The actor sits down with Yahoo for Role Recall, reflecting on the highs and lows of his career from No Country For Old Men to Milk, Marvel and more.
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00:00 [upbeat music]
00:02 - This old news, everybody and their grandfather
00:08 went looking for that.
00:09 When our parents were our age, I mean,
00:11 I mean, haven't you ever heard of that guy?
00:13 What's his name?
00:14 The pirate guy, One-Eyed Willie.
00:15 - It was such a profound experience.
00:18 It was my first time on film.
00:20 I had never done anything before that,
00:22 that I thought that's how everything was, and I was wrong.
00:26 Goonies was one of, still stands
00:30 as one of the greatest experiences of my life.
00:32 - What's your fondest memory from making that film?
00:35 - Probably being backed into the stage
00:39 where the ship was, that they kept us away from.
00:43 There was security outside the stage.
00:44 We spent probably three months trying to get into the stage,
00:48 figuring out ways we could see it
00:50 before they wanted to show it to us,
00:52 backed us into the stage.
00:53 They put us underwater.
00:55 They had speakers underwater.
00:56 They had cameras ready.
00:58 They wanted us to come up, and they wanted real reactions
01:00 when we looked at the ship for the first time.
01:03 And I think I said either the F word or (beep) something.
01:07 I just ruined the take.
01:09 'Cause I turned around and was like, (beep)
01:13 And they were like, what?
01:14 You're a Goonie, you can't say that.
01:16 Yeah, that was special.
01:20 - There's also been talks of a sequel in the future.
01:23 - Yeah.
01:23 - How do you feel about that potentially happening?
01:26 - Personally?
01:27 Why?
01:30 Do you know what I mean?
01:31 I don't.
01:32 The movie exists in a really wonderful way,
01:37 generation after generation,
01:38 and I get to see, I just got a text the other day
01:41 of a guy who had showed his daughter,
01:42 and then he kind of regressed
01:44 into seeing it for the first time.
01:46 It's so wonderful.
01:47 I mean, it's such a wonderful thing that exists
01:50 that you get to see affect people.
01:54 I know that Spielberg had a couple of scripts,
01:59 and Chris Columbus had a couple of scripts,
02:01 but they just didn't feel that they were good enough.
02:04 And now it's far enough away
02:06 that I don't know if it would ever happen.
02:08 - No, sir, I'm a veteran.
02:10 - Name?
02:11 - Yes, sir, two tours.
02:12 - What outfit?
02:13 - 12th Infantry Battalion, August 7th, 1966,
02:17 July 2nd, 1968.
02:19 - I mean, Javier was incredible.
02:20 Incredible.
02:21 He was really depressed during that time, though.
02:24 You know what I mean?
02:25 It was, I mean, he says it.
02:26 He goes, "I don't like violence, I don't drive,"
02:29 and there was one other thing.
02:31 "I don't drive, I don't like violence,"
02:33 and his haircut, you know?
02:36 And I remember I would go to his apartment
02:39 and be like, "Let's go out,"
02:40 and he'd be like, "No, I don't wanna go out,"
02:42 and I was immediately.
02:43 So there was a lot of coercing during that time,
02:45 but I love him, I continue to love him.
02:50 We stayed friends.
02:51 The first scene that we ever had
02:52 was actually in Dune recently, together.
02:55 In the Coens, I ended up doing two other movies
02:59 with the Coens and maybe more.
03:02 So I don't, yeah, it was a profound moment
03:05 in my professional existence
03:07 that I'm very appreciative of.
03:11 - 2007, I feel like, was a big year for you
03:13 because you had No Country for Old Men,
03:15 American Gangster, Grindhouse,
03:16 you know, so many great movies in that time.
03:19 I wondered, how did it feel to be like
03:21 the It actor at that moment?
03:23 - I don't know if that's how I looked at it.
03:25 I just was happy.
03:26 I wasn't making any money, so that was, you know,
03:29 that hadn't changed, but I was doing role,
03:34 I think people were so confused why I got No Country
03:38 that other directors were like,
03:41 "Yeah, I want him too, then.
