
00:45:40and it was a lot of fun, a lot of, it felt neat to learn this.
00:45:45It wasn't boring?
00:45:46Well, no, not at all.
00:45:47It's good to learn something.
00:45:48I walked away thinking I knew everything.
00:45:50Right now, it's a year later, I'm like, I forgot so much.
00:45:54I wish I didn't.
00:45:55You played a real life character.
00:45:58When you're playing that role, how much do you have to be faithful to him?
00:46:02And how did you think differently?
00:46:07The process of playing somebody real, you have to sort of not do the impersonation because
00:46:17I'm like, you know, coming from like the living color background, I learned not to do the impersonation
00:46:22and then also not to, I didn't have a chance to see him actually alive, but I had to sort
00:46:28of like piece things together through what people would say.
00:46:30And then the first thing that helped me was aesthetically.
00:46:34We are part of the same tribe in a sense, our cheekbones, the diamond shaped head, that
00:46:39haircut that he had.
00:46:40I had that in the 80s as well.
00:46:43So aesthetically, we were ahead of the game.
00:46:47I didn't have a chance to see him actually alive, but I had to sort of like piece things
00:46:51together through what people would say.
00:46:53And then talking to Bryan Stevenson and hearing him talk about how-
00:46:57Who's the real life attorney.
00:46:58Who's the real life attorney.
00:46:59That the film's based on.
00:47:00Who, you know, goes and meets this guy on death row and finds out all these incredible,
00:47:06these horrible things that he's on death row without a trial.
00:47:09They say he killed a white woman in the city they'd never been in.
00:47:12And like, he couldn't believe that this existed.
00:47:15But he told me how Walter was.
00:47:17He felt like, you know, since I'm in this situation, I might as well do everything I can
00:47:22to help.
00:47:23So when you see in the movies, talking to all the prisoners and everything like that,
00:47:26trying to keep up their morale, these guys on death row.
00:47:29So I took that as the spirit of it.
00:47:32And then it was a matter of the vernacular.
00:47:34Being in, you know, Alabama and the way they talk like that, the way they say their things
00:47:41and, you know, and to make that not be caricature-like, I remember Michael B. Joy, listen, no, don't
00:47:47do that.
00:47:48Because it started sounding like something where we really couldn't understand me.
00:47:53So we sort of dialed that in.
00:47:54So sometimes you have to rely on the people that are around you to say what makes the
00:47:58most sense.
00:47:58That and real experience to draw upon.
00:48:02I mean, you know, I was, my father came to the, one of the screenings who, you know,
00:48:08he was an educator for 25 years in the hood in high school and everything he dedicated
00:48:13his life to, saving black kids in the hood.
00:48:16They ended up putting him in jail for $25 worth of illegal substance for seven years.
00:48:21Wow.
00:48:22So here he is in jail with kids that he had taught.
00:48:27Wow.
00:48:27The very judge that he would bring into the school and say, hey, I want you to shake these
00:48:31kids up.
00:48:32Tell them the repercussions of anything.
00:48:37That judge presided over his case, put him in jail.
00:48:42So when you have something like that, the person that taught you how to throw a football,
00:48:47the black man that taught you how to play tennis in Texas, when we weren't allowed to
00:48:52go to the country club, I said, well, I got to learn tennis because you don't know
00:48:56all of this.
00:48:57You don't know how to swim, tennis, all of the stuff that they say we can't do.
00:49:02And so that was a, that was a huge thing that I carried inside.
00:49:06I didn't share it with a lot of people because when my pops, I wrote him one letter because
00:49:10I was telling somebody, I don't like to see people in jail.
00:49:13I wrote him one letter.
00:49:14You get out.
00:49:14I'll save your life.
00:49:15He came to live with me.
00:49:17When he went in, I wasn't who I was.
00:49:19When he comes out, I'm, and I got a chance to take him to the U.S. Open and have him
00:49:25watch Venus play, you know, and, you know, watch the tears, you know, down.
00:49:32So those types of things.
00:49:34Now, I was lucky enough to be able to have that moment, but in Walter McMillan's
00:49:39situation, you know, it works out, but it doesn't work out.
00:49:43It's still an entertaining movie, but you still sit with like, wow, Walter McMillan.
00:49:46Walter McMillan didn't, didn't have a chance.
00:49:48And there's a lot of Walter McMillan.
00:49:49And you can buddy up with these white folks and make them laugh and try to make them like
00:49:54you, whatever that is.
