- 2 hours ago
Sebastian Stan joins GQ as he revisits some of the most iconic characters from his career so far: from his portrayal of Tommy Lee in the award-winning adaptation of the whirlwind relationship between Pamela Anderson and Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, to his role as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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00:00I remember us sitting there discussing who was going to voice the penis.
00:04And somebody had said, why don't you call Chris Evans?
00:07You guys are friends.
00:08And I was like, I'm not calling Chris Evans to voice this penis.
00:17I tell you.
00:20Well, I mean, at 27, I was the most hated man in America.
00:26Maybe the world.
00:30With a mustache, I still can't apologize enough for.
00:35My name was a verb.
00:37Like if you bash someone in a kneecap, you'll glue them.
00:43I'd never played a real person before.
00:45And certainly, again, I'd met him after I'd gone to sort of all these places that they
00:51had been and I'd been researching him and watching footage of him nonstop.
00:57So just to kind of have the real thing in your face was really bizarre.
01:01We went to a restaurant.
01:03I was terrified.
01:04I remember I would talk to him and then I would run to the bathroom and then quickly like write
01:11down notes of what he would say and then come back.
01:13I remember distinctly he ordered a cosmopolitan cocktail, which I thought was really funny.
01:20But I definitely also saw a deeply misunderstood person filled with a lot of guilt and pain
01:34and reservations.
01:37And again, I mean, you know, at least that was what was presented to me at the time.
01:42I mean, I've never been a girly girl.
01:46Jeff was my first date ever.
01:47Well, I mean, I researched the hell out of that story as best as I could.
01:51I mean, I went to Oregon.
01:53I went to Portland.
01:53I went to all those places where she had skated, you know, where they had met.
01:59I went to even to the restaurant where they went on their first date.
02:02I mean, I met the Lully.
02:04I mean, I really was the first time I went pretty obsessively crazy about trying to understand
02:12what would happen.
02:13And you still ultimately don't feel like you quite grasp it.
02:18But it was a really strong script and it was an amazing script.
02:21And it had the accounts from both of their sides as to what happened.
02:26And I felt like I knew the character as soon as I read it.
02:30I mean, a lot of what was in the script was transcribed from the interview that the writer
02:36had with both of them.
02:38And so it was the confessional sort of like thing like what we're doing now that's in the
02:42movie was already in the script.
02:45And that part had never been revealed about what happened before.
02:48So.
02:48Where the fuck are my dove bars?
02:51We can't afford them.
02:53Eskimo pie is just as good.
02:54I'm America's best figure skater.
02:56I don't want Eskimo pie.
02:57I want it.
02:58Oh my God.
02:58Jesus.
02:59When is the last time you showered?
03:01I just want a fucking dove bar.
03:06I think a lot of it started in the auditioning process.
03:09I had a call back with her.
03:10She was in the room.
03:12We did some of the scenes that were pretty intense and there was some improvisation that
03:17was happening on my end and so on.
03:19And that they, she responded to that in the moment.
03:21So there was always a sense of trust and a sense of safety, I think, between us.
03:25But she's an incredible performer and a really generous actor.
03:29And I mean, it's just really easy to work off of her.
03:32You know, I mean, you just have to be there and be available to what she's giving you.
03:35And then I think I did all I could on my end.
03:40I mean, I went to the thrift stores and I tried to find the clothes from the period.
03:44I grew the mustache.
03:45I mean, I spoke in the voice.
03:46I just, when I drove to that audition, I was gluli in the car.
03:52I mean, I parked the car as, you know, I had, I was, I remember walking out of the hotel
03:57where I was staying, cause this was in LA and the valet guy had been there the night
04:03before.
04:04And he had seen me with like a beard.
04:06And then I'd come out day after, like slicked in this like plaid shirt with like the mustache.
04:11And I asked for the car and he was like, are you, are you the same guy?
04:16So I think it was, it was a very immersive situation.
04:21But I think a lot of credit goes to Margot and to Craig Gillespie, our director,
04:26who really just allowed us to remain playful with each other and not fall into judgments
04:32of the characters, just to kind of find the essence of these two, which, to some extent
04:37was that they were just honestly kids in a way with each other forever.
04:43Even though they were adults behaving like children.
04:48Black Swan.
04:53This is Tom and this is Cherry.
04:57Actually, it's Andrew.
04:59Tell me.
05:00The same casting director, Mary Venue, who's sort of been an angel for me,
05:06that cast me in Itania, cast me in Black Swan.
05:08I got a call saying Darren Aronofsky wanted to talk to me.
05:13And he said, do you have any friends that are actors?
05:16And I was like, they're all actors.
