Transcription
17 years old and as a very, very young artist, what I've learned is that the best thing you can do is just fail. Is to really just fall flat in your face. I know the uh classiest thing would be to downplay the effort that went into this role, but the truth is I'm really in pursuit of greatness. I know people don't usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats.
I'm inspired by the greats. I'm inspired by the greats here tonight. I'm as inspired by Daniel Day-Lewis, Marlon Brando, and Viola Davis as I am about Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, and I want to be up there. I don't want to shy away from that pride. I know pride's like a deadly sin and all that, but I'm just so proud of the work I've been able to put in. I give 170% in everything I'm doing, no butt there. I'm giving it my all. Something like the Dylan Project, these aren't watered-down experiences. I'm going Daniel Day-Lewis on all of them. I'm not saying in process, but I'm saying a level of commitment.
And I don't know, man. It sounds like I'm desperate saying that or something.
>> No, it sounds like you're a professional and you want it to be the best it can possibly be.
>> Yeah. And and increasingly I I I don't want to shy away from saying that.
>> This is like a movie about sacrifice and pursuit of a dream.
>> How do you live?
>> Well, I live with the confidence if I believe in myself, the money will follow.
And it's something I can relate to deeply. And we live in a bleak time, especially for young people. So this film is an antidote to that and to continue to believe in yourself, to continue to dream big and to follow your dreams and not take no for an answer.
>> And what do you plan to do if this whole dream of yours doesn't work out?
>> It doesn't even enter my consciousness.
The assertiveness, the confidence. Sometimes you've got to call things as it is, as they are, and not tiptoe. Especially as you get older. I'm about to be 30. I want to look back on my interviews when I'm fried and and and mentally anguished in my 60s and look back at my interviews in my life and go and go, man, I was really speaking the truth and not afraid of uh of the truth. Like this is probably my best performance, you know, and that it's been like 7, 8 years that I feel like I've been handing in really, really committed, top-of-the-line performances. And it's important to say it out loud because the discipline and the the work ethic I'm bringing to these things, I don't want people to take for granted. I don't want to take for granted. This is really some top-level [ __ ]. The gift of my life, the gratitude exercise I live every morning is to go, "Wow, for some reason I know actors. I came up with actresses. I came up with that are more talented than me that haven't gotten opportunity to work. I'm getting the opportunity to work. Why not go 10,000% hard? Find your superpower and stick with it. No one's going to incentivize you in life to figure out what your superpower is. And that doesn't mean that anybody's a villain. It just means they couldn't know how to unlock what your inner superpower is.
All of a sudden, I sound like a self-help person, but I don't know. I feel like you just have to find it for yourself and find the the opportunity to do reps, to do laps, you know, to get the the workout in. And that's theater. There's got to be something out there 'cause I feel it again. What's your reason to being? Sometimes your reason of being is just your reason of being. They just got something to say. It matters sometimes less what you have to say, more your need to say it.
I was put on the sort of traditional American academic path, you know, and didn't know why. It was very peculiar to me that I was paying money to be somewhere I didn't want to be, you know. It was around when I was 18 or 19. I had enough momentum with my acting stuff. I thought, okay, it's sort of now or never. And this is not prescriptive. Whatever works for anyone works. But I felt like if I had a plan B or if I was working towards a plan B, my plan A would be ruined. 'Cause I've been doing it on and off for years. You know, you could be the master of your fate, you could be the captain of your soul, but you have to realize that life is coming from you and not at you. And that takes time.
>> I think when you're growing up, you always feel out of your body. You're looking in the mirror to confirm your identity or to shred your identity or to hate yourself. And you know, um I think that's probably the most challenging period in life when you're truly a fish out of water. But the brilliance in that too is then you can kind of search for your identity. Search for what makes you feel grounded. Find the good people in your life, those non-toxic ass people. You know, the world is your oyster and everything's a learning experience.
I think I was talking about that with a like like a good actor friend the other day. uh how like even to audition is an opportunity to get in front of people and practice your craft or at the very least even if you're in a bad headspace or something an opportunity to learn how to act in a bad headspace or to be in in a pressure cooker environment. So that experience is the greatest teacher I guess.
>> No, you respect what you do.
>> Yeah, 'cause you got to. What else is the point? I talk about this with friends a lot like this is too weird a lifestyle to be nonchalant about.
>> Yeah. Why do this if you're not going to go as hard as possible? These are long ass days. You know what I mean? These are 14-hour days, 6 days a week sometimes, you know, 3 months. Look, I know I know people got it way harder, but I want to feel that grit. I feel like I'm the hardest working man. Um, anyway, maybe I shouldn't say that.
Your active rebellion, your music, your art, whatever it be, it's as much about what you're doing as it is about the response of the coliseum. That is to say, think of like something you like, you see online, or you dislike online. What is the first thing we do is we like look at the comments. We see like what the public, what the coliseum's reaction is. So it's different. You know, think about it, right? Like if you're scrolling or whatever, if something affects you a certain way, you want to see what those reactions are. Bob Dylan once said, "They can kill you with kindness, too." And I think it's an important thing to look at 'cause god forbid you get the coliseum's approval. What incentive is there to change, you know? But then did you get into a really wacky line of life and work to treat it like a routine? You know, 'cause then you've chosen the weirdest day job ever. No matter how much you get paid or what acclaim comes, you have nothing, nothing to lose. Absolutely nothing. And you have everything to gain. So if anything, if you get rejected, if you don't even get an honorable mention or any of that crap, that's more that's more juice for your art. That's more inspiration. You know, it's it's awesome to be on a great TV show and all this stuff, but the best is like when I can get up in front of a class like today and, you know, do a monologue or something that kind of just falls flat and nobody really gets and the comedy doesn't hit. That's like where it's like where you can go back to the drawing room and you're really humbled and you can you can really figure stuff out again. So, like I said, nothing to lose and all of this to gain.
Everybody talks to me like I'm the one. You know I should change. Why should I change? I've never even got to find out who I am. You want me to change? That's crazy. You tell me I'm bad before I even get to be anything. What the hell is that? Original sin or something. I read Plato. I heard him on a park bench in the Bronx. Let me tell you something. Plato, he weren't afraid. Diogenes, he weren't afraid. Socrates, he weren't afraid of anything. They were men. Why are you the headmaster and I'm the student? Do you understand? I have to earn your respect, but you don't have to earn mine. What is that? It's you that wants to a before YOU EVEN START. BUT WHEN I SAY I WANT THE SAME THING, I'M NUTS, RIGHT? NOT GOING TO CRY. I'm going to find my place in this world. Count on it. This school's been a miracle for me. But not BECAUSE OF YOU. BECAUSE SOMEBODY, MR. HOFFMAN, FINALLY SAW ME. And more than that, somebody, a grown person, decided I was good before I was good. And you WANT TO THROW ME OUT OF THAT? Then you know what I say? I've never met your God, and I don't want to.
>> What is this rock? What is this? What is this earth without art? Just a rock.