The Hollywood Reporter kicked off its annual awards season Actors Roundtable with Matthew McConaughey, Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, Josh Brolin and Michael B. Jordan.
The star-studded panel featured an extended discussion on the trials and tribulations of acting — everything from audition failures and fears to shuffling between acting and family life. The 54-minute talk is a personal look at the rise all six actors who — from Forrest Whitaker’s portrayal of Cecil Gaines in “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” to Matthew McConaughey as Ron Woodroof in “Dallas Buyer’s Club” — have made 2013 a year that resonates with impressive physical and mental transformations in the name of acting.
Here are some of the highlights:
On Saying No Out of Fear?
JARED LETO: “Oh yeah. I’ve talked myself out of auditions a hundred times. I auditioned for [Robert] De Niro seven times, years and years ago. I remember auditioning for Terrence Malick, and the casting director upended a couch, and we were supposed to hide behind it and shoot imaginary guns! In that audition, I literally stood up, took a few imaginary bullets and shoved [the casting director]. I said: “I can’t do this. This is like a bad high school play,” and I walked out. And then Terrence called me — you guys I’m sure have met him; he’s the most gentle and amazing guy in the world — and he’s like: “Uh, Jared? I’d love you to be in my film.”
On Quitting:
JARED LETO:
“I did for six years, almost.”
“I was focusing on other passions, and time kind of flew by. But it can be heartbreaking. You make these little movies — most of the time they don’t work.”
JAKE GYLLENHAAL: “It’s only appropriate as an indulgent actor to think about quitting ’cause it’s such an intense job.”
On The Biggest Mistakes Ever Made as Actors:
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY: “I didn’t study acting before I got [my] first job. And I thought: “Hey, maybe you’re not the kind of actor that needs to study lines. Maybe — [laughter] — you just know your man, and you show up and you just do it.” I go do this film, Scorpion Spring, and I got this idea: “I’m not gonna look at anything. I know what I am: the drug lord on the Mexican border in Texas. I’ll just show up on the set, stay fresh and loose.” Well, I get down there, OK, and I pick up this scene, and it’s a page-and-a-half monologue in Spanish.” I felt this trickle of sweat. “Um, can you give me 12 minutes?” I haven’t watched it yet, but, “Porque the yellow …” This is bad. And I said, “Never again, man.”
FORREST WHITAKER: “I was playing a schizophrenic [in The Last King of Scotland], and every night I kept working really hard, pushing my head to the point where I started to see the things that I was imagining. I realized there is a way to screw with your brain. It took me a really long time to get myself back to thinking the way I wanted to — it almost took a year.”
JAKE GYLLENHAAL: “The biggest mistake that I’ve made is not really admitting to myself that filmmaking is a director’s medium. We all get into situations where we’re working with people, and we try to control that. [But] I realized, once I’m gone, that’s going to be this director’s vision from here on out. I did that in the past a lot, and now, giving all of that up is such a beautiful and relieving thing.”
JOSH BROLIN: “Before [the past] seven or eight years, for 20 years I worked with a lot of people with not a massive amount of talent. And there was always ego; there were always fights. Working with the Coens — just kicking back on a couch and watching them edit — they have two desks that are perpendicular, and Ethan is picking the best takes, and then Joel is on the other desk, and then Ethan hits a bell — bing! — and Joel looks up, and he brings down the take and puts it in. I mean, it’s such a simple, amazing process to watch.”
On the “Year of the Black Actor in Film”:
MICHAEL B. JORDAN: “I feel like — it’s good to be part of that movement.”
FORREST WHITAKER: “I’ve been fortunate, I guess: I’ve gotten to play a lot of very diverse roles for quite a long time. But in the beginning, I was thinking: “I’m not gonna do certain characters. I will be willing to say no and live on a couch.” And I was really happy. Maybe more happy sometimes than in the latter years when I had more, when I was thinking and considering more things for different reasons — for family, for my home. But luckily I was able to at least maintain some sort of a line. Even if I would veer right or left, I would stay pretty close to center, and the roles were really interesting.”
On Balancing Your Personal and Professional Life:
JOSH BROLIN: I wasn’t working a lot when my kids were growing up, so I got to spend a lot of time at home. And my kids are 20 and 25 now, so I get to go work and don’t have to worry about them.
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY: Fortunately, mine come with me. My wife and I made a deal, and it scared me more than it scared her in the beginning. She was like, “OK, here’s the deal: When Papa goes to work, the McConaugheys come with him.” I was used to my Airstream trailer, solo, staying by myself, and I went, “Are you kidding me?” [But that is] a huge privilege.
JAKE GYLLENHAAL: My family has been in the movie business — my weirdly extended and immediate family. The movies are such a big part of our interactions. It makes me anxious being around a table here because this particular scenario just makes me feel like the dinner table. [Laughs.]
FORREST WHITAKER: That’s tough for me, being away, because my kids are teenagers, and they can’t be transported all over the place. You try to balance it. It’s more like a dance I have to play.
On the Biggest Sacrifices:
MICHAEL B. JORDAN: The family, for sure. When I was 19, I left Jersey and moved out here to L.A. to pursue acting. And one of my only regrets was not realizing how that affected my little brother. [There’s] a six-year difference between us, and when I’m 19, he’s 13, and that’s the age that he really needs his older brother. And I was selfishly trying to pursue the acting thing on the other side of the country. [He was] growing up in the shadow of his older brother — not being his own person in a way — [with] everybody looking at him: “Oh, that’s Mike’s little brother.” I guess you just have to accept it.
JAKE GYLLENHAAL: What (Michael B. Jordan) said, which is really true, is there is just a selfish nature. I think there has to be that kind of indulgence. The business can create a real selfishness.
On the Strangest Auditions:
JOSH BROLIN: I did an audition for [1989’s] The Fly 2. I was living in New York at the time, and I went in there, and he’s in a cocoon, transforming into a fly. So I walked in, and I started reading. You do the voice, and you’re like, [choking sounds] you know, doing your thing. And I ended up on the floor, frothing at the mouth. I got back to my apartment, and there was already a message on my machine from my agent that said: “What the f— did you do in there? You scared them.” I said, “Well, did I get it?” That was the worst audition I ever did.
FORREST WHITAKER: I fell through a stage once. I was doing a truly African dance, and all of a sudden I hit the ground with my foot and went straight through the stage. I guess they didn’t have much money, so the floor was kind of rotting.
MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY: Worst for me was a Lee Tamahori film. Went for a read on that for the part of the heavy. I knew going out, “Man, you kind of gave 80 percent.” And I got in my truck and turned around — U-turn — came back in, just [walked] right past the secretary, knocked the casting director out of the way, went right up to [Tamahori] and weight-nailed him against the wall. I grabbed the next guy and put him in the corner and grabbed like a spoon or something. I just wrecked the room and then left. I didn’t hear back from ’em.
JAKE GYLLENHAAL: I remember auditioning for The Lord of the Rings [the role of Frodo] and going in and not being told that I needed a British accent. I really do remember Peter Jackson saying to me, “You know that you have to do this in a British accent?” We heard back it was literally one of the worst auditions.
JARED LETO: It is an incredibly strange process as a grown man to go in and let your ego and your pride get deflected. It’s a strange thing.
JOSH BROLIN: I literally started filming my own auditions. [Then-president of production] Meryl Poster at Miramax 10 years ago said, “You and Benicio Del Toro were notoriously the worst auditioners we’ve ever seen.”
Watch the video below:
For more check out The Hollywood Reporter article here.
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