Actors on Actors: Timothee Chalamet (CMBYN) and Daniel Kaluuya(Get Out)

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(upbeat music)
- Okay, so "Get Out" was one of my,
that was like one of my favorite movies this year.
- Thank you, bro.
- And it's so exciting to do this with you because,
obviously everyone at this,
doing this is really top of their craft,
but, you know, everybody else, they're legends,
and we're like, you know, just starting out here,
we're just trying to figure it out.
So, what, I guess, questions you've been asked
a thousand times,
but what, how'd you hear about the project?
Was there an audition process?
How'd you get into it?
- It's a weird situation, cuz I
I did this show called "Black Mirror" back in England, 2011.
- Bing.
- Bing. Oh, you know?
- (laughs)
- Jesus.
See, this is surreal to me.
It's surreal to me that it still lives.
So, I did it in 2011.
Nothing really happened in England,
and then Netflix happened.
So Netflix happened like 2014, 2015
and then Americans started watching this show
that I did like three years before,
and then Jordan Peele watched it, and then he was,
he had this script and I read the script,
and I was like, "Yo, this script is insane," like...
- (laughs) Yeah, yeah.
- Are you allowed to do,
It just felt like it cost him something.
- Mm-hmm.
You know, I always think that's really exciting
to work with a filmmaker that's, like,
putting it all on the line, do you know what I mean?
And sayin' stuff that's not...
And then we Skyped and then later,
it took a couple months,
and then I had a film called "Sicario" coming out
- Right.
- And then in the press run I went to audition
for the role, and then I got it.
- And that was in London or L.A.?
- That was in L.A., that was in L.A.
So the premiere of "Sicario" was in New York,
then I went to L.A., I was like, I should just go.
- That's always a good feeling,
that always makes you feel like, you know,
you're in L.A., you're making moves, and...
- It's always good to,
I always feel like it's always good to be there.
You have to be there.
- In front of the person?
- Yeah, yeah.
- So you don't like self-tape's as much?
- I do. I got "Sicario" for self-tape.
- Okay.
- But, like, sometimes it's,
people have to see you and know you.
- No, it's true, and sometimes you do the self-tape
and there's a simple note a casting director's giving
everybody because everybody keeps making the same mistake.
- Yeah, yeah.
- If you do it at home.
Also, at home, you can control
too much sometimes, too, I find.
- Yeah. How did you get to "Call Me By Your Name"?
- So.
- Which is amazing.
- Hey, man.
- And you're amazing in it, bro. Honestly.
- And thank you so much, cuz you were at
the screening the other night.
- Yeah, yeah.
- It was cool seeing a bunch of older people,
none of whom I know, coming out of the screening room
and being like, "There's Daniel!"
- (laughs)
- We're gonna have this nice conversation soon.
Um. I was 17, and my agent Brian Swardstrom,
he represents Tilda Swinton, and she's the actress that's
the lead of a lot of his other movies,
like "I Am Love" and "A Bigger Splash"
and they had this project, they didn't have the script yet,
called "Call Me By Your Name",
and Luca was a producer on it at the time,
so Brian said, "Meet with this kid in New York,"
and we had a great meeting,
and very, very thankfully, Luca doesn't audition his actors,
he never has, so.
Then it was like a loose attachment thing,
but even at a young age, it became clear in show business,
you know, you become attached to these things
and most of them never come to any sort of fruition.
So, uh. And then it was just a waiting game, you know.
We thought maybe that summer it would happen,
and it didn't happen.
Maybe the summer after that it would happen,
and it didn't happen.
you start losing hope a little bit.
Then finally, like, three years into it,
then it, then it happened, so.
- Wow. So it was a three year process?
- Say it again?
- It was a three year process?
- It was like a three year, yeah.
I mean the, yeah, and in many ways,
it feels like the project of my youth
or something because it's been on the periphery for so long,
so, it really was.
And then we shot it, and now it's been like
a year-and-a-half process to get it out, so.
I'll be, you know, I'm gonna be 22 soon
and I heard about it when I was 17.
- So, like, in terms of like, him not auditioning people,
so how was that meeting, then?
what do you feel like he was trying to see out of you?
- Well, I like that.
And I have this impression with other people
I meet with sometimes, I'm curious if you have it too.
