Amy Adams & Andrew Garfield | Actors on Actors - Full Video

Why these two films and why these two parts and why, you know, why? Why? What was it that drew you to? To these particular roles at this particular time? Sure. In your life? I accepted the roles about a year apart and then shot them about a month apart. So it's kind of that and then they're coming out a week apart. Interesting. So there you go, yeah. You did a lot of math. I think I was at a point where I was becoming a little bit more reflective about choices that we make and kind of how to be more accepting, how to be accepting of myself. And these roles came around and there was something about each of the characters that had to do with their relationship with themselves and how they communicate with other people and how they deal with consequences of choice. And that was really interesting to me. And of course, you know, you get to meet the awesome directors and that always helps. Let's go. Yeah, fine. They need to see me. I love that and I shared that feeling of I can't go to work, I don't think, unless it's going to somehow serve or where I'm at in my life is going to serve the thing. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, have you ever, because this has happened to me before, where you've accepted something and then the year that goes by where they get it together, now you no longer relate with the character and you're like, oh, wow, I have to revisit. Yeah, it's an interesting thing. But then when that has happened, I've kind of trusted that even if I think, oh, no, I'm past that, I'm good, I don't need to figure that stuff out anymore. I have to kind of trust that maybe it's not done with me, even if I think I'm done with it. So when you look at roles, I know you were talking that you like to sort of conserve a purpose for what you are experiencing in your life. And vice versa. And vice versa, exactly. Do you feel like your two films did that at that time? Was that something you were examining? Yeah, definitely. I'm still reflecting on it and why those two films were so vital for me to do in that last year. And it was one year and they're kind of similar in theme. They deal with faith. They deal with the destruction of the ego. They deal with sacrifice. They deal with being deeply misunderstood. Is that something you often feel or that you fear? I fear being misunderstood, so I'll give you that if that helps you. That really does help me. Thank you so much. Now, I don't know if you're bullshitting. No, no, I'm not at all. No, I do. I mean, to make it a bit more macrocosmic, I think it's endemic in our culture right now. There's a lot of over-communication. There's a lot of over-expression of see me deeply. See me, see me, see me with social media and that kind of stuff. I feel like there's a lot of people who are terrified of not being seen deeply, not being understood and not being accepted and loved for who they are. I don't understand. I can't hear you. So both the characters have to go through their own kind of crucible, really, of accepting that thing that Jesus did in front of Pontius Pilate when Pontius Pilate says, tell me you're the son of God, tell me you're the son of God. And all he said was, no, I know who I am. I don't need to tell you who I am. I know who I am. But I think that's something that is a whole lifetime's work. I don't believe that these two films have healed that in me. I think I have a long, long way to go. But even to be where you are and at your age and examining that is really... At the age of 59. 59, yeah. No, but I mean, I feel really lucky that I got to examine that stuff in work. And I don't think films get made often about themes that are so kind of wide, all-encompassing, and impossible to find any real final answer to. Absolutely. It's like working within a poem or something. Absolutely. Both of my films were like that as well, where the ending, for some, will be really moving and rewarding, for some, ambiguous, for some, sad. The audience is able to put their own experience onto the film, and I think that's... When you don't tell people what to think, it gets them thinking, and I like that. Absolutely, yeah. It's great. I feel like both of my films got to do that. Do you feel like your films had that impact as well? I think especially... You know, it's interesting seeing the response to Mel's film, to Hacksaw Ridge, because... Mel Gibson. Mel Gibson, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. Mel, Mel, Melvin Gibson. I know who you're talking about. Yeah, Mel Gibson, full name Mel Gibson. And I'm fascinated by the response to it, you know? You have... Because for me, it's a story of love. For me, it's a story of... It's a pacifist in the middle of terrible violence, but then you have a lot of... You know, people are taking really opposing things from it. It's very bipartisan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Interesting. It's really interesting. I'm so curious. I had a really very specific reaction to it, because, you know, in the wake of trying times, sometimes it's hard to know what your path is, you know? And you really feel like you should be called to action, but sometimes just being quiet and waiting to hear what you're supposed to do. I like that about your character. Yeah. Yeah, he didn't move until he really felt the thing he was meant to do. And I think that's a wonderful message, is that sort of calm. Yeah. Be calm until you hear the voice. Whatever that voice is, it's different for everybody. And I think it's applicable to acting. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's very true. Let's not get in the way of being infused with whatever wants to be... Absolutely. ...to work through us. We were talking about it a little bit earlier, and about how tricky this stuff can be. Yeah. Feeling, especially in the celebrity culture, of self-aggrandisement and glorification. Yeah. And yet, I think I can speak for both of us, that we believe in the power of storytelling. Yeah. And what you were saying earlier, which I loved so much, we're sat here with a camera... Couple of them. ...and a bunch of people, and we're not representing us. We're representing, what you said, the person that freshened up the blood on my... Yeah. ...and who made sure that your hair was perfectly imperfect every single take-to-take. Absolutely. The extras who were beating the crap out of each other off-screen, just so that myself and Luke Bracey could feel like we were in a war situation. Mm-hmm. And I think this is, if anything, a great opportunity for a gratitude ritual or something. Absolutely. I mean, it's a hard thing when you're not comfortable putting yourself... I think people don't believe that about actors. No. They don't like to be in the spot. People are like, well, you picked the wrong career. Yeah, I know. But I wasn't very good at it when I started, so I didn't think it would ever... But anyway, it does help me, if I can think about all of the people that... Me stepping in front of the film, and it helps them get their work seen. It's important. And it's the same thing, I think, about choosing roles as well. That thing of, like, waiting to be called. You know, I don't know about you, but I've had opportunities to do things that would have looked very good. Yeah. And I was told by the culture, this is, like, what the hell aren't... Why wouldn't you? Yeah. Very hard, as you were saying, to stay still and quiet and kind of swim upstream and go, you know, I can't... I don't know. Oh, yeah. I didn't start working until I was... I mean, I worked, but I didn't work regularly until I was in my early 30s. Mm-hmm. I mean, so, like, two years ago. Well, no, I mean, that's absolutely believable. No, well, I'm... In all seriousness, like, I'm 42, and I talk about it openly, because I think women in their 40s and 50s and beyond rock, so... Hear, hear. So, for me, there was a lot of times where I really had to be calm and trust. Mm-hmm. And if it wasn't meant to happen, it wasn't meant to happen. Right. And not try to force something that wasn't going to be organic. Right. I think I tried. I used to, like, go into auditions and act like actresses who were getting the parts. Like, it was so silly. I was such a nerd. Like, I think there's some where I was... I won't say who, because I don't want to insult anybody, but I would definitely go in and, like, have, like, a weird tick and, like, think, like, that was the thing that was going to, like... That's what they want. And I, like, didn't quite understand it, so... It's hard. It's hard. It took me a long time to trust. Yeah. And for me, and that's a forever unfolding process for me. I think it's going to be constant for me until, you know, until the end of my life. I think I'm always going to be heading towards that very open place. And I get flashes of it, and it's just divine. I know those moments. Divine moments. They last, like, 30 seconds. 30 seconds. Like that. It's, like, usually right before you fall asleep, and then you never remember what that thing is. Like, I've had an epiphany, but I don't remember what it was. Neil Young would have a recurring dream of the perfect melody. Really? And he wakes up, and he always forgets it. And it's that. Do you have any recurring dreams? Yeah. Just curiously. I do. Like, thematically, or, like, the exact same dream? Well, I have a childhood... I have a recurring dream since I've had since childhood. I don't know if I want to particularly go into it. You don't have to. I don't know if it's all that interesting, but I do have a very vivid dream life. And I kind of... You do? Yeah. You were saying, because during... Wait, no, we were talking about Arrival and... Oh, yeah. But did that affect your dreams at all? It didn't. You know, when I work, I'm usually so exhausted, I don't remember my dreams as much. You black out. I just black out sleep. Yeah, which is nice. Great. No, I've been having a lot of crazy dreams. I have a reoccurring, like, place in... I think it's Morocco, and it's, like, a market that I need to get to. And I'm always, like, taking different people trying to get to this market. What's happening in the market? Like, good deals, or something, like, completely... Good deals! Good deals. Like, it's nothing good. Yeah, exactly. But I'm in Morocco every time, or something like that. What do you associate