03:43 "Give me a role."
03:45 I still had to read for American Gangster.
03:47 I read for American Gangster after an all-night shoot
03:50 on No Country, and my son played Denzel at 16,
03:55 and then I sent that in on iMovie or something.
04:01 So, you know, it was still a chore,
04:04 but doing those, I mean, they were incredible.
04:07 Working with Denzel and working with Russell
04:09 and working with Ridley Scott
04:11 and then working with Paul Haggis at the time
04:13 and then working with Robert Rodriguez before that.
04:15 Not that it's the only time that it happened.
04:18 There's other times things like that,
04:19 bulks have happened that are really special,
04:22 but that was definitely the first other than the Goonies.
04:25 Things that just don't happen to people.
04:27 It's not lost on me.
04:29 Society can't exist without the family.
04:31 - We're not against that.
04:31 - Can two men reproduce?
04:33 - No, but God knows we keep trying.
04:35 - I think telling any story that puts a mirror up
04:38 to society and current events is always important.
04:42 However, I mean, this, you can parallel it with this,
04:45 with the abuse of power and all this kind of stuff.
04:48 That's the whole point of storytelling.
04:49 It's the whole point of poetry.
04:50 It's the whole point of movie making.
04:52 I thought of "Milk" yesterday,
04:54 like literally just lying in bed.
04:56 It just hit me about it being Sean Penn's
04:59 probably greatest performance
05:01 and how he allowed himself to become so vulnerable
05:05 knowing him personally.
05:07 It was an amazing kind of transformation.
05:11 And I thought he represented really well.
05:12 I thought I represented well
05:14 in that kind of awfulness of what a man is
05:17 and the kind of evil that exists
05:21 and not wanting to think outside your own paradigm
05:25 that you're used to or what people tell you is appropriate.
05:29 Yeah, anytime we can go against that, I'm all for it.
05:32 - And obviously you got an Oscar nomination
05:34 at the time for it as well.
05:35 Lost out to Heath Ledger at the time, of course,
05:37 but I wonder what was that experience like?
05:40 - Being nominated was amazing, but I knew Heath,
05:43 so that was, it hit me, all of us, so profoundly
05:48 that it wasn't about like, you know what I mean?
05:54 It was that is exactly what should have happened
05:57 and his parents getting up there, his dad getting up there.
06:01 You know what I mean?
06:01 That went exactly, yeah.
06:04 So I was happy.
06:05 It was me, somebody just said it the other day.
06:07 It was me, Michael Shannon, Downey, and Heath.
06:12 Was there somebody else?
06:13 There was one.
06:14 Philip Seymour Hoffman, was it?
06:17 Okay, so like all people I've known
06:21 for a very, very long time,
06:22 so it was such a great kind of family
06:26 to be supportive of what was very obviously Heath's,
06:30 not because he died, because it was one
06:32 of the most incredible performances ever,
06:34 which I also think about Joaquin when he did "Joker."
06:37 I think that's one of the greatest performances
06:39 I've ever seen.
06:40 [glass shattering]
06:44 - How you doing there?
06:45 - What's happening to me?
06:47 - Afraid you're dead, friend.
06:49 - How can you speak to me?
06:51 - Well, it's kind of a knack I picked up
06:52 when I near died myself.
06:54 It's funny because, you know,
06:57 I've always spoken about it in a way
06:59 that I think is disrespectful to the director.
07:02 I don't think it was the director's fault.
07:04 I think he did his best.
07:07 I think it was a piece of [beep] film,
07:10 but for many different reasons,
07:13 and I'm included in that too.
07:17 [laughing]
07:19 But, you know, we can't win 'em all.
07:22 It happens.
07:22 I think, I mean, I brought in a lot of really good people.
07:25 I brought in Malkovich, I brought in Megan,
07:27 I brought in Fassbender, who hadn't really hit yet.
07:31 He'd done some great work, but he hadn't really hit yet.
07:33 So I brought in Michael Shannon, but he was cut out.
