As Adam Driver moves almost imperiously into his second decade as one of Hollywood's most respected actors, the 38-year-old big screen tour de force admits he may be approaching something of a crossroads regarding how he perceives himself in the industry.
The San Diego-born actor first appeared in HBO-led comedy-drama Girls, elevating himself through Coen Brothers projects and immersing himself in independent movies such as Hungry Hearts. He won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the 2014 Venice International Film Festival.
His route to critical and commercial success was, of course, afforded him when he assumed the role of Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens a year later. It's generally accepted that a movie that grosses over two billion dollars at the box office is going to take its stars into a new stratosphere. So it proved to be the case with reprisals The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.
Yet here's the thing – as the traditional sci-fi genre finds itself in stiff competition with the rise of the superhero, so has Driver realized he couldn't afford to, or doesn't want to, align himself too closely with one particular mode.
"I've always said diversity as an actor is crucial, and I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't play that out with my film choices," he begins. "I think the issue with Star Wars is that when you sign up to it, it envelops almost every part of who you are.
"The commitment is huge, and the schedule is long, so even when you want to pull away from such a behemoth, it's sometimes easier said than done."
Regardless, Driver is now putting distance between himself and the most successful franchise in movie history. That's probably wise, too, given the lukewarm reaction some of the more recent JJ Abrams spin-offs have received.
From Logan Lucky to BlackKkKlansman, through historical drama such as The Man Who Killed Don Quixote and The Last Duel, there is often the cornerstone of a true-life element that seems to trip Driver's interest and consciousness in a way that the galaxy-wide reach of Star Wars just never will.
He proves this in how he embraced the biopic crime film House of Gucci at the end of 2021. Appearing opposite Lady Gaga, he played Maurizio Gucci, wrapping a starring role in the luxurious opulence of the fashion house across a decade or so of high-rolling, high-profile living, which ultimately led to the businessman's demise.
Driver will be hoping his high-risk strategy of diverse work projects doesn't lead to a similar fall from grace. From the stalls, it appears unlikely.
STRIPLV: Are you beyond the Star Wars thing now or still very much in that world? DRIVER: As ever, it's a case of seeing what the future will bring, but whether I am there or not, Star Wars was and is still surreal. Personally, I've always been a fan of Star Wars. I still feel in awe of having been part of the project, and that will never change. I remember working very hard not to be distracted by the fact that I was walking next to Harrison Ford and just pretending that this was another acting job in a regular movie. That was a very hard thing. STRIPLV: Would you admit to feeling intimidated? DRIVER: Intimidation comes in many different guises in life, and I think the longer you go on, the more you accept it will always be there. Certainly, being out of your comfort zone is a very important thing as an actor. You need to embody someone else to achieve the very basic principle of acting, so to be relaxed is almost to be doing a disservice to the art. So I take that feeling of uncertainty and sometimes even fear as an important part of bringing everything together for a role. I like that feeling. STRIPLV: You said when you took the role of Kylo Ren that life off-set would "never be the same ."Has that proven to be the case? DRIVER: Of course. I think if that hadn't been the case, then perhaps the whole project would have been a total failure. It's not changed my life in a bad way or in a way where I feel I have lost a part of myself somewhere along the line, so in that respect, I am content with how it's played out, and I don't feel negatively impacted by what has obviously been a big elevation in my career, but I can see how that does happen to some people, and it's the risk you take when you put yourself in the spotlight. STRIPLV: So much had been said of House of Gucci and the magnitude of the project, and it worked. DRIVER: It is the backdrop of glamour, excess, arrogance, and anger, which in many places is as sickly as it is stylish. But it was the chance to really take myself back into another world, another era. That was the most exciting thing for me, and to explore the lives of these incredible, iconic people. STRIPLV: What was it like working opposite Lady Gaga? DRIVER: She is an incredible talent and so adaptable across music, fashion, film. I don't think there could have been anyone else more perfect for the role of Patrizia. It just fitted in so many ways. STRIPLV: Should we take this move into biopic territory as a shape of things to come for you? DRIVER: I wouldn't say that, but certainly I'd admit that this project resonated with me on so many different levels, and it's the kind of movie where you know it has the potential to become something really elegant and special. The reality is, probably only one in 10 of these projects end up coming