WEBVTT - Ep53 - Christian Bale / "Hostiles" 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:03.840 You're listening to playback a Variety podcast. I'm your host, 0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:25.560 Variety Awards editor Chris Tappy. Have you been You've been 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:29.560 busy since to tell you right, Yeah, that time of year, 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:33.519 you know, you've been busy. You've been watching a lot 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:36.280 of films because I've watched absolutely not I have. I 0:00:36.360 --> 0:00:39.120 watched the Female Ghostbusters, but the first like Tenderness, and 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:42.120 then kids that like the rest of it. I don't 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:45.000 know what happened. Did they like it? The restaurant, Just 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:48.520 people watching lots of documentaries about Dick Cheney and trying 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:50.520 not to think about him since I was just playing 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:56.560 him last night, and remember to about ourselves. Yeah, you 0:00:56.560 --> 0:00:59.760 guys good with the fires, you know, we had to 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:01.920 get out, We have to leave our place. But the 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:05.360 light was beautiful when I got on my roof and 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:07.720 got to a bunch of photographs because it was incredible. 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:09.800 It looked like more to or man like that some 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:13.959 of the videos I say more more just the shape 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:18.120 of the land and all that on fire. It's just like, yeah, exactly, 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:23.360 Mussa is going to be there today, isn't he Massa? Oh? 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:27.000 Really I like him being there because he just either 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:32.759 either he says nothing, which is right, and in front 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:35.520 of his guilt he actually talks. Oh he does maybe 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:38.880 maybe when it's weird on he's on the topic exactly. 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:43.960 But the most famous scenes David that he did David 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:47.240 or Russell film and they were going through the edit 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:49.559 at the end and everything, and he was showing Mussa 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:52.120 and Mussa didn't say anything, and David tells us to everybody, 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:54.840 so I'm not talking at school bes He said to Mussa, 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:56.720 what do you think he mus haven't said anything? Muss 0:01:56.800 --> 0:02:03.960 Mussa when if Mussa or speak Musson or like he's superb. 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:07.640 He's one of these such a right eyes. I'm gonna 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:11.560 be talking to him soon. Actually, you get the shot right, Yes, 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:14.160 the first shot of you in the movie I think 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:18.440 is amazing, Like calcification of hatred is what's going on, 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:21.280 and that would be a hero shot normally the framing, 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:23.799 but it's fascinating the way that's kind of turned on 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:26.560 its ear and the so yeah, well that's what's nice 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:28.519 in it about the film, right, it's the lack of 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:32.240 I mean, look, please don't talk to me about knowledge 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:36.440 of film. You know, I have virtually none. People tell 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:41.040 me and you can. I'm sure you know the Searches. Um. Yeah, 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:43.200 people tell me, oh, this film reminds me of the Searches. 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:45.919 I've never seen the Searches. People can't believe why I 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:48.440 haven't seen I've never seen the sound of music. I've 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:53.320 never seen the wizard sound different things? What you mean 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:55.079 it was? He had never seen the sound of music. 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:57.800 Somebody alwaysked him way late in life, like what movie 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:00.160 have you not seen that? People would be surprised and 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:03.000 it was the sound of music. Yeah, but that was 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:05.520 his job. It's not my job to watch everything, you know. True, 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:08.960 I think it directed jobs. I think more they have 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:12.800 to probably someone like Hurts would disagree with me, but 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:15.600 but but more likely they have to know the conversation 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:19.240 of the film right and respond and shooting with what 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:20.840 I do. I don't feel like you need to know. 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:22.760 That's good if you don't have to do it at all, 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:26.360 go easier. Any I get told hostiles and most peoples 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:28.959 of the people of the Searchers, which I hear is 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:31.520 a good thing. That is a good. That is a good. 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:33.200 That's a tough one to be a touchdown, but it's 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:37.720 a good one. Here you go, Well, here we go, 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:42.080 we're rolling. Okay, we have Christian Bale here today, star 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:46.760 of Hostiles. Um I love this film, love this genre. 