05:18All my friends are actors.
05:20He said, okay, well, I need, I need someone like to play your buddy in the movie.
05:23Like, you know, I want you guys to be friends in real life.
05:26So I call my friend Toby Hemingway and I said, you got to go into this audition because like,
05:31it's Aronofsky and it's Natalie Poorman and Mila Kunis.
05:34Well, the funny thing was Mila Kunis and I had already been in a movie together.
05:38We were in my first movie ever called Tony and Tina's Wedding.
05:42So she was in that opposite Joey McIntyre.
05:45So anyway, I'd met her before.
05:47And I was like, obviously familiar with, you know, her and just how funny and witty she was.
05:52But we didn't know what was, you know, this scene was opposite her and Natalie.
05:57And we sort of had to kiss and make out and we're taking ecstasy or something.
06:01And then it becomes this whole club scene.
06:03So I was very obviously sweating in the scene because I was, I was very kind of nervous
06:11and intimidated about how that was going to go.
06:14And that's what, that's what he wanted.
06:16The funny thing about it was I thought it was going to be a really easy scene.
06:19You know, we go in there, I can make out. I'm good.
06:22I think I've done it before anyway.
06:24But then Darren Aronofsky came over and he ended up right before giving me a whole backstory
06:29of what happened to these characters and how they got there.
06:32That we were out the night before, that he had convinced me to come out again,
06:36that we had just met these people, that I was, you know, he just built this whole story.
06:40So I became more terrified only that I suddenly felt that I had to deliver my one line delivery
06:50or whatever as best as I could.
06:52Uh, Swan Lake.
06:54Okay. Yeah?
06:56You know what?
06:57No.
06:58What was happening was I was doing the scene and Aronofsky was just sitting like right near the camera
07:05and he would yell out in the middle of the scene.
07:06Okay. Say it again.
07:08All right.
07:08Now really say it.
07:09We all know you can act.
07:10So just say it again.
07:11It's like, I don't even know if he was fucking with me or not, but like it worked.
07:16I mean, it just was really, I'd never been in, in a movie before where the director would interrupt the
07:23scene in the middle of it.
07:24So it was interesting.
07:28Marvel Universe.
07:42Bucky?
07:44Who the hell is Bucky?
07:45Bucky Barnes came out of a movie called The Apparition, which was not a great horror film.
07:52I was in Germany and Berlin in 2010 shooting The Apparition, this, this movie.
07:57And, um, I was auditioning for Steve Rogers.
08:02Never, didn't even know about Bucky Barnes or anything.
08:05I, cause I hadn't read the comic books.
08:07And so the, the Evans role, I was making tapes with Ashley Green, who was in the movie with me,
08:13Apparition,
08:14and then sending them to LA.
08:15And then they kept giving me notes to do them again.
08:19And then when I went to LA, I went in in person with the cast director, Randy Hiller.
08:23And then they asked me to screen test.
08:25I pretty sure remember that at one point Kevin Feige went to Joel Silver, who was the producer of The
08:31Apparition's office,
08:33to watch dailies from The Apparition because they were considering me for Bucky Barnes.
08:39On my signal, run like hell.
08:42And if I tear myself in half, don't come back for me.
08:45He's gonna tear himself in half?
08:45I think I've had more of an input in the last couple of years than I did at the beginning.
08:51I mean, it was pretty clear what his journey was from the get-go as it was explained to me.
08:56How he starts out, that he evolves into Winter Soldier and where he eventually goes.
09:01But I think in the last couple of years, particularly when we were doing the show,
09:05that's kind of when I started to feel like I was getting asked quite a bit, my, my input.
09:11It's bizarre. It's, it's kind of like having a doppelganger or a weird, estranged brother that you never knew you
09:21had.
09:21You know, we go away for a number of times, you know, and then, and then we come back to
09:27each other.
09:28It's very funny and it, and it feels like we're always growing together or something.
09:33But it's been, it's been good. It's, it's, it's evolved because I've evolved.
09:37So the characters evolved with me in a way.
09:39There was a lot of stunt work in Captain America Winter Soldier and Civil War that I got to do
09:44that I had to learn that was just really difficult.
09:48And, and kind of looking back now is, is almost surprising that I was allowed to do as much as
09:53I, I got to do.
09:54All the Winter Soldier stuff was harder because it felt like that was something that, you know, I needed to
10:01kind of discover as we went.
10:03And it needed to be very different from sort of Bucky Barnes alter ego.
10:08The fight sequences in Captain America Winter Soldier and, and Civil War.
10:11I mean, there was one where I landed on a car, jumping off things and wire work, but really just
10:18the choreography that we got to learn, particularly with Evans and I.
