An actor who started at 22, Miles Teller earned rave reviews out of the gate for his debut performance in “Rabbit Hole,” when he was signed swiftly by CAA, followed by “Whiplash” and “The Spectacular Now.” He has worked steadily ever since, with everything from auteur fare like “Whiplash” and studio franchises such as “Divergent” and “The Fantastic Four” to his name. Holding his own opposite Tom Cruise in the blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick” pushed him into the limelight, but he was still playing Rooster, the son of radar intercept officer Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards).
His latest role in James Gray’s “Paper Tiger,” which earned raves at Cannes, sees Teller play a real grown-up, Irwin Pearl, a Queens engineer and family man opposite Scarlett Johansson as his wife Hester, and Adam Driver as Gary, his older brother, a former cop. No longer the onscreen son of a leading man, Teller is now firmly in father roles. Irwin is slowly building a solid business when his brother offers a quicker route to success. Alas, the naive Irwin goes for the idea and, during an unscheduled night reconnaissance, blunders with the Russian mafia, seeing things he should not see.
I sat down with Teller at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes after the movie wowed in its world premiere. He was seeing it for the first time. We do not count fake standing ovations at IndieWire, but I was there and can vouch that it played well. The dynamic between Adam Driver and Miles Teller is powerful, with Scarlett Johansson holding her own in the middle. The movie could land a Cannes prize, which could push it into awards contention in the fall.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity and length.
Anne Thompson: You’ve played the Cannes game before.
Miles Teller: I’m one of those actors [where] it’s pretty hard to watch yourself. I always have a hard time. I was here with Nic [Winding] Refn for this limited series that we did [“Too Old to Die Young”]; that was my first time at Cannes. I’ve done Cannes with “Maverick.” It’s truly an overload of the senses.
You’ve never given this kind of performance before.
Hopefully, your taste evolves as you get older. It struck me that on my first film, “Rabbit Hole,” I was playing the wide-eyed teenager, and we filmed the majority of that movie in a house in Queens. And now I’m playing the part of the parent.
That was your breakout. You revealed some strong emotions related to your own car accident. I’m so sorry you lost your home in the Palisades Fire.
When I met James for this movie, our house had just burned down. And I had just lost my grandfather. We were renting a place in Santa Barbara, and then I got the call saying James wanted to meet me for this. That infused this story and performance with a lot of love as well, because of that feeling of home that Keleigh [Sperry] and I had lost. I’d lost it with my grandfather, but then also just the physical place where you can have people come gather, where you have memories attached. We did not have that, so that probably came through.
Do you believe that you have to grow up a bit before you can find your way in Hollywood?
If you want to have a long career, the audience, hopefully, that you attract in your early 20s, as they get older, and they start having kids or not having kids, but just getting more life experience under the belt, you want to reflect that in your choices as well. And James makes movies for adults, he deals with characters. I’ve loved every one of his films, and I’ve always felt like he gets incredible performances, so I was excited to play a man at this point.
Every actor is going to get to a place where you know it’s tough because you do something that has some success to it, and then people want you to keep doing that same thing, whether that’s from the studio side or you keep getting scripts that are that same kind of thing.
What was your pigeonhole?
When I started out with “Rabbit Hole,” and then I wanted to audition for comedy, they’re like, “he’s not funny.” And then you do comedies, and you want to be going back to drama, and they’re like, “Willard from ‘Footloose,’ what are you talking about?”
I remember “Bleed for This.” [He gets up to close the shutters to block the noise for my audio, and pours me some water.] That was a point where I was 27, and I said, “OK, I want to step up and play, not the funny friend. Playing Vinny Patz, as a five-time world champion boxer, very much a man’s man, absolutely, that was something. But it always comes down to a director, oftentimes taking what I feel is a chance on me, casting me in a role that I haven’t necessarily shown those abilities before, but believing that I could do that.
You had to carry the TV series “The Offer,” in which you play Al Ruddy, who produced “The Godfather,” running interference between Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Evans at Paramount, and the mafia. That must have been tough.
I was intimidated by portraying Al, to be honest with you, not just his bravado and accomplishments, but it felt like I was playing somebody who had more life experience than I had at that point, and there was a certain maturity to that. I enjoyed that Al, being a man of action, if he takes a step back, he’s taking two steps forward. Typically, there’s five or six different producers doing all these things: that was all Al.
