i just thought oh man i'm going into this big overproduced hollywood transition
yeah and i was just thinking there's no way in hell they're going to let me
do anything hey robert hey mike it's good to meet you meet you how's it going friend
thanks for doing this yeah i'm good i'm i'm very busy but i was
absolutely excited to take some time out to do this uh and i'm glad you were as well yeah me
too it's a morning over here in the u.s on the east coast so i have a cup of coffee instead
i was i was i was getting last yeah um before boys again are you drinking uh drinking coffee
oh well never mind yeah so where where do we find you right now you're on the east coast did
you think i'm in ohio so it's technically the midwest but we're on east coast time
that's time for you isn't it yeah yeah yeah that's where my family is so i'm just been
here hanging out and being with fam i i guess the best place to start would just be by saying
congratulations on all of the success of a west side story um including your course
that's probably one of your well maybe i'm putting words into your mouth but how was the music
for me they they assembled the best team possible that they they could have for this
for this uh this film um being in the casting but also you know the team behind
behind the scenes especially music it was just so so well done but um i've been listening
to a lot of uh john williams lately and on like my drives you know and it's just like
you know stephen knows how to really put together a uh like a movie yeah i mean williams is the best
yeah i could talk about talk about the genius of john williams for days on end but um yeah so
obviously yes congratulations on on the nomination uh for best supporting actor
at the bafta awards does that feel like a nice kind of capstone to to what has
been a really long project because this came about was it four years ago this sort of stuff
i don't know anymore at this point i think we've been it was uh it's three years ago
we filmed in 2019 so that's uh when we finished uh end of september of 2019 is when we finish
yeah and then of course uh with the thought that you know the film would come out the following
december and of course that did not happen due to the pandemic which i think was better um to
wait and you know allow people the opportunity to feel safe enough to go into a cinema again
um but yeah i mean being nominated for a bafta it's like wow it's so lovely
it's so lovely it's like uh it's a very um i don't know it's hard to kind of uh uh
illustrate my thoughts about it um honestly i just kind of feel like uh it really
i guess like for me uh as an individual um being nominated for
bafta it just goes to i think show the love and dedication that the entire cast put into it
not just you know the core four or five um actors um but really like all of the jets and all of the
sharks and everyone i mean this was pull out all all of the tools out of the tool bag and bring
everyone with their a game and it was a real collaborative team effort to make this thing
yeah yeah you definitely definitely get that sense watching it i mean so just i guess going
to the start you you land the the role and uh you know the sort of realization that you're gonna be
in west side story kicks in do you start to feel any kind of pressure in in taking on such a huge
role in in this titan of the musical you know and and especially i guess considering you're
knowing that you'd be leading out the film with some of the opening numbers with with jason and
you know things like that did that play on your mind at all when you started to get going well
yeah you know i tend to get um uh anxious or have a bit of anxiety before every project no matter
what it is i'm always like oh my god why what did i sign myself up for i can't do this why did they
hire me what are we thinking what are we doing here i always like have this awful awful thing
in in my whole body before like starting any sort of project and this turns out was no different um
it was a long process to finally realize that i had gotten uh the job um it was uh very
anti-climactic and unceremonious i was working on a film in atlantic city and i got a call from my
agent on a friday being saying can you be at rehearsals on monday morning so okay i guess
that's what i'm doing monday morning um and we just started and that was in february of
2019 and we went i said all the way through september and i think um coming off of that
other film i was just shooting to indy and i was really having a great time with it it
was a very small indie film um a two-hander with me and the lovely actor jessica heck and
i just thought oh man i'm going into this big overproduced hollywood transition
yeah and i was just thinking there's no way in hell they're going to let me
do anything i'm just going to have to just wear the costume you know stand on my mark and like
say the line and just kind of like be the prop you know that's really how i felt going into it
i was nervous about that um and to my amazement um i was i could not be could not have been
more wrong steven was the most collaborative um director possibly i've ever worked with so far um
in the sense of he really wanted to listen to what i had to say he really wanted to empower
not just me but everyone um to show up and you know bring their ideas
and it's a really smart director really smart person to do that because at the
end of the day like steven wins you know and he can always like you know what i mean like
if it's a great idea then like it's stephen's idea right so and there's no wrong things you
just got to like throw everything out there and and steven really cultivated i think just
truly like the best collaborative most team-oriented environment for all of us uh
and provided a safe enough space for us to really um take ownership of our departments and our jobs
yeah i think i i i i think that's sort of the sign of of of a great director isn't it or i just think
it could be it could be anyone in any uh sort of profession in the industry but someone who
who who knows uh when to step in and sort of put the foot down but also when to allow
people's creativity to to come into and collaborate yes he says um it's like such a fickle
mindset you know making a movie especially as an actor because you know you have all these
moving pieces and parts and people are running around and your job is to just stay focused and
stay focused on what you have to do the task at hand and there's all these moving pieces and so
even like there's something that was said to me even the right note given at the wrong time
is still the wrong note you know it's one of those things really is like such a you know
all of the all of the cogs in the machine have to be working in order to make a thing and stephen is
so well attuned and um just really cognizant and and aware of it all it's so nice when you
work on a project and and outside of what you're actually doing work is a nice experience in itself
you know because it just makes everything so much much better i i did hear one story
um and i really hope this is true that you went laughing on your time off is that right
i've never been but it just sounds like the most fun you could have in like an
afternoon you know it it is super fun um it is super fun it was so one of the things
uh after our first official day of rehearsal i took all of the jets out for a drink
and uh you know we're just chatting and getting to know each other and hanging out
and i um i said to everyone i wanted everyone to come up with an activity and no matter what it was
we all had to do it and i called them jet tivities that's right and kyle allen who plays balkan
um lives in l.a but was in new york obviously for the filming of west side and got on facebook and
joined this larping group because he's actually very into it he's very serious about his larping
and uh he's a bit of a ninja himself like he's actually probably a trained assassin for all i
know and um we decided you know he was always he was always saying oh come through if you'd like
you know and so we actually surprised him on one saturday morning showing up as the group
as the jets and uh we got her asses kicked man i mean it is brutal no one's holding back they
take it so seriously by the looks of it it's like so seriously and it's it's like i mean it's
it's like full contact football without any pads or anything you're just kidding you're
just getting your ass kicked the entire time great way to release stress when you're not