♪♪
Thank you.
Hey, welcome to "Off Script with The Hollywood Reporter."
I am your host, Yvonne Orji,
here at the Georgian Hotel in Santa Monica, California.
Today we are serving up some hot takes
with six A-list actors
from some of this year's award-contending films.
You're about to hear from Colman Domingo of "Rustin,"
Robert Downey Jr. Of "Oppenheimer,"
Paul Giamatti of "The Holdovers,"
Mark Ruffalo of "Poor Things,"
Andrew Scott of "All of Us Strangers,"
and Jeffrey Wright of "American Fiction."
They are on the record,
but just a little "Off Script with The Hollywood Reporter."
Over to you, Scott.
Thank you, Yvonne.
It is truly a pleasure to have with us
these six actors who did such outstanding work in 2023 films.
And welcome, everyone.
I want to begin by establishing the fact
that there are a lot of connections at this table.
So I'm going to just mention a few movies.
Am I going to hear stuff I don't want to hear?
[Laughter]
Uh-oh, forgotten some of this.1998, 25 years ago,
Mark Ruffalo and Paul Giamatti,
you were both in "Safe Men."
Do we have any memories of that?
Nice stache, bro.
That's it. That's the best line from the movie.
There you go.Now, that same year,
25 years ago, Paul Giamatti and you, Andrew Scott,
were both in "Saving Private Ryan."
How is that even possible?Is that true? What?
I was the guy in green.
[Laughter]
I loved him.Amazing. Fanta-- Nice work.
Oh, shit, I didn't even know.I didn't know that, either.
We worked together subsequently.
Yeah. I was gonna say.
Ten years after that,
the same two gentlemen, "John Adams."Yep. Sure.
"John Adams."I was the guy in the powdered wig.
Now, Mark Ruffalo and Jeffrey Wright,
Ang Lee's "Ride with the Devil."
Any memories of -- of that set?
Wright: True story.Yes.
I lied about being able to ride a horse.
I remember.
I remember very vividly walking past you.
You were tied to a fence post, if I'm not mistaken.
That's right. That's right.Beautiful beginnings.
I remember.
Now, Paul, you and Colman Domingo in 2013.Yes.
"All is bright."Oh, yes.
Domingo: Yes.Legendary "All is Bright."
That old chestnut.
Yeah, really. Yeah. Wow. Boy.
It was a Christmas movie. It's very dark, yeah.
Yes, it was.
Now, Paul and Jeffrey...A dark Christmas movie.
...both in "Lady in the Water," 2006...Yes.
...and "The Ides of March," 2011.
Wow. Oh, that's right, yeah.So there may be some, uh,
memories there.You're in everything.
Yes, I was really getting around, guys.Here we are.
Okay.Now, Robert and Mark, here at the end of the table,
it started with 2007's "Zodiac."
And then there was a whole bunch of movies.
Little, uh, company called Marvel,
I believe, you guys worked together.
Were you in that?Oh, wow.
Yes. After I convinced you.
That's true, though, right?
You were lobbying for Mark to do it.
I wouldn't be here today without you,
really, in so many ways. Aw.
And finally, I will note that not only is Colman Domingo
terrific in "Rustin," but so is Jeffrey Wright.
So there's two -- Right up through the present.
Wright: It's our first time working together.
So you're not only here because of your great work,
but you're also here of your great work
in the project he's doing.
Yes, yes.A bit of a crossover.
I'm just following Colman.No, no.
Colman's got two -- two going here.
I want to first go back and ask each of you
about sort of a pivotal turning point,
a decision in your career, and, Robert, your late father,
who you made this wonderful, uh, documentary -- Senior --
both with and about.
He was a pillar of the indie film community.
You started out very much in the indie art house, uh, scene,
but there was this moment when you're approached
by Marvel about "Iron Man."
Because of your background in indie film,
did you have any hesitation about taking them up on that?
So my dad raised me in this environment of
to be growing up was to be making movies
and then doing this documentary about him,
and then my missus, who produced it with Chris Smith,
having the tenacity to tell me
that I had to follow through with it
and not try to do a puff piece at all,
because our -- our history was so complicated,
that was really a big turning point.
And then shortly after that, Nolan called.
So you never know what happens when you realize, if you deal
with the things in your life that are so small
but so important,
it kind of opens gateways for the stuff that we think
is important, you know, or may be perceived as important.
You've said, and I'm going to quote you, quote back to you,
"I was raised in a family that rebelled against the idea
of a summer blockbuster having any merit.
I'm happy that I regained my connection
with a more purist approach to making movies,"
most recently with -- with "Oppenheimer."
But before -- I mean, just this idea
of stepping into that world, was it jarring?
No, because anyone who knows Jon Favreau knows that he is --
I mean, I remember seeing "Swingers"
and just that monologue he has,
and I was like, "And he wrote this?"
I was like, "Who is this guy?" Because there was no real surety
that this was even going to take off,
"Iron man" was like a second-tier hero.