with Morocco? I don't know. I really have no idea. Try. I haven't... Right now? Yeah, right now. I'm not going to get into it if you're not going to get into it. I don't know. Adventure, travel, open, different cultures. Maybe that's what it is. Maybe it's about... Some longing there. Yeah, maybe there's just trying to open up to different experiences. I can be a homebody. Ah, so there's this psyche wanting balance. Maybe. I don't know, I don't know. Or just a good deal. Or just some silver bracelets, and you can really, you know, talk them down. Everything you do in here, I have to explain to a room full of men whose first and last question is how can this be used against us? So you're going to have to give me more than that. Kangaroo. But tell me about how you prepared for Arrival. And I just need to say, for the record, I was weeping openly throughout it, and I found it to be so profound, and it transcended going to a movie for me. It felt... I was given information from it by watching it. I was given information for my own life. Thank you. And it was so much to do with what you did and what you managed to somehow do in terms of... I don't know what it was. It was something mysterious that you did, and those are the performances that I feel forever, like, inspired by and chasing that white rabbit. That's the white rabbit for me, so thank you. So anyway, how did you... Thank you. How did you do that? Well, I will say, in response to that compliment, Denis Villeneuve, the director, is so wonderful at allowing actors to live in a place where you feel safe. He's a compassionate director. You know, he really seems to have respect for what the actors do, and he creates an environment on set that supports the tone he's looking for, and that's so special. But in prepping for the role, it was a tricky one, because I have to sort of play two things at the same time that can support a first viewing than any viewing beyond, so there was just a lot of... You're flying through levels of consciousness in it. Yeah. Denis talked about, you know, wanting her to feel completely off-balance and have a sense of vertigo. I ended up with a really bad stomach ache the whole time. Did you? Yeah, the medic was sure I had, like, a virus. I'm like, no, I just think it's me acting. Wow. Me being an actor. I agree. No, but you're so sensitive. Yeah, well, you put it, you know. But in prepping, I mean, I was talking about it a little bit with you before, about sort of... My technique's really weird, and it's sort of the same for every character, but I discover different things in the process of just creating memory, so I guess that... Creating memory. Can you talk about that a little bit for our viewers at home? Yeah. Well, creating memory, creating experiences in detail, so that, you know, there's a theory where you can sort of trick your mind and body into having experienced something, so I go back and I kind of rebuild a life for my character, but what's great is I don't own any of it, so I can go home to my daughter and feel really separate, and when I haven't done that work, when I've worked on sets where I haven't really done that kind of work, I end up damaging my psyche a little bit. Interesting. Or if a director requires me to step out of that, which is fun and great, but it has to be in the right environment for me not to damage my psyche. So for me, that's how I sort of keep myself in check. Yeah. And I would go so far as to say, in line with the theme of the film, of Arrival, you know, what I heard you say was I make things up and I can leave them alone because they're not actually my memories. Yeah. But I like the idea that they are your memories somehow. I guess so. I like that this is woo-woo stuff, but I like it. What's amazing is I can go back and start talking about a character, and I'm right back there because it lives in me. It's no less real than... I can still talk about a scene from Junebug and I really start, like, I can feel what the character feels, which makes me feel like a crazy person. But at the same time... By kind of regular cultural standards, maybe. Yes, yeah, there you go. But I think maybe by shaman standards, you would be kind of normal. What about you in preparation? Did you do, you know, what kind of, did you do like the boot camp and all that great stuff? Because you looked really athletic. Oh, thanks so much, Amy. But also, there was something so believable about your portrayal and his sense of faith. It's an interesting thing. I had a year before I shot both of these films back-to-back almost, and in the year I had where I didn't work and I grew a beard and I made myself look as horrible as possible. I do that every morning, actually. You grow a quick beard. I wake up like that. No, I'm kidding. And I kind of became a hermit for a year and it was an amazing, blessed time. I got to study with a man called Father James Martin who is a Jesuit priest in New York. So the first thing I shot was the Scorsese film Silence in Taiwan. So the year was prepping for that. Oh, wow. And it led directly into Hacksaw Ridge where I play another man of faith who's struggling with his conviction and faith. And a world telling him