Drama Actors Roundtable: Michael B. Jordan, Jason Bateman, Darren Criss | Close Up with THR

Hello and welcome to the Hollywood Reporter Spotlight. I'm Lacey Rhodes and I'm joined by JK Simmons Matthew Reese Jason Bateman Darren Criss Jeff Daniels and Michael B Jordan thank you all for joining us so we'll start with what I'm looking forward to. It's a fun question, what's the funniest or most frustrating comment you've received when trying out for a role? I have one, no, but nothing was actually said. I went to a casting I went to a casting and here the casting agent calls on the phone. and the assistant said ash in the middle of a very important call for you, sit down, wait, the call went on and on and on sitting the assistant down apologizing then about 45 minutes the assistant said can you come into the office? and I could hear that she was in the middle of a heated heated conversation I walked towards the door I stood at the door we should leave I know, I know she looks at me and leaves I feel like that's a little addictive there are a lot of stories that involve like if wasn't positive feedback that It's not so much about hearing what is, but rather not hearing anything at all, yeah or the proverbial nod of the head where are you going, so it was there, anything I could have done and just no, no There's nothing and you just don't do it, I just want something, yeah. we just don't like it yeah it's cool now with self-taping where an actor can just audition on their own computer with their own kind of webcam or their phone or whatever and then basically film it so you like it and then send it. and you don't have to go through all the nerves in the room and hopefully you do it the way you practiced in front of the mirror at home, like all of that has been mostly eliminated.

I think self-recording is what's happening so you will never be rejected the agent sends you a very nice message yes exactly you must have received one Thank you below. I have had many. I remember that I don't know if it's the same, but I was doing a play off. Broadway and it was horrible that you came and this actress friend of ours came into the dressing room afterwards and we were in a horrible situation and she just pulled and stuck her head out the curtain and said, Oh God. It's an interesting question, do you know when something is not good?

I think in spite of yourself I think it or if you don't, it will become very clear to you very soon, especially in these times. I think it will reach you. whether you like it or not during filming I hope no one guesses I think that more can be done from the theater the play yes but you don't know it and during that if they interrupt you during you know your lines your edits like no just like I try to give you an direction in middle of what you're trying to do. I feel like they're like, "Let's try this," or "I've never thought about it this way and it's like okay, cool, maybe my instinct wasn't like that." So, Michael, you said recently that I personally think you are defined by what you say no to, what that means to you, and how those decisions have defined you and your career.

I know I answered that without you you can't do everything you know and if so then obviously you know you have agents who have their own agenda, everyone like you is trying to push and guide you towards st. or take a job that you might not feel 100% Khumbu about, so for me personally it's like you know not to chase money that might look good, okay, everything on paper that you know might look good in the script. or whatever, maybe not. It actually turns out like that when it comes to the screen, so you have to follow your instinct and, uh, I don't know, be true to your good, so I try to listen to the inner voice as much as I can.

When did you do it? Guys, to regain the confidence to be able to say no, was there a point in your career where you felt comfortable being able to say no? I don't need this one. I think it's a luxury to be able to do it. Yes Yes it is. Also for me there were two scenarios and one of them was very early when I was just hungry and I was waiting tables half the time and doing theater in Buffalo or Cleveland or Atlanta or wherever and I had an agent. in New York and I would come back and audition for some things and I get a job and I would go out and do a play, you know, and I got an offer to do a show that I wasn't interested in doing and it was the only offer I had and I was talking with my agent about it, sitting across from me at the desk.

I'm in the office like old times and he said, well, what else are you going to do? and I said, well, no, I don't know, isn't that your job? I mean, you know, I mean, he goes, look, it's a good company, it's a good buy, you know, I mean, it may not be your favorite role, but you know, go, it's a job, go and I went and I. It was miserable because, you know, eight weeks in Cleveland, if that's not redundant, I've been happier waiting tables at Joe Allen and waiting for something better to come along, so that's when I started.

I started to realize that I can say no, because you know. Whether it works for my career or not, it works for my happiness, that's a good point. I think for me, when I was younger, I started, you know, just living at home and having real responsibilities and a mortgage, worrying about like bills. You pay, so you're taking what's in front of you and at the time I was lucky that I liked to work steadily as a kid, even though there were tons of noes and I didn't show you a lot of the auditions that I went out for. the roles I got stuck in and pushed myself to the next level, but once you grow up and become a little more successful, the decisions you make really define the way the industry looks at you and is kind to you. of how you advance in your career and those are the times where you have to be a little more selective and often the options are, at least in my case, like it's pretty easy, I mean, the ones that are clear, you already know. and then the other one is okay, I guess I can't embarrass myself with that or not be a pain in the ass on that set trying to turn it into something that it clearly should be or wants to be, so that's where the bar is set, what are they? the things that you say?