They're just, like, sussing you out,
and they're feeling out your vibe,
which is weird, because you don't want to be fake,
or... certainly there's a level of artificiality
to all of this, but, like, you wanna be real,
but then you see, like, when else do you eat with someone
and they're just like, like judging you, you know.
Making assumptions about you.
(laughs)
- (laughs) Dates.
- [Man] Elio, Oliver. Oliver, Elio.
- [Oliver] How you doing?
- [Elio] Nice to meet you. Elio.
- [Man] You must be exhausted.
- [Oliver] Little bit.
- [Man] (laughing)
Come, come, come.
- [Elio] May I bring your things up to your room?
- [Oliver] Uh, sure. Yeah.
- [Elio] My room?
- [Man] (laughs)
- Follow him.
- Okay, now, this is, again,
I'm sure you've gotten this a thousand times
but had you watched "Key and Peele" before,
were you a fan of it?
- Bro, I had watched, like,
we would be, I'd go out with my friends, yeah?
And we'd watch a film together
and they would go, "What should we do?"
Let's go on YouTube. - Watch "Key and Peele," yeah.
Just watch "Key and Peele." Just constantly "Key and Peele."
But that's what was amazing.
- Totally sober, too.
- That's what's so surreal.
It was more surreal that Jordan Peele knew who I was.
That was, like, blew my mind.
Cuz in my What'sApp groups, that's like all you talk about.
- And did he say, had he watched,
had he come across that episode of "Black Mirror"
on his own, was it a Casting Director that sent it to him?
- No, he just came across it.
But I think it was a time when a lot of people
in the industry were on a certain frequency,
was just watching "Black Mirror."
Then it became a thing.
- Huh.
- So it's before the latest season.
- Yeah, I was part of it becoming a thing.
I was not on the first wave of "Black Mirror."
- Nah, you probably were, bro, but it's like...
Before the new series came out,
it was like the older episodes.
- Right. Cause they re-, they uh.
- They did one with Joe Wright and Joe Wright directed it.
- Right, right.
Because they stopped it and brought it back, is that it?
- They brought it back, yeah, so it was like.
It's just, it's so surreal that, like,
I mean, a lot of jobs I've got recently
have been from stuff I did in '09 or 2010, 2011.
- That's crazy to me.
- So like, Ryan Coogler saw me in a short film
that I did in London.
Like a really low-key short film, but he saw it in Sundance.
- I thought short films got locked in a safe somewhere
for no one to see, ever.
- Listen, it's random.
So he just saw it and then he wanted me to do "Panther"
so then, like, it was just, loads of stuff
and then "Widows," Steve McQueen saw me in a play in 2010.
- That's so sick.
Now I don't know how much we're supposed to talk about
"Black Panther," or if we're supposed to be talking about
the other stuff, but how was that, man,
cause I can't wait to see that.
- It was great.
- That's one of the Marvel ones that's coming out
that's so exciting, man.
- It's crazy. It's just, it's just so crazy, bro.
I keep saying this, there was a time when Chad came out.
- He's so good, he's such a good actor.
- And he was in the waterfall scene and he came out,
I can't say what happens, but he was walking out into
the waterfall and I got chills.
- Were you in the scene or no?
- Huh? I was in the scene, yeah.
- Is there footage of you somewhere getting chills?
- Hmm. Look at these goosebumps.
- Hey, Daniel, let's go again.
- (laughs)
- Um, do the lines.
- Less chills. Less chills, Dan.
No, but it was like a massive set piece
and it was just so special to be a part of.
- Man, okay, and you have to cut me off
but I'm curious about all of this.
Now, with Jordan, like my experience,
cause I'm a huge "Key and Peele" fan,
now I know he's like the brilliant auteur
that made "Get Out."
Before, if I had read it,
I'm sure on the page it was already, like,
whoa, this is gonna be an amazing thing,
but it's just a different world.
I'm sure you've heard this a thousand times,
so what was like the moment, maybe it was in a Skype,
maybe you were hanging out with him,
maybe it was on set when you thought, wow, you know,
this guy is actually, like, a real,
really amazing filmmaker?
- I saw it on the page, man.
I saw it on, like, the first line.
Cuz I read scripts for fun.
- Oh really?
- Like, I just like, find my favorite films and read them.
- What, really?
- Cause it's fun.
- Dude, you're so...
- It's like, I wanna read "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"
cuz it's fun, you know.
- I'm stealing that.
That's such, like, a good actor thing.