10:21The hardest one though, I'll tell you right now, which is, which is why I'm very proud of it.
10:25You see, the stunt guys, they're obviously so brilliant at everything.
10:30And they always say, it's not about the closeup.
10:32It's really about the wide.
10:34If you can do it in the wide, then maybe you know what you're doing.
10:38You know, it's, it's very easy to do it in a closeup.
10:40We got to do a shot in the wide and it's in Civil War and it's Evans and I fighting
10:45Iron Man.
10:47You could see it's like one shot.
10:48It keeps pushing slowly as, as we're both fighting him.
10:51And that was us.
10:52And we got to do that in the wide and we got a lot of props from the stunt team.
10:56It's really difficult not having completed scripts.
11:00And I would say if it was not a character that I had played for all these years, then maybe
11:07it would be daunting to even attempt it because the script is everything.
11:12That's where it starts.
11:12But I think because all of these characters, right, like we all have played them.
11:18We have all this knowledge and this history and experience with them.
11:21I think there's a trust now going into it that even though there's not these finished products that we will
11:27have the input and we will kind of know instinctively where to go, how everyone would react in that situation.
11:32So it does become more collaborative as a result when you don't have the full scripts.
11:38But sometimes you go into these movies really not knowing whether or not you're going to survive because, again, you
11:46don't know what the full script is.
11:48And so you're always wondering if you're going to die by the end of the movie.
11:54The Apprentice.
11:59I'm a real estate.
12:02What do you do?
12:04I'm an artist.
12:05Oh.
12:08What do you make?
12:10Anything I can sell.
12:13Making money is art.
12:15It's true. It is.
12:17It is.
12:18To be honest, people thought I was a little crazy.
12:22I don't think they really got it.
12:23I'm not sure I really got why I should be Donald Trump necessarily.
12:27I mean, I think somebody said, didn't you just play Tommy Lee?
12:31Like, why are you like what?
12:33And now you're going to be Trump.
12:35And I was like, yeah, maybe that, maybe that, maybe that makes sense.
12:38Whenever somebody had a kind of was weirded out or surprised or whatever, it only motivated me more.
12:46Whenever somebody says I can't do something or tells me it's a bad idea, I usually end up becoming more
12:53inspired to do it.
12:54But Carmen Cuba, who's another angel on my shoulder over the years, she cast me in The Martian, that's how
13:00I met her, called me in 2019 and said, you know, I just read the script, The Apprentice.
13:05You should meet the director, Ali Abbasi, you should see his movie, Border.
13:09It's really great.
13:10And then I met Ali.
13:12We started talking about it.
13:13There were a couple of emails, but he wasn't sure what he wanted to do.
13:16And then I just didn't hear anything from him until 2022.
13:20And the movie had gone through different reiterations and they were trying different things.
13:23It didn't work out.
13:24January 6th happened.
13:25And then I think they saw Pam and Tommy and then they kind of were like, OK, we should do
13:32this.
13:33How will you make money?
13:37Well, that's a that's a really interesting question.
13:42Well, there won't be any taxes, Jay, because we're going to get a tax abatement from the mayor.
13:47I had a bit of a lead way preparing because we would start preparing and then have to stop because
13:52the movie would fall apart.
13:53Then the strike happened.
13:55So every time I would start, the movie would fall apart.
13:58But I wouldn't necessarily stop.
14:00I mean, I remember it was I had just turned 40 in Greece.
14:05It was 2022.
14:06And I was on the beach in Greece reading The Art of the Deal and remembering just how crazy that
14:12was.
14:13You know, so so I had a bit of time.
14:14But but then when I got closer, to be honest, I would get up in the morning.
14:18I would I would put my headphones in.
14:20I would start listening to interviews like brushing my teeth, having coffee.
14:25And then I would go and lock myself in a room for like eight hours a day and just go
14:29over the script, watch footage, listen.
14:31And it was it was it was it was a total sensory overload exposure that I that I just did,
14:42I guess, until I really approached it like I was learning an instrument, starting out slowly, practicing, feeling very unnatural
14:51about it, going over it and over it and over it until it becomes second nature, until you get get
14:57faster, you get better and better.
14:58And then you just you're doing it, you're not even thinking about it, it just starts coming out.
15:02I would sometimes go out in public and test it in little ways and just see if people were picking
15:08up on it.
15:10I remember my girlfriend at the time being like, are you doing a New York accent?
15:13Like, what are you what are you saying?
15:14New York, like, where is that come from?
15:16I was like, oh, I don't know.
15:18Is that Trump?
15:19Are you doing what are you doing with your lips?
15:22What are you doing?