They kind of let the lunatics
run the asylum for a little while, and we --
So it was completely an indie approach
to a -- a genre movie to begin with.
But I've seen that in all the films this year.
There's this thing happening,
I would say, particularly this year,
where I feel like many of us are afforded this opportunity
to kind of, like -- There's a little subversion
within the accessibility that I so appreciate.
Coleman, let's go back, if we can, to, I believe, 2005.
Oh, wow. Can you tell us about this one-man show
that really sort of turned things around?
Man, I was a bartender at a bar
in the West Village called, um, 55 Bar.
I would do whatever plays that I could do
and then run across town and finish my --
start my shift at 9:00 and go till 4:00 in the morning.
And then when I wasn't working, I was writing,
and I was trying to create something for myself
because, you know, I just -- I was just a frustrated artist.
And, um, between, like, when things --
when things would clear out about 1:00 in the morning,
I was writing, and I was putting on music,
and I was sort of writing about what was happening in my life.
Both my parents were suffering from different illnesses,
and they lived in, uh, Virginia, and I was just, you know,
still just trying to, you know, figure things out.
I lived in a terrible situation,
illegal sublet and everything.
So I was just, you know, hustling.
I really still can't, to this day,
remember if stories came first or the song came first,
but I was putting this thing together.
So the owner said, um "Hey, Coleman, I want to do some
theater or some projects on Sundays. Do you have anything?"
I'm like, "Yeah, let me try this stuff out."
So I would do weird things like serve fried chicken
and put on music and -- It's weird.
I would make, like, sort of like a salon.
And then I would -- I would read these pieces.
And so I read them, and then a friend of mine said,
"I think -- What is it? Is it a play?"
They're like, "I think it's a solo show.
You're the event, and you have to follow this through."
I started working with that, and I worked with the director.
And it became a show called "A Boy and a Soul."
When it started out, it was about, like, how music
was helping me to find different moments,
to anchor me in certain things.
And part of sort of keeping your records,
keeping your soul, your soul music.
Then eventually, my parents passed away.
They passed away while I was finishing this.
Uh, they both passed six months apart.
And the show was the thing
that became the gift that kept on giving.
I found -- I found my voice, I feel like, as a -- as a writer.
And I started performing.
I performed at the Vineyard Theatre in New York
and -- and in London and in Australia.
And it really gave me more grounding of, like,
who I was and what I could do.
Andrew, the math doesn't add up
because I don't know how it's possible
you're making movies 25 years ago.
You look so youthful and great.You look 25.
Yeah. I'm glad I came.
But I think there are certain people
who flipped on season two of "Fleabag,"
and it became this phenomenon, the -- the hot priest.
And they thought, "This is, like, a-a new guy."
And I wonder, when that moment happened, where, suddenly,
there's unprecedented levels of interest in you,
how did you handle it personally
and then also in terms of choices?
I was 17 or 18 when I was at the Abbey,
the national theater in Dublin, and I remember being offered
a part after I'd done maybe two plays,
and I was only a little skit of a thing.
And I was like, "I don't really want to do that."
And I was -- I think I was still living at home,
so maybe I felt like, "I don't want to do that again."
And quite early on -- I suppose the word is "courage."
I don't want to just play the same note if I don't have to,
because it always seemed to me that what's of value to you
is to be able to play as many different
kind of notes as -- as you could.
And so, all the time where I wasn't sort of more,
what's the word, I suppose, recognizable,
I never felt like I was failing, really.
I was always just so delighted to be -- to be working.
And then I suppose, when you get a bit more choice,
I never really think that I was -- I kind of was winning
You know? I love that thing that -- that Meryl Streep says,
and she's a great hero of mine, which is to sort of pack
your own suitcase, you know,
that even if you're not getting the opportunities,
that you decide what you're going to put in your suitcase,
and even if someone isn't asking you to go on holidays...
You got your little bag.
You've got it there, and you go. Yeah.
And so, when an opportunity comes up,
you go, "I recognize that I've packed for that slightly."
So it was beautiful, don't get me wrong.
But I don't know. It's try and keep it --
keep it -- keep it level, I suppose.
More with our panel of actors right after this.
♪♪
All right, so let's say
you're auditioning for "Planet of the Apes,"
just hypothetically speaking, guys.
Would you rather be an ape or a human?
Well, according to Paul Giamatti,
that's a no-brainer. Let's see what he has to say.
Feinberg: Paul, I don't imagine that, at the beginning,
the dream was pig vomit and private parts or an orangutan
and, uh, "Planet of the Apes."
When, for you --
That was a dream.
That was a dream?
No, that was a -- that was a --
that was the strange fulfillment of a deep dream.
Seriously?To be an orangutan?
To be an ape in "Planet of the Apes"...It was?