- Yeah, it just helps you -
- Doesn't it give you anxiety?
- What?
- Doesn't it make you feel, like,
oh man, these movies are so good.
- No, it just makes you, like,
I wanna know why I like something.
- Yeah, okay.
- So then, I'm more informed in
why I wanna say no to something,
I wanna say yes to something.
So a lot of the time it's just,
know thyself, like, you're knowing yourself.
And so you kind of go, "Okay cool, I like this."
So when it came in, and there was a thing that wasn't even,
it didn't even make it into the film,
it was like an extract from the Bible
and I was like, he knows the world.
It was just such a considered, it was such a...
- Was it like one of those things
where the script had a quote in the beginning.
- Yeah, a quote from the Bible and I just felt like,
it's just a feeling you get on the page.
It's just, like, you can tell when a writer
knows where they're going.
It's like a trust, like you know where you're going.
And you always know when a writer doesn't know.
- Yeah. I guess.
I don't know why, something that I struggle with is the,
and I struggled with this even when I was
in drama high school but you have your instincts and,
but then you think to yourself, too,
what I'm 21 or younger and what do I know?
What's nice now is I'm trusting my instinct
reading things more.
- You was in "Lady Bird."
- Yes.
- Which is amazing, I saw it the other week as well.
- You saw it, too. Thank you.
- And so, like, such a special, so well-observed.
Such a well-observed film.
So, what was it about that script that you was like,
oh wow, this is something.
- You know, weirdly it was, it was the role,
but it was really like Greta and Saoirse
and getting to work with them,
because Greta I had seen in "Frances Ha"
and just reading the script,
it was so specific and everything was so detailed,
which is what I like about the movie, because
the relatable, "normal" characters,
but everything is so specific.
Like, one of my favorite lines I have in the movie is
"I haven't lied in two years,"
which is like one of the, like, it's so,
who speaks like that?
- Like on a chart, like yeah.
- He was like keeping track, so pretentious.
So, uh.
And also to work with Saoirse who was in "Brooklyn,"
and, uh, yeah.
I don't know.
And it was just an amazing experience to be in L.A. and...
- So you shot that in L.A.?
- Yeah, that was in L.A. for two, three weeks
and it was great to be with Lucas too,
he has the other role in the movie
cuz we're both from New York,
so we've been seeing each other in casting offices
for like four or five years and, you know,
he's in "Manchester by the Sea",
which is a movie that I was diligently waiting
in a casting office for, and uh,
and never got the call, rightfully,
cuz he's fucking amazing in that movie.
- [Officer] Sir, can I see your license, please?
- [Woman] Wait, why?
No, no, no, he wasn't driving.
- I didn't ask who was driving, I asked to see his ID.
- You don't have to give him your ID
because you haven't done anything wrong.
- Baby, baby, it's okay, come on.
- Anytime there is an incident,
we have every right to ask...
- [Woman] Asshole.
- Alright, so "Get Out," that was in a,
this is Wikipedia's fact,
which are usually not the most accurate,
but it says on Wikipedia it was a 4.5 million dollar budget.
- Yeah, it was.
- And that it made like...
- 250, innit.
- Like that little hand raise, that little hand raise.
- 250, G, yeah summin' like 'at.
- So, you know, I like asking this, because I feel like
a lot of people have been asking me this recently,
but how does that, how does it change one's life,
maybe it doesn't change it at all,
maybe it's healthier for it not to change,
or maybe you're like, "I'm gonna go down like a comet," no?
- Well, like, I can't...
like, at certain times when I can't get the bus.
- Sure, okay.
- So, it's like, just like at school times
I can't get a bus like that.
- Now when you say school times, I'm curious about that.
As in when?
- When the kids are coming out of school.
- See, but this is why I'm so happy to do this with you,
because I struggle with, like,
I do a lot of theater in New York too,
and I'm passionate about it,
but it's tough when you look out,
not tough, these are first world problems,
but, you know, they're older audiences, you know?
And I'm a young person who loves acting and filmmaking
and theater, and that's why it's so exciting
to do this with you, because "Get Out" was
a movie that wasn't a gatekeeper phenomenon,
but rather, like, everybody my age,
whether it was because of you, or Jordan,
or just the movie was amazing, Jordan Peele.
I'm sorry, I cut you off.
- No, no, it's, that's what was quite...
