Billy Crudup on Pushing Himself for His Role in 'Jay Kelly' & Wanting to Work With Noah Baumbach

2 days ago

Billy Crudup reveals it was easy to draw on personal experiences in the industry for his role in 'Jay Kelly' while chatting with THR at The New York Film Festival. Plus, he talks about working with Noah Baumbach and pushing himself to try something different for this role.

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00:00Noah asked me, and we went and had lunch.

00:04We talked for a couple hours.

00:06We didn't really spend much time together, so we kind of got to know each other.

00:09And I read the part, and I told him that's sort of impossible to do.

00:13I don't think I don't know how to do it.

00:15And he was like, okay, well, could you try?

00:18And I'm a huge Noah Baumbach fan, so that was an easy yes for me

00:23to be pushed to do something you don't typically know how to do

00:27and expand your vocabulary for your work is a really incredible gift to have.

00:33And you have that sort of breakout scene,

00:36and I think you've talked about how it was difficult for you.

00:40You were just talking about that here.

00:41What was sort of the biggest challenge for you?

00:44Well, I don't.

00:48There's lots of different ways to be an actor.

00:50One of them is a result-oriented actor.

00:52That means you kind of script out when you're going to laugh,

00:55when you're going to cry, when you're going to be angry, when you're going to be moved.

00:58I'm more of what's called an event-related actor,

01:02whereas I try to tell the story as best I can, given the words that I mean.

01:05And if any kind of emotional reaction happens in the telling of that story, I just let it out.

01:10To be able to cry on cue is not really my thing.

01:13And so that's what Noah asked me to do.

01:16So I had to figure out how to do it.

01:20It's not enjoyable.

01:21And obviously, this is a very Hollywood story.

01:27Did you draw on any of your own experiences in the industry when you were working on this film?

01:32Well, it's very easy to draw on acting experiences.

01:35I went to acting school, too.

01:37So to deal with the hierarchy when people get out of school,

01:42who gets an agent first, who gets a manager first,

01:44who gets the first audition, who gets the first job,

01:47who gets the first magazine thing,

01:48all those things, they're in the air everywhere.

01:52And it's really hard to maintain your friendships

01:56and your collegial relationships under that kind of pressure.

02:00And so this movie reflects on that moment between both of them.

02:05And that's a very easy one for me to remember.

Billy Crudup on Pushing Himself for His Role in 'Jay Kelly' & Wanting to Work With Noah Baumbach | THR Video

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