00:49:55And you say, yes, sir, no, ma'am.
00:49:56But when it's your turn, they ain't got to have no fingerprints.
00:49:58No evidence.
00:50:01And the only witness they got made the whole thing up.
00:50:10And none of that matter when all y'all think is, is I look like a man who could kill somebody.
00:50:19But that's not what I think.
00:50:20You shot in a real life prison.
00:50:24Yeah.
00:50:24Right.
00:50:25Because those prison scenes are phenomenal.
00:50:27They're really incredible.
00:50:29Did you think.
00:50:31The one moment when the cuffs was being put on me and they had a guy who was part of the
00:50:35prison system who wasn't part of the movie.
00:50:37Yeah.
00:50:37Yeah.
00:50:38Squeeze it tighter.
00:50:39Oh, yeah.
00:50:40Squeeze it tighter.
00:50:41Because he's a, he's a bigger one.
00:50:44Squeeze it tighter.
00:50:45He doesn't know that he's saying something that is taking me to, like, I'll come out these
00:50:52cuffs.
00:50:53But that's his everyday life.
00:50:55Uh-huh.
00:50:56So those moments when we were going into those prisons, that was for a person who don't, I
00:51:02don't, I don't do the jail shit.
00:51:05You know, there was a couple of times I was like, hey, man, don't squeeze them.
00:51:07Don't, they're tight enough.
00:51:09You know what I'm saying?
00:51:10And so he doesn't know that he's saying something that is taking me to, like, I'll come out these
00:51:17cuffs.
00:51:18But that's his everyday life.
00:51:20Uh-huh.
00:51:20We become so used to it, too, because we're talking to Brian Stevens and talking about
00:51:24changing the perception because the perception kills us.
00:51:27It's like, the reason I don't want to go see somebody in jail is because I don't want
00:51:32to get used to that.
00:51:33But so many people are just used to seeing their father, their brother, their, who are
00:51:37their mothers in jail.
00:51:38And the next thing you know, we start rapping about it.
00:51:40We should rap about being in jail because we don't have, we don't have any other thing.
00:51:44This is all we see.
00:51:46So it's a, it's a, it's a, you know, it was a tough, it's a tough thing, you know?
00:51:51Such a wonderful film.
00:51:54You played your own father.
00:51:56Yeah.
00:51:57And he was, I don't know if this is fair, but it seems that in your real life, he was
00:52:01a pretty villainous guy.
00:52:03Oh.
00:52:04I don't know.
00:52:05Is that true?
00:52:05No, he's a sweetheart.
00:52:06He's a teddy bear.
00:52:07He's just a little crooked.
00:52:09Okay.
00:52:10Crack vessel.
00:52:12He's just a crack vessel.
00:52:13That's right.
00:52:14That's it right there.
00:52:14But there's a lot of cracks there.
00:52:16Yeah.
00:52:16Did you, did you have to change how you saw him to play the role?
00:52:22And did playing the role change the way you saw him?
00:52:24Yeah, for sure.
00:52:25Yeah.
00:52:25I hadn't talked to my dad for seven years before I started this up.
00:52:29So I didn't really, I didn't really know my dad too well and didn't have a relationship
00:52:35with him at all.
00:52:36And, and my coming into this industry, you know, my dad wanted to be in this industry.
00:52:43Sort of separated us.
00:52:44You know, there was like a lot of, a lot of competitive, me and my dad were quite competitive
00:52:49with each other and yeah, I guess, I guess, yeah, I guess you always got to empathize
00:52:55with whoever you're playing, but I wouldn't call him a villainous character.
00:52:58No way.
00:52:58Yeah, and I hadn't really looked at him from that side.
00:53:28You know, I was young and, and in a victim type of, you know, uh, uh, I was using my
00:53:35dad at work, you know, which was the wrong way to go about work, but also the wrong way
00:53:39to see my father.
00:53:40Well, you know, um, uh, I was working with material that wasn't necessarily, you know,
00:53:46bomb back and this material would ask of you things that you couldn't really get in the
00:53:50material.
00:53:51So then you're left with, and I didn't have any technique and, uh, I had read all these,
00:53:56uh, stories, you know, um, easy riders, raging bulls and, you know, you, you kind of, you come
00:54:03up with an amalgamation of a way to do something.
00:54:05And for me, it was a lot of transposing my pain from my father and it, it would work in
00:54:10front of the camera for me for a long time and didn't have much more technique than that.
