-Adam Driver, welcome back to the show, bud.
-Thank you. Thank you for having me.
-You look good, pal. -Thank you.
-I want to ask you some questions here,
because I was doing some reading up about you.
And I know that you studied --
you went to theatre school here in New York, at Juilliard.
-Yeah. -In New York City.
And I heard that sometimes you would run
from your apartment to -- to class.
-I did, yeah, yeah.
-And you lived in -- -I live in Queens, yeah.
-Wow. [ Laughter ]
-And Juilliard's on the Midtown, I would say on the West Side.
I couldn't -- Yeah, I did do that, yeah.
-So, all the time, or -- -I did it for, like,
during the summer, I would say.
There was the 59th Street Bridge,
and I think I'd just come out of the military.
So, I was trying to make everything that I was doing as
difficult as what it was like being in the military.
And acting school didn't seem like it fit the criteria,
so I tried to make it more impossible
than what it needed to be. -Wow!
-Yeah, I don't know why I did that.
-Yeah. I think it's cool that you did that.
But then once you got to school, what happened?
-Well, then we had movement class with a guy named Daryl,
where we would -- it's like an exercise class.
So, I would start that as a warm-up,
and then we'd do the exercise class.
-And you were like, "Dude, I just ran for --"
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. -Wow.
And would you be exhausted? -Yeah, and sweaty.
Yeah.
[ Laughter ] -And hungry.
-And hungry, yeah. -Yeah.
-Mad. -Really hungry.
-And -- start acting school.
[ Laughter ] -That's wild though.
Once you started to be an actor,
do you remember your first big paycheck
and what you spent it on?
-My first -- Well, my first big paycheck was for "Law & Order."
That was the first thing I got -- in my mind.
-That's very -- -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-That's very New York.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Actually, what I bought is a pair of Jordans,
because when I was -- [ Laughter ]
I can't -- like we didn't have --
we didn't have any money for -- I mean, we had money for shoes.
But it was never -- you know, we couldn't afford to buy Jordans.
So, when I actually got paid to be an actor,
I don't know why, again -- well, I do know why,
because I wanted a pair of Jordans that I could never have.
-Yeah, but I would think it would go to something else.
I mean, but that's like -- but that's --
-No, 'cause I had rent and all that other [bleep].
So -- stuff.
[ Laughter ] So, by the time it was over,
all I had was money --
Well, I had more money than that to save.
But the Jordans were the first thing that I wanted.
-And what kind of Jordans were they?
Were they special? -No, no, no.
I think I went and grabbed the first Jordans that I could find.
I couldn't tell you, even now, what they are.
Like, they're not -- I know they're not Jordan 1s.
They're not the Jordan 4s. They're not the Jordan 5s.
I bought them, and they're on a shelf,
and I don't look at them, you know.
[ Laughter ] -Did you ever wear them?
-No, I don't wear them. No. -No.
Never wore them? -No, not all.
-Because you were saving them for a special occasion?
-Not even saving them.
I just wanted them, and I have them.
They have dust on them.
[ Laughter ]
-Did you want them to collect them?
-No. No. No, I didn't want to --
[ Laughter ]
I don't want to wear them,
'cause I don't want to mess them up.
But I have to dust them off, because they're dusty.
-Yeah, and this is
after acting school. -Yeah.
-So, you're not really running anymore.
-[ Chuckles ] No. -You don't really need sneakers.
-No, and you shouldn't run in Jordans.
-You shouldn't run in Jordans anyway.
They're basketball sneakers. But, yeah, interesting.
Yeah. -Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-I want to -- Next time, if you're here,
could you -- could you bring them?
-Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. -I'd love to see them.
-I won't touch the dust. -Yeah.
Let's see what they are, and then we'll discover,
like, what kind and -- what kind Adam Driver bought.
Your first Jordans. -Yeah, yeah.
-Let's talk about your movie, "65."
Congrats on this.
This is a -- If I can explain it right,
you're a pilot who kind of is stranded on the Earth,
65 million years ago. -Yeah.
-It's not a time travel movie.
You -- Actually, this is just set 65 million years ago.
-Right, right. Yeah. There's no time travel.
It's a parallel universe that they're saying
that existed 65 million years ago,
and they find that they've crash landed on prehistoric Earth.
-Wow. What drew you to that?
Just dinosaurs? -It was my --
Yeah, basically.
My son likes dinosaurs. -Yeah.
-So, I'm like, "I'm in."
Well, it's dinosaurs and laser guns,
and I'm like, "Yeah, sure." -Yeah.
-And it was actually -- it was actually
in the middle of the first kind of wave of COVID.
And so, I think as probably everybody made movies
and tried to make the comparison between that and COVID.
But it did kind of make sense.
I mean, we were talking about dinosaurs every day with my son.
But also this --
making something big that families could go see.
-Yeah. -Seemed --
Seemed good at the time.
It was like a big movie. The scale was really massive.
It was dinosaurs.
No one asked me to play that before,
and it seemed interesting.
And that everyone in the family could see it was just --
and that it was kind of the metaphor of everyone's fighting
this invisible enemy that they have no precedent for,
made sense. -It's also by one of the writers
of "A Quiet Place" too, as well.
So, it's action, but it's also kind of a thriller as well.
On top of being family. -It is.
But you -- but kids -- kids can see it.
But, yeah, it is, hopefully, scary.
-Yeah. And how -- is it tricky to act
opposite of, what is it, a tennis ball?
What are you acting against? -You do the, like, the whole
guy in the green jump suit and the tennis ball.
That's the only one that's humiliating.
Usually when it's like -- We did it all different ways.
They even had the people dressed up in the whole costume,
which is terrifying, too, where they, you know,
put them in a field, which is actually terrifying.
It doesn't seem like it would be,
but it's scary when you are actually looking at --
a life-sized dinosaur. -And people are chasing you
through -- -Yeah.
-Yeah, anyone chasing me through a field,
I would be frightened. -Yeah, yeah.
-[ Indistinct ] -Like, just a -- a guy.
-Anyone. Yeah, anyone, yeah.
A child. Anyone chasing me, I'd go, "Stop chasing me!
Stop chasing me!" I would freak out.
-Yeah, yeah. -If he's dressed as a dinosaur,
I'd be like, that's not acting for me.
-Yeah, they had two people dressed as like a --
the kind of a life-size dinosaur.
That was terrifying.
But when it's a guy, like, hitting you in the face
with a tennis ball, it's just humiliating.
-Yeah, no. [ Laughter ]
And so -- I'm happy that you did it though,
because I think we need more good, big family movies
that everyone can sit around and watch,
and you bring your kids to, and everyone watches and enjoys.
-Yeah, to me it was like, that's one of my favorite parts of --
well, films, they're all over the map as far as what --
who can consume them when,
and what they mean at different times,
and the scale of them, and the size of them,
and -- and who watches them.
And for -- to be a part of ones where everyone in the family
can go to and -- I mean that's --
those are some of my favorite and rare experiences actually.
-I love it. I want to show everyone a clip.
Here is Adam Driver in "65."
Take a look at this.
[ Alarm blaring ]
[ Distant screech ]
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[ Distant screech ]
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[ Thunder clash ]
[ Low growling ]
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[ Low snarling ]
Yeah! Come on!
[ Cheering and applause ]
-I run in Jordans.
-Then you run to Queens. -Yeah, I run to Queens.
-Then you run to Queens. Adam Driver, "65"...
[ Cheers and applause ] ...is exclusively in theaters
this Friday.
More "Tonight Show" after the break.
Stick around, everybody.