that he is insane, which he kind of was. But anyhow, I had a year with Mrs. Scorsese and with Father Martin. Father Martin became my spiritual director and I'd never done something so specific and detailed and rigorous. I've always had a longing because I wasn't raised anything. I was raised with a question mark in terms of a spiritual life. My mother, I would say, is a pantheist. My father is Jewish but doesn't practice. I think he was atheist until very recently, actually. Until actually I started becoming an actor where suddenly our conversations started to create more connection for him with his world. Because his deferred dream was to be a screenwriter. He never did it. He became a businessman and a swimming coach. And I think as soon as I started foraying into storytelling and the arts, something in him woke up. And suddenly through me, he was getting connected to something that was much more profound than he was used to and that he knew, but he didn't allow himself to know. But outside, I had a year with Father Martin and he took me through the spiritual exercises, which is this thing, this set of exercises that you do, you go through over the course of a 30-day period. It's a spiritual retreat that St. Ignatius of Loyola created. And it's basically a meditation with the life of Jesus Christ. And you go from his birth to his resurrection. But kind of like what you were saying, we were talking about earlier, in terms of creating memory, you imagine yourself into the life of Christ enough so that I think about it now and I feel like I have an actual, I'm about to sound as crazy as you feel you did, I have an actual relationship to Jesus. Okay, there it is. I said it and we're going to move on from it. And I say it with awareness of the kind of weirdness of it. But no, it's a very sincerely transformative process that this man created, this saint created, and it's changed the lives of millions and millions of people. It's actually the basis for all 12-step programs. Really? Yeah. A Jesuit and Bill, whoever Bill is, created AA. That's amazing. Yeah, created Alcoholics Anonymous based on the spiritual exercises. So that was a big part of it. Well, I don't think it sounds crazy. Thank you, but I wonder what you think. We're going to be right back. Call in with whether you think we sound crazy or not. We're back. No, but I think that everybody, I think seekers find a relationship with something, right? That's sort of the idea of being a seeker is finding something larger than yourself and however that manifests. Proud and stubbornness. Don't confuse your will with the Lord's. Maybe I'm prideful, but I don't know how I'm going to live with myself if I don't stay true to what I believe. Being Spider-Man is a lot different responsibility than being Lois Lane, you know? Is it though, Amy? I don't know, probably. I mean, it's, I don't know. Is it? I mean, we're both playing characters that have been sort of beloved. Canonized. Yeah, exactly. But in a way, I think of it sort of like theatre because in theatre, roles get played time and time again with different interpretations. So I never feel like I own the role. Ownership, no. Yeah, exactly. Me neither. Do you enjoy working in that universe? I mean, that's a very easy question or a hard question. I don't know. I think every, I'm, those are the only two, I did two of those films, and it was a very specific experience, and I imagine, I imagine it'll be different every time. Those are the two big, big budget films I've done. Yeah. And it was its own thing. So I'm loath to judge that experience and kind of paint that whole. Of course. But there were great things about it. I got to work with incredible actors, a really great director, and they were really, really tricky. I found, I was very young for a man. I was 25, 26, and I felt young in retrospect. And I'd only done a few films, and I was feeling so, like, in the right place. Yeah. And like I knew, like I was being guided somewhere. And doing the Spider-Man stuff, I felt guided into it. I knew it was the right thing for me to do. And I learned a lot about what feels good and what doesn't feel good. Yeah. And what to say yes to. Like those tight suits don't feel so good, huh? That's just, you're just scratching the surface. I know, I understand. But, so it's like, I was thinking about it today, actually. I was young, I was young, and I think it's a difficult, you know, not as young as someone like, you know, the young guy playing it now, Tom Holland, who's a fantastic actor, by the way. But there's something about being that young in that kind of machinery, which I think is really dangerous. And I wasn't young, I wasn't a teenager, but I was still young enough to struggle with the value system, I suppose, of corporate America, really. It's really a corporate enterprise, mostly. That's the leading... Well, you're doing something in service of something. You know what I mean? Like the character is serving the story or serving a canon as opposed to all of that serving, this is how I feel, serving the character. Do you know what I mean? Right. Like that's the tricky thing with Lois that I find, is that I feel like I love playing her, I