15:24I mean, it was just it was.
15:28Yeah, it was psychotic.
15:30It was psychotic.
15:31And the entire time going to bed every night going, oh, God, this is a mistake.
15:35This is a mistake.
15:37If I, you know, how are we going to do this?
15:39But once we got there and once we got through the camera test, because there were there were some screen
15:44tests, we were trying different prosthetics and wigs and stuff, and some of them were not working.
15:48That was really a big problem.
15:51And I had said to Ali, I was like, don't worry about it.
15:53Like at the end of the day, I'm never going to look like him 100%.
15:56It's not about that.
15:57It's just it's going to be about what's inside and what's coming out.
15:59And he trusted me with that.
16:01But we found the right mix of prosthetics.
16:04And then and then the last test of it all was the camera test with the crew and walking out
16:11in the costume and the wigs and all that.
16:13The first thing we did, which we never got out, was Maria Bakalova and I filmed an exact replica of
16:20him and Ivana on Oprah in the 80s, did a whole interview.
16:23And Maria and I did a total replica of that interview.
16:28It was in the script at one point, and it was supposed to be like our camera test, but then
16:33really day one of shooting.
16:35I keep telling him, I'm like, just release it.
16:37Just put it out.
16:40Pam and Tommy.
16:46You are by far the baddest, raddest, sexiest, most far out kick ass chick that I've ever met.
16:56I started in Canada.
16:57It was still full on COVID.
16:59I was in Vancouver shooting fresh and I was already starting to lose the weight.
17:03Then I was get up in the morning and I would run three or four miles and then walk.
17:07I would always make sure I got 20,000 steps and I would, I would do these big, big, fast,
17:12fast diets.
17:13So as I got closer, I lost as much weight as I could and that physically helped.
17:18Then I dyed my hair and I kind of grew my facial hair for that.
17:22I mean, then the tattoos came on, but again, it was just total annihilation of the senses.
17:28I mean, I was taking the drums on the weekend while I was shooting fresh in Canada.
17:33And then I was listening and watching again because there was fortunately so much footage of him through the years.
17:41So I could hear his, the, the dialect, the, the sort of inflection of his voice, the rhythm of his
17:47voice, the way he talked, the mannerisms and everything.
17:49And, and, and again, just very much like learning an instrument and this time really learning the drums, just doing
17:57it over and over again until I didn't think about it.
18:00They can't actually say that sluts don't get to decide what happens to pictures of their body, that I don't
18:07get to decide what happens to my actual body.
18:09So they say something else instead.
18:11I think there's two parts to it and it's the same with the Trump stuff.
18:16There is the part at the beginning where you're meeting with the powers that be, meaning the producers, the director,
18:22all the creatives.
18:22You're sitting there and you're going, Hey, why are we doing this?
18:27What is the intention?
18:28What is this about?
18:29How do we all connect to it?
18:30What are the things that we don't connect to?
18:32Let's voice our judgments and our, our fears, our, our issues right now, right here.
18:39And then I think that's the part that is subjective.
18:42And that's the part where I think you as a person kind of have to, you know, kind of question
18:50what, what, what there is to question from, from your end.
18:52Once you agree on that, once you get on the same page about it, then you have to put that
18:57aside and you have to totally commit in terms of just being an investigative journalist, essentially, and, and not, and
19:04not letting your own feelings in your own personal thoughts about the person, the character alive or not come, come
19:10into play.
19:11You have to just really go there.
19:14And I was very clear.
19:15We were all very clear that the intentions were good, you know, and I do feel like in a lot
19:21of ways, uh, it, the show and, you know, speaks for itself in that regard.
19:27And so I, I, after that, it was just really trying to honor them as best as we could.
19:33And Lily and I were very careful about that, you know, and we'd worked very closely to just try to
19:38always capture as best as we could, whatever that relationship was and how raw and pure it was.
19:44And again, complicated because it had all these different sides, but you, you do the best you can, you know,
19:51and then, and then it's done and it's out in the universe and it, you know, it's not yours anymore.
19:57Oh, you really think so?
20:00I do.
20:01Oh, I hate those words.
20:03I do.
20:05I also read his book that he wrote, Tommy Land.
20:07And in the book, he has, you know, conversations with his penis.
20:11So I think the writers did a great job in the sense that it was very authentic to that character
20:17and, and to him and his personality to put that scene in there.
20:20How were we, we were going to do it was, was going to be insane.
20:24It's, it's funny to me in the age of AI now looking back because everything about it was practical.
20:30I mean, like I literally had a puppet applied to me that four burly men, like with electrical cords between
20:37my legs were, you know, puppeteering from the back.
