Happy Sad Confused - Will Poulter

Episode Date: May 15, 2023

Don't let the superhero good looks fool you, Will Poulter is as down to earth as they come. Will joins Josh to chat about dealing with anxiety, his journey from childhood actor to where he is today, getting superhero costume advice from Michael Keaton, and his latest role in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, VOL. III. UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠John Cena -- 5/15 at 92NY in NYC. Virtual tickets available. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get your tickets here!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The cast of OUTLANDER -- 6/8 at 92NY in NYC. Virtual tickets available. ⁠⁠Get your tickets here!⁠⁠ SUPPORT THE SHOW BY SUPPORTING OUR SPONSORS! Go to ⁠Zocdoc.com/HappySad⁠ and download the Zocdoc app for FREE! To watch episodes of Happy Sad Confused, subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Josh's youtube channel here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Happy Sad Confused patreon here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! We've got discount codes to live events, merch, early access, exclusive episodes of GAME NIGHT, video versions of the podcast, and more! For all of your media headlines remember to subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Wakeup newsletter here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Get after him or have you shot You mean blow up the building From this moment on None of you are safe New episodes every Wednesday Wherever you get your podcasts All that was running through my mind during the entirety of our fight was do not punch Dave Petitza in the face. And if you do punch Dave Petitza in the face, everyone's going to know because there's going to be gold makeup on his purple face.

That is what's going to happen. And there's going to be no, do you know what I mean? It was that other gold guy. It wasn't me. Yeah, yeah. It wasn't me. It wasn't me. Yeah, exactly.

Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now. Today on Happy Say I Confused, I'm Josh Horowitz, and we've got a BAFTA winner, an Emmy nominee, a man who loves to cover himself in gold. He loves singing TLC. He's the newest star of the MCU. It's Guardian the Galaxy Volume 3's Will Polter. Hey Will. Oh, Josh. How are you? That's a very lovely intro. That made me sound like a proper job and I'm a real human and all of that stuff. You are a man of many talents and we're going to get into all of it.

I want to remind the listeners, the viewers, however you're consuming this. Do us a solid, you know, hit the like, subscribe, comment, do the things you're supposed to do. Don't disappoint. It's not about me. It's about disappointing Will who needs validation, like all of us. I'll cry. I'll straight up cry. I'll cry on this platform.

I should say, as we launch in Will, I've been given license. We're not going to run this until after the spoiler embargoes up. So we're going to get into a couple things in here. And audience out there, I'll give you some more. morning, but we'll spoil a couple things about some fun things in Guardians as we progress. Cool. Cool. Yeah, that sounds good to me. I never get to go into spoiler territory, so I appreciate you. I think it's exciting that you have the key to that room. Yeah, someone told me, hopefully I won't be fired and you won't be fired. It's too late now,

right? Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. So this is our first deep dive. Our paths have crossed over the years at various times. I keep having the same kind of conversation with folks, but it's true. I love like charting like stopping in on the ride the roller coaster of a career and and this is a this is a marker this is a moment isn't it um it it does feel cool and honestly josh it's really nice to chat to you because you know um you as an actor do press and you do a lot of interviews and i sincerely mean this that any time you've come into a room it's been a breath of fresh air and that's with no kind of intention to speak disparagingly about anyone else but just your interview has been so much fun. I want you to bring others out. It's not enough for you to be nice to me. I need you to be

your peers. I'm a mess. I need it. No, it's very sweet, buddy. It really is. And so it's very nice to do a longer format, you know, a deep dive as you put it with you. I'm more than happy to do it. It's a joy. Well, right back at you, buddy. And this is a big moment. I was so excited when you were cast in this because this combines, look, as you know by now, having worked with them, this is a great crew to be associated with. Marvel generally, but specifically this group. Talk to me about, though, okay, you sign on to something like this. There's, baggage is a bad word, but there's a lot that goes into a decision like this.

Obviously, almost any actor would want this kind of opportunity. But I don't know. Is there trepidation? Is there like, oh, this is going to be the next seven years of my life? Is this right for me? Is this taking me down a path I don't need or want? Or give me, put me in your head back when this came around. No, I think it's a fair question, you know, the obvious, you know, privilege and an excitement of the whole ordeal notwithstanding.

I mean, you know, your first, I think, instinct genuinely is, is, you know, feeling kind of very, very lucky to be welcomed into a world that is characterized by such a committed and passionate fan base that, you know, is also predicated. on the contributions of so many, you know, incredibly talented people. And so to be kind of welcomed into a space that has such a kind of amazing legacy attached to it and such an incredible history of success, that's, that's super lovely and all wonderful things. I think with that there's also a certain amount of pressure, right? And I think there is also a thought that like as good as all those things are and like this analogy is like worryingly on the nose for Adam Warlock. but like, you know, there is elements of like, is it a golden cage?

You know what I mean? Like, it's gold. It's very pretty, but is it stopping you from doing other things? And I think ultimately, you know, the whole experience of being involved in Marvel, at least to date, and being involved in this movie has only really kind of translated to, you know, a positive experience for me. And, you know, just really, really wonderful, you know, opportunities off the back of it. So I'm immensely grateful. and that sense that, oh, God, I'm, you know, trapped by Marvel.

It's just not really, it hasn't been my, that hasn't been my experience. Well, you just need to look at, yeah, no, sorry, I'm just going to say, you just need to look at the other actors, obviously, the caliber, but then also, like, you know, Benedict Cumberbatch is not wanting for other work. Like, he's making it work. There's a way to do it. Right, right. Yeah, exactly.

