- I'm Oliver Trevena,
In Studio with The Hollywood Reporter,
joined by my fellow Brit and good friend, Guy Burnet.
- Yes. - How are you?
- I'm well, how are you?
- Good, mate, good. - Two Brits.
- This feels to professional for us.
- It's way too professional, way too English,
you know, we're both illegal immigrants sat here
- This is true, thank you for pointing it out, Guy.
- The Hollywood Reporter.
- I think we might need subtitles for this interview.
(laughter)
- Yeah, probably, between us you would.
- When he gets going, when he gets going.
- That's right.
- Exciting times, though, we were just
talking about this the other day
and now we're going to do it again,
but "Counterpart", what a great show.
- Oh yeah! It is great, it's wonderful.
It's actually cool to be involved
and be able to talk about something
that I'm genuinely into, and I'm
a fan of the show itself, you know,
which sometimes, you know, you might
be doing something that you would have to promote
or you have to talk about and you don't,
you know, you're like, it's great, it's good,
but inside, I'm thinking, I don't know.
- Which is why you're here, because you're proud of it.
That's good.
- I'm very proud of it.
It's a wonderful show, and I hope people
give it a chance and give it time,
because it's something that needs
to breathe, and it's really something
that should be watched.
It's great television.
- It is great. That was a good plug.
- I keep looking over here.
- He loves his audience, he loves his audience.
- Hello. - More than me.
Meaning, you love the audience
more than you love me, not that he loves
the audiences more than, yeah, anyway.
- No, I love you more.
- Thank you, mate, I was fishing for that.
But it's on Starz, so, you know,
you can push it that little bit further.
- Oh, okay, so you want me to push your show,
yeah, yeah, yeah.
- No, I mean, the actual storylines and stuff
- Oh yes!
- It's great, as opposed to other things you've done
- That's right. - Where it's very controlled.
- Yes, I know what you're suggesting here,
that I can get naked often
- That you can get naked often - Yes, I can.
Perhaps not as much as, you know,
Skinemax, or one of those shows or networks,
but I do, actually,
get naked in this show, so, you know
- Which episode is that?
- I think that will be in episode six or,
no actually, it's in episode five, I think.
I dunno, I'm confused.
The whole thing is confusing, to be honest with you,
but I do get naked at some point,
so perhaps if you want to skip
that episode, I completely understand.
(laughter)
- You say the show is confusing,
there's two J.K. Simmons.
That makes is very confusing to start with.
- Well, there's actually two of every,
there's two of you in that world, as well.
- There's basically parallel worlds going on
- Yes.
- But, my favorite part is just the fact of
there's two J.K. Simmons, one of the best out there
- Yes. - and there's two of them.
- There's double J.K. Simmons.
You get to enjoy two sides of J.K.
I think the brilliant part of it
is what J.K. himself brings to it.
J.K. Simmons plays these two guys
from worlds which, I don't wanna
say are running parallel, because
they start off running parallel and perhaps
they turn into more alternative worlds,
but they're slightly different,
and the way J.K. plays it is so subtle,
he doesn't, you know,
it's not like an actor coming in,
I'm playing two different characters
so I'm going to play them entirely different,
I'm going to showboat,
he just does it so subtly, but you know
at every point which version of J.K. you're looking at.
- Right, right.
- Which is brilliant, and it's something that
I look up to him an enormous amount.
- It must be amazing to share the screen, as well.
- It's incredible, man.
You know, I've been lucky to do that on a few occasions,
a lot of actors that I've really looked up to
over the years, or grown up watching
and wanting to emulate, or to take something from
in some kind of way, learn, and I've been
lucky enough to just have the front row seat
to seeing these guys work, and J.K.'s like
he's just like this animal inside,
but he holds it still, it's incredible.
I'm lucky, I'm very lucky.
- And, you know, Claude,
he's going to have quite the journey,
but you just mentioned on the way in here, season two.
Season two's happening, it's going to happen.
- Season two is happening. - That's exciting.
- Yeah, it's incredibly exciting.
You can't, well, I can't, give away
too much about what happened. - You can here,
you can tell us everything. - I can tell you everything?
- Everything. No one will mind.
- Okay, so here's what happens,
the whole show I'm going to break it down.
- The whole show, give us the storyline.
- To be honest with you, if I actually
understood what was happening in the show,
I'd perhaps be able to tell you what's going on,
but half the time, I don't know what's going on.
Actually, this is a true story:
when I got the part of Claude,
they give you the scripts and they also give you
a kind of user's manual as to what is happening
which is this kind of bible that is maybe
200 pages long, trying to break down
what the show is about, where your character fits in,
where the other character fits in,
and it's incredibly complex, but the way they execute it,
you know, Justin Marks, the guy who wrote it,
manages to make it relatively, kind of,
a simple exposition for the audience.
