Adam Driver's High Praise For Francis Ford Coppola

I read it and and you know could see that it was different but I am not seeing what Francis is seeing so um but I wanted to work with Francis and and how much what you're kind of saying that he really embodies he just how it was being made alone was and that he'd been making it for so long I've been I've got to do a couple where uh people have been trying to make this movie for a while it was with silence it was kind of like that with Terry Gilliam he was making and and always when I feel like that is it's been persistent with someone something really exciting and how it's made what the thing is something so unique you know it sounded interesting and Beyond me in that in my something I had to you know and then when we got there and and started making it I was surprised by how much Freedom that he gives everyone and and that he bodies his principal and puts his money where his mouth I mean he's making it himself so because he was making himself there was no ancillary people getting in the way so it was one of the best shooting experiences I ever had well yeah hands down this one and this movie Patterson were two of my favorite shooting experiences because for for completely different reasons and this one there was nobody getting in a way so it felt like a conversation with that you were just happening with Francis from the minute we started talking about it till the last you know you know the last few months of it you know know it still still grow on but but he is a um he's a has the principle of show not tell which is also I think that you were kind of also alluding to now which is I feel about films let me tell you exactly what the plot is let me tell you what what to feel about it and leave nothing for you to discover and and that that usually I those aren't the movies that I'm attracted to historically I want you know they they're they're one version when they come out and then years later do you evolve or the world around has evolved and it's something completely different and they keep giving you things uh that's what I feel about most of francis's movies I think I saw Apocalypse Now too young to really understand yeah what what was going there's lots of movies that are like that I I I think I I kind of consumed everything from Blockbuster Video my when I was 14 and and a lot of them I had to revisit later to really like understand them but no there I mean I I still go back to the Godfather and watch for completely different reasons the performance you watch it for the performances and then then there's certain shots where you're like after working with Francis there's no way anyone else could have got that composition in the like you can tell that those actors have so much freedom to kind of move and you you can see it in their performances I I feel that there are many people who understand in a sense that that just as our Roman story uh reaches a point where we where our very Republic is at stake and and and Rome did lose its Republic and became it became we have an emperor uh people know that and and that's on their mind when they see the film today I feel that that is uh that is evident I'm getting that reaction from people you know I get I get really interesting reactions on this but mostly from from film directors you know film directors are very Frank about whether they like someone's film or don't like it but but I'm getting you know what I would hope to get from from my colleagues I I felt a little bit sensitive that 9911 there are so many people who lost people they loved yeah that it sort of in a way would be in inconsiderate of me to make use of that footage uh just because I had and was was mine but they had I mean they had lost people they love so I I I I used a teeny bit in what I felt was the right moment where their their heartbreak was what was where my heartbreak was right but I didn't use a lot of it I wanted to say something about Adam that know that you might not know but Adam you know at one point Adam said to me that he had a lot of feelings about one of the early cuts and I said to him you know tell me everything you think and he came up with a prescription of scenes to take out scenes to add in and anything I said well let's do it let's see it you know I mean if if we do it and it and it makes it better uh we'll do it and and we did it and it did and and he made a big contribution at the right moment towards the movie that I will always be grateful for and and and and he said to me gee well it's nice of you to let me do what I want to do I said no but look at I don't have to do it if if you do do what you think would be better you know a lot of time you have an idea say there's a a scene done in one scene and you you got three or four where you got the whole thing perfectly so those are your four selects but maybe something that you didn't get perfectly the first part was better than any of the first Parts you know what I mean he discovered a lot of that stuff and it was a huge a huge huge help that that you people don't realize that he you know in a sense your cast and your colleagues are the also the authors of the film with you let's put it this way this is the honest truth actors do their work two ways there some actors who are just really intelligent and really do the beautiful work out of this intelligence that Warren batty is someone like that he's done some beautiful performances but he does it uh because he's so bright yeah then uh there are others that's all intuition Pino has both he's both very intelligent and he really is and very talented he has both he's very talented and very intelligent that's a double whammy W it's very nice every actor has a different way of working Shia was great yeah but but he has a different way his technique is to get you crazy that you're so mad that you say just get out of here and go do it Dennis hopp did the same thing did he he gets you like crazy and then you say I can't stand it just do something my thing is what would you do if you had uh one batty wants to do 60 takes yeah uh Duval will do two takes and if you beg him really beg him he might do three yeah what if you have them in a scene together right what would happen what did you do I didn't have them in the scene together I don't know what no because literally War Betty would do 60 takes if he could Duval will not do more than two or three I've worked with directors who work both ways and I see the value in both you know I I personally feel like I have less regret when the scene is over if you get a lot of bites at the Apple but I think that's also because I came from theater where I know that you do seven shows a week for four months and always the last performance is the best because you're like you're more economical in one spot you're you're uh you're more relaxed you you found a different idea about how to deliver a line better or it's just that you know that you're not going to have to do it again so you're like more at ease and so I I know there's there's no such thing as a right answer about the right way to play a scene yeah but because of that also on the flip side sometimes the the first impulses are the best so I I I prefer not to have to make that decision you know I like being the actor or the director so and also if someone likes working that way like Spike Lee and soda they they like to work fast cuz the momentum and things like that I I don't want to hijack their their film with you know well I like to do 20 you know it's not my it's not my film so I try to adapt to what and just you know go with it you know if I really feel like I need another one I I never not worked with someone who is you know they'll give you another shot one thing about megalopolis is that no one says it's boring that's very important because because it's not boring which I don't think it is that a lot of people say wow I want to see it again and I feel that's exactly what's going to happen that the fact that it isn't boring you you're happy to go see if I say to people just come out of it see it again they go see it again and I think every time you see it it's a little different and you get there's more in it to get out of it and I think that's what's going to happen and a little bit is what happened with apocalypse is that people they're there are people who love the film people who say I don't know what I think they'll see it again and eventually they'll find something in it because there's a lot in it and so I'm my feeling is I'm I'm you know you know how I know that when I'm done with a movie is when I I'm thinking about another one right yeah and I I feel I'm done with it I'm I'm very happy with how it turned out and I'll take whatever I get now I I'm I'm I'm not I'm not worried about it for me it is a success I I it's never as I was saying earlier has been one of the best shooting experiences and I'm not saying this because we're press and Francis is here you know how it was made e even even when that all that was is mystifying to me too I've never been a part of a film where it's like I've been a part of Disaster Movie making things where you show up and there's supposed to be like you know you know a giant foot and it's the left foot as opposed to the right foot it's a huge like mistake or or you lose all your money in the first week or I've been in films where you're on your way to the airport and the movie shuts down and you have to turn around so it was mystifying and then it was put off for another two months it's mystifying to me for an article to actually come out in the midst of making it where we I'm sure if you there there's no there's no set way to make a film we come up with ideas just to give it structure and maybe to make it so that everybody gets a chance to sleep at some point but we're all everyone's making it up and and the the idea that sure if someone came on our set and had never seen a film before or had seen a lot of films they they would they would look at what Francis was doing and not under maybe not understand that that to me is what is great about what this thing is not the opposite that it's supposed to be living up to someone else's idea of what a film should be I that's what I feel like films are supposed to push us forward not give us another dose of something we've already seen you know what we're witnessing I think I mean we're witnessing the death of Journalism and the death of the Hollywood studio system both which are wonderful and we're W we're witnessing it those two institutions die right while we're here and and what is for journalism to retreat be behind unknown sources have become trying to get clicks to say something bad because you know that you know something bad will always get a click and something good that that that it's sad to to be at a time when two great institutions are dying but something will replace them we're about to have the moment of truth in another month or so and I I I I remain optimistic