I mean, I realize, I'm back home in London,
cuz I've done loads of this stuff back home,
and even "Black Mirror", loads of stuff I've done is, like,
I did this show called "Skins," and that kinda changed.
- Oh my god, I didn't know you were in "Skins."
- Yeah, that was back in the day, bro, like.
- They made an American version that was not what
the British version was...
- Nah, I can't have an opinion on that.
I haven't seen the American version.
- Oh, you were in the American version.
- No, I'm in the English version.
- Oh yeah, okay.
- I'm in the first two series.
And then that kind of was like, oh, everyone my age.
It was kinda like this, like, oh,
it's a show made by teenagers,
written by teenagers, cause I wrote as well,
written by teenagers, and targeted to teenagers
so you're literally surrounded, constantly.
And I do other stuff, and it's like,
it's more high-brow, so no one knows.
So I could go to parties and no one really cares.
- Right, right.
- I'm doing an episode here or I'm doing "Black Mirror,"
"Black Mirror" was like, kinda, in the artsy scene.
People saw it, but...
- Yeah, I wonder what kind of people
were stopping people for "Black Mirror" because.
Hey, you were in "Black Mirror," right?
Probably the craziest people.
- "Get Out" was so, kinda like, everyone.
Everyone, that I was around,
everyone, all my friends would watch it.
So people that don't care about,
that watch "Fast and Furious,"
they were watching "Get Out."
So it was like, people I grew up with, everyone.
I always know, cause I'm from an estate,
which is like a project.
When I would go back, like, I'm coming back from work,
if, like, people would come up to me about it.
Cuz they usually don't care,
But if people come up to me and go,
"Oh, that trailer man, that trailer."
If they get excited about it, that's not the industry,
that's just normal life, and that's when it changes.
Because it's just like, oh, I'm living -
I have to navigate life differently
because someone's asking you for advice on the tube.
Do you know what I mean?
- Wow, that's crazy.
- Because I'm a young black man, you know,
I'm just doing my thing,
and I'm not from a privileged background.
A lot of time, they just going...
- And do you find, yeah, I'm sure they're questions
are specific to that and the inspiration there.
- I'm sure you get that in New York,
like, people must know who you are.
- Well, look, the tremendous benefit
is this film hasn't come out yet
and nobody has any idea who I am anyway, so.
No, I mean, it hasn't really happened yet.
A little bit, somebody dropped a bag of peach candies
in front of me at Chipotle the other day,
they ran off, and made sure the seal wasn't broken,
so I wasn't getting cyanide or something.
Not that anybody's trying to poison anybody, but, uh.
- That's one for the memoirs, man.
- One for the memoirs.
(Laughter)
A memoir that four people will buy.
(grand piano music)
- [Oliver] I can't believe you changed it again.
- [Elio] Oh, I changed it a little bit.
- Yeah. Why?
- I just played it the way Busoni would have played it
if he'd altered Liszt's version.
- So, and why it would be funny that it's peach candies,
for those that haven't seen the film,
it's gonna be very weird to explain this, but...
- I don't want to spoil it, cuz it's like...
- Yeah, I don't want to spoil it.
There's a great fruit, fruit, fruit love scene.
(laughs)
- So when was that in the shoot?
When was that in the schedule?
- That's a good question.
- When was that in the schedule?
Were you dreading it?
- Yes.
- Or was it, like, kind of like, on set
you know the grips and them are like,
"Oh, it's coming, it's coming."
- No, it's true.
So, I have sex with a peach in this film.
But it's a great film, not that it wouldn't be
a great film without it.
(laughs)
- Sex with a peach?
Yeah.
- I try to have sex with fruit in every movie
that I do now.
- Peach, high-end cinema.
That's the correlation.
- Hey, yeah.
In fact, I saw a very, like,
I saw a fan-made poster online the other day
with a big peach on it, that was, like,
super well-done.
Uh, so, that was maybe three, four weeks into the shoot.
And obviously you're aware of why that would help,
because first-day jitters, you're all over the place.
And it just, there was the, there was an anxiety
that was taken away, in that Luca Guadagnino,
our director, said, he thought maybe it worked better
as a literary metaphor in the book, and that
it could never really work well as a visual metaphor.
And he came up to me, you know, maybe a week, two weeks
before shooting, and he goes, "Timmy, you know,
I tried it, and it works!"
And I was like, "of course it works, Luca,
like were you never a teenager...
- (laughs)
- No, we won't get into that, no.