And I think, you know, at the point that you have, you know, the, the, the, you know, Angela Bassett's and the Tilda Swinton's and the, you know, Jake Jones of this world, you know, in these films, I think you have to assume that, you know, actors are given license creatively to go and explore other avenues and do things that are, you know, in a different bracket. So Marvel have been super supportive of that. And they, you know, they really, really do care about the quality. They're not just looking to like churn things out, nilly-willie. You know, I think, I think the, size of Marvel and the scope of their programming is so large that sometimes people can

kind of sort of, I think, confuse that for kind of quantity over quality. But, but, you know, the folks at the top are, I mean, deeply and passionately invested in the quality of the material. Not to mention again, like, James Gunn is like, these are passion projects. These are like, this is, this guy isn't, it's not a money job. This is like of his soul. And you feel it in every frame of that movie. 100% man. James is a prime example of that. So talk to me a little bit about your history

with like Marvel and DC. Did you, have you been up for other things? Is this the first time you've had a shot? I can't believe that. I feel like there have been standex laid in auditions in your past at some point. There have been misses on my part. I'll tell you that.

A few misfires, Josh. I'll be honest with you. I've had, you know, the occasional brush with a kind of superhero project here in there. I don't think I've ever really sincerely got close. Are you able to say one that you really wanted, even if you didn't come close? Was there one that you were like when you heard it announced like, oh, I could actually see myself in that?

I mean, I love, I think Chloe's out such a brilliant director. So I was very excited about Eternals. And that was like, oh, I'd love to be in that. And I didn't, I didn't manage to get in. But I think she's fantastic. And I think, yeah, you know, but similarly, you know, I'm a huge fan of James Gunn, and genuinely, you know, of all the films within the kind of Marvel universe, Guardians of the Galaxy was my kind of favorite. So to end up in that one feels, yeah, incredibly, incredibly fortunate. How embarrassing is the audition for this?

Is it, does it take everything out of your soul to like pretend to be? It's unwatchable. It is. Apparently, it's pretty watchable. Apparently, some people like it. I think all my auditions are unwatchable. I don't know how I've ever got a job from an audition. I'm such a bad auditioner.

I'm a marginally less terrible taper if I'm asked to tape on my own accord, and I have the freedom to mess up as many times as I want and sort of yell at myself and swear at myself and berate myself. You know, just have to edit it out of what you send them. At least you don't want to hear the self. Oh, gladulation in there. Yeah, yeah. Well, I put R-rated before all my tapes,

just so people know that there's a lot of swearing, a lot of self-hatred in there. No, I'm a slightly better taper, but, you know, in the room auditions, absolutely terrifies me. And, you know, on account of COVID, and I think where I was based, being London, a lot of it was virtual anyway,

but then inevitably, you know, with it being a Marvel project and the stage that I'm at in my career, I had to go and screen test. And I was very grateful for that opportunity, nervous, during said opportunity, but went out to Atlanta and screen tested. And, you know, the nice thing is that James is very, very good at making people feel at ease and comfortable. And he really kind of took the weight out of the occasion, I think, just by being kind and supportive. And the same was true when I stepped on set.

You know, he was very, very encouraging. and, you know, where I lacked belief, he was kind enough to give me some. So, okay, I'm going to give some spoiler warning. So feel free, like, from here on out, to talk a little bit more openly about what you've done with the character, what James did with the character here. If you have not seen Guardians, go ahead 10 minutes in the conversation. You know what to do. So how is this character described to you in the script?

What's the character description in the script? what's the introduction read is the music cue in there give me like a sense of what's on the page yeah the music cue was was in there um which was very very cool and actually the cool thing about that was when i got handed the script i simultaneously got sent the track list i simultaneously got sent the soundtrack which is just so you know yeah it's so kind of so singular as an experience so true of james and how well and conscientiously he kind of integrates music into his films. So that was pretty cool. And upon hearing that intro track, I was pretty stoked.

And, you know, I don't know quite honestly if there was a very detailed description of Adam or what he looked like. I will say that I think the version of Adam that James wanted to create was fully formed in his mind. And I was just fortunate that along the way and over the course of the audition process, my interpretation kind of began to align with James and we just kind of agreed. You know, we settled on a point so that by the time we got to set, we both kind of had a, we both, and this is my, obviously the kind of ideal way to do,

do things without kind of closing the door off to the opportunity to experiment or whatever. You and the director both have the kind of a synchronized idea. of what the character should look like, yeah. So what was your kind of guiding, like, guiding principle? Like, if you have the sum up sort of like you're and James, like, where you came together, what is this Adam Warlock all about for you? I think simply put, it's a young being trying to navigate the world he finds himself in, all the many worlds that he find himself in,

and kind of carve out his personality. the sort of early phases of a self-development journey. It's in that respect, a very kind of human experience. It is kind of exploring the human condition. And that's what I could get my teeth into, you know, even if I was sort of head to toe in gold and flying around in a, you know, costume with a cape, like, spoiler, I have a cape. People are furious.

I can feel it. People are furious. A cape? You want the full superhero experience. You've got to have a cape. Come on. You've got to have a cape, at least until I get beaten up quite badly and they rip the cape off me. But, you know, even with those elements kind of pulling you in a different direction,

I think it was helpful to have such a kind of just human and psychologically relatable experience to kind of get my teeth into. So early on in the film, you have this huge sequence where you just kick the ass out of the Guardians, you just like one by one, go through them, culminating with Bautista of all people. Talk to me about, like, what's it like to shoot that sequence? And to go toe to toe with like, I mean, Dave Bautista. It doesn't get much more intimidating than that. You know what? I mean, in fairness to the Guardians, they all get their licks in, you know, as well. And like, I feel like it's a, it's a relatively even fight, maybe up until the end when I get the upper hand. I will say

that Dave is like Dave is just pure class in every sense he's so talented and he's so lovely he's also so scarily proficient at the fight choreography thing and so effortless with it that kind of the ideal person to do that sort of thing with

but naturally all it was running through my mind during the entirety of our fight was do not punch Dave Patisa in the face and if you do punch Dave Petitza in the face and if you do punch daeaties in the face everyone's going to know because there's going to be gold makeup on his purple face that is what's going to happen and there's going to be no do you know what I mean

like it was that other gold guy it wasn't me yeah yeah it wasn't me yeah exactly so that that was running through my head nonstop and you know I grew up watching Dave as well I haven't told Dave this and I would never want to kind of embarrass him But, you know, I grew up kind of watching Dave and, you know, also really admiring what he did in Guardians as an actor. So to suddenly be like toe to toe with him and doing that scene was very bizarre, but really, really fun. And then Karen Gillen, Nebula, she shows me what's what and exactly why you don't mess with the Guardians lately.

