Actors have varying takes when it comes to watching their own work, but it’s easy to sympathize with those who try to avoid their own performances. Everybody is their own harshest critic, so why invite the opportunity? Stars like Denzel Washington have said that they never look back at their old movies – but for Megalopolis’ Adam Driver, his perspective is currently in the midst of a shift. While he previously avoided watching his own films, he has started to change that behavior as of late.
I interviewed Driver earlier this month up in Toronto during the Toronto International Film Festival, and it was at the end of our conversation about his new collaboration with director Francis Ford Coppola that I asked about his viewing habits when it comes to his own movies. He explained that he hasn’t watched his own performances in the past, but that has changed of late:
I try not to watch things, but lately I've decided to switch that up and just watch everything. And not everything that I've done, but like everything moving forward. Because I felt like you also kind of sometimes have to defend the choice that you make, or sometimes you have a better… or not a better, but you remember something a different way. And I found directors are open to hearing… they have the ultimate choice anyway, but there, it does you a disservice not to kind of still fight for your character. Not fight as if in they're in opposition, but just try to advocate for them.
It’s an interesting point. Any given scene in a movie is generally filmed from multiple angles and with multiple takes of those multiple angles. What stands out in an actor’s memory from set may not be what is ultimately presented in the finished film – and the only way for recollection and reality to line up is for the performer to witness the magic cooked up during the post-production process.
In the case of Adam Driver, it’s worth noting that not watching his own movies means missing out on films made by some of the greatest directors working today. In recent years, he has been collaborating with the likes of Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Jim Jarmusch, Noah Baumbach, Ridley Scott, Michael Mann and more, and there is something sad in the fact that he can’t enjoy the works of the master filmmakers like the rest of us.
As noted, his latest legendary collaboration is with Francis Ford Coppola in the ambitious upcoming sci-fi epic Megalopolis. In the heavily metaphorical film, Driver plays an artist named Cesar Catilina who has an optimistic vision for recreating the world but finds his ambitions challenged and undercut by forces that want to see the status quo remain. The vast ensemble cast includes Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, Laurence Fishburne, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, Grace VanderWaal, and more.
With his new self-watching philosophy, Adam Driver is also part of Megalopolis’ audience – though he noted that there is a caveat involved: in order to develop a more objective perspective, multiple viewings are required. Said Driver,
You kind of have to watch it through five times to kind of forget that it's you and put it in context of the story. I feel like you spend the first two times being like, ‘Does my face always look like that?’ And you forget why you made a choice. Because you're watching it in isolation. You have to think of it as a whole thing. But it's interesting. I'm learning a lot about how good and bad it is watching yourself.
After receiving some fascinatingly divisive reactions at the Cannes Film Festival in the summer, Megalopolis arrives in theaters this Friday, September 27, and you can preview all of the films arriving on the big screen in the coming months with our 2024 Movie Release Calendar.
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