Greta Lee Shows Jimmy How She Ran Like Tom Cruise for Tron: Ares (Extended) | The Tonight Show

You're big time now, are you kidding me? I am, I am. The cover of Vogue? Hello! You're talking about Vogue? It's amazing. Congratulations! Thank you so much. I actually haven't seen the hardcover version. Isn't that weird? That's like, that's amazing. Congratulations. Yeah. Well deserved. What a year you're having. Yeah! I'm a fan of yours. I love your acting. Dramatic acting. But I also know that you're very funny as well. Oh, yeah. And I was gonna... You are. Yeah, we'll see. You already got a laugh already, yeah. Did you ever think, ever in your life, oh, I would go into comedy or do... Oh, no, no, no. Ever? No. I, growing up, like, being funny was not an option for me, you know? Oh, really? It wasn't considered a desirable thing. Like, I grew up, my parents immigrated from Korea and, you know, there's a lot of, like, church, Korean church and tough crowd, you know? Okay, yeah, okay. It's like, you would make a joke, it's like, oh, what's wrong with her? Is she sick? Is she not feeling well? Does she need to go home? Really? Yeah, so... I don't know, but the Korean parents, they don't... Yeah, it's like, they wanted me to be a lady and, like, we weren't exactly the family who grew up watching SNL, you know what I mean? Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Did they support you throughout your career, growing up? Yeah, I mean, my dad's favorite thing is that I am medium famous. You're joking me. Come on. No way. Yeah. Medium famous? Well, he likes to check in with me and measure, you know, so where are we now? Are we at medium? Are we at medium yet? That is so funny. Yeah. But they can... Dad, it's all over. I can keep watching. She's pretty famous famous. Yeah, she's, yeah. Not medium famous anymore, Dad. Sorry. Hope you enjoyed that period of time. Greta Lee is a household name now, yeah. Actually, now that you've said it on television, that will mean a lot. That will mean a lot. Okay, yeah. I know they got to be super proud of you. They are. They're so proud. This is crazy. Yeah. I mean, it's crazy to me. Let's get into Tron areas. This is... We had Jared Leto on the show last night. How'd it go? Terrible. Oh, man. He's one of our favorites. I love him. But he's a method actor. I know that. Oh, yes. Like, when he was the Joker, he came on as the Joker. Oh, like here? Yeah, he came backstage as the Joker and he gave me like a snake or something. Oh, yeah. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Like, for real? Yeah. I was like, I don't want it. What do we do with the snake? Yeah. I don't want to mess with the Joker either. I'll wait until he plays a different role and then they give the snake back to him. Yeah. Hey, if you see the Joker, let him give him the snake back. Yeah. Okay, here's the thing with him. I am very respectful of everyone's different processes. Acting is weird and hard and, you know, it's impossible in a lot of ways. So I kind of feel like, yeah, whatever it takes. But I've never worked with a true method actor before and I kind of found it great. He was very clear. He told me, I think he texted me, hey, so, you know, welcome to Tron. Just so you know, I'm going to be Ares on set. And I was like, cool, bruh. Okay. Yeah. Ares. Sure. Yeah. And he said, I like to conserve energy. So I'm not going to be talking on set. So, you know, that's what's going on for me. And as a mother of two young kids, I was like, heaven. This guy is the best. Thank you. This is the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Let's conserve our energy and not talk. You hear that, kids? Let's conserve our energy a little bit. What do you think? Let's all not talk. It's like now that we've finished, it has honestly been a little confusing because Jodie Turner Smith, who plays Athena, she's amazing, and Jeff Bridges, we were all sort of comparing notes and we realized he was doing something different with each of us. Oh, wow. Yeah. And I told Jodie, I was like, yeah, wild, right? Like Ares, like the notes from Ares, you know, like have a good day, Ares. She was like, I didn't get to call, he told me to call him Jared. So she was like, what? And she was almost jealous. She was an enigma. But then I was like, we were trying to do the math of like, which is better? Is it more of a compliment to be invited to join in the- Or be in character? Who knows? And Jeff Bridges got to call him Ares. What? Like they're best friends? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. He said working with Jeff Bridges was kind of awesome. I mean, he's the best. He's the dude. He's incredible. He's the greatest. Jeff Bridges, he's the actual, the dude. Yeah, that's him. That's him. I'm so excited for everyone to see a clip of this. But before we get into it, there's something that happens in the movie where you end up going, you enter the grid. Yeah. Okay. So here's the thing, though. I have to give a little bit of context. I've never done action before. I've never done sci-fi before. This was a whole new world. You're great at it. Thanks. But it took a lot. I got a lot of help. I got, like, the guy who trains the Chrises and Brad Pitt. And me. I know the Chrises. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know. I love the Chrises. I think there's three of them, right? Yeah. I don't know how many there are, but I kind of asked. I know two right now. Two. Yes. Yeah. Definitely. But I said to this guy, this ex-Navy SEAL, I was like, just give me the combo platter of the Chrises with a side of Brad, and I think I'll be ready for the job. Well, you had a great, you had a good run to you, a good gate. Right. Almost a Tom Cruise-y run. Tom Cruise run. So I had to Google a lot. That, yeah, I don't know if you guys know, but acting is just Googling. So. That's not true. I had to Google how to ride a motorcycle. I can't drive stick. Me neither. I think I'm, like, a pretty normal person, you know. I'm 42. I was like, wow. Motorcycle riding, wire work, Tom Cruise running. And then. You Googled Tom Cruise running. I did. And I learned. There's so many acting challenges, and yeah, one of them is fake Tom Cruise running. And basically. Not an easy thing to do. What you have to do is you have to, and I'm going to make you do this too. You have to sometimes in the frame, this is kind of a show to speak, but you don't actually have the distance to run that far. So you have to sort of run in place, okay? And the trick is you pump your arms super fast. Like you're running, like, I don't know, like 20 miles per hour, okay? And you really have to commit to it. And your legs are doing tiny. Your feet are just doing this. Okay, look. I'm going to do it. And you know you're doing it right if it feels embarrassing, okay? That's how you know you're doing it right. So I don't know where I'm going to. What camera do we look at? I don't know. This one. Camera three? Okay. So here we go. So I'm running. Okay. It's been a while. Let's see if we still got it. Here she goes. Unbelievable. I will never forget that. Do it. That is really funny. But you have to imagine there's a crew of like 100 people watching you do this. Who want to go to lunch. Yeah. And they're like, Greta, will you get on this take? They're like, please, let's go. Just do it. All right. Yeah. But okay. So that's one acting challenge. There's a ton of acting challenges. I could open up a school, honestly. Let me see if I can try to do it here. So I look in camera one? Yeah. All right. And like throw. Think Tom Cruise. Throw? Think I am Tom Cruise. All right. It's all in arms. Go. You're so good. You're really good. I'm a method. I'm a method actor. You are. I have to be really running to look like I'm running. But honestly, that was really good. And you can occasionally throw a look back. Are you acting now? No. Yes, you're acting. You're still acting. I mean, your hands are a little jervil-y, I have to say. Jervil-y? That wasn't doing jervil-y. That wasn't doing that. You have to throw. I didn't know. I didn't know you could do that. I thought it was in the frame. I'm not. Hey. This movie's not a comedy. It's not. I'm not in this film. Yeah. Okay. All right. Maybe the sequel. I know. I need your help on the sequel. Are you game for the next Tron acting challenge? No. No, you're done. Yeah, so you want me to? It's entering the grid. Okay. All right? Yes. So, my first day on the job, all I see on the sides, it says, Eve Kim entering the grid. Yep. It's my first day. I'm in my trailer, and I'm freaking out, because how the hell do you enter a grid? What does it even mean? What does it mean, enter the grid? And I remember Kevin Flynn in the first one, he does this thing, and he kind of falls. Oh, this is like when the laser turns you digitally. Exactly. Turns you into digital and goes you into the digital world. Right. Clearly, we're scientists, because you're knowing what we're talking about. But your molecular structure gets reduced by a... How could you even act this? What do you do? All right. And if you're a real human being. Yes. And imagine you suddenly find yourself having entered the grid. I mean, you would poop your pants, basically. Right? Like, for real. And it's a Disney movie, you can't swear. No. So, the first time I tried it, it was terrible. I thought I was getting fired, because I basically did it for real. Like, I was like, this is a drama. Like, I'm going to go for it. Yeah. Eve Kim entered the grid. And the other trick is, you have to be completely still the moments before, because you're frozen, you can't blink. And so, you have to be completely still. And then, on three, I'm just going to do it badly. All right? I'll do what I did. And you say, three, two, one, action. Okay? Got you. Ready? Okay. Three, two, one, action. Oh! What the... Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What the... Okay. All right. So, that's... So, not so good. Not so good. That was the first take. Yeah. That was the first take. But now, you should try it. Wait, but I haven't gotten no notes. I've given you more than I had. Okay? So, just... So, don't do that. Don't. You can't swear. All right? Okay. And you're basically frozen. You can't move. Don't blink. And I'm going to go, three, two, one, action. And you're going to enter the grid. And take in your surroundings. I'm giving you too much already. Three, two, one, action. Oh! I was running everywhere. I entered the grid. I entered the grid and did what I had to do, man. I had to dodge whatever was coming at me. Light cycles, all sorts of stuff. That was an IMAX, man. Yeah. In IMAX. I was in vision. Real life IMAX, you guys. That was it right there. That's what I like to call it. I want to show a clip. Here's the master. Yeah, let's see a clip. The master, Greta Lee in Tron Ares. Take a look at this. Time to get back to the grid. Leave him alone! Move along! ♪♪ You're very persistent. You, sir. Yeah! Greta Lee! Tonight's show, stick around, everybody.