Our next guest is an enormously talented,
Golden Globe nominated actor who stars in 'West Side Story',
directed by none other than Steven Spielberg.
Take a look.
I want to be unlike how I was.
'Cause I was disappearing down a sewer
and taking you and everything with me.
Yeah, he heard you.
I had time. Lots of it, locked up like that.
And for the first time ever,
I took a look inside and that was rough doing that,
but I,
I got to stay with myself.
(audience cheering and clapping)
It is Ansel Elgort.
And I gladly traveled to chat with him
to his childhood theater camp,
where he starred in a production of 'West Side Story'
almost 15 years ago.
It's very full circle.
He graces the screen with such talent and such presence,
not since Marlon Brando in 'On The Waterfront',
have I seen such a revelation.
He is a triple threat.
Ansel Elgort began at the very place
that I'm about to take you to.
Here's our on-location conversation
with the incredible Ansel Elgort.
This is my first time back at Stagedoor Manor
in 10 years.
I spent seven summers here
when I was between the ages of 10 and 17.
It's really nostalgic.
A little smaller than I remembered it, to be honest.
Wow. And the ladders.
Oh, hello.
Nice to meet you.
Thanks for coming.
I know it was a long ride.
I would have traveled to the moon for you.
I can't take the end of the movie.
Oh my God. Yeah.
You saw the movie. Yes.
You're seeing me a little bit as Tony?
(Drew and Ansel chuckling)
A lot. A lot.
Well, I still see you in E.T, so.
You're Tony and I'm Gertie? Yeah.
Well then that's the perfect Those are good characters.
Bridge.
Did Steven Spielberg change your life?
Yeah, definitely.
I just got off the phone with Steven.
We had a long conversation about it
and I can't wait to get into it with you
because it's so much more than a film.
Here, let's get chairs.
You had,
what I would think would be that perfect balance
of growing up, learning, getting to be a kid
and then going out there in the world
with a skill set and a developed mind.
I'm really, really fortunate and grateful that my, yeah,
my parents like sent me to ballet school, sent me here.
I was going to like private school when I was a little kid
but then I was, like, the worst student.
And when I sort of was like, clearly, you know,
singing 'Fiddler On The Roof' at Thanksgiving dinner
and stuff like that,
they were like, okay, maybe you're better at other things.
And, and I begged,
please take me out of that school.
No problem.
The amount of support that Really?
Yeah. The amount of support that they've given me
You're lucky is just-
So I'm so, so, so lucky
and coming here was a big part of that.
Well, and you did 'West Side Story'
on this stage. When you were 12?
On this stage. Yeah.
I was Action.
So I sung Officer Krupke
and you know, kicked around a trashcan
and we were all like 12 years old.
You know, dancing in the gym,
wearing the Converse, the whole thing.
How can you put into words
that full circle moment of doing the film?
What is the difference between twelve-year-old you,
Stagedoor Manor doing 'West Side Story'
and 20 something year old you
doing 'West Side Story' with Steven Spielberg?
This place creates a professional atmosphere
where everyone takes it really seriously,
but then also everyone loves it.
And the same thing on 'West Side Story',
it's like, yes, it was a professional at-
It was a real professional atmosphere, but like,
no one is there because it's a job.
Everyone is there because like,
this is our dreams coming true.
Everything changed when I worked with Steven
and I've developed this relationship with the camera,
like it's this friend and I don't do things for the camera.
It's just a part of the circle that we all need.
Being at Stagedoor Manor,
like, there's a theatricality to what you do.
And sometimes you actually do things for the audience.
You know, they always say like do it for the back row.
So that was actually a big transition for me
because working with Steven,
sometimes I was doing things like almost for the camera
and he'd be like, stop it.
'Cause I would want to perform.
Uh huh.
But then it's like movie time
or just like you and me now,
it's like, well, forget about the camera.
Just be real. Let it get what it gets.
And that's very, that's very,
what Stephen was preaching on 'West Side Story'.
I remember we were shooting Maria
and the same kind of thing.
I was like, what can I bring to this?
And I said, okay, let's, let's try one thing.
And I ran up the stairs, slid down the banister,
did a turn, Maria, you know what it was?
So, and he was like,
and the crew, kind of was like,
(claps) oh, that was good.
Right. We really like that.
And Steven said, okay,
I'm glad you got that out of your system.
(Drew laughing)
After lunch, when we come back,
you're going to walk from there to there like a regular guy.
And just say the words that like, like, as if,
if we were walking down the street in New York city,
you might see you and say,
oh, that guy looks like he's having a good day,
but nothing more than that. Mm hmm.
And he was, and he was right.
Even with Steven Spielberg,
you can fail and he'll catch you, which is nice.
He pointed out every time I failed, which was great.
I remember one time we were in the Rumble,
take three or four.
I still hadn't done what Steven wanted.
And he just came over to me,
grabbed my hands and said,
"You're not bringing it.
You're not bringing it."
Next take, boom, emotion, no problem.
He knows. He knows.
He knows how to do it That's what we need.
I love that we're in jobs
that allow us to become completely different people
from one second to another.
I live for directors to come at me
and helped shape me, mold me.
George Clooney literally came up to me,
he goes, if you take your eyes off Sam Rockwell
for one second, I'm cutting.
One second. It was the best take I did in the whole movie.
What scene did you go home and think,
I totally didn't get that thing I wanted.
I sort of did that every night.
But you know, you have to kind of accept
that what you do is what you do.
That's the only frustrating thing about movies
is that you don't get to go back and do it again.
That's why I kind of want to do Broadway
and Broadway Next or something like that.
So, you get offered any thing on Broadway
that you want to go do next. What do you do?
What's your dream play?
I love 'Guys and Dolls'.
I've already, I did it in high school,
but, you know, that was like four performances
or eight performances or something.
I'd like to do a long run of a show like that,
where you get to sing, you get to act.
You say in the film,
"I want to be unlike how I was" in the first scene
when we meet Tony.
Is there anything you would like to be unlike yourself
at some point in your life?
On 'West Side Story',
there was a security guard, Muhammad,
who out of nowhere came up to me and said,
"You're going to need to find a rock to crack your ego on."
It was like some Zen stuff, you know?
And I'm like, nice to meet you, you know,
I'm Ansel.
He's like I'm Muhammad.
And then every time I'd see him throughout the movie,
he'd say, "Have you found that rock yet?"
So I'm definitely working on that.
Does your girlfriend and your mother and your father,
are they some type of a rock?
Definitely. Yeah.
People you love.
And I also just think it's like a matter of perspective.
My mother is a pretty great person
and she is loving to everyone
and open to the world around her
and doesn't really have an ego.
And so I'd definitely aspire to be like her.
My father's ego is through the roof, but he's hilarious.
(Drew laughing)
I heard he has a great sense of humor.
Yeah. Amazing.
Yeah. He's the funniest guy.
Also just,
I feel like these days I've been coming more and more
to realization.
I've been seeing the world more from a bird's eye view
where we're like, actually,
we're all kind of, like, meaningless.
So it's ridiculous for you to put yourself on a pedestal
and think you're special,
or everyone is just as special as everyone else.
Like 'Oklahoma'.
There's a line from 'Oklahoma'.
♪ I won't say I'm no better than anybody else ♪
♪ But I'll be damned if I ain't half as good ♪
So, you know, Yes.
You know, we're all,
we're all just as good as each other
and you know, no better and that's it,
that's the vibe.
(audience cheering and clapping)
When we come back,
Ansel gives us the grand tour (audience member screams)
of Stagedoor.
Right? Yeah. I know I'm telling you,
this is what he brings out in people.
(upbeat music)