love everyone I work with, but sometimes it's tricky because I feel like she's in service of the story instead of the story serving the character. And I think that sometimes can be tricky when you show up and you really want to retain a character and you have to serve a story. Does that make sense? I think so, yeah. In a perfect universe, they all work together. That's what I was about to say. I always want to service the story, but I want to feel supported in the character as well. Absolutely, and they are one in the same thing. Yes. I can see how what I said sounds wrong. No, but I think it's clear now. But I think there is something that happens in those... I don't know what your experience was, but my experience is something that happened with that experience for me where story and character were actually not top of the priority list, ultimately. Got it, yeah. And I found that really, really tricky. I signed up to serve the story and to serve this incredible character that I've been dressing as since I was three. And then it gets compromised and it breaks my heart. I understand that. I got heartbroken a little bit, to a certain degree. Not entirely. No, but I totally... Oh, sure. I've signed on to things for one reason and they've turned into something else. And it's always a little heartbreaking because you have to let go of that ideal. And it's kind of part of growing up, right? I think so, yeah. You sort of sign on for one thing and then you realise it's something else. And you have to mature through that and then come out with something learned for the next thing. But then does it make you even ever more discerning about what you can go to work on and where and how? I think having my daughter did that because if I'm going to be away from her... It's got to count. Yeah, it has to count. Oof. And I think I didn't realise that soon enough, having her, and I feel like I work too much. I love everything. I don't regret the work, but I regret the time missed. But I kind of thought, you know, I don't know what I was thinking. I don't know. It's weird, now that I... There's something really beautiful about regret. Yeah, isn't it? Because, well, if you're not going to repeat the actions, right? Exactly. Well, I think regret means that you won't. Yeah. If you accept... People just say, no regrets. I had a friend who's a tattoo artist. No regrets. And someone came in with a no regrets tattoo and she came in and said, I need you to remove this tattoo. Aww. And he was like, I can't. I can't. Aww. Do you understand why I can't? And she was like, no. And well... Yeah. Kind of no regrets, so I kind of just leave it on there. Yeah. But it's like... Yeah. I don't really abide by that. I don't either. I think regretting is kind of healthy. Well, I think I like... But I also take a lot of accountability for my own action. Mm-hmm. So I think that's important as well. And I think when you're somebody who does take accountability, you can have regret for, you know, having hurt somebody, or if we're looking at accepting a film, which really is not, hopefully, not my biggest regret. That means I'm not really doing it right. It's weird. I've been thinking about him a lot lately, and then recently he sent me this book that he's written, and it's violent, and it's sad, and he titled it Nocturnal Animals, and he dedicated it to me. So there's Nocturnal Animals as well. Yes, yes. And this is directed by Tom Ford, who's a fantastic filmmaker. Yeah. So tell us about that one. It's interesting, because that one deals a lot with regret. Does it? Speaking about regret. It does. I thought about it when you were talking about your dad and saying that he had wanted to be a screenwriter, and he just didn't sort of get into it. She had gone to school to be an artist, and she let it go to she became a gallerist. So she was still in it, but she decided she was too cynical, you know, and never let herself become the person that, like, she doesn't believe that she could be the person that she envisioned herself to be. You know, she didn't have enough faith in herself. But working with Tom, it was interesting, because I wasn't familiar with his story as a designer or his personal story, and when the film came up, I knew his previous film, and I thought, well, okay, I'll go meet with him, but I was completely intimidated, because I'm not trying to, you know, put myself down, but I don't think that I'm at Tom Ford's standards, like, in my head, as far as, like, what a woman should be, you know, like, very poised and pressed and elegant. But when I sat with him and started to connect with him and stopped thinking about my own insecurities, I realized that this story felt very personal to him, and that became a really fascinating thing to me, because it was personal to me, the idea of the person we become and sort of what we've let go of to become the people we've heard along the way and the regrets that we have. And it's told in a really interesting way, and Tom does a really great job taking you out of time and space, and he uses music, this beautiful score, it's stunning, and Seamus, Seamus, see, you want me to use last names, I'm like, Seamus, you know how you