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David Harbour revisits lines from Stranger Things, Brokeback Mountain, Revolutionary Road, Hellboy, Suicide Squad, DTF: St. Louis, and more. He reflects on watching Millie Bobby Brown grow up on the set of "Stranger Things", the Ang Lee direction that made him want to tell the director off, how Revolutionary Road humbled him, and why his Marvel co-star Florence Pugh is "something special."

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00:00I'm gonna destroy this whoo yeah I can't remember any of my lines now okay now I got it
00:12three rules I call them don't be stupid rules because we're not stupid right
00:18well they start me off very strong this is uh an easy one this is uh chief hopper stranger things
00:26three rules I call them the uh don't be stupid rules hopper is someone who loves very deeply but
00:36it's very difficult for him to articulate that love in words I think a lot of people like that
00:41because I think they feel that way on the inside or they wish that people could see their good
00:45intentions and the fact that l herself is not really a verbal character either there's just
00:50something quite beautiful and heartbreaking and pure about what these two outcasts feel about
00:56each other I mean we all have families that we love and we lack certain things from them and we
01:03want
01:04certain things from our dad and from our mom I mean it's the nature of being a teenager is that
01:10you
01:10have these big feelings when you look back there was sort of a magic that I felt working with those
01:18kids that I just really sort of loved them like an uncle or something Amelia it's very weird to say
01:24but she is almost like a daughter to me you play a fake dad for someone for 10 years during
01:30their teenage
01:30years you're going to go through a lot of those feelings you're just going to go through them
01:34we're now you know at a place where like I just adore her and I just think she's a special
01:39creature
01:40if I could go back and do it again I would pay more attention to how wonderful it was that
01:44they
01:44were so good and so young and at the time I was just so involved in the show and my
01:49own thing
01:49but now there is a sort of wistful you know it's like looking back at old pictures or old books
01:55or
01:55whatever and you just see youth and you see time passing and this is a very special show that we
02:00created especially in that first season and a lot of that had to do with the fact that they were
02:05just
02:05babies we ought to go down there some weekend drink a little whiskey fish some get away you know I'm
02:15gonna destroy this I can't remember any of my lines now for things that I'm currently working on because
02:20my memory is shot but anything 20 years ago this is a little movie called Brokeback Mountain we ought to
02:26go down there some weekend drink a little whiskey fish some get away you know there were two sizes of
02:36my close-up and they came in did a couple takes and I came in Ang Lee he came in
02:42he went good good
02:43then he ran back to the monitor and I did it again I think good good good then he ran
02:49back to the monitor
02:49and then came in again he went more handsome and then he ran away and I was like fuck you
02:56Ang Lee
02:59I think it is an incredible movie and I think it is ahead of its time and I think when
03:04it came out
03:05it was like a zeitgeist because it is so complex and three-dimensional and then I remember when it
03:10came out my buddy went to go see it he was just like blown away and I think that's what
03:15a lot of
03:15people's reaction was thank you I don't want to talk about the wheelers anymore wow this is a nice movie
03:24um this is from Revolutionary Road I don't want to talk about the wheelers anymore when I would tell
03:30people that I was doing Kate and Leo's return to film they would be like oh my god you're doing
03:36Titanic 2 that's so exciting I was like what would that movie be this was very much the glossy project
03:41that was supposed to like take me to the next level whether it was that I didn't deliver in it
03:46which was partially true or whether it's just that the project itself didn't take off or
03:51whatever combination of events it helped in a certain way and then in another way like I just had
03:58to like kind of humble myself and go like I'm gonna go back to auditioning thing for things like
04:03I'm gonna go back to like you know doing like television show episodics and stuff and like
04:08I thought that here I was third on the call sheet with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet right above
04:13me and it's like yes we're not quite ready for you and so actually the response was kind of humbling
04:22my cage my cage I'm gonna ask specifically you clean my sawdust can't wait until you smell demon
04:33shit pal this is the first week of the movie we were in Bristol in a council house I was
04:55really
04:55trying real hard to like bring something to this movie I had a bunch of writer buddies in LA this
05:02is
05:02probably illegal from the like DGWG something union and I used to like just send them scenes and just
05:11be like help me save this movie just write me some funny one-liners and they did thanks
05:18I need to know you're on the team Felix I need to know you value your career
05:24yeah this is a James Bond Quantum of Solace 007 Quantum of Solace I need to know you're on the
05:32team Felix
05:33I need to know you value your career I auditioned for this movie in LA and I had a big
05:39old beard when
05:40I auditioned and I didn't think there'd be any way I'd get it and so I went home and I
05:45shaved my beard into a
05:46stupid looking mustache for my girlfriend to make her laugh the next day they were like
05:51can you come back and meet Mark Forrester who's directing it I was like
05:55uh yeah okay
05:56I just went with this mustache and Mark loved it I showed up on set too I was like I
06:02don't know Mark
06:02what do we do you know should we get rid of it he's like no mustache I think mustache was
06:06great all right
06:06there is a an ad-lib line that I used that I did not make to the final film Felix