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:48.720 You've worked in the genre a couple of times now 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:54.600 actually with actually had been faster here last year, your 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:57.760 co star in this and in three ten. And not 0:03:57.800 --> 0:03:59.920 to dive in on a craft question immediately, but I 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:03.080 thought I love the way he put the notion of 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:06.120 what acting is. He said, I'm not an artist, I'm 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:09.760 a builder, which I really liked because it kind of 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:14.400 demystifies it in some way. It translates it to a trade, 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:17.400 which I kind of dig I guess, And I'm just 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:24.039 curious your thoughts on those notes that um my feeling is, Um, 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:27.120 I don't really know what it is, and I'm quite 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:29.640 happy doing that. You know, I don't really know why 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:31.800 I like doing it. I know the one thing I 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:33.920 think that is very important in life and I want 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:36.920 my kids to find is an obsession with something, hopefully 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:39.880 a healthy obsession. I know I'm obsessed with it because 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:41.800 I love it and I hate it as well, but 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:45.719 I keep going back to it, and um uh, there's 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:49.159 something about it that really intrigues me. As we were saying, 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:51.200 just now it's got nothing for me to do with 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:53.440 love of film. I do love film, but that's not 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:56.480 why I do it. It's exploration of characters. I've got 0:04:56.480 --> 0:05:00.160 no idea, Like in my head, I don't know how 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:03.480 to act. Really. I know how to play certain characters 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:07.640 and that's it. But you know these actors who can 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:09.520 come in and just sort of play one character in 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:11.680 a different I have no idea how they do that 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:14.919 at all. Maybe that takes some training which I lack 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:18.920 and I've never had, um at all. Um. So that's 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:20.800 how I look at it. I just look at it 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:24.119 as I'm someone who studies one person in great depth 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:29.560 and that's it. Um. People decide, you know what what 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:31.960 to call that? Yeah, maybe I'm more of like a journalist. 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:35.800 You investigate, and I like sometense you call them me 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:39.440 an investigator. That feels important. Yeah. Well, that having been said, 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:43.960 is there any like do you subscribe Stanislavski at all? 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:46.120 I mean, you know, there's absolutely nothing. I have no 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:48.560 idea what any of it really means. I don't know 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:50.320 what people peg you as method, but I don't think 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:53.600 that's really like You're not what it is, you know. 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.920 I mean, I go what does that mean? You know? Um? 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:01.680 I you know, if I have to get out to 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:07.560 scene and they're waiting for me, um, and it's a 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:09.839 Western I'm not going to say, is there a horse? 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:11.880 Can I ride a horse? No? Otherwise I walk. Now 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:14.919 I'm not going in the car ada to me, I go, 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:18.400 is that method? Because I cannot use anything but what 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:19.919 they would have had at the time. Now I'll be 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:22.320 jumping in the car. I'm getting wired. I've got a 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:27.880 mic on me, you know, and you have to you know, 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:34.400 use your imagination. UM for me. I think maybe people 0:06:34.560 --> 0:06:41.960 say method, maybe because I find it very difficult to 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:45.080 jump in and out of being me and then being 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:48.440 a character. If I'm just me on a set, I 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:52.040 can't play a character because people know me too much 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:54.800 and I can't stop. So I'll start coming out with 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:58.400 things that are me answering the question instead. So I 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:00.920 do a ride on the set, always going I want 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:04.359 to be more the character than me. But that's because 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:07.880 probably because I've had no training and I don't know 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:10.360 how to switch it on and off really quickly, and 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:14.200 so people go, oh, his method, I don't know. Yeh. 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:17.320 Was this one a particularly hard one to shake? Given 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:20.200 you know, as I was talking about that shot and 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:22.440 how it's just this calcification of hate. I mean, the 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:26.440 man is kind of just years of hatred built up 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:28.880 to the point that he's just numb. And so was 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:30.560 that a difficult one to shake at the end of 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:34.520 each day? No, because I think he's very soulful underneath, 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:40.680 you know, and he's very smart. He recognizes that whilst 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:46.840 he is the boss of his own domain, um, that 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:53.480 he is a puppet um uh and the puppet masters 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:57.480 of the politicians back in d C. And very much 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:01.720 for me, it's an indictment of politics and parliticians. Um. 