...was, if that had been it for me, I would be --
I would die happy.Well, this is where
I'm kind of going, yeah.I couldn't believe was going to be able
to play a talking orangutan, and my agents were like,
"Don't you want to be a human so they can see your face?"
And I was like, "f you tell them I want to be a human,
I'm going to burn the agency."
[Laughter]
I was like, "Who wants to be the human?"
No, that was a huge thing.
No, this is interesting.Scott: Wow.
Oh, no.Because I wondered, what was the role,
kind of the thing that I'm sure --
maybe you had something like it in your mind
when you're going through the training.
I actually think -- I mean, you say pig vomit and you laugh,
but it's like, I -- that was such a crazy -- being fired
out of the craziest cannon in the world.
It was -- I couldn't believe
I was being allowed off the chain like that.
You know, I had just been in a drama school
where it was like I was --
It was very confining, and --Wow.
And -- And it always felt terribly confining.
I mean, look at me, man. I'm not like a Shakespeare guy.
And I got this opportunity to do abso--
something that was absolutely bananas.
Well, Jeffrey, you start out, really, on most people's radar,
probably, with "Angels in America,"
winning a Tony for that on Broadway.
And within about five years, though,
you have said that your attitude towards basically the business
really had changed and your priorities,
the things that you were interested in doing as an actor,
as a person, totally got upended.
Can you just explain, because it does seem,
from the way you've talked about it,
that there was a before and after? What happened?
This is the thing that I have come to value
above all other things in this stuff that we do,
and it's the collaboration.
It's the people that -- that I have the opportunity
to do it with.
I learned that because early on, there were some collaborations
that, uh, you know, might have been,
uh, uh, better.[Laughter]
Diplomacy throughout.
But, yeah, there were some -- You know,
I'd walk into a place, I'd go, "Yeah." [Inhales sharply]
"Ooh, this is not my beautiful house."
You know? This is not what I expected,
you know, when you talked about being in this environment
that was supportive and that was creative and spontaneous.Yeah.
It was like I'd found myself a couple of times
in some really, what I thought, were very cynical places.
And I think the way that I kind of, um,
was able to articulate it at the time
was that these were places that aspired to be dumber
than what was possible within the room.
And I was like, "Oh, wow, man, this is kind of weird."
But also, there are other priorities
and other considerations
that you make in terms of what you want to do.
Like, you know, "Oh, wow, there's a human being
that was just born into my life," you know?
Mark, it sounds like you had your own period
of kind of questioning things.
What was going on that made you step away,
and then what made you, I think with
"The Kids Are All Right," come back?
Ruffalo: You have your dreams,
and then those start to become realized.
But they're not what you thought
it was going to be.
At some point, you know, it gets away from you,
and next thing you realize, it's like you're --
it's all about the business and someone's idea --
someone else's idea of your career
that really didn't have much to do with what your idea was.
And then you lose what your idea was.
of what your career was going to be.
I was already feeling that way, and then my brother passed away.
He passed away just before I was going to direct a film,
uh, that I'd been working on for a long time,
and during the course of it, I was like,
"I don't know if I want to go back to acting.
I kind of feel much more comfortable here in this place."
You know, just the -- the swath of creativity
that opened up to you as a director.
And then I got a great part,
the kind of part in a movie that I wanted to do.
And I was like, "This is going to be my last acting gig."
And it was "The Kids Are All Right." And I was just like, "Fuck it.
I'm going to do whatever I want here."Wow. Wow.
I-I-I don't -- There's no rules anymore.
I don't have to be anybody for anybody else.
And it was really freeing feeling.
And we went to Sundance,
and I had -- the movie I directed premiered.
And then two days later,
"The Kids Are All Right" premiered,
and I was sitting in that audience,
and I was like, "This experience is so honest.
This movie is about something so important."
And coming into the world at a moment,
you know, about gay marriage,
when all of these people were voting on gay marriage.
And it was saying, you know, "We're the same, and --
and there's no difference between straight marriages
and gay marriages," and it did it in a funny way
that was just a human story that people could all relate to.
And I heard it in the laughter, and I heard everyone laughing,
whether they were straight or gay or whatever
their religion was, their background,
everyone were all laughing at the same thing.
And I was like, "That's what I want to do.
That's -- That's why I came here."
And then Nolan was like, "Hey,
do you want to make another movie?
You want a five-picture movie deal as a director?"Right.
And so, I'm like, um, "Oh, I found my way."
And that was kind of -- Yeah. That's great.
And, Jeffrey, you work very selectively,
and that's a great thing, and so, I wonder, though,
here's a guy, Cord Jefferson, who's a terrific TV writer --
"Succession," "The Good Place," won an Emmy for "Watchmen,"
who says he wants to make his feature directorial debut.
How does a first-time filmmaker
convince you to sign up to collaborate with him?
I believe the book that is based on Percival Everett's "Erasure"
talks with this idea about him, the narrator, hating, right,
hating stories that are about writers as he writes this story.