(laughs)
- That's amazing.
Did you try it before?
- Next question.
- (laughs)
You did it!
- And, so, as I progress and keep moving
the conversation along, no, it just felt like
if it wasn't going to be any good,
then it wouldn't be in the movie.
So I just made a prescription for myself,
often if I'm doing a scene, or even like
press stuff like this,
it's not so much to achieve something,
there's like a certain area maybe I don't want to hit.
And I just knew in that scene, I didn't want to be,
try and be funny, or, "Oh, God, here it is."
- Mmm.
- It's like, the prescription
is what would truthfully be going down...
- Yeah, and it read like that, it was really true.
- In the scene.
- And so, in terms of, like,
how much did you lean on the source material?
- It's tough, because, and this really is the honest answer.
In the moments where I'd be really struggling
and couldn't figure out what was going on
with the character, it really was like a Bible,
it was like an infinite amount of stuff to pull from.
But then especially in a coming-of-age movie,
in a sexual coming-of-age movie,
like, spontanaeity, those are my favorite moments
in movies like "Blue is the Warmest Color,"
and films like that.
So I didn't want to lose that.
So, yeah, I don't know, it's a fine line,
cuz you want to be faithful to the book, too.
- So did you get to the point where you were like,
"I'm not engaging with the book anymore."
- Certainly in the pre-production process.
Now once we were shooting, like I said,
if I got lost in a scene, or sometimes
I could even say something to Luca,
"Don't you think it would happen like this?"
And he would be like, "Can't,
because this is how it goes down here.
(laughs)
- Mmm.
So there was that experience.
But certainly in the pre-production process,
and I'm curious what it's like for you,
in your pre-production process,
you know, you do the research,
and then at a certain point, you gotta be like,
"Alright."
- I just can't let it go.
I remember, it was actually on "Black Mirror,"
I learned a lot doing British TV, you know,
with "Black Mirror," he did a hot-seat situation,
me and Jess Brown Findlay, who was in it as well.
And then, like, he would ask us questions
about the character, I mean we literally
spent a whole day doing this.
It was quite intense, I mean like some of the things,
he was like, "No, I don't think that's right."
And then at the end, he was like, "Okay, forget about it."
We were like, "What?"
- (laughs)
- And he's like, no, if it makes sense, it'll stick.
- Hmm.
- So I kind of adopt that, and kind of like
before I film something, I try not to watch movies.
- I can't watch movies when I'm shooting something.
- It makes me too self-aware.
I watch documentaries sometimes.
- Documentaries or cartoons.
- Like, and then I'll read the script every day.
Just read the script every day,
cuz I want it to be in my bones.
I don't want to be thinking, "Where am I?"
You want to be in a scene going,
"I know what this is."
- And are you shooting in sequence or out of sequence?
- (sighs)
Out of sequence.
Well, it was also, it was a 23-day shoot.
- (hushed) It was 23 days? That's crazy.
- So it was like war.
- So what was the pre-production process
with Jordan Peele like, was there a series
of discussions and preparations?
- Yeah, we...
- Or rehearsals?
- We sat down, he sat down with, like, little groups.
We went to a house in Alabama,
- Hmm.
- Cuz we shot it in Alabama.
We went to a house, all the cast, the main cast,
we just hung out for a weekend
- Awesome.
- It was when Kanye dropped "Life of Pablo,"
- Oh, great album.
- And we watched that, we watched the SNL performance
when it was released, so it was that weekend,
but anyways, so that's random.
- (laughs)
- But we went to separate rooms,
and Jordan would go off, and then
we'd talk about the scene.
And then we'd just improvise.
So we'd go, "Alright, cool, this is the scene,
alright, cool put it to the side,
and let's feel it."
So me and Allison would go back and forth.
- And for the improv, it's so, you're so f'king excellent
in this movie, and everyone is so natural.
And now that's the other thing
I was going to ask you about today,
because certainly, like, I think of my favorite
"Key and Peele" sketches, and they're all very,
they're all subtle, but I guess there's humor in "Get Out"
that I found to be even more subtle than what
the sketch comedy was.
And was there ever a clear direction
in the rehearsal process?
Did he ever say to you, "This is all
supposed to be like real life.
This is just supposed to be grounded in reality," or...
- No, I kinda wanted that, I've always wanted that,
like I kind of, but that's just my personal taste,
where I don't want the character to feel like
they're in the genre that they're in.