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:04.480 These men who go and live and die based on 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:08.200 decisions that are made in Washington and then whimsically they 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:13.320 make a different choice. Um. And so he's somebody who 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:19.480 has done horrendous things, seen horrendous things done too friends 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:22.800 of his. Um. You know, had to listen to friends 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:25.600 of his screaming and pain and dying, you know, for 0:08:25.760 --> 0:08:33.160 years and years. Um uh. No, he in the big picture, UM, 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:38.120 he is not the victim of genocide. You know, he 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:42.640 is enacting that. Um. But for him, he's doing his duty. 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:48.360 He's a soldier and and he does it well and 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:52.760 comes to like every soldier seems to talk about um, 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.360 you know, when you're when you're when your brother in 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:59.760 arms is killed mutilated, then you cannot help but start 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:02.760 to crew hatred for the person who did that, whether 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:04.760 or not you ever would have had any hatred for 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:06.400 them in the first place. In fact, they look at 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:09.840 Blocker and Yellowhawk can say, well, Blocker would be Yellowhawk 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:12.440 and yellow Hawk's position, and there is a great respect 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.959 between the two of them, um. And we see them 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:22.000 come to give up the the the the the armor 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:24.960 around each of one of any of each of them 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:30.080 as they get closer to the blocker. Civilization is that 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:32.880 something that kind of rings in the contemporary in a 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:36.520 certain sense. So it's not it's not like you canings ratio, 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:38.960 there's no difference. It's not like you can, you know, 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:41.680 track down an old Civil War veteran or something like 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:43.880 that and talk to them. But like, how did you 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:46.840 prepare in terms of talking to people and maybe trying 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:48.959 to build the character that way? Did you? I used 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:53.160 experience from actually past times going and talking with marine 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:58.960 recon groups down at Pendleton UM. Here in the difference 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:03.840 between them speaking groups and speaking one on one um 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:08.600 looking at the Army Times, which is very surprisingly open 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.079 about the psychology of combat and how it affects soldiers, 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:16.200 and one of the first publications to really start talking 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:19.360 about PTSD, which obviously in the time of hostiles, people 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:22.959 didn't even there wasn't a thing. There wasn't melancholia, and 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:28.240 maybe some people called it that, but it was just ignored, 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:33.840 really on on on on the most part um. And 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:36.200 then what what I thought about was, well, what would 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:38.160 his childhood have been. He would have been born in 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:41.760 nineteen fifty. Soldiers were not meant to be fighting in 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:44.560 the Civil War twelve years old, but they were. There 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:48.640 were plenty of twelve thirteen, fourteen year old fighting. So 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:50.680 I said, all right, he was at Shiloh, right in 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:53.640 the middle of the hornets nest um. That's what he's 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:56.360 been brought up on. That's what he understands. That what 0:10:56.640 --> 0:11:02.080 that's what he does best, and and it's ingrained, you know, 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:06.800 in his marrow. You also learned the Shayen language for 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:11.760 this role, which I'm always fascinated about language because it 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:16.280 it can reveal, you know, how how a culture communicates 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:19.160 with one another within anything, reveals a lot about that culture, 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:21.560 and I'm just curious, just beyond the nuts and bolts 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:24.400 of how to speak it, did learning Cheyenne reveal anything 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:27.400 to you about the Cheyenne people? That was, they were 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:31.400 fascinating things that Chief Philip would teach me, which I don't. 