Cord had taken that book
and adapted it into the script that he gave me,
and, for me, it was the story of this man
who's, all of a sudden, burdened
with the responsibilities of family.
I mean, you guys have talked about, you know,
how these things affect My mom passed
not too s- not too long before I got that script.
Mm.
And so, it was, uh, you know,
the caretaking of the one who was once caretaker.Yeah.
That, for me, was what the story --
um, how the story resonated.
That's what, like, plucked me. I said, "I know that story.
I know that man, and I know the difficulties
and the sacrifices that -- that asks not only,
like, creatively, professionally,
but also personally.
And, you know, I can play that music,
and, you know, maybe it'll be helpful to me
and maybe -- and maybe, uh, you know, someone else."
And also, I think in some ways
that that is the most subversive aspect of the film,
because it really is a portrait
that I'd never been asked to play within before,
a portrait of a goofy, mad, you know,
dysfunctional, at times functional, loving, frustrated,
but together family that happens to be Black.
It's, you know, it's a family.
That really is what the neon is pointing to.
That's the meal, for me.
So it was easy to say yes to that.
Hey, everyone, there's so much more
with our panel of actors right after this.
♪♪
Feinberg: Coleman, you did 2020 film
"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" for George C. Wolfe,
a guy who Jeffrey knows quite well, as well,
works with all the time.Yes. I-I-I know him fairly well, yeah.
George C. Wolfe is looking to cast the part of Bayard Rustin,
who is unfairly kind of
not remembered as much as he should be.
This is a Black, gay civil rights leader
who was the principle organizer
of the 1963 march on Washington.
So he comes to you, but you had never been offered the chance
to be at the top of a call sheet of a film prior to this.
So what did it mean to you
when that opportunity came from George?
I had to learn deeply
the principle of being in service
and just in service to the story.
And that's what any journeyman has learned,
that it's not about the size of the role
but it's about, how do I help serve a function?
In the theater, we all know who the equity deputy is.
[Laughter]
It's usually me.
[Laughter]
Thank you.Where is my clock?
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I appreciate it.Colman, everyone.
Ruffalo: It's going to be him.
And that's exactly it. That's the thing I've always --
I've always been the equity deputy.
I've always been the one that had to look out...God bless you.
...for the other actors
or -- or throw the parties or bring people together.
So it's a skill set that I've had deeply.
So when "Rustin" came along, I knew that I had to tap into
that -- that part of service, that part of service,
of making sure that I looked after the whole.
And I also took a leadership role.
And, you know, that role took everything.
I was -- I was able to give --
Honestly, there's those roles that we -- we --
we -- I don't know if we wish for,
but we hope for, that we were able to give everything.
And I know that I've given everything in the --
in the 32 years that I've been in this industry,
from regional theaters to off Broadway
to writing, to directing.
You name it, it's in this film.
It called on everything that I had,
and more than anything, it called on my spirit
that truly believes in service and trying to be --
make sure that people feel heard and seen
and that we're doing it in -- in a heartful, mindful way.
Because that's what the character Bayard Rustin did.
He gave his life.
His life was about being in service to others,
and then history put him in the shadows.
And I thought it was my opportunity
to really bring him out fully
and construct a complex character
that's loving and interesting and intelligent
and messy and wild but spirited, you know,
because I know that this film can have an impact.
I know who I am in a room
and what I can do and what I can give.
And at the -- at the highest level, I know that I'm a teacher
and I'm in service to -- to work as an artist.
So it was truly my privilege to just give everything I could.
Mark, you are signing up to join director Yorgos Lanthimos,
writer Tony McNamara, actress Emma Stone,
who had all previously done "The Favorite."
Now they're getting back together,
and they need a guy to come in and play Duncan Wedderburn,
a narcissistic ladies' man who has an accent,
an attitude, he's dancing, he's --
This is just such a colorful character,
and I wonder, for you, when the opportunity arose,
is it intimidating to be joining that group of folks?
You know, when you're in a theater, no one ever is like,
"Oh, you can't go from romantic comedy to tragedy."
And, you know, like, it's just not --Right. Yeah.
But -- But, like, in the movie business,
you start -- you start to feel like you're a little bit in a...Yeah.
...in a box sometimes.
And -- But I'd never played anything like that, either.
And I was scared. I mean, I saw his movies,
and I was in awe of them,
so I was really scared, and he just laughed at me.
And so, I was like, "Okay." It was such a great turn.
And I get to do so much fun stuff in it
and, uh, break all the perceptions of me.
Yeah, I got to bash that.
Robert, I guess it's not a totally different situation
with "Oppenheimer," where you are as Lewis Strauss,
but it's been a few years since you've played
this, uh, type of a character.
And I want to read you something that Christopher Nolan has said
and then ask you to react, if you would.
Sure. Can you say it in accent, please?
Uh, not -- not a good enough actor, but --
But I'll try to make it register anyway.There we go.