06:12and I are at a party for the
06:13bad guy played by Matthew Omerich and I went up to a girl and I said uh Bean Greg Bean
06:20so didn't make the cut
06:24this is my town you understand me this is my home you cannot run around like a wild animal
06:32animal what the fuck was that I believe this has to be said with a Boston accent which I will
06:39not do
06:39for you right now because it's not very practiced um this is equalizer yeah it's my town you understand
06:48me this is my home you cannot run around like a wild animal what the fuck was that I really
06:54love doing
06:55that movie it's a simple movie I think Antoine is a great director I think Denzel is a genius
07:01of sorts and I remember this particular scene I think it was me and the bad guy are in with
07:06this
07:06guy little John or something you know it's kind of going to go down and I remember having a gun
07:12I
07:13think in my back maybe in my pocket or something and just kind of like as things were going on
07:17just
07:17slowly like reaching my finger back for the gun and Antoine and the DP saw this and they were like
07:22oh we're going to like make a thing of this whole moment so it was very like fun in that
07:26way where we
07:27were carving out the drama of the story as we went because the script was it was well written but
07:32it
07:32was the framework there was a lot to fill in we improv'd most of that movie I'm sure that line
07:38was
07:38not in the script this is my town might be it but all the rest you're a wild animal what
07:43the
07:43fuck are you doing so I added uh yeah I had a lot of fucks in that movie thanks all
07:47right what do you
07:48got what if Superman decided to fly down rip off the roof of the White House and grab the president
07:53of the United States right out of the Oval Office who would have stopped him um this was a movie
07:58I
07:58did called Suicide Squad with a buddy of mine called David Ayer what if Superman had decided to fly down
08:07rip off the roof of the White House and grab the president of the United States right out of the
08:12Oval Office it was a very funny experience in my career because I had Stranger Things come out right
08:17before this came out I had like one scene I had like three lines on the cast list for Suicide
08:23Squad
08:23I was number one it was David Harbour Jared Leto Will Smith and the reason why I was because
08:29Stranger Things had come out and my star meter was like I was number two on the star meter or
08:34something
08:34so they invited me to the premiere or whatever it was like well let's get him to the premiere and
08:39I
08:39went to the premiere and like the press line just wanted to talk to me about Stranger Things so it
08:44was a
08:44weird it was a weird time in my career in that way it's like I got like a bird heart
08:52they work
08:53so hard you know to fly and their heart just races my heart's like that it's like a bird heart
08:58but I
08:58can't fly wow it makes me so happy just to even read the lines um this is from DTF St.
09:06Louis they work
09:07so hard you know to fly and their heart just like races my heart's like that probably my favorite
09:17project to date this scene takes place in three pieces there's a piece where we're out in the
09:23vineyard a piece where we're eating something and then we go in further and we finish the scene and
09:28I remember when we were finishing the scene Floyd really opens up and says what he felt like it was
09:32to
09:32be a man and like all these things and I remember when we cut between takes I would look at
09:37Jason I'd
09:37be like wouldn't it be great if like guys could be like this in real life and we would just
09:41joke
09:41around about like I don't have that experience of heterosexual male friends like not that we're not
09:47somewhat but just the depth of vulnerability that these guys express to each other and then even to
09:55the point where they again it's not totally sexual but it's just like love that they feel for
10:00each other and it was just so freeing like to play this like I would sit down for these scenes
10:08and I
10:08would just never want them to end because I just loved feeling this free when it comes to working
10:14with Jason Bateman there just was a natural very quick trust that developed between us I just think
10:20his taste is impeccable he's very smart and I think he wanted to go to places in this that he
10:27hasn't
10:28been I think his he is an artist in the sense of like he's not really interested in recreating he
10:32doesn't need it he doesn't need the money doesn't need the attention he wants to sort of push himself
10:36and I think we were just pushing each other in ways to go deeper and that's rare to find an
10:41actor
10:41that has that little self-consciousness or that little sort of personal narcissism last one be in the
10:49hero be in the hero there's no higher calling your sister understood something about that yeah this
10:56is uh I think this is done this is thunderbolts lena being the hero there is no higher calling
11:06your sister understood something about that that's another character that I just love so much
11:12lexi is an idiot and a blowhard and like ridiculous in his own way but he has a really big
11:18heart and he
11:19tries really hard and he has unsung potential as well but I love his relationship with the elena
11:24and to do those scenes with florence are always like such a joy I think we all feel it when
11:31we
11:31watch her but she's something special and I feel a real bond with her over the work and it's like
11:36really special the great thing about these movies is you know they're going to up the ante on various
11:40things but each individual character gets new stuff like you just get new gear or new like you know
11:45the pieces of equipment or armor or whatever it is so your suit changes things like that it's fun
11:52for us to be in it and to do our own bit and also just to be a front row
11:56seat to all these characters
11:58that we also love so much over the years and to see them you know do this stuff is like
12:03really it's just
12:04a blast
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