So as an actor, I always thought that might be kind of a safety
that comes with like dialog, something you can utilize, something
you can maybe even weaponize to fall back on.
Your character is quite internalized and I just wondered if there's something even
some ways is even more rewarding and even harder to play roles,
that there's a stillness and something quiet.
I sort of understated about them, I suppose.
Yeah, it's very interesting because I feel like
silence with my characters is usually the loudest thing
because there is a risk that comes with words.
There is a risk that comes with these characters.
I find when they do say what they really feel,
and a lot of that has to do with them being black men.
You know, there's usually a risk that comes that speaking up.
There's usually some kind of consequence that is given to them
that shouldn't be because they decide to be honest.
And so for me, I find that silence sometimes says more than words ever could.
And silence doesn't mean that they fall back.
Silence just means that it's very,
very they have to be more accurate with where it's placed.
And usually it can speak for everyone in the room.
And so, yeah, understated is one way.
Oftentimes it's that sometimes the words aren't on the page
for for the feelings that I possess at the time.
And I don't ever want to miss an opportunity to tell the truth for them.
I don't ever want to miss an opportunity
to really give them a chance to feel understood.
And so if it's not on the page, but the feeling is there,
then I have to find a way to let that out and show that
because I feel like somebody somewhere is feeling the same thing.
Somebody somewhere in that back row is looking for a sense of understanding.
And so sometimes I just feel
in that stillness and in that quietness, I can say more.
Yeah.
I mean, some of the words do have great meaning and power in this.
I mean, when she says I mean, Jennifer Lawrence's character , I just felt bad for you.
My heart went....
We screened that...
I never I will never forget.
This is that when we screened it itself and she said that
the entire audience went, Oh, Damn...
And I'm like, Yeah, I see how words have consequ... like, Yeah, oh.
And it, it's so interesting because when I, when we were filming
it, I remember,
I remember thinking, well, you have to get out of here.
You have to get out of here.
And the thing about James is that there was no just getting out of here.
So here you have this amputee who
who knows how long it's been since he's disrobed and shown
someone the process of taking this leg off and submerging himself
into a body of water.
But there was a relief that came from that.
There was a kind of abandon that happened with that.
And then here's this moment that happens that goes oh damn.
And now he has to get out of there.
But there's no easy way out.
He has to swim to the ledge, pull himself out, put the leg back on, do it.
There was no way for him to truly escape easily.
And so I was like, that says a lot.
That says a lot about what this relationship is.
That says a lot about what it must mean
for him to be so vulnerable and to be so exposed.
Yeah, it's going back to being 15
I just see you as a friend...
Life is one of those.
That's that's exactly what that relationship kind of was, right?
Like you found him kind of getting back to this kind of teenage
exploration
and friendship and then is undercut by, oh, wait, you're not.
This is the reality of who you are.
This is what's going on.
There's no easy escape, right?
And not to get too deep.
Obviously, your character is is suffering from immense grief.
So I just want to ask, I mean, it's something grief
is something we all struggle,
we all have to experience in our lives and stuff
and we all kind of struggle with at times.
I just wondered about
is it quite therapeutic to step into the shoes
of someone else, understand their grief in a kind of roundabout
way of understanding it as a whole to maybe even help yourself in real life?
You know, the operative word is understand, right?
Because grief is so confusing.
It kind of leaves us kind of like bewildered and, you know,
disoriented that we don't even know who we are when we start it.
And we don't know who will be once we get on the other side of it.
But the understanding is what I want the most,
because it's like, you know, it's easy to judge someone
by how they react.
Sometimes and how they get stuck in their grief.
But once you kind of like
step in their shoes and kind of see exactly what it is,
it's like, oh, everyone handles grief so differently.
And and yes,
we all have to go through it, but everyone deals with it so differently.
And I think for James, what I wanted to understand was how is he
going to move beyond that grief?
It seems like he was kind of stuck in a certain place,
and I wanted to see him on the other side of it.
So, yeah, it did help me understand a lot about my own personal grief
by going through his and so quickly before I
do, I do want to ask quickly about working with, collaborating
with Jennifer, because when you work with someone where you have these quite
emotional kind of deep scenes where you're both,
you know,
I just wondered if now do you always feel like you've shared
something that you're always going to carry with you the rest of your career?
Yeah, unfortunately, I was like, yes,
look, doing doing it, having a chance to play with Jennifer Lawrence and
and I use that term play on purpose because that's truly what it was.
It was like a true exploration of watching somebody who has reached
such a height in her career kind of come back to the place that she started
getting back to her roots, so to speak, and so to watch her
get back to that sense of play was unbelievable.
And I'm very grateful for it.
I mean, she gets on my nerves, but in the best possible way.
But yeah, man, it was it was, is truly rewarding.
So to be able to play
with somebody of that calibre because she really brought it all over.
You're both great in the film, I guess. I appreciate it.
Of course, man. Yeah, of course.