In “Paper Tiger,” there’s one scene between you and Adam Driver where you get into a fight. Your face was shaking with anger.
I know. I saw that. Yeah, there was a twitch going on there. At least in my own life, your family can get to you in a way that nobody else can. Those feelings are so deeply rooted and established from childhood, so I guess in that moment, and neither one is fully aware of the ramifications of the Russians, this deal going bad, and how it’s affecting that person in their life. In that particular scene you’re letting out. It’s not just about what they’re talking about right there. It’s an entire lifetime of misgivings — he’s going to let him have it. When that’s happened to me in my personal life, you feel so bad afterwards. It’s a horrible feeling when you’re not talking to a sibling or your parents, and often it’s hard to make amends.
How did James Gray base this film on his own father’s experience?
With his father, that was the biggest regret. He took it to his deathbed, the fact that he brought this [danger] into his home, and his family became collateral damage for his business ambition. [In the movie] the venture that he went into, to go into business with his brother, he makes a mistake that was very naive. I think it’s easy to forgive this mistake. When I read this script, I had a ton of empathy for this family in this situation, and then also what Hester is going through.
Did you have any models for your character in this movie? Your own father was an engineer.
No, he was a project controls manager, but worked nuclear. The men that I grew up around, my father and my grandfather, were strong men, but very sensitive, and were dependable, reliable. My grandfather was married to my grandmother for 60-something years. I never saw her open a door for herself. I never saw her carry her own bag. He was a Marine, but he also was well-versed in world history, and he was a sweet man who was never afraid to show that side of him, but he also would stand up for himself, or his wife, or his kids, whatever it is. He took a lot of pride in that.
I found it refreshing, even comforting, to watch a movie about a kind, loving family man who’s good at his job, who’s competent. He’s a good dad. You haven’t shown that side to such a degree.
I felt immensely for this father and husband. It was clear he loves his kids, and he’s trying to lead by example, and to show them that success in life is not based on the car you drive. He wants to show them that you can build something on your own merit, and if you work hard and treat people right, that you can earn it.
Those values are no longer as respected as they once were. So, if you were to look back at your career, you did some studio work, like the “Divergent” series. Have you made a course correction? That comes with maturity, too, when an actor recognizes what they want to do rather than doing what people tell them to.
Early on, I didn’t want to feel like I was repeating what I had just done. I didn’t want people to be able to expect what I was going to do next. I always want to defend young actors in their careers, because people say, “Oh, why did you make that choice? Why did they make that choice?” You’re just hoping to get a role, and it’s less than 10 percent of people in SAG who pay their bills off acting alone. We all want to work on the best material with the best directors and the best actors. There’s an ebb and flow. I used to be more critical of work other people were doing, because you get thrown into this rat race when you’re first starting out.
Who were you competing with? Who was in your class?
It was me, and Michael B. [Jordan] and [Robert] Pattinson and Shia [LaBeouf] and [Zac] Efron was big, “The Hunger Games” stuff was blowing up. As I’ve gotten older, I appreciate and have respect for longevity, if you can hang around. I always wanted to contribute. When I was going to the Lee Strasberg Institute at NYU, and looked on the wall, there’s all these incredible actors that went through there. I hold acting and actors in such high regard, whether it’s theater or film or TV.
You seem to be delivering performances at such a level that you keep getting more work. The work itself is selling you. You had to counteract some bad press. Did that hurt you in terms of getting roles?
That was so mishandled. The reason why I have not done profiles is because I said, “Wow, if I’m not doing this interview on camera, this person can misquote things or put things out of order or say things that didn’t happen.” It felt like such a violation of what actually transpired. I told my team, “Guys, I don’t think I’m doing this again, because I’m reading this and this doesn’t sound like me to me. This is not life, so why would I ever want to be a part of something where they can just put that in?” So it’s unfortunate that being a good person, that doesn’t sell. People want to click on the negativity. If you go to bed and put your head on your pillow and how you treat people truly, that’s what matters. That [2015] interview was like 12 years ago.
Some people still remember. Well, casting directors know who you are and what you can do.
The actors, the directors, the crew, the producers, you can’t hide who you are when you’re on set.
Legal questions surround the Michael Jackson estate and his lawyer, John Branca, who you play in “Michael,” which has grossed $707 million worldwide. What’s going on with the sequel?
They had to rework the third act of the last movie. As far as the sequel goes, I know they’re working on it. I haven’t had any direct discussions, other than the team is excited to complete that story.