out in the way you imagine. There will be a handful that simply fail, another few that work in places but overall leave you feeling a bit cheated. However, once in a while, you will get something that matches up to the promise, and when I saw the rest of the cast, I just knew it was going to be one of those occasions." STRIPLV: How important was this movie to you? DRIVER: They're all important. This one feels different. It feels like I have drawn a line in the sand, and you only have to look at the cast to realize how strong this is. STRIPLV: So, what was your first screen role? DRIVER: My first job was on something called The Unusuals, which was an episodic cop show. I was alongside Jeremy Renner and Amber Tamblyn. I didn't play a bad guy as such; I was like a red herring where I was suspected of being the guy who did it, and you were supposed to think that he did it. But it turned out that it wasn't me. STRIPLV: Is it true that you started a "Fight Club" before you went into acting? DRIVER: Yeah. (Laughs) That actually is true. It comes a lot with being bored growing up in Indiana, where there wasn't really much to do, and you're pretty much making stuff up as you go along. It seemed like a really good idea to fight your friends, we got hurt, but no one ever got seriously hurt, nothing really bad. I never went to the hospital after a fight, they were just friendly neighborhood fights where kids would ride past on their bikes, and we would recruit them into our club, but it was optional. We didn't just go up and start hitting people. My friend Noah had a house which was right behind an event space called: "Celebrations Unlimited," which could be rented out for birthdays and things like that. Behind that was a big field, although in my mind it was big but in reality, it was quite small. So we would go back there once it would go dark and fight each other. STRIPLV: And you got into films like Fight Club and also the work of Martin Scorsese at a pretty young age, didn't you? DRIVER: Yeah, it was all around that age. I mean, high school is pretty formative, and because, like I said, there wasn't a huge amount to do so you had to entertain yourself. When we moved to Indiana, we lived with my grandparents, and my grandfather would have these videotapes, where he would put the tape over the tab so he could record new stuff onto them. He would record stuff for my sister and I to watch, but he wouldn't actually want us to watch Die Hard 2, so he would wait until it was on TNT and then record the edited version. He had about 500 or so videotapes, and on each of those, there were about five movies. So, on one tape, he would have recorded True Grit and then put a description of the movie. This gave me the impression that adults were fond of movies and thought they were really important, and movies have always been kind of a touchstone throughout my life, and that got me interested in them. But as I say, it really didn't seem like a realistic job, or certainly, I had absolutely no idea when living and growing up in Indiana how to get involved in this industry. A Blockbuster or Hollywood Video was really my connection to the world. STRIPLV: You had a spell in the Marines first. DRIVER: It was October after 9/11, and me and all my friends were all saying that we were going to join. However, I was the only one who actually did because this is what happens when you have a big group of guys together. The IQ goes through the floor. All you get is a series of macho grunts after one guy saying that he has a plan and the next one follows it, and everybody else just leaves him to it. (Laughs) I was in by February of 2002 because I had already just made up my mind that I was going to do it. I joined so fast that the person recruiting me was wondering why I was so eager to get in, wondering if I was on the run from the police. But there were a series of things that happened surrounding that. It wasn't that straightforward. Joining the Marines was certainly a sense of patriotism and duty, but it was also a reflection of my feeling aimless and that I wasn't doing anything, and I wanted to have something that I didn't have, which was a sense of purpose. So, I guess that it was a decision borne out of all of those things which came at once. STRIPLV: Have you taken anything from the military into civilian life? DRIVER: Sure. I mean, like, as an actor, you have a role, and you have to know that role within your team, and you have a mission to accomplish which is bigger than any one person. If you don't do your job, then someone else won't be able to do their job as well as they could. It's about being led by a person, or in my case now, a director, and when they know that what you are doing feels relevant and active and also has a purpose. When they don't, then it feels like a complete waste of resources, as well as unnecessary and dangerous. It really takes the pressure off because I am so used to working in a team, a cohesive unit, and not thinking that one particular way is my way of working and everyone else has to fall in line. There is a bigger picture which has nothing to do with any of us, which we are working towards. But all of it, such as the self-discipline and the maintenance, are similar. Oh, and the small matter that one career really is life and death, while the other you are pretending that they are life and death, but the work ethic is the same.