So by the end, and look, a lot's been made about the physicality, the transformation for you in this role, and it just goes to the territory of a character like this. I guess if you're going to do that, you want the shirtless scene. Like you don't want to then cover it up. You want to be like, hey, I put in the effort, give me some shirtless action. Or no, are you like, what's your attitude about stuff towards the end of the film where you're like basically half naked? Basically half naked. Yeah, I mean, I think you're right in the sense that it's just part and parcel of what the character

you know, is at that stage and it's all kind of circumstantial. I was really lucky that I was able to kind of prepare for that in a way that didn't kind of erode too much of my mental and physical health. Marvel were very, very supportive. No one kind of fresherized me into anything or held me to any kind of like, you know,

really, really harsh standards, I don't think. And, you know, I just gave it my best shot in a way that was safe and natural and protected my long-term mental and physical health. And I was able to do that with the help of three amazing guys, Ben Carraway, who designed my program and trained me and patched me up and mended me all the way through. Aaron Deere, my nutritionist, who's wonderful.

And Darrell Richards, who's another great trainer. And the three of those dudes kind of, you know, help me give it my best shot. You know, it's a superhero. I'm a human that I was only going to get so close. I think less like, oh, I wanted a shirtlessy, more like I could have done with some like spotlights. I would have loved like a little bit of more help in that department, you know, if I'm

putting in requests or just or just someone else's body would have been much easier. But yeah, no, it was it was actually a process that I was. I ended up kind of, you know, enjoying the challenge of, but it, but it was easily the hardest thing I've ever done as well. And, and also something that was very purpose, uh, purpose led. You know, it's not something I would recommend doing, you know, um, in everyday life, purely because I don't think superhero physiques, whatever that looks like. And I don't even know if I got that myself is something that, you know, necessarily people should be aspiring to in their everyday life. Um, covering yourself and goals, that's, that's a, that's a goal. Those are goals that's the new trend you're starting right now absolutely start with a gold bath i think everyone yeah deserves that so it's an interesting film in that it's like it's it's a film about endings and beginnings right it's a film about the end of the guardians and it's also you know who knows where this goes obviously no one has the answer right now i know you don't have the answer but again spoiler alert post credit scene new guardian we have a new team and you're part you're you're a guardian of the galaxy

along with Root and, of course, Rocket leading the way, Kraglin. Did that excite you when you come to that page and you see like, oh, this is the potential beginning of, we'll see where this goes, but there's a seed of something here. Yeah, hugely. I mean, it was about September of last year and I had heard there might be some reshoots. There might be some reshoots. And I was a bit apprehensive about that because I thought, oh, my gosh, they're going to have to reshoot all of my stuff. They're going to reshoot everything I did.

They're just going to re-shoot everything I did. CGI, someone else's head on my body, you know. Then they're going to put in the other body that I spoke about, you know. I was like panicking. I was in full catastrophe mode. And then they were like, oh, we're not doing any reshoots. We're going to do a fun, like, tag scene. We're going to do like an end of credit scene.

And I was stoked. And then I read that scene. And I was, I mean, ecstatic and honored, you know, to put on that Guardian's costume and be among that group. And Sean Garn, who I think is incredible as Craiglin. So funny in this movie. like kills in all of his moments you know maria who's brilliant um there's cosmo the dog yeah um young filer unbelievable um you know uh and then of course to be there with with fruit and

and and and rock it too it was like really really cool to be in that in that band um and i feel very lucky so i know you it's it's figy and then polter who calls all the shots um that we know this right so if it were up to you what are you green lighting are you green lighting you know the revamped guardians for like what do you what do you want out of the future not to be greedy but look you don't sign out to something like this just to do it once what do you want to do with adam warlock in the future i oh gosh um if i had my way if if if if if i could handle more than one human being schedule and i can barely do that um i listen i i feel so lucky to have experience what i've experience today, I would of course love to continue the kind of evolution of Adam and,

um, you know, really kind of explore that, that self-development journey further, you know, uh, continue his kind of, um, maturation arc. I've been using the word maturation, but like just continue to mature him and, and, um, see where he, where he goes. And honestly, wherever that takes him is, is kind of, you know, at least in a, in a literal sense in in terms of like what movies he crosses over with, whether he has his own thing or anything like that, I really don't know. And I honestly care less about that

than I do just the opportunity to kind of explore the characters' arc fully, because I think James gave me a wonderful opportunity to kind of introduce him. And I think, you know, by the end of the movie, I felt like, you know, I was in a kind of exciting position whereby I could, you know, potentially sort of taken forward, having made a decision about what his moral compasses

and, you know, what his value system is, you know, a little bit more than certainly when you first meet him in the movie. Let me set the scene for you guys, okay? We've all been here. You're trying to find a cause for your symptoms. It could be anything. It could be that bump or bruise. It could be that it. What is it? What's the deal? So you go down that TikTok rabbit hole full of questionable advice from so-called experts. Well, there are better ways to get the answers you want, guys, and the care you deserve from trusted professionals and not frankly random people. on the internet. Zoc Doc helps you find expert doctors and medical professionals that specialize