That's that fancy words there.
- There you go, it's good. - Thank you.
- You rehearsed that on the way in.
- I did. I've been working on that for ages.
- I heard him in the elevator,
he was like, bub bub bub bub bub.
Moving on from "Counterpart,"
something very different, but the recent
"Pitch Perfect 3" as well.
"Pitch Perfect 3" and this whole franchise
and now you're part of it.
- Yeah, man. A massive franchise,
a female-driven franchise,
which is wonderful, and I think
there should be a lot more of those
and it's just, I'm just incredibly gracious with it,
I'm humbled and honored to be part of it.
And there's, I think it's like, eight or 10 women here,
and they're so lovely, and they all get on,
and the atmosphere on set is brilliant,
and they're very welcoming to me,
even though I wasn't in the first two,
you know, so it's just an amazing experience,
something that was something that I won't ever forget.
And a different part for me, normally
I'm the antagonist, normally I'm playing these
kind of dark characters, and in "Pitch Perfect"
I get to just get to just
I guess be myself to an extent,
have a bit of fun, you know.
- That's always nice, it's always nice.
- Is it? It depends on if I'm a nice person.
- Well you are. I'll say that.
- Thanks Oliver.
- And we'll move on before you change your mind.
- Yes.
- And you are obviously keeping busy,
"Electric Dreams" on Amazon that's out,
or coming out?
- It's out now--it's an anthology,
it's kind of a weird set-up,
every episode it's its own one,
similar to the way "Black Mirror" is set up.
And my episode is with Terrence Howard and Anna Paquin.
Again, incredibly complex premise based
on the short stories of Philip K. Dick.
Ronald Moore wrote this, directed by Jeffrey Reiner,
who I worked with on "The Affair" a year ago,
and I play a guy in two, you know,
a guy from the future, and the same character
in the present day.
So, yeah, that's cool.
The episode I'm in is called "Real Life",
I think it is, I think it's episode five or six.
- You like these difficult, complex things, don't you?
- You know, it's not that I like it,
I go in the room and they go,
"Oh yeah, look at him. He's a mess."
- He could play this role, there's a lot to him.
He's very complicated, this man.
- It's going to be very easy for him.
- He can walk straight into it.
What about "Jacob's Ladder", another project.
- "Jacob's Ladder", that's right. Remake.
Or, you know, I dread to say remake,
you know, they've used the same title,
it has a similar premise, but they've gone
in a slightly different direction.
I'm actually really excited, you know,
listen, "Jacob's Ladder", I think, is top 10,
for a lot of people, films, and so,
to some people it might be sacrilege to do it.
Some people are going to like it,
some people are not going to like it as much,
but I'm really excited to see what they've done with it.
The guy that directed it, David M. Rosenthal
is a, he's a genius, he's brilliant, this guy
and for me to be part of it, as kind of like
an upcoming actor, it's a real privilege
and an honor to be part of such a thing,
and I hope the audiences really respond to it
and see it separate to how the original was.
- Right.
Juggling a lot.
How do you find that?
- Yeah, it's fine.
I'm a little bit lost.
- It's alright going from character to character
when you're jumping from like, how is that?
- Yeah, that's a good question.
Well, there's been times over the last,
look, put it this way: there was many years
where I just didn't do anything, as you know.
Oliver and I used to play football together for many years
because we had a lot of time on our hands
- I mean, I didn't, I was busy obviously.
- No, no, no, he would pop in now and again,
but me, I was there everyday.
But no, listen, now that I'm working
these different projects,
I'm full of gratitude for it,
I'm very happy to do it, and if I'm doing
two characters in one go, I'm happy to do that,
I'm happy to fly at the same time,
which I did, when I was doing "Electric Dreams",
I'd fly from there to Berlin to shoot "Counterpart",
from Berlin to Atlanta to shoot "Pitch Perfect 3".
All completely different characters,
and what I would have to do is I'd use
that plane time, the long journeys,
to just reset my mind, go over everything,
and just try and figure out who I was becoming,
what I was coming back to, what I was going to do.
- Those poor people on the plane.
- I know. - Do you want to apologize,
in case anyone's watching, for your behavior on the plane?
- I'm so, so sorry.
I would get drunk quite often and misbehave
on the airplane, depending on the character
that I was playing.
When I was coming back to do the "Electric Dreams" one,
I really apologize to the person sitting right next to me.
- There you go, there you go.
So, talking about all these projects,
you take it back to like, "Mortdecai" and Johnny Depp
and how, you know, Ray Donovan,
and Liev Schreiber, and Ian McShane, and
- Yeah, yeah, look at you.