20:40So it was, it was actually a very technical scene.
20:43I remember us sitting there discussing who was going to voice the penis.
20:48And somebody had said, why don't you call Chris Evans?
20:51You're, you guys are friends.
20:52And I was like, I'm not calling Chris Evans to voice this penis.
20:58Although probably could have been a really good, good moment.
21:01I don't know if you, he was never going to do it.
21:04A different man.
21:10Hey, look, God, all unhappiness in life comes from not accepting what is.
21:16You know who told me that?
21:18You shrink.
21:18No, I'm serious.
21:19You know who told me that all unhappiness in life comes from.
21:23Jesus Christ.
21:24From not accepting what is?
21:25Lady Gaga.
21:27Classically, my agent was a big fan of Aaron's previous film, Chained for Life.
21:31Send me the script and said, you should read this.
21:33I think it's really unique.
21:35I read it.
21:36I put it down.
21:37I said, I have to, I was like, I said, I have to read it again.
21:40Because it's so complex and so layered.
21:42Became obsessed with it.
21:44Called them.
21:45And then set out to convince them to, to let me play the part.
21:49I think I met Aaron sometime in February.
21:52And then we didn't shoot until July.
21:54So once I knew I had the part, I had a lot of time to work on it.
21:57Try to find the character.
22:00We worked extensively together.
22:02And then once the prosthetics came around, that's like when really things came to fruition
22:07or really revealed themselves to me about who the Edward was and what he was experiencing,
22:12especially when I was in the city walking around and I was able to have the prosthetics on and live
22:18through that.
22:19All of that informed it.
22:20But, but I think if you have the prep period and the time to prepare, then you can, you can
22:27go.
22:27I sometimes prepare, prefer when it's, when it's a quicker schedule than a long one, to be honest.
22:34Cause you don't have time to think and everyone's involved.
22:37The crew is involved.
22:38Everyone knows that you're fighting the day.
22:40Um, and that particular movie was so special because all the shots were so specific.
22:45It felt like it was everyone showing up with their A game.
22:48And, and that when we got the day, it really felt like we earned it.
22:52You know?
22:54What's that?
22:58I don't know.
22:59Why is he waving at you?
23:03I have no idea.
23:06What did he want?
23:07I'd had obviously nowhere near in the same degree, but I had had experiences growing up,
23:13sort of moving around, being an outsider, feeling like an outsider, having an accident and coming to this country,
23:19not being born here and so on and so forth.
23:21My own experiences as a kid growing up in different school systems and so on.
23:25I, I, I, there were, there were things that I felt I understood inherently about Edward feeling left out and
23:33being kind of isolated.
23:35And, and, and then there was a lot of conversation with Aaron who, who, uh, who wanted me to even
23:41lean into the fact of just being in the public eye and, and how much that often feels like your
23:47public property and that how that's not very different from somebody who's like, like Edward,
23:52who's got a condition or is disfigured or disabled, um, because you stand out and people just decide that you're
24:00fair game when you're on the street.
24:02And, and that happens also when you're kind of recognized.
24:05I mean, people photograph you, they take pictures, they don't ask, they come up to you whenever they want, doesn't
24:09matter what, whatever's happening.
24:11And again, me trying to understand internally what was happening.
24:15Adam Pearson was a huge help.
24:16I had spoken to him very, very much about that.
24:19I'd gone to NYU and I'd met the doctors that, um, worked extensively in neurofibromatosis research over there.
24:27Um, I watched a lot of sort of confessionals on YouTube that I've found of disfigured people, different conditions, talking
24:34about their experience, being orphans, being ostracized, being marginalized.
24:38You know, I was just really trying to kind of gather as much as I could about that experience and
24:44find my way through it.
24:45Excuse me? What's going on here?
24:49Uh, what?
24:51What?
24:52Forgive me, is that, uh, some kind of mask?
24:56There's a universal message there.
24:58And I think, I think there's something timely about that character and, and that movie in the sense of, be
25:05careful.
25:07Chasing who you think you should be because you might lose who you actually are.
25:13And the price you'll pay for that will be higher than anything you'll ever, you'll ever get by trying to
25:19be somebody else.
25:20And I think that's very real to what's happening today.
25:23There's, I think there's a lot of people out there that are just annihilated from all angles with information online
25:30about how you should look, what you should eat, what you should wear, you know, what you should believe in,
25:37what you should like and not like, tweet about, blah, blah, blah.
25:41And, and, and what about the person that's at the center?
25:45You know, there's this, this fragile, authentic self that's just getting smaller and smaller because you're just constantly trying to
25:52be somebody you're not.
25:53I think people relate to that more than they want to admit.