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Many are available within 24 hours. That's Zock.com, Z-O-C-D-C dot com slash happy sad. Zock.com slash happy sad. this is already flying by we haven't even gone backwards in the career but let's talk a little bit let's go backwards talk to me about young will how would friends and family have described boyhood will polter what were you what were you like as a kid what were the defining characteristics of oh my gosh to be honest josh like very the term that got applied to me a lot was uh was oversensitive i did get that a lot and not by my own family members or like loved ones but

was quite, I like cried easily and got upset and struggled with mental health from a young age. I think one thing my family would probably describe me as is like quite kind of probably quite precocious. Like I think one of my ways of like kind of dealing with with all of that was to sort of explore character and crack a lot of jokes and do a lot of impressions, et cetera. And I don't know how much my family enjoyed that as much as they kind of tolerated that. But, you know, I always wanted to sort of play characters and act and perform because it was something of an escape, I think, and something of a way of kind of dealing with what I now know, you know, retrospectively to be kind of mental health issues. And drama and performance and acting kind

of saved me. So my family and friends when I was a kid were very, very supportive of me doing that because I think they recognized what an important outlet it was for me. And, you know, I also feel passionately about the arts and about the arts being available to young people because it was such an enormous outlet for me. It kind of saved me in so many respects. And I think it's really important that, you know, it continues to be an avenue for young people to explore

because while we, of course, you know, need people to continue to, you know, succeed in the world of academia, we need artists too, you know. We need creatives and we need to support that. And I think it's so admiral that you've talked so openly over the years. This is not a new thing. You've been an anti-bullying advocate for over a decade talking about anxiety and mental health. And the more we can talk about the stuff openly obviously destigmatizes it.

And it's just going to, it's going to be a sea change for generations, which is, which is huge. I'm curious for you personally, has it helped you talking so openly about it? like on a personal level, is that, is that helpful? I think it has. Yeah, I think, I think it has, Josh. And my, my kind of, you know, the, the syntax that I use, you know, around the subject of mental health is constantly kind of evolving. And I think, you know, normalizing conversations about it has been particularly helpful.

And yeah, you know, I think also in this industry, which can be quite kind of taxing on one's mental health. It's been kind of especially important just to talk about it on the platform that I'm lucky enough to have as well, you know, because it can be a very lonely, isolating experience. And I think it's very easy to kind of compare yourself to other people and assume that, you know, they're not necessarily kind of going through something similar to you and there can be shame around that. And as you said, you know, the experience is so stigmatized still. So wherever it's been possible to talk about it and in a way that I hope serves other people, I've tried. But it serves me too.

You know, it definitely helps me in terms of just normalizing the experience. Well, you're also in a very unique kind of profession where you're, you know, a public personality, whether you like it or not, you're out there. And you're also in a position where even the best actors, I literally just had this conversation with another El Fanning the other day who's grown up in the industry. well and she's fantastic amazing right but like even the elf fannings the will polters the the greatest of the greats rejection 80% of the time like from the start wow and and see even that to hear the L is experiencing that it's crazy to me because I'm like yeah yeah she's been doing it since she was two um so talk to me about does that get easier have you found coping mechanisms where you know you put you pint your hopes and dreams on a role and you start to imagine something

that's going to change your life personally and professionally, and then for a thousand different reasons, it doesn't happen. Yeah, that's a good point. I think I need to start getting better at that. I'm 30, and I definitely need to stop becoming emotionally attached to roles. I can allow myself to, you know, fall in love with characters or with the idea of working with a filmmaker, you know, and kind of run away in my mind about what that could be and how that would look.

And then, you know, I don't get it. I get beaten out by someone who's better for it. or as you said, there's a myriad of reasons. So you have to learn to kind of accept, you know, the reality of what it is to be an actor, which is that it is characterized by, you know, a good deal of rejection. I think what I do try and remind myself of

is just how lucky I've been and, you know, how, you know, various privileges and my privilege profile has afforded me a great deal of opportunity. So, you know, I can't have too many complaints. And, and certainly, my introduction into the industry, which was, you know, a film when I was 12, you know, I was very lucky that that kind of came my way and that, that opportunity was presented to me.

Son of Rambo, by the way, and this is so weird, because literally I was just talking to Elle about 2007 Sundance when I met Elle for the first time. She was eight years old with the nines, and that was my, and that was where Son of Rambo debuted as well, as I recall. Oh, my gosh, that's crazy. Oh, I didn't realize that that's, wow, wow, wow, wow. Yeah, and I guess I would have been 13 or something. around that time and yeah and sundance was this like mythical land you know where movies went so i

heard and i didn't know what our film going to sundance meant and then i kind of actually knew even less when i heard it's been bought by paramount and you know it wasn't until i started seeing posters you know worldwide and uh you know seeing the films kind of distributed as widely as it did get distributed it kind of dawned on me what had happened we were this kind of little engine that could and we superseded all expectations we you know, we made it for eight weeks during the summer holidays on a very small budget and for it to kind of do what it did. It totally changed my life. And I'm forever indebted to, you know, Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith, the director and producer, respectively. And Susie Figures,

who cast me because, you know, I couldn't have asked for a more kind of wholesome and kinder introduction to this, to this game. So a couple of the other notable films I want to hit before we run out of time um i guess probably our paths probably started to cross especially in the mtv world with we're the millers i think that got you some some movie awards as i recall um here's a here's a fun fact that i that i'm fascinated by and maybe it didn't hit you because it was pre pre you adam driver was almost scotty p have you heard that he was cast as scotty p in that movie i no i have not heard that this is the the war that he scheduling or something happened and I guess he never shot it, but imagine the alternate universe, Adam Driver, in that room for a moment.

I guarantee you would have crushed. That's so funny. That's so funny. Wow. Yeah, mind-blown. I genuinely hadn't heard that. Yeah, mind-blown. It may or may not be true.

