00:00 you were reported to be involved with a Val Zod,
00:03 HBO, Superman scenario.
00:06 - I haven't talked about that, sorry.
00:08 - Oh, okay.
00:09 I had to try.
00:10 (laughing)
00:11 - It was a noble attempt.
00:13 It was a noble attempt.
00:13 - For real.
00:14 (upbeat music)
00:17 - I noticed when I was watching it,
00:23 I was paying particular attention to the direction,
00:26 to shot composition and stuff like that,
00:28 just because we have an accomplished young actor,
00:32 it's your first time out the gate,
00:34 so people are gonna be paying extra attention to it.
00:37 Were you aware of that pressure going into it?
00:39 - I mean, I knew I was gonna be compared
00:41 to everything that came before me,
00:42 other actor directors, all that good stuff.
00:46 That's kind of part of it,
00:48 but still, that didn't really sway my choices
00:53 or how I wanted to do things.
00:55 If anything, it made me take more creative swings
00:58 and kind of rely on my instinct and things
01:00 that I'm just trying to story tell
01:03 and really tap into the emotions and the characters
01:05 and the visual language and where I put the cameras
01:08 and things of that nature.
01:10 Some I had very vividly in my brain
01:12 and some we just figure out on the day,
01:14 my incredible cinematographer and my incredible cast.
01:17 So it was just listening to all things
01:20 and trying to make the most truthful decisions and choices.
01:23 - Let's see if I can say this
01:25 in the least awkward way possible,
01:26 but you've been getting some attention for your physique.
01:30 But that's nothing new.
01:32 Even Montgomery was in pretty good shape.
01:34 - Thank you. - Right?
01:35 - Thank you.
01:36 - So now that you're playing hulking characters
01:39 like Kang and Dame,
01:41 do you just try and stay in peak shape the whole time
01:44 or do they all have a different approach?
01:46 - Well, they're all different weight classes.
01:49 I like to think they're all champs,
01:50 but they're all different weight classes.
01:52 Kang is in the Avenger class.
01:55 He's in the Marvel class.
01:56 That's a certain stature.
01:59 I know he's gonna move a certain way.
02:02 I mean, fitness and health
02:03 have always been a big thing for me,
02:04 but the opportunity to apply those things
02:08 directly to cinema is new
02:11 because these characters are a bit,
02:13 for lack of a better term, extreme.
02:15 These guys do that.
02:17 This guy is a boxer,
02:20 world heavyweight boxer.
02:22 Picture I shot after this, he was a bodybuilder,
02:25 a real bodybuilder,
02:26 so those things had to be done.
02:28 So a certain amount of maintenance.
02:31 You know what I mean?
02:32 Appetite is the appetite now.
02:34 You know, gotta eat, gotta sleep.
02:36 Yeah.
02:38 - Have you seen the humorous thirst trap tweets
02:41 or do you avoid it?
02:43 - I've been shared.
02:44 Your colleagues tend to wanna share them.
02:46 - To colleagues, yeah, yeah.
02:47 - Yeah, it's--
02:47 - Everyone wants to make you feel awkward,
02:48 put you on the spot.
02:49 - Yeah, it's a,
02:51 I really only pretend to be uncomfortable sometimes.
02:54 Doesn't really bother me.
02:56 - I've always thought you had the hardest job
02:58 because in all three films,
02:59 a lot of your gig is reacting silently, right?
03:04 You're reacting to watching this man fight for his life.
03:08 I was wondering if you could take me through
03:10 what that process is like
03:11 and is there anything you tap into?
03:12 - I really appreciate, I think,
03:15 the idea of getting to act in silences.
03:18 Like, I always really love that challenge,
03:21 what you can communicate
03:23 without words.
03:25 And I think something that felt particularly interesting
03:29 this go-around is also to work inside of ASL.
03:33 I think the way that that also changed my idea
03:36 of performance and getting to work with Mila.
03:40 This is her first time acting and she's remarkable,
03:44 but I learned a lot from her
03:45 in terms of everything that you can express
03:50 without words in the way that I have always known
03:55 how to express myself.
03:56 So I think that was an exciting new thing to find
04:00 at this point in playing this character.
04:03 - How does that feel, that your first time out the gate,
04:05 you're serving as an example?
04:07 - Yeah, well, I feel really happy about that statement,
04:10 but I wanna say, okay, I did teach her some things.
04:14 You know, I did show her how to express herself,
04:17 but she also taught me a lot too.
04:20 So really, I think it was her mostly teaching me,
04:23 not the other way around.
04:24 I would look at her facial expressions.
04:26 I would look at how she showed emotions,
04:28 how she expressed herself,
04:30 how she showed her character's reaction,
04:32 how things looked so real.
04:34 And actually I learned so much from her on this film.
04:37 So I just wanna thank her for teaching me all those things.
04:40 And she made it easier for me to feel comfortable
04:43 during this whole process,
04:44 because sometimes you can feel like it might be hard
04:47 and it's challenging if you've never done it before,
04:50 but having someone with her, like her on my team,
04:52 she would come over and explain things to me,
04:54 tell me about the characters.
