- 6 weeks ago
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.'
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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
00:19the most mortifying video ever which is definitely gonna be brought back. I just like Barbra
00:24Streisand's myself there but anyways. I'm Tiffany Taylor for The Hollywood Reporter here at San
00:36Diego Comic-Con 2025 with Cameron Monaghan to talk all about Tron Aries. What's up? How was the panel
00:42for you yesterday? I mean it really was the talk of Comic-Con with the light show, the footage shown,
00:47the Nine Inch Nails soundtrack. Yeah was it actually that's actually really good to hear.
00:51It's always a trip when you're in Hall H. I think I've done it two or three times now and every time
00:58it's like when you're up there you can't hear anything including yourself. You can't even hear
01:04each other really. You just kind of hear this like low rumble and all the speakers and everything
01:09they're all placed out for the audience so it's not really for us. So most of the time when you're
01:14speaking you'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 one
01:43of those movies that I'm gonna get a couple crews together to go to the movie theaters and go check
01:47out. 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. Yeah Jared
01:53Leto was saying you know how I mean like the Tron original movie is just so special to him. What's your
01:57relationship with the first two films like? Weirdly I think I have more of a connection to the second one
02:03than I do the first. I had seen the second one before I saw the first when I was like 16, 17. Man why do I keep
02:12mentioned this? Whatever. I had this really embarrassing interview where I went to the
02:17premiere of Tron 2 and I was like going through puberty and I was very excited and very overwhelmed
02:24by a very loud red carpet and so I was like yeah I'm so excited to be here and it's like the most
02:29mortifying video ever which is definitely gonna be brought back. I just like Barbra Streisand to myself
02:34there but anyways yeah like I had seen the second one. I loved just visually what Joseph
02:42Kaczynski did with that movie. Went back, watched the first and also I'm just like a fan of like
02:47everything related to Tron. I played this video game that was related to Tron for like way too many
02:53hours when I probably should have been doing school when I was a teenager so just a big fan of Tron
02:58stuff. It's just it's cool. The color palette, the sound, the light, everything. It's awesome.
03:03You 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
03:27have much with him this time around but it was just nice to be able. He's a good person to have
03:31on a set. Like he really holds it down. He's just always like yeah man we're just gonna you know
03:36we're gonna jam. We're gonna get out there. It's like jazz man. You gotta it's the notes you don't
03:41play man. You know like he's just like it's a beautiful energy and something I love about Jeff
03:47is he always he's the exact same on off camera on set uh offset like he's a terrific actor but he's so
03:55like naturally unaffected. He doesn't have like this like artifice about him. He's just like
04:00here I am. I'm present and this is he's the dude. The dude abides you know. I saw an article about the
04:06panel yesterday and they were saying he was really just embracing and embodying the dude. Like he
04:10brought that presence. Yeah yeah no I mean he's got like he's written like philosophy books about like
04:16the Tao of the dude and kind of how you know like this like living uh centered and without attachment
04:23and it's it's a really beautiful it's like very Buddhist way of uh existing and you know you really
04:30see it with the guy. He's just he's centered and he's there and uh it's a joy to be around. It's a
04:36really nice energy. Yesterday Jeff was talking about working with Jared on the film who's known to be a
04:41method actor. For you what was it like working with Jared Leto? I mean yeah it was nice you know I
04:46really in scenes uh I only really knew him as Ares and my character is a fellow um program that were
04:56were kind of these militant uh programs that were are engaging in a mission together and so
05:01he was commander and it was kind of nice to be able to like going into the project I had prepared a lot
05:09uh for five months beforehand. I had like a very strict sort of like diet and schedule and workout
05:15regimen and all these things. I just wanted to like strip back and kind of just live like a soldier
05:20basically leading up to it and so it was nice because when we got to set it was like all right
05:26I've got my like officer who's going to now like give me commands on the set and so we only really
05:33interacted with each other in that way and then really like we've met each other now for the first
05:39time like at comic-con which is cool. Did you keep that soldier routine going off camera while you
05:44were filming? Yeah yeah no that was uh I was I was working out twice a day every day for for four
05:52months leading up to production and then during production as well uh wasn't really like hanging
05:58out or talking to anybody else I was just like I want to just like live in Tron and for a little bit
06:04I'm going to be connected into like the computer plug into the grid and you know be this guy um but I
06:11I wish I could say more there's more to the character uh but I can't say the thing with him
06:16but anyways it doesn't matter. You were saying yesterday that you know digital is better than
06:19analog you liked being in the grid rather than in the real world for you are you like a digital
06:25tech gadget guide you always want the latest technology or are you a little old school sometimes?