I'm not going to do those musicals, yeah, you know, things that are the real low-hanging fruit that looks like a big payday or you know something that's clearly about Turander, it's like a sprinter project, right, they just wanted a grand opening. and they're not really too concerned about the merits of it, which in some ways would lead to several weeks of people going to see it, you know the things that appeal to me. Saying yes is less about the role, even the script as a whole, it's about the people who are doing it because when I feel like I really want to work with someone, it's usually pretty indicative of the quality of the projects.

I know the people you partner with, so I don't care if I have three lines to say in order or thirty, it's more about who's directing it with the other

actors

, if it's a studio and where it is, you know. something that I would like to see as a viewer just for its quality or its ambition that is a great resource now who is in this yeah, what does who are you looking at oh, it's he it's she I'm in it, eggs all over his network, define, define, it means that with that, with the tone, it's because you can, you can read a script and there are sixty different ways you can do that script and not all of them.

They are bad and not all of them are good, but who they pursue says a lot about what their creative intent is. You know, I'm learning something here. You know the script most of the time. which, you know, I want to do things that you can fail at, that's where I'm at right now. I mean, if you're right, you risk something, you want to risk it, that's a help, yes, for you, although before, I mean, I remember you. talking about your agents they said no, don't do stupid things and more stupid things, don't get off, why, why and why do you feel that way because there were three agents talking on the phone the night before I flew out the next morning to do wardrobe. . for the fool number three agents one in New York two in Los Angeles the two in Los Angeles come on let's stop you you're not going to do this you're an important and serious actor we're trying to get you to the Oscar you keep beating us stop doing that and this It will be the end of your career, frankly, Jim Carrey is a comedic genius with all due respect, he will erase you from the screen, say no and we will deal with it, I said.

Did you know? I'm bored with the race. I want to change it. It's you? I'm living in Michigan, right? I need to go from being more and more stupid to something remotely serious and for my world in between there are all these jobs because if you can do this and you can do that, so I said: if this is a mistake, guys, it's mine, but he He is such a good actor and that is what makes him a great comedian like you are, I mean the roles you played. That movie was big changes and you needed acting skills to make the specificity of those characters real.

I think that's why people say comedies are harder than

drama

because you have to be real in an even higher, more exaggerated place and that's probably me. I don't know what would happen if I were you with your talent, probably what I would have told myself and what these agents might not have taken into account was: I don't know, I'm going to do this and I'm going to be great at it because I have the acting talent to be as funny as Jim Carrey, which you obviously work on, they were right, they go Jeff, this could, this could and no one knows how risky, yeah, 12 year old kids.

I would go, but that's it now that you have Tom Arnold's career, you know, with all due respect to Tom, if there were times in your career where there were specific projects where you disconnected from everyone else and said, I'm doing this, I really want to With this one they're not being that helpful. I know it's you. I don't think I know you. I think I'm very lucky to have a great team and everyone is very good at what they do and I love it. their advice and that's what you pay them for and you want to be deferential, but at the end of the day you're the only one who can make the decision based on the things you know. you're planning to do and you can't expect them to read your mind and they know it, so you take their opinion and give it the value it deserves, but they can't see who you are or what your plans are.

They inevitably see what you did and don't say, "I got it," but they inevitably say, "I understand why you did that." I didn't see it that way and there's no way you could have explained that to me. so there is a place for your advice and it really is a valuable place, but it shouldn't, at least in my case, it doesn't dictate my feelings and bet every time, nothing is certain, I mean, there is an alternative. dimension where that didn't go so well, yeah that would have been the lesson you learned, oh man I really shouldn't have taken that risk with comedy, you took a risk and it paid off so we all win, but if there is many different situations where they could have blown up in your face, yes, but there is no way to know.

I mean, you just have all your weapons and now that's what keeps me in business, is the challenges of not being rude, beating myself, you know? I didn't see you do whiplash, we haven't seen you do that. I don't send out of nowhere that you kill. You just kill him easily. It could have been very exaggerated. I'll turn the guy down. There is no miles ATM. saying that, but was he an example of a big risk taken and it working out well? I love those things, I love them. I have a question after this is similar to easy, easy, you know, I think there is a certain and a lot of these people I ask, I want to believe that this is not the case, but there is a certain lack of imagination that happens sometimes in the city.

They gave you the last thing you did. If there's a little bit of success, they're like, "Okay, perfect JK, we've got this new thing." The role for you is this type of manic, crazy authority Type of authority or similar to any of the roles you just played for me, those are the easy ones, you know where I'm going, come on guys, you're smarter than that, you must, you must know it. I think right after Glee there were several teen roles that were very similar to Glee, and hey, I'm a hand, see well, I guess you believed that.