Who knows? We'll see. But, yeah, but... Yeah, that's amazing. You, you, ironic, you've worked with the great Michael Keaton. Dope Sick was one of my favorite shows, by the way, in the last couple of years. Thanks, man. stellar work if people have not checked it out

Caitlin Deber breaks your heart she's unbelievable unbelievable he's unbelievable did you and Keaton do you recognize I don't know if you ever saw the other guys you and Michael Keaton have two

characters very closely associated with TLC by the way Michael Keaton's character in the other guys where for anyone who hasn't seen it where he's like moonlighting as a bed bath and beyond manager while also holding down

his job as, like, the head of the precinct, like, as a cop is so funny. And the other sprinkling of oddity over that character is that he just randomly refers to TLC. He makes random TLC references. But won't acknowledge it. Yeah, exactly. Won't acknowledge that it's a TLC reference. It's one of my favorite character quirks.

I mean, I love Adam McKay. I think he's genius. Will Ferrell is one of my favorites of all time. And I think Michael absolutely crushes in that. And me and Caitlin would regulate. you know, fanboy secretly over, over Michael, you know, and all the various incredible performances he's turned in. But honestly, one of my favorites amongst it all, amongst the Birdman's and the Batman's

and everything in between, you know, the other guys. It is so funny. Wait, did I hear correctly that he talked to you about the costume in terms of the superhero costume? Obviously, Michael Keenan has some experience in this, Batman. You worked with Michael Keaton on dopesick and then you get cast and he gives you some Adam Warlock advice or what? He does. It was really, it was really bizarre.

He was, he was so encouraging and amazing to me while we were shooting dopesick, like really, really wonderful. All while shouldering is incredibly, you know, taxing, you know, and emotionally intense kind of performance. He managed to find time to just kind of be really wonderful to me. And I think we were in the green room before going onto a panel or before introducing a screening of something like a dopedic. It was kind of around the Emmys sort of, you know, kind of time. And he was asking me questions about Guardians and he was giving me some advice about the suit. And he was like, just be aware, like, you'll do all the working out and this on the other. And you'll put the suit on and it might be a little bit different.

And like, you know, it was really funny hearing about his experiences with it. and um yeah i mean you know on guardians we're so blessed to have judiana had a costume who did everything she could to try and make the costume kind of um more sort of wearable and flexible um and then also i had uh the most incredible stunt person um in ben jenkins doubling me so you know whether i could tie my shoe or not yeah just as a super hero was kind of irrelevant because ben could do backflips in the costume so it was it was cool Well, after, yeah, infamously back in the day, I feel like Michael, like, could, like, the reason he moved like this is Batman is they couldn't, like,

figure out how to move his head separately, essentially. Yeah, that's, I think ultimately what he said. He was like, and he worked so hard. He trained so hard. And he'd done all this kind of, you know, physical work to sort of get bigger. And then he said it kind of worked against him because it just made the costume sort of tighter and harder to move around it. And he was like, I should have just, he said, I should have just like tried to lose as much

way as possible. But he was very funny about it. And as I say, you know, just very supportive of me all the way through Dobsick and all the way through the Marvel experience, too. I know we could have a six-hour conversation about the experience of the Revenant. Oh, is it not six hours? I've booked out six hours. So if you have to go, that's fine. That would break the record for Happy Second Please. Let's do it. Let's make a telethon. We're raising money, guys.

I'm down. I'm down, genuinely. All right. Let's talk a little Revenant. Revenant, which is such a singular experience in all receipts. respects, Enery to Leo, Tom Hardy. You knew what you were getting into, but you didn't know what you were getting into, right? Like, you can only know so much. You hear like, oh, we're going to be, what, was it Calgary, like seven months? Yes. Shoot in sequence, continuous shots. That all sounds hard, but yeah, I'm a pro. I know what I'm doing. Like, how shocking was it that it was as hard as it was? Yeah, little do I know. Yeah, I think nothing really could have prepared me for how how difficult it was.

I mean, again, like, the top note is, you lucky bleep. Of course, relative to my age. You're not mining coal. Yeah, exactly. Like, my age to be on that set, you know, opposite, you know, actors I'd really admired for a long time. And in the hands of, you know, Alhandro and Chivo, Manuel Lubieski, the DOP, and that, you know, crew alone, it was, it was a,

enormous privilege to be there. But man, if I may say, was it cold? I mean, it was just, you know, and I was like, oh, yeah, I'm from London. Yeah, yeah, I know what cold is. I'm good. No, I had absolutely, we had a day where the camera froze because it was so cold. You know, we were in the minus 30s and it was just, it was just mad. You see like a forever changed man. When this comes up in interviews, I've watched a few leading into this. It feels like when, when Revenue comes up, it's like, it's PTSD. It's not to shiver. Yeah, it's just. Yeah. Yeah. reach for the reach for a sweater blanket whatever I can get my hands on yeah it's um it was it was it was a physically and emotionally intense experience um but i learned a lot um you know uh just even by observing

just by standing around and watching you know everyone go to work and i mean in many respects i think it will be the hardest thing i ever make like i'd be shocked uh if you know anything else is is made in the same way again just because it was so ambitious to shoot in those locations using solely natural light for the length of time that we did with those kind of shot lengths.

It was just like, and the complexity of those sequences, it was wild and there may well be, I shouldn't say there won't be something like that again in the future, but I think the likelihood that I'll be involved in it is pretty low only because I just think they're so difficult to make those films

and they're so few and far between You know, bizarrely yesterday on my Twitter feed, I saw there's a rumor going around that they are now, Leo is developing with Inorritu a sequel to The Revenant. Oh, I have not heard. I have not heard this. That has, that, like the fact that I almost worked with Adam Driver, damn it. That has landed on me fresh. I'm here to deliver the news. I'm continually fascinating. And I say this with love, the eccentricity of Tom Hardy. I'm obsessed with Tom. He is an amazing screen presence. There's no one like him. But, like, was he in character?