- Huh.
- You know what I mean?
So I just...
- And "Get Out," we don't even know what genre...
- And that's something I learned, I did this film
called "Psychoville," and this director, Matt Lipsey,
he said to me, at 19, he was like, I did this scene,
it's like a horror comedy series, and I did this scene,
and I was doing it, and it's like, I think I was
trying to chat up a Siamese twin.
- (laughs)
Good writing, good writing.
- You know, I've been around, I've been around.
And I did it, and he was just like, he was pulling me
to the side, and he went, "Daniel, never play the funny,
always play the truth."
- That's tough.
- And I just always carried that with me.
So I always felt like stuff like that,
so I went to Jordan and was like,
"I just want to feel grounded, I just wanted to..."
But that's what I did in the audition,
I just kind of was like, just wanted to play a real guy,
and he's, like, this is happening,
and he just doesn't understand it's happening,
but he's trying to figure out, as well,
and he's trying to, like,
so it's all about, you wanna see his, like, cognitive...
- No, but that's what's nuts, and then it's funny,
like you say 'genre' but I wouldn't even,
I don't know if "Get Out" is a horror movie.
And it's interesting, I didn't know that you did
a horror comedy series prior, so...
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've done some stuff.
- [Man] Come on, I get it, white family, black servants,
it's a total cliche.
- (Sighs)
I wasn't going to take it there.
- [Man] I hate the way it looks.
By the way, I would have voted for Obama
for a third term if I could.
- So you and Armie Hammer have a very intense chemistry.
- Mmm.
- How was that, like, did you meet him before?
- No, it was...
- Did you, is it just on set, or how did you map that out?
And even that sex scene, how did you map all that out?
- Well, it was like the random luck of the universe,
where we had just a genuine bond,
and we never read together beforehand.
Luca didn't read him either.
Luca says, "If I desire my actors, and I love my actors,
they'll love each other, too," so...
(laughs)
- Wow, that's deep.
- That's deep, man.
So half the things that guy says, I'm like,
"I have no idea, I'm not smart enough
to know what you're saying."
Um, and then once we got out there,
(sighs)
it's been so strange to have talked about this
for a year-and-a-half, and to say, like,
"This is how we did it."
Because there was no game plan,
there was no awareness if what we were doing was any good.
- Mmm.
- And it was just about spending time with one another,
and, weirdly, the relationship in the pre-production process
kinda took on the form of the movie,
save for all the crazy stuff.
(laughs)
But, you know, we were riding around on bikes
in this small town in Italy,
and I'd been there a little bit in advance,
so I got to show him, you know,
where I was having espressos every morning,
and also, we weren't in L.A.,
like he wasn't going home to his family every day,
we just hung out with each other a lot,
and all the time,
and I pray you get a working experience with Armie,
because this is, I've been so lucky, and,
even right now, getting to talk to you,
I feel like I got lucky doing this right now with you,
- Feeling's mutual, bruv.
- Because, God forbid, man, it was like
some really scary, you know, intense older...
- Let me ask you about, so you speak a lot of languages.
- I speak French, I speak French.
(laughs)
- So how was that in working, have you worked in...
- No, it was surreal, because growing up,
you know, I spent my summers in France growing up,
but it's really the American parts of my personality
and my upbringing that have always encouraged
the outgoing, broken narcissist in me.
(laughs)
No, you know what I mean, I'm just joking.
- (laughs)
- But, like, the desire to be an actor,
and be a good ensemble member,
but to speak words, to speak lines.
And my French side of me is way more repressed,
almost by nature, and certainly growing up, you know,
I wasn't in the New York equivalent of France,
I was in a tiny town called Le Chambon-sur-Lignon,
so what's been really kinda trippy about
"Call Me By Your Name" is that acting that's very much
an outgoing and performative thing for me,
not performative,
(laughs)
Shouldn't be performative!
Should be, like, real and honest,
is that this French through-line found its way in somehow,
so, I don't know, it's weird.
My father's French, so he's certainly very excited about it,
but yeah, yeah.
- So like, even, so that's a good segue,
because one of the scenes that really got me
was the conversation with your father.
- Yeah, yeah.
- And that speech that he gave.
So what was that like, filming it?
And I think that's one of
the most refreshing themes in this film,
is the parents' attitudes...
- Yeah.
- Towards the relationship, so it's like,
how did that feel to you and everyone working on it?