Greg did my job, but now that. you know, but now after Versace it's like, oh, we have this weird, creepy kind of killer and Mike, come on guys, react exactly, we just did that, so where is this? There is a mark that happened exactly, it is inevitable and that has been around Gable, it was a mark discovered. Jimmy Stewart's personality was written that way, between the protagonist and the character actor right where they are, they're an audience. I think he has a predisposition to what to expect from you as a character actor. I think his knees will buckle. a little deeper, like I'll go wherever he wants to take me, where's the protagonist?

I think the lead went and made an incredibly arch character. The audience might be a little easy to pump, a little, you know, take me to that. kind of swing that you know over the course of two or three movies before you know, go with the limp and the accent in the lazy eye, you know, no, I think the risk that the actor wants to take you also know how long you take the risk they want what kind of opportunity do they want to take on the next role do they want to stay safe and do something they've done before just so you know, paychecks or whatever, and if your career is in a position to do exactly that with Fahrenheit, it was a in which you initially said you were not interested in the role in the project why and what led you to yes, I was not interestedspecific, which is the audience is represented as some kind of normal guy who gets to inhabit the center of the story and is your lens through which you observe and experience this strange plot or group of people or scary guy or funny guy that I like be. us and maybe that's just an extension of my fascination with my directing right now, but I'm really enjoying it instead of playing a bunch of different characters and maybe you know, two years, five years, ten years, whatever.

It may change, but that's me. I'm looking into that right now having said that as soon as he said, I said I would love to play a woman, I would really, really enjoy it, but in a very real way, I mean a Tutsi version. be pretty cool when there's a wink, but then there's also the plane landing every once in a while and there's some sort of real introspection there to not suggest that that movie needs to be remade, which it never should, but it will because that's In the World. the one we live in now, you just play the husband scenario, instead you have questions like I don't know what it is, but I love animation so I think being able to voice an animated character is pretty cool.

It would be very fun, I think it's very difficult to convey that emotion, you know, sitting in a studio and actually trying to embody Kari animated, it's a journey because you depend on the animation process to match what you've done with your voice or go against that, it's, it's this teamwork that you are, you're completely out of it, it was guys, you obviously come from a very long career, yeah, God. I don't know, I'm trying to get back on stage, that's another one, oh yes, yes, yes, a lot, but what do you wish for Holly? Because she was very specific for a long time.

I mean, I've been counting this project. about the guy you know, Griffith Park in Los Angeles, the guy who gave Griffith Park to the observatory, yeah, Ellis was a Welshman, Cole Griffith Jenkins Griffin, and his life reads like the script, okay and you can't get Let a man try to get it. I'm amazed okay Hollywood I would like to get this one yeah it was literally I just have to mention this because yesterday I was telling my friends what I was doing and my friends liked Jason Bay we know you should play a woman . He is nothing more than the answer to questions like what do you want to be thrown out, since I feel that each project is a constant negotiation between what you want, what you see yourself and what people see, what people believe what you are capable of doing and what you want them to know.

You're able to do, it's always this dance between what's released from the next project and it's interesting that you're really aware of the way that you're perceived and because yesterday is like Jason Bateman, he's like us. talking about Jimmy's story, he was like Jimmy Stewart's ultimate straight man, he's like the 21st century straight man and he does it so well and with so much variation, but he's always in it and I was thinking I don't think so. that he would appreciate it. If I said that to him, but the fact that you're aware of that, yeah, something you like is great to me.

I love it, I love it because without it there are a lot of things that can't work, so I like it. the responsibility to take an interest in knowing who you are okay if you're looking at the landscape of film or television from last year what was your favorite performance or one of your favorite performances is not yours oh you can't you can't work with my actor favorite, I can think of the movie, but there were a few different performances in the movie, which was three billboards, I mean Sam Rockwell, I guess that was just the first name out of my mouth, yeah, it packed a big punch, brilliant . just, yeah, fixed, Sam's been, he always plays his ball hard, yeah, he's great, nobody doesn't like something.

Rob, well, it sounds like loving accepting Woody every time, yeah, well, I mean, having everyone looking down, really, really, I mean, it's them. You're really good, you could name five six seven eight after a project, no um this is so hard, it's nothing, it's not the one I'm looking for. I'm going back to New York in May and I'm looking forward to seeing Denzel, you know, he's a good man, I'm looking forward to seeing three tall women and seeing Glenda Jackson misdirecting Billy Crudup, he's just incredible as a one-woman show, I mean, those are things you don't want to hear, you know that works too if your co-stars were going to describe you in a few words that's what they would say they could Oh God, the strength of the candles will delight you both and I hope it's favorable yes yes yet I'm thinking of performances that I like this pass yes when you run on a show, it starts at the top, you set the right tone, you try, but the news and I cringe because the newsroom was very demanding from the point of view of the dialogue.