06:30I am actually really old school so I don't know it was a good bit though right but um
06:34no I'm I'm like I I love like cameras and like anything that has like gears and winding levers
06:42and that kind of stuff and I really like old film cameras so I collect them and I like to refurbish
06:48them and rebuild them a lot I look at like parts and put them back together and um I specifically love
06:54like medium format film cameras so I'm a big believer in film I think that you can do just as much
07:00wonderful stuff with like digital cameras but I just really like how film functions I think it's
07:06just mechanically really amazing and that's just like that's my geeky stuff right now it's just I
07:11absolutely love cameras. So you like a gadget but uh an old school gadget and yeah yeah is it an
07:18artifact I don't know like I think even now some of the most amazing most of like the I think it was
07:24the majority of the best picture nominees and most of the Oscar nominees were still shot on film
07:30now they're doing like the Vista Vision stuff and the um the IMAX stuff and all of that because
07:35there's still needs to be like a gimmick but I think like 35 millimeter film is still kind of the
07:40gold standard there's cool stuff that you can do with all sorts of camera technology anyways this is
07:45now just getting very nerdy on that front but I can talk about this all day yeah I didn't mean to say
07:49it was bad in an artifact way but just yeah like oh dear you I know but like the film community is
07:54really upset with you all 12 of us we're up in arms all right Harry our camera guy might be upset
07:59he's a camera aficionado but uh for you with this movie you know you're talking about uh film versus
08:06digital but with Tron Aries you know how much of it was practical sets or practical effects versus CGI
08:12it was honestly I was surprised by there was more practical stuff built than what I thought there
08:19would be I mean there's a lot of stuff uh that takes place in the real world which uh I may or may not
08:26really be interacting with that much but when we're on the grid I was still surprised there's
08:31some really beautiful sets that they had built in Vancouver and like on my downtime um I would love to
08:38just like go and walk around the sets and take a look at them because the craftsmanship was gorgeous
08:43and they did a lot of stuff with color for this one as well that was really amazing that they had a
08:49very um unique version of red there was a very specific version of red that Yoakam the director
08:55really wanted to hit so we had all these beautiful sets painted with this gorgeous red and it was just
09:00it was really amazing uh but that being said all the digital craftsmen as well there's a lot of stuff
09:06that you can that you do in the grid that you can only do digitally and with Tron it's sort of like
09:12this thing where every generation kind of gets this Tron movie that's sort of a milestone marker of the
09:19technology of computer generated stuff you know and we had it in the 80s and we had it 15 years ago and
09:25now we're having it again where we're seeing just how far filmmakers can go people at the top of their
09:31game to be able to create something that's I think it's going to blow some people's minds and I mean
09:35already the presentation at comic con just all the promotion here has blown people's minds I saw a
09:40video of a bunch of like motorcycles looking like light cycles driving around San Diego did you see that
09:46oh yeah yeah the uh the the motorcycle gang came by we had a cast dinner last night and we all came
09:52out and checked out the motorcycles which was really cool I mean it's it's hard not to look cool when
09:57you're in black and lit up with like these red lights I mean um yeah it's it's it's really nice I
10:04mean there's still so much cool stuff that they haven't even revealed in this movie so I can't wait
10:08for people to see that do you ride a light cycle in the movie I wouldn't be able to say either way
10:14but I can say that I did a bunch of really cool stuff like specifically action stuff that I was
10:20super excited to get to do I've kind of always wanted to get like a cool action set piece in a
10:25movie and so uh we worked with a stunt team for a couple weeks leading up to to the shoot and that
10:32stuff I'm really excited for people to see we know you can't tease too much but we're so excited to
10:36see it and since we're here at comic con I want to do some fun uh popcorn bucket questions with our
10:41crypto superman popcorn bucket so pull one out all right what's something that makes you hulk out
10:49your biggest pet peeve oh my god okay uh not using your turn signal all right that's why we have them
10:55we we have the little lever you all you have to do is you just you flick your freaking your pinky
11:01just your pinky finger you just you flip that okay that's what you have to do man sorry the sound
11:08guy's pulling down the thing right now but hey I hulked out you see this is you don't want to make
11:12me angry you won't like me when I'm angry that was perfect you killed it what's your favorite comic
11:18con memory I mean you always remember your first and uh I came here with the shameless cast maybe
11:24season three I want to say and the shameless cast you know like to roll deep they were a good group
11:34of people and we had a lot of fun that not only the the panel but then the night after I remember
11:41we kind of painted San Diego red so that was a good time it's no surprise that they party hard I like to
11:46hear that yeah that we you know we're still responsible but we partied in our own ways um let's
11:52see if you could have one superpower what would it be and why uh teleportation because then I wouldn't have
11:58to see the guy that doesn't use his turn signal when I'm in traffic I would just be able to go to the
12:03destination if we can just get can we just invent teleportation you know like forget flying cars
12:08let's just get right to I'm here I want to go there and we skip all the middlemen is that a plan
12:13that really would be the dream I'm always late for everything so I could definitely yeah use that
12:18that's my I feel like even if there was teleportation I'd still end up being five minutes late to
12:22everything it's just how it would always wind up a couple more questions about uh Tron Aries I did
12:27want to ask you you know why do you think Nine Inch Nails is just the right group to soundtrack this
12:32movie because the soundtracks you know of the first two films are so iconic yeah of course I
12:36mean you know the last one death daft punk I used to I still do I like I would put that on when I was
12:43like studying a lot that would be something that if I was reading and I just kind of wanted to get
12:48into like a nice flow state I would put on that daft punk soundtrack but you know now that they're
12:55broken up uh looking at who's like the best film scorers around right now to me it is Trent
13:01Reznor and Atticus Ross you know like the stuff that they did for challengers recently I don't
13:05think that they got enough flowers for it it was really absolutely unbelievable and what I like too
13:11is they're bringing a different vibe this movie is a little bit more sinister a little bit more
13:17dangerous and they have kind of like a darker harder edge to some of the music that they're bringing
13:21as well but still being like really driving and really exciting and energetic so I can't wait for
13:26people to see it especially or hear it on that IMAX sound system is going to sound absolutely
13:31amazing have you heard more of the music than what we've heard is I've heard a couple pieces they
13:37also they gave me a really nice uh 45 LP of a couple of the the tracks that is shaped like one of
13:45the Tron data discs so that one's definitely gonna sit in my collection that's going to be a centerpiece
13:51in with the vinyl so speaking of some analog stuff we know it's the marriage of analog and digital
13:56right there that's amazing we can't wait to see the movie Cameron thanks so much for hanging out in
14:00our Comic Con lunch with us thanks for having me
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