07:39 Yeah, man, I don't know what happened.
07:41 [laughing]
07:43 But it happened, you know?
07:46 Just careened a little bit, hit a couple cars.
07:49 Everybody survived.
07:50 [laughing]
07:51 That was all right.
07:52 But I don't think it was Jimmy Hayward's fault.
07:55 I think that's a misconception, you know?
07:58 He was a big Jonah Hex fan.
08:01 We gave him a shot.
08:02 He directed a pretty good movie,
08:05 and then the studio took it and made it a much worse movie.
08:08 I've seen that happen a couple of times.
08:10 You know, where they think,
08:11 in which you get into pandering
08:13 what you think the audience wants,
08:15 based on a cosmetic, you know, I don't know,
08:19 understanding, or at least a pretend understanding
08:22 of what you think an audience wants,
08:24 which nobody ever knows.
08:26 That's why it's good, people like him,
08:27 where you just do the movie that's most powerful to you,
08:31 and then release it and hope for the best.
08:33 - What's our objective?
08:36 [whispering]
08:39 - To dramatically overreact.
08:41 We tweaked that story a lot.
08:44 We rewrote a lot of stuff,
08:45 and Taylor Sheridan had written that script,
08:48 and it was a really good script.
08:49 He wrote a really good script.
08:51 But just because of the nature of what we were doing
08:53 and where we were, we just tweaked it.
08:55 It was a very incredible collaboration, you know?
08:59 So, yeah, and then Denny and I just became fast friends,
09:03 and we work well together, and we have fun together personally,
09:06 and just an easy thing with him.
09:08 - Speaking of Denny, you first worked with him on Sicario,
09:11 which is a wonderful movie.
09:13 I wonder, you know, what did you feel at the time
09:15 set him apart as a director?
09:17 - Well, I said no to Sicario,
09:20 because it was a tiny, tiny part,
09:22 and he said something that I've heard directors say
09:25 that I've never believed.
09:27 It's always proven to be untrue,
09:28 which is, we're gonna grow this part.
09:30 So if you just say yes, you'll be happy that you did it.
09:33 But it was true with him.
09:35 - Everything I heard about myself, he taught me.
09:38 - And in doing so, made you the fiercest woman in the galaxy.
09:43 That's why I trusted you to find the Soul Stone.
09:48 - It's funny, you start, you get into like a humility thing,
09:53 and you deny, and you go, oh no, no.
09:56 But the truth of the matter is,
09:57 is when you do something that is,
10:01 and not just because of me, one note, you know what I mean?
10:06 I came in with a certain idea,
10:08 and then the Russos maybe had,
10:10 or complimented that with a contrasting idea.
10:14 And it was like, oh, why don't you incorporate
10:15 a little of this, and this, that, and that?
10:17 So you don't know how it's gonna turn out, you know?
10:20 It's all kind of new and a big experiment to everybody,
10:23 including myself, but then also to Kevin Feige,
10:25 and also the Russos, and they have big hopes.
10:29 And then it comes out, and it works,
10:31 and people are moved by the character,
10:35 as opposed to just, oh, it's a great bad guy.
10:37 Like, Darth Vader was kind of the same thing with Star Wars.
10:40 It was like, there was something that made you lean into him,
10:43 even though you know you hated him,
10:44 and what he represented was bad,
10:47 there was something super attractive about him.
10:50 And you never saw his face, you know?
10:53 And then you're looking at this guy, who's a 700-pound purple dude,
10:58 but there was something very human about him.
11:01 It was great. I thought they did an incredible job.
11:03 I wonder, is that kind of time behind you now,
11:06 in terms of Marvel, do you just feel like you're done with that part?
11:10 I feel that about everything I've ever done,
11:13 you know, professionally.
11:15 Sicario, and then Soldado showed up, and you do that.
11:19 And then, even though I know they were doing two movies,
11:23 even we were focused on Infinity War,
11:25 and then it was like, oh yeah, we have Endgame,
11:28 all that, or Dune and Dune II.
