-Our next guest is a talented actor
you know from the show "The Get Down"
as well as movies like "Pokémon: Detective Pikachu"
and the "Jurassic World" franchise.
He stars in "Sharper," which is in select theaters
February 10th, and on Apple TV+ February 17th.
Let's take a look.
-I can give you the money.
-What? -It's in the bank.
I can just go make a withdrawal.
You wouldn't have to...rob it.
-I -- I don't understand.
You live at home. You work in a bookstore.
-No, I own a bookstore.
How do you think I manage to keep it open?
All that place does is lose money.
-You're saying you have that money just sitting in a bank?
-Yeah, more, yeah.
My father has money.
-Please welcome to the show Justice Smith, everybody.
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Thank you so much for being with us.
-Thank you for having me.
-I know you just got off the plane from London.
-Yeah, that's what I was about to say.
Yeah, I'm -- I'm a little lost.
-Okay, good. We're gonna get you --
We're gonna bring you right back into the Eastern time zone.
Because you used to live in New York.
-Yeah, I did. I lived here for about two years.
I was shooting "The Get Down" that you mentioned.
And I was staying with --
Oh, actually, there was another time I was living here
when I was doing a play.
I lived here for so many lifetimes.
Yeah, I was doing this play. I didn't have anywhere to stay.
My friend was like, "Oh, yeah, you can stay at my apartment,
but I gotta let you know, I have roaches.
That's kind of the caveat."
-It's very nice thing for somebody to be honest about.
-Yes, exactly. And she's like,
but they're mostly in the bathroom.
So just try to avoid them in the bathroom."
And I was like, "Okay. That's fine.
I've dealt with worse."
I get there. You know, it's a nice place.
There are roaches in the bathroom.
I kill them all. I manage to take a shower,
and they just come right back. So I'm like, "Cool.
I'll take a shower at my friend's house from now on."
But living there for a couple of days,
I just started seeing more roaches in the kitchen
and in the living room. And I was like, "Okay.
I got to get an actual Airbnb and get out of here."
And I go to sleep that night, that I make that decision,
and at about 5:30, I wake up, like, almost reflexively.
I go -- [ Sniffs ]
And... [ Audience groaning ]
I open my eyes, and I see a long skinny roach
just pop onto the pillow next to me,
and I'm like, "Nope!" and I get out of bed,
immediately pack my stuff.
And they were starting to all swarm.
Like, they felt me leaving.
So they were coming out of the corners of the apartment.
-I'm wondering if the one in the nose was like,
"I gotta get outta here." [ Laughter ]
"I heard that guy's getting a real Airbnb.
I can't live here anymore. It's full of roaches."
-Yeah, he was trying to hitch a ride, yeah.
-So, in this film, it's about a bunch of people
who are very good at deception,
using deception to enrich themselves.
-Mm-hmm. -Are you the kind of person --
Are you a good liar? -No, no.
-Okay. Do you have tells?
Is there a thing people can see in you if you were lying badly?
-I cry. [ Laughter ]
I laugh.
You know, I laugh a lot when I'm nervous.
So I'll probably be laughing throughout this.
But, yeah, when I was a kid, I was a really good liar.
-Uh-huh. -I would lie about
all kinds of stuff, just because I thought it was funny.
Um... [ Laughs ]
And that's how I knew I wanted to be an actor.
But I remember lying to my mom that I had broke my arm.
And, like, I came in, I'm like, "Mom, it hurts so bad."
She's like, "What happened? What happened?"
I'm like, "I don't know, but..."
[ Laughs ] What did I say?
"We should've saved 15% on health insurance
by switching to Geico." -Oh, yeah.
It was a popular commercial. -Yeah, yeah, sure.
-But it's car insurance. That joke doesn't even work.
-Yeah. Well, I think that --
I gotta be honest -- I bet, being a parent now,
no matter what the punch line is, as a parent,
I'd be pretty bummed if you said you had a fake broken arm.
[ Laughter ]
-I used to do all kinds of stuff.
I used to pretend I was sick by making vomiting noises
and then dumping my mom's perfumes in the toilet.
-Oh, wow. -So you could hear the impact.
I was a mastermind. -They must be so happy
you got out of the house. [ Laughter ]
They were like, "He's with roaches?
He's not coming back here." [ Laughter ]
-Yeah, exactly. -You got to work with some
incredible actors in this film.
You've also worked -- You've also done a lot of CGI work.
We mentioned "Jurassic World,"
and we mentioned "Detective Pikachu."
A lot of scenes with Pikachu.
What were you actually acting with in those scenes?
-A lot of puppets. Like, men in green suits,
like, green body suits, like, kneeling,
like, operating this puppet.
But then we would have to do three takes
for every single scene that we would do.
So it would start off with a puppet,
and then it would switch to, like, a ball,
like, a reference ball.
And then it would switch to tape marks.
And so I had to, like, focus on where Pikachu's eyeline was
and when he would move, on which line.
It was really difficult.
But the director made a point
to try to make us feel as immersed as possible.
So a lot of stuff was practical on both of those movies,
on "Pokémon" and "Jurassic." But, uh...
-Do you feel, at some point, it actually helps to
have that technical side that it then releases you
to actually act more naturally, or is it a hindrance?
-That's a really good question, Seth.
-Well, don't fold on me now. [ Laughter ]
-Yeah, I don't know. I'm not sure.
I -- I feel like I got a lot of practice of that
imagining my surroundings in acting school.
-Yeah. -You don't really work off
of people when you do monologue work.
-Of course, yeah. -Did you go acting school?
-No, I didn't, yeah. -Oh.
-Which I've been told in many an audition.
[ Laughter ]
They say it just like that. -That's mean.
-No, they say it like this. They go,
"You didn't go to acting school, did you?"
[ Laughter ]
-That's so hard. That sucks.
-Now, your parents, both singers, correct?
-Yes, that's right. -Now, is this something --
Did they want singing as a path for you?
-Yeah, that's actually why my name is what it is,
'cause my mom thought I would be a famous singer,
and they would shout, "We want Justice!
We want Justice!"... -Oh, wow.
-...while they were waiting for me.
-She was really planning ahead. -Yeah, she was, she really was.
But, yeah, growing up with singers as parents
was great 'cause there's music around the house all the time.
But they also wouldn't let me sing in the car unless --
They'd be like, "Where's your tone?
Use your diaphragm!" -Oh, wow.
-I'm like, "This is lame. I don't want to do this."
-Yeah. -So I rebelled,
and I became an actor instead.
-I would imagine they're somewhat satisfied.
At least you're in the arts.
-No, they hate it. [ Laughter ]
-Well, you know what? They should've let you sing
in the car. -Exactly! There you go.
-There you go. Hey, thanks so much for being here, man.
It's really a pleasure to meet you.
That's Justice Smith. "Sharper" is in select theaters
February 10th and Apple TV+ February 17th.
We'll be right back with music from Regina Spektor.