26:00Fresh.
26:05Great.
26:06Great.
26:07Great.
26:08Still in denial?
26:10Yeah.
26:13Well, look, it's going to take a little time, but eventually you're going to learn to accept that things don't
26:21always turn out the way you thought they would.
26:23And, you know, we all die, but it's really just how we decided to go out.
26:27I met Mary Parent, who's an incredible person who was a head of legendary, had this meeting in the pandemic.
26:34It was a zoom.
26:34And she had said to me, I have this movie.
26:36It's really crazy.
26:37It's about a cannibal.
26:38He traps this girl, but he's very charming, blah, blah, blah.
26:41And then like months went by.
26:43And then suddenly I saw online, I think in September, 2020, like we're in deep COVID now that Daisy Edgar
26:49Jones had signed on to this movie.
26:51And so I remember the conversation.
26:52I immediately called my agent.
26:53I said, I need to get her on this movie.
26:55I remember this movie.
26:56And I think Daisy Edgar Jones is a fucking star.
26:58She's amazing.
27:00Her series had just come out.
27:02So I got in.
27:02I met Mimi Cave, the director.
27:05It didn't feel like an audition.
27:06It felt like she was sort of into the idea of me playing this role, but I wasn't quite sure.
27:12So I went and I filmed myself dancing in this kitchen with a knife because the character dances in the
27:19movie.
27:20And I knew she was she had extensive dance background in choreography.
27:23So I like sent her that just to make sure.
27:27And she responded to that and was like, OK, you have the role.
27:30I can't name this person.
27:32OK, but I definitely based him on a very, very famous person.
27:35I was watching a lot of interviews of this person and I just I just thought, you know, it was
27:43so what I was after was somebody who really believed in what they were doing and in their way of
27:51life and in what they committed to.
27:53And there was a lot to the movie that Daisy and I would get together on the weekends and kind
27:58of rehearse.
27:58And some of it we would improvise.
28:01And so they actually allowed some of this improvisation, some of the scenes that we had to some extent rewritten.
28:08Like they made it into the movie, the dinner scene with her and she starts crying and I start all
28:12that wasn't there.
28:13Like the monologue when I'm like serving her those meatballs and I'm telling her like this women just taste better.
28:19That wasn't there before.
28:21That was something I kind of, you know, ended up writing and pitching essentially.
28:26And they allowed it. They allowed it to be the movie, which I was amazed.
28:30But because I said we need to there's no way that you're going to ever connect to these people or
28:36this character unless you really understand why he became the way he became.
28:39We have to understand what happened.
28:41Where did he where did this make sense to him?
28:44So I it just it taught me a lot about how much is how important it is to have the
28:50right group of people making these movies because it is a collaboration in a lot of ways.
28:53And Daisy and I got to do a lot of stuff that wasn't there before.
28:59I can't. I really can't.
29:02The Martian.
29:08Be careful out there in space.
29:11There's a scene in The Martian.
29:13There's a few scenes where we're in the astronaut suits and we're doing this gravity.
29:17We're supposed to be, you know, kind of floating in space.
29:19It's a really it's a really difficult thing to shoot.
29:23You're on wires.
29:24It's a little bit like underwater, but you're practicing it.
29:27I mean, you got to sell it.
29:28And so it's it's it's not easy.
29:30There's you're still fighting gravity when you're trying to pretend there's no gravity.
29:33You know, we were on this massive stage in Budapest and Ridley had like a tent that was all the
29:38way far down.
29:39And then we were secluded in this little thing on wire.
29:42So it's not like he could come in and give you direction.
29:44So he'd give us direction to these earpieces.
29:45And I remember sometimes they would keep the earpieces on as we were doing the shot.
29:49So he would say action.
29:51And then like we'd be doing, you know, these anti gravity sort of like slow movements.
29:57And the whole time I'm hearing him in my ear going off a fox sake.
30:04Why?
30:04Why are we doing that?
30:05God, no, we're not going to this is this is going to be used.
30:09Why is he doing that?
30:10Tell him to move to the left.
30:11Like I was just hearing the commentary, but it was amazing because I would go to the tent and I
30:18would see him.
30:19And there were seven platinum TVs, literally, because we were we were shooting with seven, eight cameras at the same
30:24time.
30:25I mean, the storm sequence and everything was all captured from different angles.
30:29And I would see him kind of like the Wizard of Oz propped up there with these 3D glasses.
30:33And you would have a plasma TV for every single camera that he was using.
30:37It was just like, like a madman, unbelievably excited and exuberant to be making a movie.
30:45Gossip Girl.
30:51How much you want?
30:53$5,000.
