Adam Driver Compares Filming Francis Ford Coppola's MEGALOPOLIS to APOCALYPSE NOW | Interview

okay I'm going to ask you a deeply personal question it's going to piss you off and and if you want to kick me out I understand okay Godfather one or two God you're always really kind to me man and I appreciate you always having just letting me geek out and have nerdy conversation no you're always very insightful I love talking to you I appreci we're going we don't need Rose Adam good to see you again man good to see you again uh this is obviously a film about a a dreamer and a Visionary and a creator of Worlds I think it's safe to say that you have been directed by several of those in your career yeah I was wondering thinking back to your experiences with Steven Spielberg and Martin scorsi and Francis Ford Copa how much of those experiences found their way into this character uh I didn't think about that but it was mostly because of i i i they're very different filmmakers the one thing that they I think uh have in common was the sense of improv and finding it on the day even though it's a medium that is capturing something imp perpetuity you know that that even the image of the poster was something that came out of an improv which you would think that Francis having been trying to work on this and same same with Silence with with Scorsese was something that they've been working on for 20 plus years and still on the day they're they're not set in feeling like they have a right answer answer or that their resume speaks for themselves and they are going to be dictatorial that he's like so collaborative more so than anybody i' ever uh worked with he sets up a world where you can you can't make a mistake so you feel like you're his first the first day of shooting his first piece of Direction I that I remember was we're not being brave enough and I'm like oh that that to me that set the tone for the rest of that's a cool note yeah what does that tell you as an actor how what sort of adjustment do you make from that go farther or or that you need you don't get set in an idea you know that you try something and it's film and if it's bad we'll just erase it you know like it has to has to be worth it and uh we don't want to leave any stone unturned or or people don't get in your heads too much you know I love that I'm going to tell you whenever I finished uh watching this movie in Chicago one of the first things I thought was did I just watch an autobiography about Francis Ford Copa like it feels like you could draw a lot of parallels between Caesar oh totally Copa yeah well there's a lot of values in it that Francis really you know just the idea that he feels that human genius is something that should be celebrated and isn't something that we have to be demure about or like you know that how and just being optimistic even at this point in his life and career that it's not it's not a movie where it's like you know a dystopia he's trying to create a Utopia and the only way to do that is to have conversation it's a very lofty idea but it never gets stuck there it's still entertaining and there's so many things that are that are Francis in this film So to that point if if there are things that that are Francis and that and that character right there I do this nerdy thing where if I know I'm going to speak with a director who I love I go through and just rewatch all of their films to get ready yeah is there value as an actor to go okay I'm sitting I'm I'm going to be working with Francis Ford Copa I'm going to be playing a character who somewhat resembles him do you go back and sit down and rewatch The Godfather or the conversation or is there is there value in being ref on his filmography yeah yeah cuz you oddly enough it was more interesting going back after we had worked together um because now now I watch The Godfather and they're like there's no way that they could have staged that if when I mean obviously the the the films are the directors but how he got to staging it how the feeling that that movie is now that I know Francis like there's no he it's clearly theatrical he clearly set it up and gave a lot of people this like you know percent in his stock and they felt like because they were invested they were more free uh to uh to get the performances that he got you know I I've learned more about him going in those movies going back and rewatching after I work with him yeah okay I'm going to ask you a deeply personal question it's going to piss you off and and if you want to kick me out I understand okay Godfather one or two God yeah that's a hard uh there's shots in The Godfather one that I think are amazing but it's impossible and I'm not being diplomatic it's really it's really impossible to pick one or the other speaking of shots whenever uh this movie just started rolling instantly I was like oh this has to be seen on an iMac screen it has to be seen on if you could see any past moment or sequence or scene from a Copa movie projected on a massive iMac screen which one would you want to see I I'd say maybe the final raid in Apocalypse I'd watch that yeah yeah with with Brando yeah yeah yeah yeah killing the calf I I I watch that on IMX I'd love they're giving me the WAP I'd love to know as someone who who spent time serving uh in the military what what was your did you have a relationship with Apocalypse Now at that time do you remember feeling one way or another about it just from the nature of of being someone who served in the military no I mean the irony is is that movie is you know an anti-war movie and it's definitely appropriated as like you know you know the kind of the opposite in in a sense where you know the sequence actually that's probably even a better sequence yes of course yeah uh um as kind of a you know a morale boosting like you know uh uh sequence I was trying to avoid saying sequence three times in the same sentence but um but no no other than that it wasn't it wasn't something that I you know would watch often when I was in the military is like okay I'm going to go watch the the valkyrie and and go to work uh you know the clo you know no it wasn't it wasn't something that was like it was you know one of the many things you know like full metal jacket is in the same world for sure for sure but it's so interesting because to your point about like you know not being stuck to something on the day he tells Copa tells a great story uh about like Apocalypse Now kind of just made itself as they were going down that River and they figured out what it was going to be yeah the smoke bombs and stuff and like all the kind of the purple smoke you know they were kind of shooting it and being like well that's really interesting let's shoot more of that and that that's kind of what this was where he like oh I'm going to let the film kind of tell us you know obviously if he made it when he wanted when he first started it would have been a totally different movie if we made it now it would be different than what it was when we made it you know I don't know if the cast would be the same or you know uh but he he's in very instinctual you know theatrical director and in shooting it it felt like experimental theater and you were very aware that this is this kind of these this many elements to come together like this is never going to happen again that's that's why I flew myself out that's why I'm here um I just want to say dude you were always really kind to me man and I appreciate you always having just letting me geek out and have nerdy conversation you're always very insightful I love talking to you I appreciate well thank man thank you very much yeah good to see you again we're going we don't need Ro