04:56 And then I would say, okay, I feel a lot more comfortable
04:58 and it's easier for me to go ahead and do it
05:01 and know how to react.
05:02 So thank you, Tessa.
05:03 - Aw, this is so much more wholesome
05:07 than I planned on it being this way.
05:09 - You see that man right there?
05:12 Do you remember him?
05:13 - How many times have you seen Creed III now,
05:19 would you say?
05:20 - Oh, I couldn't even count.
05:23 - 100?
05:24 - Maybe more, probably more.
05:26 Yeah, I mean, so many versions, how many,
05:28 cutting it down, how many sequences I had to look at
05:31 individually, putting it together.
05:32 Yeah, I'll probably watch it one more time,
05:38 like tomorrow with my family,
05:39 and then I'm stepping away from it for sure.
05:42 - You got to memorize at this point.
05:44 - Yeah, yeah, it's not for me anymore.
05:46 I think it's for everybody else.
05:47 So I'm just ready to turn it over to the world
05:49 and for everybody, 'cause I've been living with it
05:52 for three years, so I'm ready to step away.
05:54 - In the film, you play Michael B.'s mentor,
05:58 older brother, you know what I mean?
06:00 But you're three years younger than the dude.
06:02 - I am.
06:03 - Is that a conversation you guys had,
06:05 and did that feel--
06:06 - We never talked about it.
06:08 We all knew, but we never talked about it.
06:11 We never talked about it, never had a chat.
06:13 We were just like, yeah, we're just gonna do it.
06:15 - It just never came out?
06:16 - Well, I think it's like certain things are understood.
06:20 Mike moves through the world a certain way,
06:23 I move through the world a certain way,
06:25 and it worked for whatever reason.
06:27 - It totally worked.
06:28 - You buy it, you know?
06:30 - Before you said action the very first time,
06:34 how much shooting had you done prior to that?
06:37 Were you making short films to test shots?
06:39 Were you filming whole scenes and cutting 'em up
06:42 just to see how it was gonna look?
06:44 - That's a great question.
06:45 I think I shot some references of like, you know,
06:50 one-ers, but never with the words action,
06:52 you know what I'm saying?
06:54 I didn't say action a lot,
06:56 even during the course of the movie, you know?
06:58 I think I mostly said cut, you know?
07:01 Or I just motioned for cut more than anything,
07:03 so that was kinda my thing.
07:05 - Sounds like a lot of editing.
07:08 - A lot of editing, but no, just like, you know,
07:10 just to get a scene started, you know,
07:14 it's probably better for,
07:15 sometimes I would just let the cameras roll
07:16 and we would just fall into it, you know,
07:18 without the anxiety of waiting for, you know, action.
07:21 But to get out of something is,
07:24 and not letting things linger as long,
07:25 I would just kinda motion a little little scissor
07:28 to my first AD and we kinda built a system
07:30 that once he saw the scissors,
07:31 he knew that's when I wanted to cut,
07:33 and then we would get out of it.
07:34 - Do you think Dame is a good person?
07:37 And how do you feel that the climax of the film
07:40 changed him as a man?
07:42 - Damien's fighting the world
07:43 and he's trying to hurt people.
07:45 I vouch for you.
07:46 You think you mad?
07:47 Try spending half your life in a cell.
07:49 - I think Dame is absolutely a good person.
07:52 I think he's the type of good person
07:53 that we're actually around more often than we think,
07:56 and we don't always see him.
07:58 I think his arc has changed,
08:03 and he's a better person at the end
08:07 because the responsibility he takes for,
08:12 he becomes even more whole.
08:14 All the ambition, all the drive.
08:16 His heart is healed at the end.
08:19 So now I think Dame might be unstoppable.
08:23 - You've been doing this with Michael for seven years,
08:25 eight years now, something like that.
08:28 - I think it's nine.
08:29 - Wow.
08:31 - Yeah.
08:32 - All I have is release dates.
08:33 You have shooting schedules and the whole thing.
08:37 Was it bizarre to have this co-star
08:42 who is now taking on this other role?
08:45 - It was so cool.
08:46 I mean, I think sometimes there's this,
08:48 it's a funny thing where people are like,
08:50 "What was it like?"
08:52 But the truth is, I feel like it's always been
08:54 such a collaborative process.
08:56 I feel like we, throughout the course of making
08:58 the other films, have always been directing each other
09:00 in a weird way because we'll check in with each other.
09:02 We're like, "How did that feel?
09:03 "What do you think?"
09:05 So it felt very collaborative.
09:06 And also, I think anyone that's on set is a filmmaker.
09:11 And Mike has been on sets since he was Milo's age,
09:17 younger, and I feel like there's so much experience
09:22 that he has, so I think it's a really,
09:25 kind of a natural transition for him.
09:26 So it felt really good.
09:28 - You out there boxing, I need you to start fighting.
09:32 (dramatic music)
09:35 (dramatic music)
09:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]
