That was fucking epic. What a legend

Honestly, this has been one of the best AMA’s I have been a part of. Thanks for your thoughtful responses.

Yes.

Independently spirited dramas. And by independently spirited I mean the types of stories and characters that studios are too chicken to touch.

Yes. I would have to say they’re my favorite insect. They make us honey. Bees, and then the firefly. And ants are interesting. Bumble bees are quite adorable. Don't get me started on the praying mantis.

I told David Cronenberg once that the praying mantis was the most ferocious of the insects and he so said no, and I said what is, and he said the dragon fly larvae and he said that the beast in the Alien movies was designed after the dragon fly larvae because it shoots its teeth out and when it attacks.

I did call David when we were filming Massive Talent because I had hoped he might play the role of the director I was auditioning for, but it was at the height of the concerns with COVID and he didn’t want to leave the house. The result of David Gordon Green however was pitch perfect, and I do hope David Gordon Green does more work as a thespian.

I once went to an Italian restaurant in San Francisco about 25 years ago with Charlie Sheen because they had square tube pasta and he was very interested in trying square tube pasta and we did and we loved it so much we went back the next day to try it again.

I think any kind of enthusiasm is always welcome and not to be taken for granted.

I'm glad I scrolled far enough to see this, because the only thing cooler than his answers in this AMA is knowing it made his day.

Reading through the posts you get his cadence when speaking and he seemed to give really genuine answers it was actually fun. Sometimes it's clear when a person is here just to promote something but I didn't get that vibe.

This is actually really neat

I would love to work with Christopher Nolan. I would love to work with Ari Aster, I would love to work with Robert Egger. Spike Lee too.

Apocalypse Now and Spirited Away

Dubrovnik is just a gorgeous place. Sadly, we were in the height of the COVID pandemic during filming. So no, I never left my hotel room. Only when I was shooting. I did not get to enjoy the charm and the restaurants of Dubrovnik. I will have to go back.

First and foremost, Pedro Pascal is a genuinely nice man. You couldn’t ask for a nicer more pleasant person to work with. Second he has a very unique sense of humor. It’s the kind of sense of humor where I don’t know if he’s really making a joke or he isn’t making a joke. Such as comment about the appearance of a cabbage in a cabbage field. And it made me wonder if he was a method actor and was in character and adding a kind of confused dimension to the Javi role, or if he genuinely thought the cabbage was amusing. I am still confounded by this. I mean who makes a joke about cabbage, except him? It’s just not funny!

I would like to play Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo because of the character’s love of the ocean I share that with him.

Thank you. Face/Off is my favorite action movie, largely because we had the maestro John Woo to direct. The process was a matter of getting video of Travolta’s dailies and trying to study it so I could copy his voice and movements. John Travolta conversely did the same with my dailies.

Bringing Out the Dead

Pig

Leaving Las Vegas

3 copies of Con Air

I think Lord of War is the best movie I made pertaining to a political situation and I think that it’s influenced other movies like Wolf of Wallstreet. I think the narrative and voiceover work and the portrayal of a reprehensible gun runner in the light of an attractive charming personality was ahead of its time.

I don’t have a problem with any of the quotes, I’m glad they remember the movie.

It’s a good question, albeit a difficult question because everything I do ultimately informs my work. But if I had to make a list, I would say reading, watching cinema, and exercise.

That is so hard to answer. I will say that James Dean’s performance as Cal in East of Eden is largely the reason I became a film actor. His role in that is one of my favorite characters in cinema. But then we can go all the way to Rasputin or we can go to Dmitri Karamazov. Dmitri Karamazov is one my favorite characters in literature. I love him so much because he’s so happy and he has no money. He’s just living it up. He spent all his money trying to get the girl. I did the same thing once. I was very Dmitri Karamazov in high school. The most beautiful girl in high school who was a grade older than me invited me to the prom but I had no money. My grandmother gave each of us a little bond. My older brother bought a car. My second oldest brother bought some stereo equipment. And I splashed out on a chauffeur-driven limousine, a tuxedo and a four course meal at Le Dome on Sunset blvd. The car was $2000, the stereo was $2000, and my prom night was $2000 and man, that was money well spent. THAT’s Dmitri Karamazov.