- Well, Michael Stuhlbarg, he plays Mr. Perlman, my father,
- He's incredible.
- He's so incredible.
He's, you know, he takes notes with a ruler in his script,
which I think is like a nice indicator of how
he knows, he knows exactly what's going down.
And when it came time to shoot that scene, like I said,
I went to a bunch of theater stuff growing up in New York,
I really consider myself a theater kid,
and he was in Martin McDonagh's "Pillow Man,"
I must have been 11 or 12,
so this is someone I really looked up to.
- Mm-hmm.
- And when it came time to do that scene,
that's very much his scene, you know, I have to be
present and listening and there for him,
you know, it was just like,
"Stay a fly on the wall, Timmy,
and just let the master go to work."
And there was the experience of really hearing it, too,
in that monologue, and getting to hear, you know,
don't push away pain in your life, and embrace it,
and live and let live, and to feel crummy
doesn't mean that you should not just feel crummy,
and sit in that state.
- I can't move.
- You're paralyzed.
- Now, sink into the floor.
- [Daniel] Wait, wait, wait, wait.
- Sink.
(wet sinking sound)
(ominous strings)
- This is a scene that, I was even talking
with a buddy on the phone, telling him that I was gonna get,
that we were gonna have this discussion,
and actor friend of mine, and we both,
I was saying, like, "What are some things I can ask?"
And we both landed on the same thing,
and he brought it up first, actually.
And we don't have to get into the specifics, whatever,
we can maintain the mystery of the performance,
but the, that sunken chair scene.
- (laughs)
- That scene is so crazy, and I just, in the most,
obviously, fantastic of ways, and I just, I mean,
how'd you guys shoot it?
What was the rehearsal process like?
Did you know it was going to be so...
Cuz it's a two-person scene, but it's very much like,
then it's her, and you have to carry so much of that,
there's so much going on.
- Mmm.
- And so I guess the way I would formulate the question is
was it formulated to be like a climax for you, of sorts?
- No, it wasn't, it's weird that that scene, I mean
(laughs)
Jordan did say on set, "Yo, this is iconic."
- Did he say that?
- He said that on set, I know he said that on set.
- I love it.
- But he said that a lot on set, and I was like,
"He's ampin' us up."
But it didn't feel like that.
It felt like an intense day, cuz it was
just that scene that day.
- Hmm.
- So it was like a five-page scene, that scene that day,
and we'd blocked it out, and it was just,
you had to be on.
So I knew that I couldn't really, like, joke around,
cuz I joke around on set, like,
with the crew and everything,
so I couldn't really joke around,
- Right. Yeah.
- I had to go into a space.
- Did you have the headphones?
- No, no, no, I just walk away.
Like I just walk away, and just won't talk to anyone.
- Oh, nice.
- I think it's more intense, if you just kind of...
- It's true, it's weirder, it's scarier.
- I don't want to talk to anyone.
That's even darker.
I can listen to music, but I don't even want to talk to you.
- Yeah, I'm on a good level but I'm like...
- And so it's like, so I just kept it in that space,
kept it in that space, and just like tapped into,
it's empathy, man, and I tapped into that kind of,
like, it just, the writing was so good.
And I just tapped into that darkness in me,
and pain that I've kind of felt in my life.
And I kind of was just like, "Cool, let's let loose."
And also, just empathizing with someone that's, like,
going through so much, and has, like, suppressed it,
Kinda suppressed his guilt of, like, a really bad situation.
It's shame, do you know what I mean?
- Mmm.
- And also, this reluctance to face it, but he's paralyzed,
he's paralyzed emotionally, and I identify that
in all walks of life.
I mean, it's the same with, I don't know, sexism,
- Hmm.
If something's happening, and a woman can't say anything,
because she'll lose her job, do you know what I mean?
- Hmm.
She's, like, paralyzed, innit, situationally.
So I kind of thought that that's such a dynamic
that everyone kind of can identify with,
and I've identified in so many different ways,
in this kind of release of emotion that's uncontrollable,
which is, I just kind of really identified with.
- Have you seen "The Master"?
- Yes, I have.
- You know what scene reminds me a lot of that,
that interrogation scene.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- And those are, like, my favorite scenes in movies,
when are actors are just, like,
having to be totally present in that.