Quote, "He's one of our great actors,
and though a generation of kids know what a great movie star
he is, they've not seen his subtlety and brilliance.
I wanted to get him to do something completely different,
to lose himself in another human being.
When was the last time we've seen that? 'Chaplin'?
Directors are very aware of how talented Downey is,
but because of his incredible energy
that can punch through the screen,
finding the right thing for him is difficult," close quote.
Do you think that's -- Uh, what do you make of that?
Well, first of all, I didn't write that.
Um...
Jeffrey said it. It's -- It's all so small.
Like, there's all these trappings.
"Oh, it's this, and here's the genre, and here's the character,
and here's what happens in the story," and you go,
"No, I made my decision based on this thing
that nobody would ever know if I didn't tell them."
And that's almost always it, I think, you know?
He called. A call from Nolan is a thing.
He asked me to come over and read the script on red paper
with black type, which was like doing Sudoku while driving.
And, um, but I read it, and it was written in first person.
I was like, "This is -- This is masterful."
And I just thought the meditation for me
was on that horrible thing
that I'm just going to venture a guess
and say we all tend to do, which is comparison --
comparing my insides to someone else's outsides,
how they're perceived, they're special,
they're this and that, and particularly in the context
of that time period, hot or Cold War.
You know, this is why this affected the way
my parents' counterculture was.
So anyway, to me, it was a -- it was -- it was a logical thing
from Senior going back into, "What is this thing
that my dad's generation rebelled against?"
And it was like 100 people
making a watch together every day.
And, uh, you know,
it's fun to realize what you're becoming accustomed to.
Like, it's, "Okay, so just let's talk about my perks.
There are none."
"Okay, well, hold on a second.
You can have $300 a day. Spend it however you like."
I was like, "That's my dry cleaning budget."
So first of all, I think, you know, maximum humility
is where we get that spot,
whether we can choose to do it or the situation requires it.
It's like, you should be scared.
You should have approach anxiety to this
because this is real shit.
If you do it right, like I've seen this year, you know?
I've seen -- I love that you were saying it was a meditation
on grief and caretaking -- that's what I saw --
and do what you were able to do with this thing
of the horror wish fulfillment of being able to actually
go back and talk to that which bore you
and this fable you did
and this history where you constructed this character
so just masterfully.
I mean, dude, a guy who wants to be freed
but doesn't even know that he's trapped?
And -- And by giving and giving and giving,
he's -- it's his salvation?
It's like fuck. So, it's always small.
Yo, I hope you guys are enjoying this
very unplanned "Avengers" reunion.
I mean, we have the Hulk andIron Man.
More with this amazing panel when we come back.
Guys, can I get some superpowers?
I mean, I want to be in the MCU, anything.
Look at these arms. I don't be lifting weights for nothing.
♪♪
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to our actors' roundtable
on "Off Script with The Hollywood Reporter."
Scott, take it from here.
Paul, it's been 19 years since you and Alexander Payne
made the terrific movie "Sideways."
I know there had been conversations
about maybe doing other things over the intervening years,
but here we are.
He comes to you with "The Holdovers."
And was the fact that it was Alexander coming back,
uh, and asking you to do this enough?
Or did -- was there something
particularly about this character where you said,
"I'm particularly gung-ho to do this"?
Well, yeah, I mean, him coming back
and saying, "I want to work again," was pretty good.
I mean, I would have done pretty much anything for the guy.
But he was showing me this script as it was coming along,
and he said, you know, "I'm writing this thing for you."
And I kept saying, "He smells like fish.
He's got sweaty palms.
He's got a crazy eye."
You know, and all of that -- I was saying,
"All of that -- All of that's wonderful."
And it was great. And, you know,
but he kept saying, and I've been thinking about it,
you know, he was writing this for me.
It was an extraordinary thing to be able to work with a friend.
And the story had a lot of resonances for me
that I think he knows about because he knows me.
But I-I think the thing that I thought was really amazing
about it was it's a Christmas Story.
It's genuinely a Christmas story.Mm, yeah.
Because it's about selflessness, ultimately.
These people all act selflessly towards each other
so they can take a next step toward something.
It doesn't get resolved, because he doesn't make movies
that resolve very easily, you know? Right.
And it's like, we don't know what's going to happen,
but they get a little bit forward.
But I thought this guy was very interesting.
It was very familiar to me to see this person
who had constructed this incredibly elaborate persona,
you know, and he's got all of these ideals,
and he's -- he's put together this whole
kind of bullshit shtick,
you know, and to watch somebody start to drop their shtick...
And I just thought, "This is beautiful and beautifully done."
Andrew, "All of Us Strangers,"
it's about a gay man living in present-day London
who visits his childhood home and finds living there
the parents who he lost 30 years earlier very suddenly.
You were basically being asked
by Andrew Haig, the filmmaker,
to play a version of himself, this --
and I wonder if you can talk about both the idea
that you're -- you're -- the person who you're playing
is on the other side of the camera,
and also the -- sort of the challenges of that
in particular, where, you know,
you're literally shooting in his childhood home.