I don't know about the Americans, but we were loaded, yeah, there was no room for not knowing in a good way. I mean, you know how you know today Shakespeare drowns if you're not completely out of the book every day, every episode for seven months, you're studying for finals for seven months, that's what You have to do by being number one on the call sheet, which is a responsibility because you walk in and stand there at 6:30 in the morning with no sides and still who's with me, yeah, and you find out very quickly in that show.

Yeah, because of the amount of dialogue, that's the only way to do it and the second day all the parties were like hmm and those were all those theaters April Sadowski and Pill and all those people were just Sam, I mean, Oakley, that's it. what we. You're going to do very well, so it's a harder place to go to work because it won't be tolerated if you come in and don't know it, especially in a scene with me because I'll chew you up, oh I will, yeah. we just based it not maliciously but purely now I'm not ready you're going to be exposed because I'm going to bury you you know what he's doing yeah I'm going to bury him because this is my program I said this is how we do it here I don't No matter what you do elsewhere, yes, that's how we do it here and it worked.

We had a couple players come in and the flop started sweating because they didn't do it all the way and it's for their own benefit. Yeah, ten pages, I know, and of course, yeah, Michael, you said that you came, you and you, you did the backstory, that you have notebooks and notebooks full of backstories, yeah, right, uh, Mead notebooks like the ones I have a lot of. like a diary of all my characters from the first memory to page one of the scripts and everything I ate what is my favorite color what was my experience yes, I have brothers what is their relationship do you know how he is treated in the school what you know literally the most colorful imagination you can have for each character that fits you know and then actually, you know, you talk to the director whatever their idea is for the character and it's kind of a collaboration. and you just make it up, you know, and this allows you to contextually know what to go to if you ever get lost, you know, like you know if you're in a specific scene and you feel it.

Be lost and you are trying to find it. I'll just write on the back of the sides like what I did that day that morning before or whatever with that character, my character's whole perspective, POV, in that I just found that for me. um the easiest way to stay focused on what - who else is playing, which is awesome, first of all, great, you know you take your job seriously and in a role, you know where you are, where you're collaborating with your director in your writer, you know it's a beautiful thing to be able to do and when you have that why not, like I mean, it's varied, you know, by project and by kind of period in my life, but when you're doing it in a long narrative, you know when you're doing it, you know broadcast news or Oz or you know whatever, you create that backstory for yourself and then in episode 34 you know they write something. oh, okay, yeah, you didn't get the backstory that I wrote it?

Neither book makes much sense. I guess I've only played four characters in that case, yeah, yeah, when you know it starts in the middle and I think that makes sense. we're ending with if you could go back and tell your younger self that I'm starting out in this industry, what would you say, what's the advice you would give, what would you be right not to do, oh yeah, sciences, I wish I had I didn't buy the attitude of that I should have been renting there are peaks and there are valleys and the way you enter that valley dictates how you come out of it, your ability to come out of it in terms of confidence, self-esteem and identity. and if that's related to your ability to be employed, then things might be challenging because you can't control that and it's not a meritocracy, you know, so if you're really good at what you do, you can't count on it. get hired, so any confidence you have has to be, you know, substantiate it with something beyond what you know, get hired, sure, yeah, I have no idea, I mean, I'm still comparatively new at this and I'm constantly learning, so I feel like I have, this is a bit of a cliche answer, but I've made all the right mistakes, you know, so I wouldn't want to interrupt the time continuum, little by little, redirecting it.

I feel like all the things that I did led me to this

roundtable

with you, I mean, like you all contributed to my acting career, so as I feel good, your youngest self is 11 years old. I would say no. let the business kill the love for the reason why you got into this and you haven't, oh no, there are those means there, I sometimes with the college students and I had referenced Aaron because he went to the initials of the university about it, but you can't. Teach him about rejection, you can't prepare him for that and in the end we will go to someone else.

You know the cabin and you, the bitterness, the depression, the day, all those things that come because of the peaks and valleys. of a career, don't let this kill the love between action and cutting, hold on to that because you're going to need that, that's what I would tell them, yeah, you haven't made enough mistakes yet, maybe you'll make more mistakes , and when you do it fail and when you do it, good actor you were before, that came, wait, wait, I know I'm sorry, I'll do it friend because I know my glib answer to what I would tell my younger self about what I would be.

Not to, but honestly, and this is, I'll give credit to the guy I first heard say that it was Mark Ruffalo, who said, I, I, I, I would look my young aspiring actor in the eyes and see it. It'll be fine if that means you're going to have this fabulous career and become Mark Ruffalo and become an actor you either know or don't know, or that you end up going in a different direction, but it will be. okay yeah thanks guys thanks thanks hi I'm JK Simmons beat Michael B Jordan thanks for watching The Hollywood Reporter The Hollywood Reporter The Hollywood Reporter

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