Was he kind of on his own wavelength? Is that intimidating to be around what Tom was doing? No, you know, Tom has his own process entirely. And, you know, more often than not, it was just kind of, you know, amazing to watch someone like that, you know, click into gear. And no, he wasn't, he wasn't like, it's funny because the sort of rumors and the rumor a mill around that whole movie was really interesting. You know, I regularly hear

different rumors about things that happened on set or just because I think there's so much made of how kind of catastrophic and simultaneously kind of magnificent the whole, you know, construction of the movie was or whatever, but no, Tom wasn't like solely in character all the way through, but it was really cool to watch him do his thing when he was in gear

and, you know, he does a great job as Fitzgerald and obviously a lot of our stuff was together and kind of going toe to toe. So it was also, you know, it was all part of a challenge. And I had a, I had a lot fun on the revenue as well, as well as it being really difficult. I had a lot of fun too. Must be satisfying after a day's work on that. You're like, I did the work. We put it, we all put it in the work. Yeah. Yeah, I think we all felt like at the end of the day, we'd earned our, you know, we'd earned our sleep. And, and that's a nice feeling. I think one of the more under-appreciated under-seen films in recent years

that people should take note of is Detroit from the great Catherine Bigelow. Such a, you know, people assign, you know, the important thing. Like, it's an important movie, you know, like, and that can have connotations. But it's like a, it's a great piece of art. And it really, it speaks to those times, our times, stuff we're dealing with. And I know, yeah, Bigelow is one of the best, period. Talk to me about it seems. like from what I've heard you talk about, something like that almost kind of spoils you,

doesn't it? Because it's like a great, like, creative experience. And you're also getting that added kind of juice, that like satisfaction of like, we're dealing with real shit. We're dealing with like stuff that's like consequential to like lives back then and today. Absolutely. Yeah, 100%. I mean, the experience of Detroit was really life changing for me in kind of every sense. I think both, you know, as an actor, but probably more. also as a person just as far as the kind of education that I received in tandem with, you know, the prep that was attached to the film. I was fortunate enough to get a kind of education in African-American history from Ziza Delgado, who's an expert in that field, and, you know,

learn about black history in a way that I hadn't really at all formally because it's not embedded in the national curriculum where I went to school and not enough is taught, I think, about black history. And I think often black history is reduced and over-distilled and only really spoken about in terms of suffrage and not enough in the context of the many kind of great contributions that have been made to history by black people. So getting a better understanding of that and then also simultaneously unpacking my own privilege and understanding, you know, my history as a white person a little bit better was critical and it helped me approach the role, you know, in a very kind of particular way. And it helped me, I think, kind of serve the story

better. And ultimately, the goal, which you touched on, which I think was to draw attention to the fact that, yes, we were depicting, you know, real life events in 1967. That was certainly a focus. But I think more so than anything else, it was to draw attention to the fact that exactly 50 years later not enough had changed and there'd been some wonderful work done by people in the social justice space with regards to racial discrimination racism uh you know um racialized police brutality but the exact same thing was happening with the exact same consequence on the streets while we were shooting the movie you know police officers were killing unarmed black people and they were not being held accountable and they were getting away with it.

And to, as an actor, you know, it's important not to kind of conflate whatever contributions you're able to make to that of, you know, the people who actively work in that space full time and, you know, real activists, you know, real policymakers, real, you know, I want to say social justice influences. but it's a rare opportunity as an actor to even lend your voice to a project that is seeking to go beyond just kind of being, as you said, I think a really great piece of art. I agree. I think Catherine made that. But it also contributed to a conversation that really needed furthering and really needed bolstering. And I'm very, very proud to been part of that cast and, you know, immensely grateful for the education that I received in the process. Yeah, I mean, in a much different way, we were talking about dope. sick. That's another one that kind of checks all those boxes.

Like, it's weird to talk about something like a satisfying entertainment, and entertainment's the wrong word, but it's satisfying as someone that is, that likes, that enjoys seeing well-crafted art. And these are two great examples of it. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. On a much more trivial note, who's got better taste than film? You or Jack Rayner? Jack Rainer without a question. Jack Rainer is a prolific sinophile and I marvel at him. He's amazing. Yeah, I know Jack of it.

He's been on the pod and he made me feel like, oh, wait, we should not trade jobs because I can't do your job. But you know film, you have a much more sophisticated sense of film than I do. I imagine me sat at a bar with Jack Rainer and Ari Aster as they discuss. Like the most niche. Yeah. Can we talk about Princess Bride or something, guys? I would say. Exactly.

When you guys want to talk about Hook, right? We'll talk about Hook. Until then, I'll be here. Sipping my drink. No, and by the way, I just want to put some respect on Hook. It's my favorite film of all time and probably will always be. But that doesn't change the fact that those two have, I mean, encyclopedic knowledge of film.

And, yeah, I felt very inferior. in their company. Another great one, Midsomar. I love that one. Are you, do you chase filmmakers, like, in a good way? Like, you see, like, someone you respect and you're like, Oh, yeah. Hey, Team Polter, put me in a room, let me have lunch.

Oh, I'm completely shameless. I will beg for roles in things from people that I love. And, you know, I'm really, I'm really fortunate. I mean, you know, Catherine Bigelow was a director who, you know, she had been someone who, the prospect of working with her, I'd always been on my bucket list. And for that to kind of organically come about through, you know, quite a lengthy audition process,

but eventually come my way, was a dream come true. That's happened with people like Barry Jenkins as well. Right, right. You know, who Barry Jenkins and I actually connected through Twitter, funny enough originally, but, you know, Barry saw Detroit and was very kind about it. I'd seen everything that Barry ever made. and loved it all.

So when that kind of thing happens, it is so wonderful. And then, you know, I've got fanboy energy. I can't hide it. There are people that I'm just like desperate to work with. And I can't contain it. And I also think to a degree, you know, life is short. And I think there is a need to give people there, you know, flowers while they're here. And so I try and kind of justify my fanboy energy with that.