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:34.800 I do apologize, it's been a year and I can't 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:38.160 going in great details. But more of a circular thinking 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:42.480 than a linear thinking. Um and and I liked using 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:45.560 that with Blocker, that he's a very linear thinker. You know, 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:51.400 he's he's very um, short and abrupt, but he he 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:58.280 truly understands his you know, enemy who has been forced 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:01.600 to be his enemy. You know, he's not his true 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:04.920 natural enemy whatsoever. It's it's just because he's been told 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:08.640 he has to go do this. It has becomes so um. 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:15.120 But yes, a very very different way of thinking. A 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:19.320 sense of forgiveness towards him that absolutely kills him. You 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:21.880 know that that that he sees that yellow Hawk is 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:29.480 capable of, that affects him deeply. Um. And they're just 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:34.960 a sense in himself of understanding he is attacking their land, 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:38.559 they are defending their land. There's an enormous difference in 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:45.120 that he may now be fighting out of sincere grief 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:49.120 because of lost loved ones. But they arrived and we're 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:53.360 taking you know, the land. This is an act of genocide. Um. 0:12:53.440 --> 0:12:56.200 So that that he that's always present in his mind 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:59.000 in his dealings with Yellowhawk, even though he doesn't want 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:06.280 to let that show um at all. And and this this, 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:09.880 this this sense of forgiveness that Yellowhawk has which helps 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:12.480 him in many ways to actually learn how to be 0:13:13.080 --> 0:13:18.080 human and interact again after so many years just in 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:24.480 the company of men who kill. Uh. Just just talking 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:28.720 to Scott about this yesterday actually, Um, the horsemanship element 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:31.200 of this, he said that, you know, I guess it 0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:33.760 was the Wrangler or somebody mentioned that he had never 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:37.439 seen an actor and his horse so at one with 0:13:37.480 --> 0:13:40.400 each other. Yeah, I love that horse Seeker is the 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:43.040 name is. Yeah, we just used him again in the film. 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:46.880 I just finished doing. Uh yeah, no it yeah it 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:51.120 clearly he definitely was assessing me for a while, and 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:54.800 I was failing to begin with. He wasn't he wasn't responding. 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:56.880 He could he could tell that I wasn't up to it. 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:00.440 And then uh, and then I just kept practicing practice 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:03.480 in and eventually he went yet, all right, he's my man. 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:05.400 You know, I'll do what he's asking me too. And 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:07.880 he was incredible. And how far back does your experience 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:12.400 with horses it goes? Because we all piled into a 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:14.599 varian when I was a kid and disappeared off to 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:18.199 Portugal and didn't go to school for a year. We 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:20.240 just kind of lived on a farm and sort of 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:24.240 lad this sort of barefoot huckle berythin kind of existence 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:27.440 for a bit. And there was this eccentric lady who 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:32.200 had a horse stables and she m after having a 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:34.880 few that day, she took me into a lunch paddock 0:14:34.920 --> 0:14:36.520 and it's the first time I've been on a horse. 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:39.760 I've been run over by horses, by little Shetland ponies, 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:41.800 but it was in a lot of mud, and bizarrely, 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:45.680 they actually they stamped on my chest, which they really do, 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:48.320 but I was in mud so it didn't cause a 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:51.120 lot of damage. But she put me in lungeon paddock 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:55.360 bare back and just had me riding bare back, cantering around, 0:14:55.720 --> 0:15:00.440 laying backwards, laying forwards, laying sideways, standing up on horse, 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:03.840 all of that. So you just get very comfortable. So 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:07.600 my technique is probably abysmal, but I feel like I 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:09.840 know how to stay on that horse. You know, I've 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:12.120 been bucked off a bunch of times. I would take 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:15.040 this horse down to the beach. I was like eleven. 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:18.320 It was Portugal. It was you know, the early eighties. 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:20.440 We would she would just let us take the horses. 