00:54:14And then I was scared to sort of clean it up because I thought, well, you know, I don't
00:54:17want to, I don't want to lose my only thing I got, which was this pain that felt very real
00:54:21for me.
00:54:22And so, um, yeah, I had, I had a whole mixed bag of, of, um, I had a, a strange way of
00:54:29viewing my pain with my father and I also used, used it at work.
00:54:33So I didn't want to clean it up.
00:54:35Yeah.
00:54:36Hmm.
00:54:37Has it changed your thinking about him or anything?
00:54:39Yeah.
00:54:40And, and made me better at my craft and created a relationship and yeah.
00:54:45Did you ever think of not playing the part and did you ever think of directing it?
00:54:49Never thought of directing it.
00:54:50Cause that's just not my gig, but, um, definitely didn't think I'd be able to play it.
00:54:54You know, I was not in a spot where people were like, Hey, let's put some money on this
00:54:58kid's back and have him carry a movie.
00:55:00So I thought my acting career was done.
00:55:03I was going to join the peace corps.
00:55:04I wasn't really trying to, yeah, I was out completely.
00:55:07Yeah.
00:55:07And, um, yeah, sent it to Mel Gibson and yeah, I thought he was the guy to play my dad.
00:55:13And, uh, my dad was also thinking along the same lines.
00:55:18It's one thing to want to play your dad.
00:55:19It's another thing to go stand in front of your father after seven years and not talking
00:55:22and go, Hey man, I'm going to play you when there's contention already.
00:55:26And we weren't on good terms.
00:55:27So I lied to him and told him, Hey, Mel Gibson's going to play you.
00:55:30So I'm right here.
00:55:32And my dad loves Mel Gibson.
00:55:34Who doesn't want to be played by Mel Gibson?
00:55:36So my dad signed the paper under the auspices that he was going to be played by, by Braveheart.
00:55:42You know, so, um, well, you had the Noah Baumbach script, but this is an autobiography.
00:55:49So in some ways, were you playing Noah in the film?
00:55:52I mean, like all of these things there, Noah wrote a script.
00:55:55He did that hat trick that people I think tried to do of writing something that's incredibly
00:55:59specific, but it reaches a broader audience.
00:56:02I mean, like, like anything, he, like Meyerowitz, like, you know, squid in the way of while
00:56:08we're young, they're all in a sense autobiographical, but then, but he wrote something that I think
00:56:12we all projected our, our history or, uh, onto.
00:56:16You're being so much like your father.
00:56:19Do not compare me to my father.
00:56:20I didn't compare you to him.
00:56:21I said you were acting like him.
00:56:23You're exactly like your mother.
00:56:24Everything you're complaining about her, you're doing.
00:56:26You're suffocating Henry.
00:56:27First of all, I love my mother.
00:56:29She was a wonderful mother.
00:56:30Just repeating what you told me.
00:56:31Secondly, how dare you compare my mother to my mother?
00:56:35I may be like my father, but I am not like my mother.
00:56:38You are.
00:56:39What, what was the toughest moment for you in that film?
00:56:42Or was the one that you really struggled with?
00:56:44Usually there's like one scene in the, in a movie or maybe two that you're dreading.
00:56:49With this one, every scene felt like, oh, it's all too early in the schedule.
00:56:53It's too early for Halloween.
00:56:54It's too early for Halloween.
00:56:55Yeah, and I'm like, okay, well, then we can maybe put it to next week.
00:56:59But the next week's was, was worse, you know?
00:57:01So, so, so, and that, again, that's a, I think a testament to good writing.
00:57:05Every scene felt the stakes were incredibly high.
00:57:08They all felt urgent.
00:57:09They all felt necessary.
00:57:10There wasn't a part that you could take out where the movie would survive without it.
00:57:13And so that, that, I think it was our first sign of, oh, this felt like it always should
00:57:18be this urgent, hopefully.
00:57:20Last question for all of you.
00:57:22If you could go back to your younger selves, well, you in a way went back to a younger
00:57:27self, an Irishman, younger than that.
00:57:29What piece of advice would you give yourself?
00:57:32Well, I was saying something to my grandson the other day because, you know, that things
00:57:37just be calm.
00:57:39When things are going well, be calm.
00:57:42Don't think you're on top of the world in the sense, you always got to be wary because
00:57:47I've seen it.
00:57:48I've seen people come.
00:57:49I've seen people go.