work with people? And you're like, Seamus! Seamus, Seamus, Seamus. But we have an amazing cinematographer, so all of that, how he was going to use sound and light and camera to take us in and out of story and reality and past and present, it seemed like a really good challenge, and I like a challenge. But I do, I loved the character's story and sort of getting to know Tom in that way. I actually just watched a documentary about him after I worked with him, and I saw him last night, and I'm like, you have done a lot, young man, and he was like 50-something, I'm like, I didn't even know that. He looks 22. He does, and he has so much energy and passion and excitement for everything, and so that's fun, to get to be around that and get to participate in that sort of world, the world of Tom Ford, you know. Is it a world? It is a world, but it's not inaccessible, you know. It's not? No, I mean, it can seem that way from the outside if you just sort of put that on it, but when you sort of get into his psyche and how he relates with the world. God, I love that so much. But it's about, like, texture. You know, it's as simple as, for him, it's as simple as, oh, I just love the texture of something. I love that. Nice, nice. I mean, are you ever intimidated by directors? Because I would think with Mel Gibson and with Scorsese that that would be, I mean, you probably don't need to be. I would be intimidated, but do you? I am, of course. But I was thinking about it when you were talking about Mr. Ford and about how things seem versus how things are. And if you know anyone's story, you love them kind of thing. And that's, like, that's why we tell stories, one of the reasons, I think. So, of course, like, meeting Mel, you know, there's so much baggage there, and there's so much projection, there's so much perspective and perception that may or may not be real and what's real and what's not. So I went in with all of that, and I met him, and, yeah, it was just one of those things where you're just kind of hanging out with an actor friend, and you're kind of bullshitting and talking about nothing and everything simultaneously. And it was very, very... I was very, very quick to love him and to see him deeply, and it was very, very easy to say yes to going to work with him. You know, the fact that he's a tremendous filmmaker was a given. Yeah. And the way he tells the story I find to be totally visceral... ..and human and not for... You know, as he says himself, he doesn't make food for the elite. You know, he makes, like, home cooking for the masses, really. But it's like medicine, I think. Yeah. It's not cynical. It's deeply human, what he does, I think. And the same thing with Mr Scorsese, I was, of course... It's like you kind of did him a little when you said that. You what? Scorsese. Did I have that little lip? I think you kind of went into it. I like that. I was terrified, really. I really was. And especially because he's been wanting to make this film for 28 years, and it was my first audition in a long time. I hadn't auditioned for a while. Oh, yeah. And me and a few other guys auditioned, and it was wonderful. I'm so glad we did. Michael Stuhlbarg was reading off camera. And he's fantastic. And you worked with him on Arrival, right? I did, yeah. Wonderful actor. And so then there was that. It was terribly intimidating. He tried to put me at ease, but I was not put at ease-able in that moment. I think I was just surrendered to the fact that I'm not going to be at ease. And then he asked me to do it. And then we had like a three-hour dinner talk. And then on, once every week, we would get together and just... get out of words about the poem of this film. Because it's really not... It's so... It's deeply mysterious and multilayered. And we would always end up with about five to six minutes of silence at the end of each talk. And I would wait for him to say, OK, kid, all right, till next time. And that was it. That's awesome. And he's just a dad. And he's a dad. And he's become a real elder. He's become a true elder of our community. He's not an old person. He's an elder. In the sense that he's nurturing and mentoring young filmmakers. It's not happening often. I think about that often as an actress. I need it, dude. With younger actresses. I mean, actors, yes. But definitely younger actresses, bringing them in and sort of... Yeah. I need it, and I want to give it to... Maybe you and I should start a mentor program for young actors. I actually do. I like that idea. I actually do like that idea. But I think we need Mark Rylance to come and put his hand on my shoulder and tell me I'm doing all right. You know what I mean? Working with Meryl, I got to work with her twice. And she, without being a mentor, she is a mentor. Just because she does it right. She lives right. She has a balance and a perspective that I feel is something to aspire to. Beautiful. I had that with Mike Nichols a little bit. He was that for me as well. He was fantastic. I loved him. He called me Amala. He's the only person. Amala. He somehow made everyone feel like themselves. He saw people so truly. Yeah. There's been a couple really special people I've worked with like that.