I suppose I didn't really think of it like I was playing Andrew.
I felt like that we weirdly kind of co-parented the character,
considering that that's a sort of theme in the...Yeah.
...i-in the film.
Um, but I certainly looked to him --
he's like a comrade, you know,
i-in, uh -- i-i-in the telling of the story.
And I suppose the challenge, actually,
for me was to not pretend to be anybody else,
but to, you know, find out what --
go back to a place where I was.
And so, it was sort of like a -- a marriage
between our two personalities.
And, uh, it was difficult because I --
I think I have a good imagination, um,
but I think -- I -- but I think --
Yeah. I think you do. I think you do.
I-I'm pleased with that because I do think that's the most --
I think it's the most important thing you can have as an actor,
that and a sense of humor.
I really think that those -- they're the two things that --
well, certainly for me, that you keep going back to.
But there was a duality, too,
because there's two sections to the -- to the film,
and one of them is about going back to childish feelings,
and the other one is about -- very adult --
almost physical, falling in love.Yeah.
And so, how do you sort of do that without, um,
making the -- being boyish, kind of gross,
or, I don't know, like gilding the lily somewhat.
But, uh, because he was so generous in filming it
in his family little suburban home with one camera,
it was such a vulnerable thing to do.
There's so many times in -- in -- in this
where it's that thing we're afraid of
and you want to calibrate where you have to lose it.
You have to have these huge expulsions of emotion,
and you want them to be varied.
Otherwise, it just feels like you're hitting note number two.
Right.So I want to know, "A," the trust for that,
the intimacy, all that, like that -- the risk factor.
I mean, I heard that you trusted the guy,
but I just want to say, like, how did you navigate all that?
Honestly, I suppose, uh, I never thought
that I would be able to be in a film
to play that kind of character, at least --
Uh, when I was growing up,
I was so obsessed with -- with films and acting in films,
um, just watching great, great acting.
And, uh, I suppose to be able to play a character, it's like
what -- what you just said there about, "I can play that.
I can play that music." That's exactly the way I felt.
I felt like I can play those -- play those notes.
Coming right back with our actors' roundtable in just a bit.
Don't you go anywhere.
♪♪
Hey, everyone. We are back with our actors' roundtable
on "Off Script with The Hollywood Reporter."
Hey, Scott, you're up.
One of the really beautiful scenes in this movie
"All of Us Strangers," is when your character
gets to come out to his parents,
who he was never able to do that to in real time.Scott: Yeah.
And I-I do want to bring up something
that I think is fairly noteworthy, which is --
and sadly, still somewhat of a rarity even in 2023,
but both, Andrew, you and Colman,
you are openly gay actors playing openly gay characters
who are at the center of important films.
To actors who may not yet be in a place
where they feel they can be open about their sexuality,
worry that it could hinder their prospects in this business,
do you believe that things have gotten better
over the course of your decades in this business?
From the very beginning, I've always been exactly who I was.Mm-hmm.
There was never a coming-out story.
But also, I thought that I always wanted to lead in rooms
with my intelligence and kindness and what I do.Mm-hmm.
And it wasn't really something that was actually on the table.
You know, in the beginning, y-you're challenged because
you think -- you look around, and you feel kind of rare,
like other people are sort of, like, hiding that aspect.
And I thought, "Well, why?"
I remember somebody asked me this years ago,
and I thought it was the weirdest question.
After I worked with, um, a very well-known director
who's straight, and some interviewer said,
"So how does -- Um, how does so-and-so feel about you being gay?"
It was the weirdest question.
I thought, "He's my brother. He's like my brother."Yeah.
"What are you talking" -- But also, I was like,
"What world do you live in?" You know what I mean?Right.
So I just thought like, "What does that matter?"
And I still feel that way. I feel like, you know,
being gay is just like one aspect of me,
but it's not everything, and I feel like I'm not --
And I've never put limitations on what I do.
Fuck. You know, I play -- You know, I played pimps,
I've played -- In "The Color Purple," I played Mister.
Ruffalo: I was gonna say. Yeah.And it's like, but I also -- And maybe that's the thing
I've always believed -- if I don't put limitations on myself,
this industry won't put limitations on me.Right.
Right.But if I'm walking around with a secret and hiding
something -- But I think you see that.
I need to be my fullest self to access everything.I couldn't agree more.
Do you feel that way?
I-I'm going to make a pitch for getting rid of
the expression "openly gay."
Yes.Hear me out.
Here we go. I'm with you.
It's an expression that we actually only ever hear
in the media. You are never at a party
and you say, "This is my openly gay friend."
Has that ever happened?
[Laughter]
Never happened. Not once. You never say it.
Why do we put "openly" in front of that adjective?
You know, we don't say "you're openly Irish."