00:57:50I've seen them come.
00:57:51I've seen them go.
00:57:52You got to be chill.
00:57:54You got to like, just take what's good in your life and move forward cautiously and carefully
00:57:59and, and thank God that you, that you have that.
00:58:03Just, it's very, very important not to, to overextend yourself when you, when you think
00:58:08you, you know, you've got to, there's no such thing.
00:58:11But everybody's dispensable.
00:58:14I wish I had known that this too shall pass.
00:58:17You feel bad right now?
00:58:19You feel pissed off?
00:58:20You feel angry?
00:58:21Yes.
00:58:21This too shall pass.
00:58:22You feel great?
00:58:24You feel like you know all the answers?
00:58:26You feel like that everybody finally gets you?
00:58:29And, uh, there you are.
00:58:31Yeah.
00:58:31This too shall pass.
00:58:33Ooh.
00:58:33Good.
00:58:33Time is your ally.
00:58:35Mm.
00:58:36And if nothing else, just wait.
00:58:38Just wait.
00:58:39Just wait it out.
00:58:40Just, just.
00:58:41I'll take Tom.
00:58:42Yeah.
00:58:44Adam.
00:58:44Being more economical, I think I would, I wish I could be, you know, things that I think
00:58:50I need, I don't, whether it be acting or, you know, life.
00:58:54Economical, artistically, financially, emotionally.
00:58:56Well, we can say artistically, I guess.
00:58:58If you think that you need to, uh, certain things have to be in place for you to do your
00:59:03job.
00:59:03But then actually none of that's true.
00:59:05Where you were using the example earlier of a porthole.
00:59:07Yeah.
00:59:08Having it worked up in your mind and then realize you're getting there.
00:59:10You have no control over any of it.
00:59:12You know, so.
00:59:13Or doing homework and research and like, you know, losing weight and putting up a bunch
00:59:16of weight.
00:59:17And then feeling comfortable to let it all go because none of that is helpful because
00:59:20your scene partner is drunk.
00:59:22I'm just pulling that.
00:59:23That's not something that's happened to me.
00:59:25I'm just pulling something.
00:59:27But, but being more economical with, you know, okay, well, all that time I have to either
00:59:32get better about that I've wasted it or I shouldn't just waste that time and actually
00:59:36should prioritize in a different way.
00:59:38So I think that's kind of the same thing.
00:59:39Adam.
00:59:41Can I say one thing?
00:59:42Couldn't you ask them to put a porthole in there?
00:59:45Well, here's, you know what the thing was is that I felt as though that I was relatively
00:59:49calm and experienced enough that I didn't do this.
00:59:53Is there anybody who could have told me this?
00:59:57Because someone had put in the script, there was a lack of portholes in this limbo.
01:00:02I said, all right, all right.
01:00:06So there's no life.
01:00:07There's no, there's no porthole.
01:00:08You did have that extraordinary moment everybody talked about in the film where you cried.
01:00:11And I remember you said at the last round table that you'd had 10 minutes to prepare for it.
01:00:16Not even that.
01:00:17We just kind of like went down and.
01:00:19Adam, last man sitting.
01:00:21I was thinking because I should have stretched more.
01:00:25Stretched.
01:00:26I have a very bad, uh, I can't get out of my car.
01:00:30That's like the floss answer.
01:00:31I should have flossed.
01:00:32I should have flossed more, too.
01:00:34I think even metaphorically.
01:00:35No, no, no, no, no.
01:00:37I'm fine with all that stuff.
01:00:39But I really can't get out of my car when there's a loose ball on a basketball court.
01:00:43I cannot get the ball ever.
01:00:45Everyone else grabs it before me because I can't bend.
01:00:47So that, uh, and my coaches always growing up were like, always talking about stretching.
01:00:53I never did it.
01:00:54I never did it.
01:00:55I always jumped.
01:00:55I just jumped right into the game.
01:00:57Did you stretch before playing?
01:00:58No, not too much.
01:00:59See?
01:01:00No, I don't.
01:01:00But that three ball was wet, though.
01:01:02I got the tape.
01:01:03Yeah, thank you.
01:01:04You can shoot.
01:01:04Not as wet as it used to be.
01:01:06Good.
01:01:06But all of you, thank you so much.
01:01:08This was a truly terrific round.
01:01:10I really appreciate it.
01:01:11Thank you very much.
01:01:12You're welcome.
01:01:12It was great.
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