Far from being the typical Hollywood star, Adam Driver shares Star Wars fame with Oscar style, since the two nominations for ‘Marriage Story’ and ‘BlacKkKlansman’. That may be why the Venice International Film Festival chose him for the world premiere of ‘White Noise’, just around the time the new awards season was starting, as the best preview of the new nomination for a Golden Globe as Best Actor.
Do you still get yelled at ‘Kylo’ on the street for Star Wars?
Not that often… Well, I don’t go out that much either. The last time was a Halloween night that I had gone out with my son to ‘trick or treat’ (the American tradition of going house to house, where children receive candy by knocking on the door of a stranger). And in the building on the other side of the street, someone came in who saw me and came out with the Kylo Ren mask because it was seen that it had been the costume that he had also chosen.
MEMORIES OF FILM
The strangest place where you were asked for a selfie?
In a public bathroom. Very weird. And it happened to me twice when I was traveling, outside the United States.
And just as the fans ask you for a selfie to keep that memory of the meeting, in your house do you keep something in particular that your characters have used before in the movies?
Many things. Of course I have two helmets and a Star Wars lightsaber. Also the machete he used in ‘Dead Don’t Lie’ to kill zombies. In ‘Last Duel’ I kept the armor and in (House of) Gucci I kept the shoes, because it was something I imagined I could wear again when I came back to reality. But I also take a lot of photos that end up being the best memories.
FAME BEFORE AND AFTER THE GALAXY
Has fame definitely changed your lifestyle since Star Wars?
Completely. And it is very difficult to understand, because it is not comfortable at all. It’s not natural at all, especially after living a completely normal life for over 30 years, until everything changed overnight. The relationship with people is no longer the same. There are people who don’t feel the same discomfort, but I definitely don’t think it comes naturally.
And the work as an actor changed at the same level?
That’s where I don’t think fame helps, because as actors we try to analyze as much as possible the life experiences that we can use later in a performance. And having known that world, before, today I don’t think I can go out and see how people behave when it is people who pay attention to how I behave.
When it comes to accepting a character, are you one of those who lives all the time as if you were someone else or do you go back to being the same Adam Driver as always when the director yells ‘Cut’?
It depends a lot on the scene and what I’m doing, but many times I prefer to isolate myself from people. In ‘Star Wars’, with a helmet on it wasn’t very easy to hold a conversation either. In ‘Married Story’, with the discussion of the apartment, it was difficult to escape from such a place. And we shot that scene in two days, I didn’t want to go out and start over from scratch. It’s like when you travel to another country, with a different schedule and it’s hard to adjust. When you play a different character, for 12 hours for four or five months, even if you want to, it is impossible to detach yourself until you return to normal.
When watching ‘White Noise’ it is impossible to forget the pandemic we are experiencing, although the story is about another catastrophe due to the accident of a train with chemical waste that turns the air of the city into an apocalyptic toxic environment. But the story has much more to do with the drama of an American family that faces daily conflicts with the universal mysteries of love, death, and the possibility of being happy while trying.
What is the first thing that caught your attention when you read the White Noise script?
Actually, when I first read it, I didn’t really make much sense out of the script until after the first 20 pages. It was the moment when I hung up my hat to be a part of the film production. It seemed to me that these people were too distracted with all the rest of the ‘white noise’, the White Noise, by the children, the work and the relationship with each other about death, without focusing attention on the good. It was at the moment of the big break that I found meaning in the script. It seemed to me that there was too much dialogue and the silence helped much more.
They had worked with director Noah Baumbach before on ‘Marriage Story’ and ‘While We Were Young’ What is the common point that makes you come back to work together, again and again?
When I work with Noah Baumbach everything feels much more theatrical. And I am not referring to the acting style, although there were moments that seemed like a play to me, but I am referring to the number of rehearsals we had, until we knew the dialogues well, as in a play condensed into a single day, in compared to a four-month play.
Was it so different from other film productions?
The style was different, the tone seemed like something very new in cinema. I can’t even define it or compare it to another movie. I guess Greta Gerwig or Don Cheadle had their own perspective on the book and people, when they see it, will have their own perspective too.
With House of Gucci for example, hadn’t you had so many rehearsals with Lady Gaga?
At House of Gucci we rehearsed for two weeks, also analyzing the idea of being in love with someone and how it can ruin everything due to external influences. But after the rehearsal, after the big ideas, you try to forget everything to act in each scene, trying new things. But one also never knows what may remain after editing.
Did the pandemic have some influence on the apocalyptic profile of the ‘White Noise’ story?
Surely yes, but at the time of acting in the scenes, we were not thinking about the pandemic, we were thinking about the scenes. But obviously, we couldn’t ignore it when it was time to put a mask on you. I don’t know what would have happened if we had also filmed it before the pandemic. But I also can’t point to a particular scene where we tied it to the present, because everything we did was already written in the script. And it is what we interpret. Now, what you might think when you see it, it’s not up to me. It was fun playing the character with so much stress.
When playing a character in the future, overweight or somewhat bald… do you imagine your own future as you would look in 10 or 15 years?
I am very satisfied with the life I have today. The future? I’m ready to receive it (Laughter).
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But at the time of filming it, did you discuss how you could physically see yourself in the future?
We talked about the ‘look’, that I’m not so bald and we thought about adding that detail. And we did. We had an amazing makeup artist, just like the wig. I also gained weight, although we had a fake stomach just in case, but then we don’t need to use it anymore, because I had gained too much weight. And yes, he was not so comfortable