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:24.600 Me my sister would head down to the beach. You know, 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:28.760 she never asked us for anything. We just take them. 0:15:28.800 --> 0:15:31.960 They would gallop. We go to a local bar. It 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:34.120 was Portugal. They didn't care. I'd go in there. I'd 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:37.480 get a beer. At that age, we'd be like wrapping 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:40.280 up our horses outside and then we'd sort of fall asleep, 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:42.320 and the horses were walkers back. So I had a 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:46.440 nice comfort and a history with horses. And this horse 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.920 seeker is extraordinary. I guess that adds a whole of 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:51.600 their element. Though. When you're trying to act on top 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:53.200 of a horse, though, right, I mean you get your 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:56.800 mind done. Yeah, yeah, you can't be you can't be 0:15:56.840 --> 0:15:59.120 worried about the horse you got. You guys just gotta 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:03.160 be second nature. Yeah. Uh. You know, this is one 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:08.280 another of many many explorations in another dialect, another culture 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:11.720 that you've you know, explored throughout your career, and uh 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:13.920 in correct me if I'm wrong. But I don't think 0:16:13.920 --> 0:16:18.680 you've ever played a Welshman? Is that true? Uh? Truly true? Yeah? Yeah? No, 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:22.560 is that funny? Yeah? I mean saying that though. I 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:25.040 mean I was born on a dairy farm in Wales, 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:27.920 um but I was only there until I was one 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:30.160 and a half. I don't have memories of it. I 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:34.040 only remember just you know, I've visited, I've gone back 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:37.840 to have a west, but I don't remember. Actually, you 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:39.880 know until the as you wanted a half? Who does? 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:42.360 I just had this strange kind of question of do 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:45.240 you ever sense or feel like you given that you 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:48.840 explore so many different things that are different from your 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:50.920 own background, do you ever feel like a sense of 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:55.840 losing yourself through all of these different explorations don't make 0:16:55.880 --> 0:17:00.360 any sense? Well, you mean in my life, just losing 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:03.160 touch with your own I don't know, not heritage, but 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:06.600 just like having never No, I know what you mean. 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:08.679 I think, I think, well, let you tell me if 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:11.879 you if I get what you mean. Whilst you're filming, Yes, 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:15.080 you do feel that because you're just the way that 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:18.800 I approach things. I think that maybe better trained actors 0:17:18.880 --> 0:17:22.639 might be able to hang onto themselves a little bit better. 0:17:23.359 --> 0:17:26.439 I'm not suggesting I'm sort of some victim of what 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:28.400 I do. I'm in control of it all the time, 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:30.240 but I don't know how to do it unless I 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:34.000 kind of keep that character present an awful lot. And so, 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:36.639 you know, like I was saying to my family this morning, 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:39.480 I'm back. I'm talking again. You know. The character wasn't 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:42.040 a big chatty Cathy, and now all of a sudden, 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:43.440 it's like I would just want to talk a mile 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.320 a minute. There's you do feel a release and like 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:50.080 I'm me again. There's a freedom to it, but enjoy that. 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:53.959 It's interesting. You know. I've never never had, you know, 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:56.680 a year go by without pretending to be somebody else. 0:17:57.200 --> 0:17:59.359 I don't know if that's healthy or not, but it 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:02.920 is what it is. It's a living yeah, and it's 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:04.760 more than that as well, and I like it being 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:06.720 I like it trying to be more than that. You know, 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:10.440 as an Englishman, you sort of try to downplay always 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.800 the meaningfulness of things because it's it's it's not that 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:17.639 it's not meaningful. It's incredibly meaningful to me, but I 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:20.359 don't like to announce that because you hope that it's 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:22.399 in the eye of the beholder. You know, it's up 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:24.360 to them. Hey, it is what they think it is. 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:27.720 They think it's horrible, it is horrible, they think it's fantastic, 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:30.040 is fantastics, whatever they think it is. It's not for 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:32.639 me to tell anybody what they think is. But you know, 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:35.240 there's a there's you know, look, we're all living our lives. 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:39.680 We wanted to be as you know, fulfilling, as weak 0:18:39.800 --> 0:18:41.479 as as it can be. So you want to try 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:43.119 and do that in every moment. So I try to 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:47.480 incorporate that in the acting as well, make that meaningful. Um. 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:51.880 And Yeah, inevitably sometimes you do, especially on very long shoots, 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:54.120 you kind of go where have I gone? Like? Who 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:56.520 am I right now? You do feel a little bit 0:18:56.640 --> 0:18:59.920 like sometimes you're treading water and is this really hell? 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:03.400 Fee um? But like I said, but then the obsession 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:06.080 you sort of can't help but kick it. You know 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:07.840 you can't help, but want to get back to it. 