You don't say "you're openly left-handed" or whatever it is.
We don't even say, "Hi. This is my straight friend."
Because it's two steps away from --Right.
There's something that's in it that's a little
near shamelessly.
"You're -- You're open about it?" You know what I'm saying?
And it just --[Laughter]
Downey: Yeah.I nearly --
I nearly prefer shameless.Domingo: You're right. You're right.
I n-- I nearly -- I nearly prefer that.
Shamelessly. This is shamelessly --
And sometimes I just feel like,
if you got to say it to understand --
to understand it, just say, you know --
just say out, possibly. Or you know what?
Sometimes just don't say anything at all.
No. Just say, "This is -- How about, "This is Colman."And, like, I get it.
How about that?But I just -- I think there's something about it
that -- that is -- "You're openly gay."
Now I think it's just time to just sort of --
just sort of park it.
I mean, and I think that's th-the strange thing,
exactly as you're saying --
representation is a wonderful thing.
But, you know, we're talking an awful lot here
about transformation,
representation of transformation.
And, look, I wouldn't be here if -- if -- if representation
hadn't, um, improved.
But I do think transformation is very important for actors.
We love it. We love it when our mother is reading us a story
and she turns into a wolf and you go...
Yeah.Because it speaks to our empathy, it speaks to our --
And I think it frightens us...Our imagination,
like you said....s-sometimes to be able to sort of go,
"Okay, well, I can't because I don't have the same biographical,
um, story of something else" that I can't think of.[Speaks indistinctly]
Yeah, yeah, yeah.Because that's what connects us.
And I think there's a danger of -- of us all
actually just being separated a-a little bit more,
because I think it's a dangerous idea...I agree.
...to put a clamp on transformation,
because that's not -- shouldn't be the priority.
I agree.Th-The priority should be clamping down on the prejudice
within our industry and looking at who getsto transform,
not the transformation itself.
Interesting.Wow.
Yeah. So -- So just, that's my --
I don't want to offend anybody about openly gay, but...
buh-bye, buh-bye.
Buh-bye.See you la-- See you later.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm openly straight.
Yeah, exactly. Thank you for saying that.
Shamelessly.
Shamelessly.I'm almost shamelessly straight.
Yeah. I'm getting to the point where I can almost be shamelessly straight.
Heterosexual by default.
Exactly.
Let's close with something
that hopefully will be a little fun.
Best piece of advice you've gotten from a fellow actor?
I did "Long Day's Journey into Night" in the -- in the theater,
and Donald Moffat played, um, what's he called, the father.
And it's all about the frugality of -- of, um, drinking.
It's all about the whiskey bottle.
And the father,
he -- h-he's obsessed with how much people have --
if somebody drunk his whiskey.
And I was doing the scene, you know,
doing the blah-blah, and he turned around to me,
and he said, "I don't believe the way you pour."
It was such a good note
because I was pouring the fucking whiskey in,
like, as if -- whereas these people would have been --Ah. Right. Uh-huh.
And I remember I was about 20 years old at the time,
and I was like, "What? I don't even know."
I couldn't even -- I couldn't even understand
that that detail was --
But, of course, that stuff that you have to think about
that's not about what you're saying
but about how you're behaving is so,
um -- And, uh, so then I poured it.
That's great.It was a good one.
The best piece of advice I got from a fellow actor,
it was a pilot, and it was with James Farentino.
And I had a little bit of a monologue,
and I-I didn't know it really well.
And he just turned to me, and he's like,
"Learn your fucking lines."
Yes. Yeah.
Absolutely right.Wow.
And I should have known better.
[Laughter]
More with our panel of actors right after this.
♪♪
Which living actor who you've not worked with before,
would you most like to work with, Coleman?
Immediately I-I thought Emma Stone.
Scott: Oh, great.Oh, yeah.
Immediately I thought that she's so, uh --
I-I'm sure -- I can feel it. I can feel that she's inventive
and kind and generous and quirky and weird.You're right.
And you feel like she's going to just give you a gift every day.
And you're like, "Well, how am I going to respond?"Absolutely.
Yeah?Yep. Yeah. Good call.
Okay.She's a precious, precious artist.
Mm. Yeah.
I wish I could have worked with Robert Duvall.
You've worked with him, right?Yep.
Yeah, I wish I could have.
I mean, he's very old now, so I don't know that it will.
Feinberg: Yeah. Yeah, yeah.But I wish I could have.
Sure.I'll say this -- Dustin Hoffman.
Simply because when I started off doing this stuff,
it was like he was, like, the guy that I --
you know, from "Papillion" to, you know, to --
to -- to "Midnight Cowboy," these transformative roles...Oh, yeah.
...you know, in which he -- you know, he just -- you know,
he just refashioned anew every time.
And that -- that's what made it --
That's what I thought it was,
this stuff that -- you know, this acting stuff.
Yeah, I'd love to do that.