That it's like, well, you know, I feel like if I'm a. fan of someone's work, you know, I really kind of want to communicate that as much as possible because, you know, tomorrow isn't guaranteed for anyone. And I think ultimately, I guess in the spirit of sort of it being a positive thing to share that sort of news or that kind of opinion, I feel like why not share it? Okay, so throw a few out there. Who have you either chased in the process of chasing? Yeah, exactly, the scrolls. out the journals. Yeah, you just hear the printer.

I'll be right with you. Which letter would you like to concentrate on? Yeah. Who's on the list? Is it the same? Is it the PTAs, all the Andersons, the, I don't know. What do you got? It is a lot of, I mean, Rinaldo Marcus Green, who I would call a friend as well,

but I think it's phenomenal, just so versatile. And I'd love to work with Renardo. I would love to work with Lynn Rand, She makes masterpieces, and so sparingly that, you know, there's long periods in between her films, but there's a reason because she's, you know, building Rome each time. I saw you talking about one that didn't get enough attention, was, you were never really here. It is a great one. I agree with you there.

With Joaquin. Great, piece of work. And kind of like almost close to like a genre film for her. It's kind of amazing. Check it out. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. It's like when Ramsey does Taken.

It's kind of crazy. Yeah, exactly. but it's still so obviously her movie and so so so Lynn Ramsey's definitely up there for me as well those are those are the two that kind of come to mind right right off the bat I mean Steve McQueen's always been on my my list of like dream people to to work with Adam McKay to Andrea Arnold I mean I've got a long list to be okay okay we haven't seen you sing I think on film since the aforementioned were the millers tlc is that is that an aspiration and interest did you go up for

cats what's the what's the deal i did a i did i did i did i actually did a musical with the amazing naomiaki um who plays whitney in um i want to dance with somebody um Naomi is extraordinary has the most beautiful voice and i just did my best to kind of fade into the background and and sing underneath her voice, wherever possible. And with Johnny Flynn, who is on top of being a brilliant actor, a wonderful musician. It was all Johnny's original music. And we did this really sweet independent film called The Score, kind of at the end of the pandemic. So like when we were first able to kind of get back onto film sets in the UK.

And that was such a fun experience, man. I mean, I do not have a particularly good voice at all. I sang a bit when I was younger and then I kind of stopped training my voice and lost my way a little bit and it's something I'd like to kind of get back because the experience of that and you know

I think thanks to Johnny Flynn being very patient and probably some clever editing I had a really fun time singing and I really enjoyed it so yeah it was it was a cool it was a fun time are you going to use this kind of newly buffed up bod for good

Are you going to go James Bond or Superman? Are those on the list if you had to choose? I'm offering you both will. James Bond or Superman. I have the power. I'm the mayor of Hollywood. Congratulations. If we thought they were furious about tape spoiler,

wait until they find out that I've been offered both of those. People are going to go. No, oh gosh, I don't honestly think either of those are in the cards for me. But I don't know, man. I've been, I love food so much that I don't, I'm not trying to maintain anything right now. Yeah, I just, it's one of the best things about life. After my family, it's food and then it's film. I'll be real with you.

So I do, I do love it. I'm actually going to a restaurant called Clover Hill today, which I'm very excited about. Which is, it's the, it's the only Michelin Star held by a black chef. in the country, which is an indictment of the Michelin system more than anything else. And one of four held by Black Chefs since the, since the Michelin Guide started or whatever, but I'm very, very excited about it. And yeah, I just, food is, is a huge navigator of my decisions. So, yeah, so. I get it, I get it. Superman can wait. This guy needs his pasta.

I know we're a little over time, but let's do a little happy, say, I confused, profoundly random questioning for you. These are some random questions. Do you collect anything, Will? Trainers, sneakers. Thank you for the translation. Yeah, sorry, the transatlantic translation. Yeah, sneakers. Okay.

What's the wallpaper on your phone? It is my family. It's a picture of my family. Okay. Harry Potter or Ward of the Rings? Oh, that is, as a kid, I mean, that is really hard. Lord of the Potter, I don't know. That's really, that's really hard.

Wait, can I ask you an even more annoying question that I meant to bring up, and maybe you'll hate me for this? Because you were cast in Lord of the Rings. And to our point... This is where I'm struggling with that question a bit. Yeah, I'm like, oh, because I genuinely love both. Yeah. To our point earlier, did...

So, yeah, you would have to go with Lord of the Rings then you're saying? Yes, I think so, probably. So to our point earlier, you sign on for something like, Laura of the Rings. You must have imagined, like, this is going to be the next five years of my life. And then for a variety of reasons, I guess, scheduling, et cetera, it doesn't happen. Was that a blow? Were you passionate about being in that project at the time?

Oh, my gosh, very much. very much so and and you know it really was truly at the end of the day a scheduling thing a change to how it was going to be scheduled kind of relatively last minute and so I kind of had to I had to let it go but you know I was really flattered to have been you know given that given that role in a show that you know was just chock full of people at the top of their game I mean, like that, the crew that they were assembling was unbelievable. So, yeah, it was, it was kind of an unfortunate situation, but I'm grateful to have been in consideration for the time that I was.

And then it kind of on the flip side of it, there's the famous It story. But that was a, that was a tangent filmmaker, Carrie Fukenaga, who was like, you were his guy, and that will always be a version of it that I would love to have seen. Right, right. Like, is that weird for you? Like, did you ever see it, or was it too close because, like, You were so close to that. Oh, no, I did see it.

No, I did see it. And I thought Bill Scars God did such a great job. And I think Andy Machete directed a great movie, you know, and like I think that it folks did brilliantly. And, you know, it just wasn't to be at the time. And that's okay. And that's also part of the industry, you know. It's also really nice when you see that thing to go on and it be good and still

satisfy the fans. And you know what I mean? And it's even better when your friends end up and stuff. I mean, me and Jack Rana go up against each other the whole time. And Jack's meeting me to things. And I probably haven't been him to anything actually, no, I think about it out loud. But, you know, we go up against each other all the time. And that's part and parcel of the process.