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:09.600 You don't want to kick it. Do you ever think 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:13.200 about hanging it up? I mean, we've all the time, 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:15.159 all this time, I'm always doing that. I love it, 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:16.959 I hate it. I think that is the nature of 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:20.240 being obsessed with something, isn't it. It's you know, because 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:22.880 it can be so satisfying, it can also be so 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:27.760 disappointing as well. Um, And you know there's many different 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:31.560 elements to doing this. You know. Sometimes you look and 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:34.920 you go, man, it's not the sort of purest thing 0:19:35.000 --> 0:19:38.720 I thought it was going to be always. Um, but 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:41.840 you know that's life. You deal with it, and you know, 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:45.959 I'm not going to whine about it at all. Um, 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:50.840 But yeah, I'm constantly saying that, Yeah, I think that's it, 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:52.960 and then I kind of sit back and go what 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:56.560 else can I do? And I don't often come up 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:59.840 with an answer. Particularly, it seems to Lewis is doing 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:02.800 like he's he's hanging it up now, but I feel 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:08.399 like he'll be back. I get very strong compulsions to 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:11.320 hang it up. But I'll just never say that because 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:15.879 with you on that, I suspect I probably will, you know, 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:20.960 prove myself a liar track. Um, do you feel like 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:24.160 there are things still left undone for you in terms 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:28.000 of this career? I hope? So, you know, like if 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:29.520 you were to hang it up today, would you feel 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:31.960 like I've done what I wanted to do? I've done 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:34.520 more than I ever thought. You know, I didn't. I 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:39.399 didn't expect to have done. But what I've done, I 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:41.719 didn't dwell on it an awful lot. I didn't. I 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:44.000 was just sort of in the moment, going, this is 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:46.520 pretty good. You know, this is nice. I didn't see 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:48.920 this coming, and you know it kind of happened and 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:53.080 here we are. Um, but you know, of course, you 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:56.040 know it would be a big sort of a little death, 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:58.840 wouldn't it if you find that you've actually saw across 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:02.959 every rubicon you've put simbly? Can so? I hope? So yeah, 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:05.800 let's talk about Scott Cooper a little bit, um, like 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:07.600 I said, and tell your right to you. I feel 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:10.840 like when you work with Scott he brings some of 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:13.040 your best workout. I still think that Out of the 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:16.760 Furnace and certainly Hostiles is some of your finest work. 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:20.160 So that relationship. Can you talk about that? And and uh, 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:22.600 you know that's certainly just my opinion. But why do 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:24.680 you think it is that you turn up different work. 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:28.359 It's it's a funny thing, he just um, he kind 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:31.960 of it's this invisible quality to Scott, which which I 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:35.200 mean is a compliment in that he doesn't attempt to 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:38.320 kind of imprint himself upon his films. He likes that. 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:40.680 He really loves the characters. Maybe it comes from acting. 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:44.800 I'm not really sure, um why that is. I don't 0:21:44.800 --> 0:21:51.800 really think we need to analyze it. Um, but he just, Um, 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:56.840 it just feels very simple. It feels very conversational. He 0:21:57.000 --> 0:22:00.680 likes seeing what I'm going to come up with. Um. 0:22:00.680 --> 0:22:02.880 He likes asking what the hell was that all about? 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:05.080 Why was I doing that? You know, I like having 0:22:05.080 --> 0:22:09.480 a given answer to that. Um. It's it's just a 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:12.640 very good and easy going back and forth, you know. Um. 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:18.240 There's there's very you know, just sort of very straightforward 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:21.480 talk between the two of us. We we like analyzing 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:24.400 the hell out of everything and then kind of forgetting 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:27.639 that and pushing it away and just going with your gut. Um. 0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:30.440 But with all of that knowledge that you've gained through 0:22:30.480 --> 0:22:34.640 sort of analyzing the hell out of it previously. Um, 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:36.680 it's there always in the in the in the back 0:22:36.720 --> 0:22:38.679 of your mind. So it kind of brings itself to 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:40.560 the four when you are sort of going just with 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:43.480 your gut what feels right, and that's the essence of it. 0:22:43.480 --> 0:22:45.720 It feels right, you know. I like working with him 0:22:45.760 --> 0:22:48.040 as much as any director I've ever worked with, you know, 0:22:48.160 --> 0:22:52.760 he's extraordinary, And just to branch out away from hostiles 0:22:52.800 --> 0:22:55.159 a little bit, I wanted to cover some other things here. Uh. 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:58.359