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Cooper Hoffman sat down with THR to discuss what it was like working with his 'Long Walk' pal David Jonsson, as well as director Paul Thomas Anderson for 'Licorice Pizza,' his 'Saturday Night' director Jason Reitman and even Ethan Hawke. Plus, he dishes on his new film 'I Want Your Sex' and working with Olivia Wilde, calling her a "boss" and a "badass."

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Transcript
00:00I'm Cooper Hoffman.
00:01These are some of my close collabs.
00:03He was a family friend, him and my dad were very close.
00:05Having a relationship with him outside of work
00:07is a completely different thing than to Paul on set.
00:11The thing that makes him so amazing in my eyes
00:13was I had never acted before Licorice Pizza.
00:15My friend's dad described it as,
00:17you got your driver's license
00:18and someone handed you the keys to a Ferrari.
00:21I kept inside, but what I wanted to say was,
00:23no, I'm going to choke you.
00:25Oh yeah?
00:25I would have said it.
00:26I was trying to stay cool though.
00:28It was nice to be in his hands
00:30for the first time you're doing it.
00:32And so like what he does
00:33is he kind of creates this like world for you.
00:35Like you don't have to think about it.
00:36Like also it probably helped that we were in COVID
00:38and I couldn't see anyone else,
00:40but like Alana Paul and like, you know,
00:42his family and my family.
00:44It's just, he's really good.
00:45He gives you a direction when he says a thing,
00:48when he gets the movie,
00:49when he gets the performance out of you,
00:50whatever it might be, it kind of just happens.
00:53It's really crazy.
00:54Like, I don't know.
00:55It's like I'm talking about like a mythical being.
00:56Like it's like, I don't, I don't know what it is,
00:59but it just happens.
01:00Yeah.
01:01I got to see David the other day,
01:03because he just got cast in Black Panther,
01:05which is very exciting.
01:06I felt like I should have known before everyone else,
01:08but it's okay.
01:09And like, I saw it,
01:10but from like a source that I didn't trust.
01:12So I texted him being like,
01:14are you the new Black Panther?
01:15And he was like, yeah.
01:17And I was like, that's, that's insane.
01:20I really love David.
01:21We've done two movies now together,
01:23and hopefully we get to do as many more as we can get.
01:26All for one.
01:27One for all.
01:28No, and again, I need to hear it louder.
01:31All for one.
01:32And one for all.
01:33Hell yeah.
01:35Charlie Plummer lives in New York.
01:36I still see him all the time.
01:37I was on the phone with him heading over here.
01:39They were such a like, a close group of people.
01:42We all really got along quite quickly.
01:45And we had to, we all had to have each other's backs.
01:47It was a really hard shoot.
01:49We were walking 15 miles a day in the blazing heat.
01:52It was the first time I had worked with a bunch of young actors
01:53that were all kind of like hungry.
01:56Like they all wanted to fucking go.
01:57Like we were ready to like do whatever.
02:00And that's a really exciting energy to be around.
02:02Especially like, I grew up in sports.
02:04I was on like a travel basketball team.
02:06And like, we would go stay at hotels together
02:08and we would be like traveling,
02:09whether it was like to New Jersey or out of state,
02:10whatever it would be, you're like a family.
02:12And that's how it felt with the long walk cast.
02:14If we were driving five miles outside
02:16and staying in these weird tents.
02:18Then we would go walk for, you know, 12 hours a day
02:21and then come back home and crack a beer
02:22and hang out and just talk.
02:24We had such a fantastic time together.
02:26It's a real privilege to work with a bunch of young actors
02:28who are so excited about something.
02:29I love Ethan.
02:31He's one of those guys, like everyone knows him
02:33because he's a fantastic actor.
02:34But he's a really great director.
02:35He's so caring.
02:36I've never had a director take care of their actors
02:39the way that he did.
02:39I think it's because he's an actor
02:41and he knows how to speak to actors.
02:42And also like Ethan is like, he talks forever,
02:45but you want to hear every single word
02:47because he cares so much.
02:49And like, it's intoxicating to be around.
02:51And it's just like one of those things
02:52where it's like, I would be in a room with him
02:54wherever I could be, you know?
02:56And like, I want to hear him talk about poetry and plays.
02:59And also like, I quote him all the time to like people.
03:02I think what he says about art is really true.
03:04The one that always stuck out to me was like,
03:05art isn't looked at as a necessity,
03:07but when you're heartbroken or when someone dies
03:10or when you've lost a friend or whatever it is,
03:12art becomes a necessity.
03:13And I think when people speak about art like that,
03:15it can be looked at as like, you know,
03:17you're taking it too seriously.
03:18But also like art saved my life a lot of times in my life.
03:21Like, I do think it's that drastic at times.
03:23And I like that he's the person that you can look at
03:25and go like, see that guy's that fucking talented.
03:27He's also talking about it this way.
03:30Yeah.
03:31Jason Reitman is...
03:34I get an email from Jason Reitman every month.
03:36He holds movie nights, has a dinner before and does a movie.
03:39And he invites me every single time,
03:40even though I don't live in LA.
03:42And that's just the kind of guy he is.
03:44He wants you to have a good time.
03:46He loves movies, like truly loves the making of movies.
03:49Not that like all the people I haven't talked about before don't,
03:52but there's a certain kind of like childlike love that I feel like he has.
03:57That's really kind of like intoxicating at times.
04:00Even when we were shooting Saturday night,
04:01like that big wonder that we do in the beginning was so rehearsed.
04:04And then we like scrapped it and redid it.
04:07And we were all kind of like, oh my God, we got to redo it.
04:10Like we got to relearn all the fucking steps and all this thing.
04:14And he was like, yeah.
04:14And it's like, because he loves doing it.
04:16That's like an intoxicating person to be around when you're on a set.
04:21She's the best.
04:22She's also just like a boss.
04:24Like she's the coolest motherfucker I've ever met in my life.
04:26She's everything and more that you've heard.
04:28She's such a badass.
04:29She controls the set.
04:30She's like a true number one on the call sheet.
04:32And she's also extremely giving as a scene partner.
04:36She wants to figure it out with you.
04:39She doesn't think she's above anyone.
04:40Come over here so I can take a better look at you.
04:42Oh, don't walk.
04:44I'd really prefer if you crawled.
04:46I think that also when we were in those kind of uncomfortable scenes,
04:50where like I'm in uncomfortable outfits and like having to do all these things
04:53that I don't feel that comfy doing, she like held it down.
04:57She like made everyone feel comfortable.
04:59She made me feel comfortable.
05:00I couldn't have done what I did without her.
05:03And I truly hope to get to work with her again as like an actor,
05:05but also like I want to work with her as a director too.
05:09Like I grew up watching her in house and then I love Booksmart.
05:12I love Don't Worry Darling.
05:13I haven't seen the invite yet.
05:14I gotta go see it.
05:15I'm buying my tickets.
05:16I just think that she's again a little bit like Ethan,
05:19like this multifaceted artist who just wants to soak everything up
05:22and wants to understand humanity and then like give it back out into the world.
05:27And I can't help but love those kinds of people.
05:31Yeah.
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