00:00 Music is like my first, it's like my home, you know what I mean?
00:03 It's like the, I feel like it's like the language that I speak, you know what I mean?
00:07 Whereas acting to me is kind of a different, a different muscle.
00:10 It's like something I feel like I, I don't know.
00:13 It's like more, it's a little bit more of a, more of a foreign language to me,
00:19 but when I'm doing it and in the middle of it, it feels so fun.
00:22 [Music]
00:25 Is this anyone's first time to Sundance? Everyone's?
00:28 Guilty.
00:29 Yeah?
00:30 I'm charged.
00:30 Yeah, how's it, how's it going so far?
00:32 What, how does it fit expectations?
00:36 Ooh.
00:36 I had no expectations and that kind of helped me out the best way.
00:39 I didn't want to overcrowd myself with like, what I can expect when it hasn't even happened yet.
00:45 It was best for me to just stay present and just prepare, just my own little preparation.
00:50 It's really cool.
00:51 I love the, I love like the film chaos.
00:54 This is chaos.
00:54 It's chaos.
00:56 I love like running into like, I don't know, like actor.
01:00 Laura Lennon.
01:01 Yeah, I was going to say, was there anyone, you did said you didn't have any expectations,
01:05 but did anyone have, did you guys have like people you kind of hoped maybe you would run into?
01:11 I haven't seen John Carlyle yet.
01:13 Oh, he was here an hour ago.
01:14 Yeah, I saw the picture, it was like in the other room and I'm like, I haven't seen him.
01:18 I actually have met him once, but we were parked to like in, I think it was in LA, just at the traffic light together.
01:25 Did you? That's crazy.
01:26 That's really sick.
01:28 I love, I love Stephen Yeun.
01:31 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:32 He's great.
01:32 Very cool actor.
01:33 Yeah, but he, I didn't run into him.
01:35 I think he was here a couple days ago.
01:37 What was it about these two that was most appealing to you as actors for this film?
01:43 What?
01:45 Do you mind if I start with you?
01:47 Please don't.
01:48 Oh my God.
01:51 I mean, Jay, for me in this part, he just, he made the film make sense.
01:56 He kind of, he held it all together and he made it one.
02:00 And that was something that, you know, I did speak to a lot of people and we did do, you know,
02:06 there were a lot of auditions and all of this stuff and nobody was able to do that the way that Jay did it.
02:14 Jay was able to understand, he just sort of got it intuitively and also the charisma, the kind of, the energy that he brought to it, you know.
02:21 But it was that thing for me that was just center off the page that he understood how to make it a whole,
02:27 how to make Rob Peace's experience in all of these different places and all of these different spaces,
02:32 all the different challenges that he had, how he managed to kind of make it one consistent person that you can completely believe in.
02:39 And so that, and then with Camille, we kind of, you know, the, Camille's charisma and energy, you know,
02:48 and I saw the film that you did and you just jumped off the screen and held it.
02:53 And I kind of, and I knew that with her and Jay together, there was going to be this real energy, you know,
03:01 that they were kind of, you know, that there was, you wouldn't know who was going to win in any kind of interaction,
03:06 you know, when they're confronting each other or when they're, you know, when you're engaging with them.
03:13 So it was just very rich, you know, so I just felt like, you know, that this is, this is the, there is such,
03:18 you know, the heart and the story within this relationship and this dynamic.
03:22 And then obviously that extends out to the rest of the cast and Mary J. Blige and what she brings to the, to the, to the part.
03:30 And, you know, and I loved the sort of energy that Mary J., you know, obviously she's iconic,
03:35 but she kind of also is so truthful as an, as an actor.
03:39 And, and, you know, and I just felt that was exactly what I needed,
03:43 that she wasn't going to kind of push for a sort of dramatic moment or something.
03:48 She was going to sit in the truth of this relationship and her own understanding.
03:52 And a lot of people reached into their own understandings of these circumstances and these characters and lives lived,
03:58 full lives lived, you know, to tell the story.
04:01 - Mary, Mary threw a lot at me and in the best way, she threw a lot at me.
04:04 It really reminded me of a mother figure, honestly, like the, the, the, the way she said the lines,
04:12 just the way she, you know, replied back to me.
04:15 Just the energy that I have with her in the characters.
04:21 I don't know, it pushed, it gave me a lot of gifts.
04:23 When, when an actor throws something new to you, you didn't expect, it's like, oh, thank you.
04:28 I appreciate that.
04:28 She constantly kept it new for me.
04:30 She constantly kept it new.
04:32 And I kept it new for her.
04:33 So it was, it was all, it was a cipher.
04:35 It was a full cipher.
04:36 I had a great experience with Mary.
04:38 - After doing this movie, did it, do you feel like it gives you the itch to do, to keep pushing further into acting?
04:45 Or does it feel like you're scratching the itch a little bit and want to do more music or?
04:51 - That's such a hard question.
04:52 'Cause I just feel like I, I don't know, like I'm, I'm, you know, I'm just a fan of just like art that I love.
05:02 So, I mean, I feel like when I, there's a project that somebody wants me to be a part of that is inspiring to me and is exciting to me, I'll do it.
05:12 You know, whether it's like, you know, one second on screen or the whole time, like, I just want to be a part of it.
05:19 So I don't know.
05:20 It's, and, and also to me, like acting, because I have done less of it than music, then I, for me, like feeling like I'm in great hands and feeling like I'm being guided by the right people
05:32 is really important to me, which is why, like, it was amazing to work with Chiwetel because every day I was just like, I know that I'm going to get to a good place with this scene.
05:42 Like, I really trusted the process.
05:44 Like, I was like, we're going to start here and then we're going to end here.
05:48 Like, we're going to find it.
05:50 You know what I mean?
05:51 And I learned so much.
05:52 I learned so much from it.
05:54 And music is like my first, it's like my home.
05:56 You know what I mean?
05:57 It's like the, I feel like it's like the language that I speak.
06:01 You know what I mean?
06:01 Whereas acting to me is kind of a different, a different muscle.
06:04 It's like something I feel like I, I don't know.
06:07 It's like more, it's a little bit more of a, more of a foreign language to me.
06:13 But when I'm doing it and in the middle of it, it feels so fun and like such a fun, it's like a different language that's really fun to explore.
06:24 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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