And if your friend ends up getting a role, it's much better than someone you don't know. I don't know to get the role that I wanted. That hurts. Did you get the Han Solo audition like Jack did? Yeah, but I got down to like the last 9,000, whereas Jack Rainer got down to like the last, you know, it's like, it's a bit different. How was your Han? Did you get, did you get up like a, did you get the any props, anything? I don't even.

Oh, no, dude, I didn't get that. They didn't let me, you know, near probably anything that was real in terms of scripted material. I was auditioning with like, I think someone cut out of the back of a cereal box and asked me to read it on tape. It wasn't like a real audition, really. I never made it past the very early stages. Did you have a last thing on the front? Did you have a take on Pennywise? Like, did you have a different kind of take

on what your Pennywise was going to be? Yeah, I think I did it because it was kind of a response to what was a different movie ultimately. And yeah, I can't honestly, genuinely with any real accuracy, tell you what that was now. It was just very different.

It was just very different tonally. but as I say, I think they did a great job with the movie and like Andy and his team are lovely and Bill killed it. He did. He was great. Last person you were mistaken for. Oh my gosh. I just, because I just have some really funny ones.

Jesse Plymouth. I had that happen recently, which is, you know, quite tempted not to correct people. He's so great. quite a good. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yeah, he's fantastic. So Jesse Plumman's. It felt a bit, felt a bit wrong. I, you know, even the fact that it crossed my mind, I was like, oh, it's all the things I'm Jesse Plumman's, that's nice. You know what I mean?

What's the worst note a director has ever given you? You know, the late great Michael App said, who I love and I owe a huge debt to, and he directed the third Voyage of the Dawn Treanor, the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and I love him so much. And he was very lean in his direction, which is something I appreciated, because I went from Son of Rambo

where I was kind of, not mollycoddled, but like I was, it was very much, I was very much kind of like nested into that scenario and I needed that. And Garth was like my film, Dad. And then I went to, you know, almost like this kind of like boarding school-esque environment

in Australia where like, Michael Apted was like the kind of slightly scary principle, like incredibly talented and amazing experience, but like I was a little bit scared of Michael, you know, because he's very authoritative and he was sparing with his encouragement. And I remember him once saying to me, he said, don't do that. That's bad. And I was like, right, okay, that's pretty clear. Don't do that because that's bad and I remember that. But honestly, it helped me. We were really rushed and I really needed to make a decision one way or another.

And so did he. And he just eliminated that choice for me. And I was like, I was really grateful for that. And all the other times, he was nothing other than just like accurate and encouraging when he needed to be, but not, you know, overdoing it in praise. And it actually brought the best out of me. And it matured me and it really helped me. And I'm really grateful.

and I've got nothing the good thing to say about the man, but it wasn't so much a bad note. It was just like, it was just a really funny one. Don't do that. That's bad. And I was like,

it won't be the last time that I, it won't be the last time that the director thinks that, but you might be the only person who says it in those terms and respect to you, sir. You were a child nonetheless. You were pretty young.

Yeah, 16, 17. That puts some hairs on your chest, that kind of thought. Yeah. Name drop for me for a second. You get a text from a certain celebrity that you happen to know your heart skips a beat

who's somebody you know when you get the text and their name pops up you're like I know this person they're texting I'll tell you for me it's chefs

like chefs to me are rock stars yeah like they're rock stars their film you know stars they're pop star whoever you kind of idolize

chefs so like and I can't really I can't really necessarily say one over the other because I don't want to upset any of the chefs i know yeah the actors screw them but i don't want to make me out good meal yeah my life's over yeah um so it it's chefs for me it's like

anyone who cooks food for a living i'm just like i love them they're you know they're the to me they are responsible for the lifeblood of our existence and i'm just like that makes you the coolest okay i know i know we have to wrap really quickly in the spirit of happy say i confused, actor that makes you happy? See them on screen? You're like, oh, this is going to be fun. Great. Movie that makes you sad. Close. Oh, I have to see that still. Lucas Stone, right? Yeah, that's on my list. Okay.

I have to check it. It's phenomenal. Going to check it. And finally, food that makes you confused, Will Poulter. Food that makes me confused. oh no i need to do i need to get this right food that makes me confused this is the important as we know food is the most important thing so yeah yeah thank you there's our still there's a thumbnail what what lobster i think it's overrated whoa just lobster i think lobsters overrated i'm going to come out and say it i think shrimp is quite often every bit as good if not better

I think crawfish is superior I would take scampy I'm just lobster I think you pay a lot of money something that is quite often overcooked and melted butter is clearly giving yourself away you're drowning it in melted butter

because anything's going to taste okay yeah exactly I'd eat a flip-flop and melted butter I like that we've we got to rise out of you at the very end over lobster it's like it's an hour I lost it I absolutely you went local hinges uh will honey this has been a blast congratulations on everything as if people need to the plug again gardens of the galaxy volume three fantastic now you've got some new

insight some spoilers to see it again and uh check out some of the movies and tv that we mentioned that you didn't you know see detroit just go see dope sick close i need to go see close and report back to you absolutely see close go check out everything lynn ramsie's ever made yeah truly truly It's good to catch up, man. Thanks as always. You too, man. I appreciate it. Thanks so much. And so ends another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Remember to review, rate and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person.

I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't pressured to do this by Josh. American history is full of infamous tales that continue to continue to captivate audiences decades or even hundreds of years after they happened. On the infamous America podcast, you'll hear the true stories of the Salem Witch Trials and the escape attempts from Alcatraz, of bank robbers like John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd, of killers like Lizzie Borden and Charles Starkweather, of mysteries like the Black Dahlia and D.B. Cooper, and of events that inspired movies like Goodfellas, Killers of the Flower Moon, Zodiac, Eight Men Out, and many more. I'm Chris Wimmer. Join me as we crisscrossed the country from the Miami Drug Wars and Dixie Mafia in the South,

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