YOU TALKIN’ TO ME?
Film quotes pose as questions. Film stars try to cope.
Are you talking to me?
Are you talking to me? Are you talking to me? If you’re not talking to me, then who the fuck are you talking to? That would be my response. No, it’s a treat to talk to you, because I visited London last year for three-and-a-half months while I filmed Cruella with Emma Stone.
Do you feel lucky, punk?
I feel really lucky, man. So much of what’s happened to me wasn’t orchestrated by me. Things would fall into my lap, or weird connections happened. The only thing that I really do is I try to prepare myself for the opportunities when they come.
Do you have an ‘off’ switch?
I definitely have an ‘off’ switch. The problem is, I don’t want anyone to tell me when to turn it off. I vividly remember in high school this kid miming his fingers as turning a dial down, wanting me to not try to be funny or be ‘on’, so to speak. I hated the sight of it so much I’ve never forgotten it. I have an ‘off’ switch, but I’ll be the one turning myself down.
I suppose you think you’re brave, don’t you?
I played a very brave man. Richard Jewell was ready to run into a fire and do what he had to do. He had that September 11th responder heart and mind where he really tapped into his selflessness and fearlessness. But I haven’t played that many good-hearted, mentally stable folk. I play a lot of ne’er-do-wells and obnoxious idiots.
What’s normal, anyways?
That’s such a weirdly good question. Bullying on the internet has become normal, and mistreating people for your own amusement. It’s one of our worst qualities, when we put people through some sort of shared societal wringer, and treat them as if they’re less than nothing.
If I say to you, “Don’t think about elephants,” what do you think about?
I’m literally drinking from a coffee mug that has a ceramic elephant attached to it as a handle, so it’s weird that you ask that. I got this mug in Thailand when I was filming the Spike Lee Netflix film, Da 5 Bloods, which is out this summer. But yeah – “Don’t think about elephants”? I’m thinking about elephants.
‘THERE’S A NEEDINESS BRED THROUGH HAVING YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE’
Is life always this hard, or is it just when you’re a kid?
Oh, it’s always this hard. But when you’re a kid, you’re given a licence to not have to feel the greater pains of it. I had rough moments. My family was in a life-altering car accident. I got picked on a little at school… but I was mostly watching Jim Carrey and Robin Williams and Chris Farley movies, and that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing right now, man.
You talk the talk, but do you walk the walk?
I walk the walk, but I walk it like a cop is making me walk in a straight line after a couple of beers.
Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?
Put it this way: I haven’t danced with the devil in the pale moonlight, but I have given him the middle finger, for sure. I have flipped him the fuck off.
We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven’t you?
Yeah. I went a little nuts in Thailand. I had a dark period where I was going stir-crazy in my hotel. I was there for maybe seven weeks, I had a tonne of time on my hands, and I wasn’t partying or going out drinking. I was in my hotel, working out, working on screenplays, reading books. And I got so batty and glitchy and crazy being cooped up.
You think it’s easy, in my profession, having to think four steps ahead of everyone?
[laughs] That’s familiar! It’s not easy to stay ahead of the curve, and there’s a neediness bred through having your dreams come true, and then having to sit around and wait. It’s emotionally very up-and-down to experience the high highs of Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood, and then the low lows of someone you know you don’t want to work for for a half a year. But the reality is, we don’t fully control our fate. That’s a universal truth. So instead of trying to be the mastermind that commandeers their own life, it’s probably wiser to live in a place of peace and contentment, so that when those things do happen you’re prepared for them. JF
ETA | OUT NOW / RICHARD JEWELL IS AVAILABLE ON DIGITAL HD NOW, AND ON DVD FROM 8 JUNE.