- It's pure, it's pure, and it's just, like,
cuz all it is is emotion and character,
and it's someone that's opening up
that doesn't want to open up, do you know what I mean?
It's like, when someone said to me, like,
crying makes, it's heartbreaking, but seeing someone
trying not to cry is even worse.
- Oooh.
- Do you know what I mean?
So it's that kind of, I'm not even happy that I'm crying.
I hate this emotion, and it's just like
but I have to give it.
So that's the struggle, there has to be some conflict there.
So what's next for you, apart from running the world?
- (laughs)
So yeah, no, what's next is it's all downhill.
- What do you wanna do, though?
Where do you, like, the world is your oyster, bro,
like real talk, like, you are just...
- Oh, man.
- Like you have got the juice.
- (laughs)
Wow, man, that was filmed, right?
I have Daniel Kaluuya saying that to me now, right?
- So it's just like, what are you doing at the moment?
What do you wanna do? What do you aspire, like...
- I don't know, you know,
it's, I don't know if you have this experience, too,
where it's, you know, things have been going very well,
and I feel like I have to suffocate the moment
with appreciation or something,
really sit in it, and it's tough because
um, I don't know, not tough, these are great things,
- No, it is tough bro.
- It's weird.
- If you find it tough, it's tough.
- Yeah, it is what it is,
everyone's entitled to their...
- Yeah, cuz it's just, like,
you're just navigating a new space.
- That's what it feels like.
And also, I don't want to, it's tough,
because I don't want it to be the kind of thing where,
cuz I even watch things I did when I was 19, and at 21,
I go, "Man, I'm so thankful
that I have two years now on that."
- Yeah.
- I just know I'm going to watch things
four, five years from now and go,
"Oh, man, I was clueless."
- Yeah.
Or, God forbid, I'm like "Those are the glory years!"
- (Laughs)
- And now I'm all washed up,
so I just wanna work, it's just
good directors, good projects, important storytelling,
the way, beyond any sort of academic evaluation of
"Call Me By Your Name," what's so sick
is the way people react to it,
like visceral reactions to it,
like the monologue you reference,
and so like people will come up to me and say,
"I never had that father, and as a gay man,
if I'd had that father, my life would have been easier,"
and things like that.
So that's the goal, is to keep doing things like that.
And you know, it's fun being in L.A.,
we were talking about this earlier,
but it's a weird place out here,
it's not London, it's not New York.
[Psychedelic Furs' "Love My Way"]
♪ Love my way, it's a new road ♪
♪ I follow where my mind goes ♪
- So, okay, so there's "Get Out,"
and you have the bigger movies that are coming too,
and is there a goal for something else to do?
Are you taking it a day at a time?
Are you riding the wave?
Like, what's the philosophy?
And, actually, give me some advice, here,
because you lead the way a little bit.
- Oh, thanks, bro.
I kinda just feel like I did "Get Out"
not cuz it was big, but because I believed in it.
So, and it happened to do that it did.
I think I've got populist sensibilities,
- Hmm.
- Just growing up, I didn't grow up in the industry,
and I love high-brow cinema, and like, art-house cinema,
so I always would look for both,
and ideally look for both in the same project,
someone that knows what they're doing,
so I kinda just, like, listen if I feel it,
if I feel it, then I feel it.
Then my friends will feel it, too,
cuz I'm around my friends.
- Mm-hmm.
- Do you know what I mean?
I just want to make stuff for my friends.
- Dude, this is, I want to be friends with your friends.
- I want my friends to go,
"Oh, like, I really enjoyed that."
Or, like, stuff that your mum would go,
"Oh, yeah, I really liked that."
Do you know what I mean?
Cuz she watched... and she loved it.
- As opposed to...
- It's gotta be doing something for, like, to serve.
You're there to serve, do you know what I mean?
And so, for me, it's just like that,
on the page, do I feel it?
And then, if the director, I'm very lucky
that I've been working with people
that I'm a fan of them already.
- Mm-hmm.
- Like I was watching the film,
I was watching "Black Panther" anyway,
- Right.
like I don't how I managed to be in it.
So it's just like, just keep...
- And that's a good feeling, it's not intimidating?
- Yeah, no, just keep doing that, and like,
and being present.
Cuz sometimes I may feel like I wanna do this,
and it may be right to do a musical or whatever,
cuz I grew up...
- Oh my gosh, are you doing a musical now?
- No, I'm not doing a musical.
(upbeat rock music with piano)