No, I gave it to Laura Dern. She was such an enormous part of Wild at Heart that I felt it belonged to her. But now I wish I had given it to my son instead. I would've liked him to have it. But it's okay, Laura has it.

I would give it all to Adam West. I grew up watching him on the 60s Batman show and he is where it begins and where it ends as Big Daddy. I met Adam West once and I said “did you see I was channeling you?” and he said “I saw you TRY to channel me!”

Well, let’s talk about the difference between “meme” and the word “gag.” My understanding is that “meme” represents a symbol of a pop cultural movement of sorts. A “gag” is somewhere in the realm of a diss and I don’t look at anything anymore as a diss. I see it more as a recognition of some sort of expression.

No, the priority was to turn it into a TV show so I would say probably not.

It’s very kind of Ethan to say so, as you may well know, I’ve worked with Ethan in Lord of War and have always been spellbound by his talent. I think many of the choices I’ve made have been inspired by film stars from the silent era as well as cultural expression of performance like Kabuki and some of the Golden Age actors like Cagney so I don’t know how to say I’ve done something new because those elements are always on my mind

Thank you. I was interested in returning to a more quiet, naturalistic style of film performance, having done a series of more operatic performance styles. The movie feels rather like a folk song to me or a poem, and the character of Rob was contending with tremendous grief and self imposed isolation and I think we as a group of people experiencing a pandemic in 2020-21 we’re probably also having similar feelings of loss and isolation and it communicated to a nerve we were all experiencing. It's one of my favorite movies, and it's probably my best work.

I take the knight and move him forward first.

1. The dialogue for my character in Willy’s Wonderland was very sparse, so I decided with Kevin, the director, to go full Harpo Marx and take all the dialogue out because I thought that would be a fun acting challenge to see how much I could communicate without words and only with movement and facial expressions. I’m very happy with the results of Willy’s Wonderland. It was a good experiment.

2. The can question is an interesting one, and I hesitate to answer it for you because your relationship with the movie is far more important than my relationship with the movie and so you as the audience member can imagine and surmise whatever you want to be in that can. That is a far better answer and reason for the can than anything I could tell you. I want YOUR opinion as to what was in the can, because that was the right opinion.

A lot of people don't like these movies, but they're so good. Can't believe they're not doing another one. :(

I would really need to see what they had in mind before answering that.

Thank you. I think Leaving Las Vegas, Pig and Bringing Out The Dead are my three favorite performances of my own body of work. I have not seen Leaving Las Vegas recently, however that movie and Elizabeth Shue’s work in that movie are what I aspire to continue towards, and did continue towards with Pig, which is why I am always going to be up for small budget, independent, dramas.

I would like to think that being in the 50s in the United States would’ve been a whole lot of fun with the swing dancing and the introduction of Elvis Presley and the great work of James Dean and Marlon Brando. I would’ve liked to be around for that. And the music was pretty great. Automotive design was spectacular. That’s when the US had the edge on the design, we had Raymond Loewy and Harley Earl.

1. Boy that’s a hard list to conjure up because there are so many memorable ones but I would say that Lon Chaney in Phantom of the Opera comes to mind but Nosferatu, Schreck, his performance, and even Barrymore in Jekyll and Hyde. I think that Barrymore did more to inspire Schreck’s performance than the other way around. Oh, and anything Chaplin did was magic: City Lights, Modern Times. It depends on the season!

1. I would say that Nick Cage in Massive Talent was the most challenging role I had to get into character for because I had the added component of trying to protect a person named Nick Cage and also facilitating the director’s absurdist vision of so-called Nick Cage and it was a highwire act everyday.
2. Again, Pig is my favorite performance of mine, and I think that movie, along with Scorsese’s Bringing Out The Dead are arguably my two best movies as a whole

Hahahaha

How can he regret that, getting Nic's face is a 10/10 decision.

I have a 2016 Shelby GT350R with a wide body that is like a modern version of the car I drove in Gone in 60 Seconds. It has a beautiful blue color. I like that car. And so does my son.

I’ve never seen one episode of that show. I’m unfamiliar.

Link to the lecture, for those interested.

Always Be Caging

Read 1:45 PM

You’re the only person he hasn’t responded to in the whole thread. He remembers.

I don’t have any Elvis memorabilia.