You did your research, didn't you?
- And now, you know, J.K. Simmons
- Yeah.
- Who haven't you worked with?
One person that you'd love to, right now,
if you could write your future.
- Well he's retired, apparently,
but Daniel Day Lewis would be my dream,
but he's, you know, he's retired.
I think for me, personally, you know,
the Pacino's, the De Niro's, these people
that I looked up to, I think of everyone,
the guy that I looked up to the most growing up
was this French actor, Vincent Cassel,
he was the reason I wanted to be an actor.
And I wish to emulate him, I wish to look up to him,
and I would love to do something with him.
I mean, I can you a bunch of names,
Sam Rockwell is a buddy of mine, that guy,
he is the guy I want to, you know,
try and do something even close to
the work that he's doing. - He's incredible.
- He's amazing, he's just the coolest guy, too.
But, directors are really the people that
I look to and I go, wow, I wanna work
with that director, I wanna work with that director.
Actors, man, it's a privilege,
and whoever, even if it's someone unknown,
I always find there's something that you learn,
something that they bring to it.
And the directors, like Paul Thomas Anderson
would be a dream.
Gah, I could name you like thousands right now,
I have a whole list on my - You've got a list.
On your vision board?
On your vision board at home?
- I have a list on my vision board, thanks.
Thanks, Oliver, for embarrassing me.
- Just touching base on it, because
from England to Hollywood, you've been here a while now,
and obviously we see there's a lot of people
that come here and leave if things
aren't working out, but you've kind of,
you know, - Stuck it out.
- you've gone through it all.
- Yeah, you've stuck it out.
You mentioned the time when you wasn't working.
What would you say the key to that is?
Just sticking through it?
- I like that you, because it's, you know,
and I'm very honest when I answer this,
I'm not one that goes, well, you know,
I did this, and I did this job, no.
The reality is it is tough, it is difficult.
Leaving the UK having done little bits and bobs there
and then trying to find something new,
trying to fulfill your ambitions and your dreams
just like any young actor.
And I came to New York originally,
and I was in New York for a few years
I did theater, I did rep theater.
I reset, I did everything from scratch
after the work I'd done in England,
and I needed to reset myself,
I've built up again from rep theater,
to Off-Broadway, to little parts on Broadway,
which then got me to Los Angeles,
and then again, maybe like a couple of years
just trying to find my feet, doing different jobs, you know.
But, it's sticking it out, it's finding a way to do that.
As long as I can eat, as long as I can pay my rent,
which at times is hard, you stick to it,
you know, I believe that if you have something to give,
people will see it eventually, and there'll begin
to be momentum at some point.
That's my honest answer, you know.
- That's good advice.
(laughter)
- Stick it out. - Thanks man.
- We're going to wrap it up with THL's Top Five.
Five quick questions.
- What's that mean? - It's five quick questions.
- Oh, okay. Gosh. Alright.
- Favorite movie soundtrack?
- Oh, wow, that's so great!
Man, just quickly, "Amélie".
- Movie you loved as a kid that you wish you were in?
- "Banana Man"
(laughter)
- That's a tv show.
No one's going to know what that is.
- It's a tv show.
- It's an English tv show. It's so good.
- It could be a - Shhh!
They're making it into a movie.
- No, no, no, "Super 10", was that a tv show?
- That was a tv show, too.
- Oh no.
"E.T."! Or like, you know
- "E.T."? - Yeah, of course, man.
- There you go, there you go.
- Or "Goonies"
- "Goonies"
- Man, I'd just like to be in those films.
- Too many.
- One word to describe your journey
as an actor so far?
- Perseverance.
- That's good.
Hollywood crush, past or present?
- I've got a girlfriend, I've gotta say
- It can be someone from the past,
it's not going to cause a breakup, it's fine.
- Laura, my girlfriend's wonderful,
she knows that I have a little bit of a crush,
we joke about this, on, you know, J. Lo.
(giggle)
- I wasn't expecting that!
- In the old school, look, you know, Gene Tierney
is like my, oh my gosh, I loved her.
- Alright, get back in your seat.
Calm down.
- I uncrossed my legs
- It's just a question, we don't make dreams happen.
(laughter)
- Favorite quote?
Do you have a favorite quote to wrap this up?
- Yeah, well, it's, listen, I'm going to misquote it,
- That's fine, give it a go.
- but it's a quote I kind of began to live by at some point
and I'm completely misquoting, but it's along these lines.
- Deliver this to camera and we're going to wrap it.
- Alright, into camera.
Okay, "Do not hurry anything.
"Anything good will never get away from you."
- Guy Burnet.
Thank you. "Counterpart" on Starz.
- Yeah, watch it.
Or don't.
(laughter)