30:55That's insane, amigo.
30:56You should probably quit while I'm heard, huh?
30:58Why don't we just start it?
30:58I'm surprised that he got to live in people's minds as long as he has.
31:04Because if you think about it, I've only I think I only did a total of 10 episodes over six
31:09years, maybe more or something like that.
31:14But still, that character started out with just a cameo and then they just kept bringing me back.
31:20I mean, Gossip Girl was incredible when it came out.
31:22I don't think I realized the popularity that it was growing into.
31:30I definitely felt it was a hit because everybody was getting invited to all these events and parties and everything.
31:39I don't know if I was.
31:40I mean, I think I was in the group by default, you know.
31:43But there was definitely something happening, especially on the Upper East Side, when I was seeing the fans come up
31:49to set.
31:50And there were a couple of trends that were set out by Gossip Girl.
31:54Pretty sure I remember No Belts was becoming a thing.
31:57And then wasn't the headbands? Wasn't there a headband thing maybe as well?
32:04Destroyer.
32:08I think I realized really earlier on, actually earlier than I, Tonya, and I think that's why I wanted to
32:15do Black Swan and I did this other little, you know, this movie that was amazing, Rachel Getting Married.
32:20I just wanted to work with great directors and be surrounded by great actors.
32:26I just always thought it's the only way I'm going to learn if I'm like the last sheep in the
32:30bunch.
32:30So the idea of Nicole Kidman obviously was incredible.
32:34And then Karin Kusama was somebody I really loved.
32:37I mean, I had seen this movie.
32:38She had done The Invitation and I just thought she was incredible.
32:41To be opposite Nicole Kidman kind of playing undercover cops and so on.
32:45I mean, the idea was just amazing.
32:47And I remember getting there being really, again, nervous about playing opposite Nicole.
32:53And I hadn't met her.
32:54And my first day on that movie was our first scene when we first meet in the movie.
32:59And I thought, okay, this is perfect because honestly, that's probably what my character is feeling.
33:04You know, he's going to meet this woman.
33:05They got to pretend to be lovers.
33:07They're going to pretend to be all this, you know, this whole, they have this whole other relationship.
33:10They don't know each other.
33:11They're going to sit opposite each other and sniff each other out.
33:13And so I thought, you know, a lot of the things that I was already worrying, it was going to
33:18work.
33:19And I think it did because when the first time I saw her was when she sat opposite me at
33:24that table.
33:25And again, all I had to do is just be there with her.
33:29I was very lucky to work opposite some unbelievable women, you know, Penelope Cruz, Jessica Chastain, Nicole, Margot.
33:38Every single time, every single time, I felt elevated by them.
33:43And an availability in the sense of if you brought your A-game, like, they're there.
33:50They'll play, they'll go there.
33:52You don't always get that from the male actors.
33:55Actually, you don't.
33:56You know, there's there's a different kind of dynamic and and and hopefully that works and it works for the
34:02movie.
34:03But I think for me with Nicole, it was that it was just it was just how generous she was
34:08and how available she was.
34:10I mean, she really respected me as an actor.
34:14And I was obviously, you know, like I didn't think of myself as her peer.
34:19You know, I just was, you know, a younger guy that was just like got lucky with the part, you
34:25know, but she she treated me as an equal.
34:27And I never forgot that.
34:31The devil all the time.
34:37I'm going with a little bit blanks.
34:49Jesus Christ.
34:50Well, devil all the time was crazy.
34:52I wanted to get in that movie.
34:53I knew of that movie in that script.
34:55And they had said to me, it's all cast.
34:58So there's there's no parts available.
35:00And then weirdly, three weeks later, I got a call saying Chris Evans dropped out.
35:05And do do I want to replace him?
35:08And I said, sure.
35:09What's the part?
35:10So three weeks before Antonio Camp was called me about that part.
35:13And then he said, how much weight can you gain in three weeks?
35:16And I said, it's a it's a lot harder than you think it is.
35:20Like, believe it or not.
35:21I mean, I could just start eating, but it's I don't think I'm going to balloon to whatever you want.
35:25So we ended up doing these little prosthetics to push my cheeks out, which was kind of interesting.
35:29And then I started watching quickly a lot of like Tommy Lee Jones and John Wayne movies.
35:35Those were the characters that had based that character on.
35:38But it was really quick how it all happened.
35:40And I was not around the other characters, but I really enjoyed chasing Tom Holland with a gun.
35:49I'll do it any day.
36:04I played a Romanian orphan when I was like 10, 11 in Vienna, which probably doesn't count, but I grew
36:11up with it.
36:12You know, I knew it really well.