11:30 It's the same kind of thing.
11:32 Deadpool is the only one that, when we finished Deadpool,
11:35 I was like, yeah, I think that's going to stand by itself.
11:37 Deadpool II.
11:40 With me, I'm saying.
11:41 And, but yeah, yeah, I don't think about it in those terms,
11:46 like, this thing.
11:48 I'm very isolated.
11:49 It's like how Denise thinks about this.
11:51 I don't want to talk about three.
11:53 I just want to do two.
11:55 I have you.
11:56 I, I'm going to look down, my lord.
12:00 You to join me in death.
12:02 I see you found the mood.
12:04 Yeah, I was a fan of Timothy's.
12:06 I had seen him in a few different things.
12:08 And, just super raw talent.
12:14 Super raw.
12:16 You know, a lot of times you say, oh, I'd seen his work,
12:18 but you hadn't really seen his work.
12:19 Like, I was a big fan of his already.
12:21 And, the idea of doing something bigger,
12:25 I think he was more in awe of, and I think he was,
12:29 you know, vulnerable about.
12:31 And, he'd come up and like, how do you do this?
12:33 And, like, what's the difference?
12:35 And, there is no difference.
12:36 And, no way, well, really?
12:38 But, I was excited to work with him
12:40 like I was excited to work with Austin,
12:43 even though it continued with Timothy,
12:45 with Austin and Florence.
12:46 And, when you see new actors, you know,
12:49 there's definitely a judgment,
12:52 having been around for a while,
12:54 of like, are you the real deal?
12:56 Like, are you?
12:58 You just want to be famous, is that your deal?
13:00 [laughing]
13:01 And, then you see people,
13:05 kind of like what Paul's going through in the movie,
13:07 you know, with the ability or inability
13:10 to confront themselves.
13:12 Everybody was incredible.
13:13 I have a lot of respect for everybody.
13:15 I remember that Austin, they were like,
13:16 have you met Austin?
13:18 Oh, you're gonna love him.
13:19 Have you met Austin?
13:20 You're gonna love him.
13:21 Another person, another person, another person,
13:23 another person.
13:24 And, then finally, I'm like, ah, I gotta meet this guy.
13:26 And, like, weeks went by and I hadn't met him.
13:29 And, then finally, our trailers were next to each other
13:32 when we were still in Budapest.
13:33 And, I knocked on his door and he opened the door
13:36 and I was met with this pasty, bald guy with no eyebrows.
13:41 And, big smile on his face.
13:45 Hey, man, hey.
13:46 And, that was a three hour conversation.
13:48 It was just easy from the first words out.
13:52 And, talked about our mothers
13:54 and talked about all kinds of things.
13:55 And, you know, and then I saw his work ethic on top of it.
13:59 Just fell in love.
14:01 Guy who's never stopped working.
14:03 Never stopped, you could tell.
14:04 He was, like, off thinking about scenes
14:06 or he was doing moves to the fight scene that he had to do.
14:09 And, I just appreciate that kind of work ethic.
14:11 You don't see it always.
14:12 - Obviously, you've worked with Denis a few times now.
14:15 How do you feel like you've both grown together
14:18 in these films?
14:19 - I've definitely seen him grow.
14:21 And, as he continues to challenge himself
14:23 in his imagination, the financial aspects of the movies
14:27 that he chooses to do and the meaning,
14:30 the size of the stories.
14:33 And, he's able to meet those challenges with his talent
14:37 and his childlike nature without losing that,
14:42 I think is what makes him super special.
14:45 He pushes the ceiling.
14:46 He's constantly pushing the ceiling.
14:49 You look at Sicario, I love Sicario
14:51 as much as I love Dune for what it is.
14:53 But, then you see Dune and it's just much bigger.
14:55 But, he treated Dune exactly like he treated Sicario.
14:59 With the amount, you know, the level of care is the same.
15:03 So, the care hasn't changed, but the talent has grown.
15:07 The ability has grown.
15:08 (upbeat music)
15:11 (upbeat music)