If you could change lives for a day
with someone at this table,
just to see what it's like to be them,
who would it be and why?
Really?Colman's saying Paul.
I do. I think you're such a fascinating person.
I was going to say, I want to be the guy
who's willing to be the deputy of equity.
[Laughter]I'm serious.
I was like, "I want to be you because I want to be that guy.
I want to be the guy who's like, 'Yes. Fuck it. I'll do it.'"
He's like, "No!"
No, seriously, I'm serious.
I was like, "You, because I want to be that guy.
I want to be that guy who's willing to -- to do that."Robert?
Sorry, sorry.No, no, no.
It would be fun to be Mr. Right
and just be in a psyche where I'm always capable of
tying someone up like a pretzel with a thought.
I need to put them in check.
Oh, boy, oh, boy.
Sorry.
I think you -- you know those -- those moves.
I've projected them on you then so it could just be like --
It would just be being yourself.I'd be like, "Oh, my God.
That's the same place.
Mark?Domingo: Aw, look at that.
Andrew, you mind swapping?
Let's swap. Let's swap.
Let's do it.
Openly swapping?Openly swapping at a table.
Giamatti: Shamelessly.Let's make a deal. Let's make a deal.
Does anybody want to ratify this?
Come on.
Done, done, done.
Feinberg: Okay. Last two.Beautiful.
If you had not become an actor,
what would you be doing today?
Oh, my gosh, I don't know.
I wanted to be an animator, but I don't know.
Yeah. That's what I wanted to do.[Speaks indistinctly]
Yeah, I know. That's what I wanted to do,
but talk about something that's even harder than this
and is even more crazy.
But I did want to be an animator.
Whether I would have been, I don't know,
but that's what I wanted to do. I tried, but it didn't work out.
I got into Johnson & Wales, uh, to be a chef, actually.
Did you really?So cool.
That's what I wanted to be.
I really thought, you know, I still -- I'm --
I think I'm a really good cook.I bet you're a great cook.
Aren't you?I feel like I'm a good cook and I'm a good host,
but also I think --Again, I want to be you.
You made a good choice.But it's funny. Already --
I'm thinking like that third act of my life,
I feel like I want to investigate architecture.
I'm just an architecture nerd,
and I'm always thinking, "Maybe I'll go back to school
and learn that and do that when I'm 70," you know?That's cool.
I don't know.Giamatti: Yeah.
I started taking art classes,
uh, sculpture classes at the Art Students League
in New York City.Recently?
Yeah. And I love that.
And I, um --
It gives me a lot of what I get from this.
And if that was a possibility,
I would throw -- that would be a good second act, you know?
Or teaching. I'd love to teach maybe.
Robert?
If I wasn't an actor, I would be doing hard time.
[Laughter]
Oh!
I want to know what crimes you would have committed, though.
A trumped-up felony, potentially gambling.
This -- This time it was on a Hummer.
These cops fucking...Ohh! Oh, oh, oh.
Set up. But still, a jury.
You know, whatever.[Laughter]
Judge got pissed off. Bench warrant. Fuck.
It was the same guy from the other stuff, so, cumulative.
Andrew?It's really weird there's a -- there's a theme.
My mother was an art teacher, and when I --
Got my first film when I was 17,
on exactly the same day. It was a little Irish film.
And exactly the same day, I won this bursary to educate myself
as a -- as a painter for five years, a big bursary.
And I chose fucking show business.
So art.
Thank you for that. We're glad you did.But you would do that?
I would definitely do that, because it's so frustrating now.
I don't know if you -- Do you -- Do you --
Painting, yeah, it's really --Do you try?
It's really hard, because if you don't
exercise those muscles, you lose them.
Oh, my gosh, yes.It's so frustrating.
But that's what I'd do.
That's what I'd do.Giamatti: Yeah.
Uh, you know, I mean,
I-I started acting my junior year of college.
I was a political science major. You know, I grew up in D.C.
What else are you going to do?
Um, my mom was a lawyer for the government,
um, so that was the idea.
And probably if I weren't doing this, I'd be a lawyer.
Maybe, I don't know, maybe a criminal lawyer.
I'd be -- I'd be, uh -- I'd be Robert's...
Yeah. I'd be defending --His defense attorney.
Defending? You'd be defending him?
Not putting him away?
You could make a career.
[Laughter]
Scott: His money is not --All your money. All your money.
It's a growth industry.
You guys, on, uh -- on behalf of "The Hollywood Reporter,"
thank you so much.
Thank you so much.Cheers!
Cheers, everybody.Cheers.
Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.
All right, so I feel like we learned a lot
from today's roundtable.
First order of business --
Please keep Robert Downey Jr. employed as an actor
because, uh, the alternative -- not so great.
Until next time, I'm Yvonne Orji,
and I am openly single.
And this has been "Off Script with The Hollywood Reporter."
[Chuckles]
Oh, thank you. Have you been here the whole time?
Oh, my God.
♪♪