36:14I mean, and and but I still had to work on it surprisingly more than I thought I had to.
36:19And the thing about Fjord was we were so isolated in the fjords, literally in Norway, in this little village
36:26where we shot.
36:26So I was just with the whole Romanian crew every day and I was just speaking in Romanian the whole
36:33time.
36:34And I was listening to them, you know, when they were speaking in English to Renate or to the Norwegian
36:38team, I was listening to the accents.
36:40And so it was just I just never I just kind of started.
36:44I never dropped it once I had it, even on the phone, my, you know, whatever, like I would just
36:49I would just do it.
36:50I don't know how else to do it because I've never been really good at like kind of dropping it
36:55and picking it back up.
36:56Like I have to kind of listen to it all the time.
36:59It was the same thing with any time there's like a voice or a thing.
37:03And so that was the only way.
37:05I think it's surreal.
37:06You know, they haven't seen it yet.
37:08My mom hasn't seen it yet, you know, and I'm really excited to show it to her now at the
37:12New York Film Festival.
37:12But it was such a coming home moment for me.
37:15I mean, it was really emotional.
37:17At the end of the day, it was a dream come true.
37:20The can of it all is it just it was surreal.
37:22I mean, that in itself was just so blew my mind.
37:26I never thought my first Romanian movie was going to ever win the Palme d'Or.
37:32But my last day on set was really emotional because the crew and everybody was so sweet.
37:38You know, they wrapped me in this Romanian flag and they kind of said, welcome home.
37:42And I think that's what this movie meant for me in a lot of ways.
37:45Funny enough, you know, who was at the screening in Cannes was Darren Aronofsky.
37:50And I remember he was sitting three three rows ahead and he looked at me and he went like that.
37:54I just thought it was like, you know, you're the guy that was yelling at me in the middle of
37:58the scene, how to kiss Mila Kunis.
38:00And now we're at Cannes together and you're here standing and plotting my film.
38:04You know, it's just it's it's a level of gratitude I can't express.
38:09Apparently we were in prison once we admitted that we slapped them.
38:18Elizabeth, we can't sit like sheep and watch these people abuse our power.
38:24I brought a lawyer.
38:25Who plays by the rules.
38:26She's doing her best.
38:27Her best.
38:28Her best is not enough if you want to have the children back.
38:31No matter what the subject matter is, Renata seems determined to want to have a good time with it.
38:38So we would go to set and, you know, she would always come up smiling and laughing and going like,
38:44let's hope let's hope today goes great.
38:46You know, and I was like, yeah, me too.
38:48But but but I think because we had a sense of trust from before, it was easy for us to
38:53kind of just, you know, follow suit and immediately connect.
38:59She's so available and so present in the moment that you can't you'd have to be blind to not be
39:08able to react to her in a way, if that makes sense.
39:10I mean, she's just so alive in the scenes.
39:14The idea of having your children taken away is just it's insane.
39:22You know, like I can't even I didn't have that knowledge, I think, when I did the movie as much
39:28as I do now.
39:29But I but I can I don't know how to process that properly without without immediately understanding, you know, without
39:39immediately having empathy, without immediately connecting to it.
39:42I think this is a very tricky movie. I think I think it requires things that we don't like to
39:51do anymore, which is be patient, stay open, stay flexible and think for yourself rather than have somebody tell you
40:00how to think.
40:00I think you have to go in there and you have to connect to your humanity about it.
40:05Forget the belief systems or what what you think these people are or what they're doing different from you or
40:10who they are on either side or whatever.
40:12And just try to ask the question going like, what would I do in that situation?
40:16What is best for these children?
40:18At the end of the day, the movie to me is about how do we raise kids today?
40:23What works anymore? What doesn't work?
40:25We've all grown up with parents belief systems.
40:27Of course, I can connect like I hope a lot of people can connect to this idea of tearing apart
40:34families and how horrible that is.
40:36It's happening, not just in this movie, but on the borders.
40:41You know, it's happening all over the world.
40:43That being said, at the same time, there's also the idea that like, you know, kids don't always have a
40:53choice in terms of the families that they're born into or the environments that they're born into.
40:57And that doesn't necessarily always mean that those environments are also what's best for them.
41:03And what happens then?
41:04Again, it goes back to what is best for the kids.
41:08I think at the end of the day, the movie is just asking that question.
41:11And that's what I love about it.
41:12It's not meant to tell you how to think.
41:15It's meant to make you aware of these things in yourself.
41:17So you're asking yourself that towards your own family or towards your own environment.
41:22For more information, visit our website in the future of our community.
41:23We will see.
41:23We will be self-regulated.
41:23We will see that in the future of our community.