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Spoilers follow forGreat Gatsby 2001: A Space Odyssey,episode seven ofMrs.
Great Gatsby 2001: A Space Odyssey, the seventh episode of PeacocksMrs.
Davis, may not be the finale, but its where we arrive at our first big ending.
I couldnt tell if it was a drama.
I couldnt tell if it was a comedy.
Hes like, What about Australian?
And in my head, I was like, Fuck no, not Australian.
Its such a hard accent to do.
Ive never done it before.
And I remembered Russell Crowes Screen Actors Guild acceptance speech vividly.
So I did Russell Crowe, and Damon just started laughing.
And hes like, Yes, do it like that, hey.
So we did the whole scene like that.
He was like, Yep, thats the guy.
You got the part.
My first day was that six-page scene.
And look, preparation is everything.
Its an actors best friend.
I said, Lets do the whole thing.
And it became clear that Owen and I were aligned.
Betty was aligned because she knew it.
Jake was aligned because he knew it.
So it wasnt difficult.
I mean, it required stamina, but it wasnt shot in a way to break it up.
We did a full take on every angle.
When it comes to those huge blocks of text, are you a rote learner?
Do you just read it over and over again?Oh, no.
Theres a secret, and everybody should do this.
You do what I call learning it in Italian.
And nice and slow, double-check that I dont trip up.
If I trip up, I erase the recording, and I start from the beginning.
Once I get through it without tripping up, I keep the recording going.
And then I up the tempo.
If I trip up, I erase everything.
Start again, slow.
Its all quite monotonous, Im just absorbing the words.
So is your phone just full of all your lines from every project?No, no.
When Im done with the scene, I rip it out of the script.
I dont hold on to anything.
Lets talk about the Australian accent more.
I feel like that is one of the hardest accents to do.I hadfour days.
My accent gets better as the show wears on.
His names David Sweetman.
And his name is what he is, hes a sweet man.
And hes got a great voice.
I was like, David, can you read this for me?
Hes like, Yeah, mate, no problem.
So he read my first days lines so that I could listen to them.
I was tremendously helped by him.
I was not sure whether you were supposed to be Australian when I was watching it the first time.
I filmedThe Starter Wifethere.
I love the people.
But you know how many roles Ive lost out to Australian actors?
Over 150, okay?
So there was a little bit of, Haha!
I want to ask a little bit more about JQ as a person.
Theres the scene where you drop a guy off a roof By accident!
Its armor, right?
JQ was a man who had a purpose.
He was good at something, and the algorithm rendered him impotent.
Im not sure that JQ was exactly a Penn graduate or anything.
When I went in for my costume fitting, they had a bunch of boxer briefs for me.
I mean, come on, this guy wears a snap-at-the-crotch, orange wrestlers jumper.
This guys not wearing nice-looking Calvin Kleins.
I didnt think theyd go for it.
I laughed so hard that day because it was ridiculous.
First of all, I was orange as a Cheeto.
The amount of spray tan that was on me, you didnt want me sitting on your white couch.
My hair was bleach blonde, it looked like plucked chicken feathers.
Im wearing a fucking banana hammock.
I called my wife, like, What am I doing for a living?
Where did I make a wrong turn?
I was like, Oh my God.
Well, wheredidthey put your mic?Those are the secrets!
Im wondering what your relationship is to that kind of fitness lifestyle?Thats very kind of you.
I will say this, Im nowhere near as ripped and cut as some of these guys are.
And I never have.
Looking at my body, you’re able to tell its my natural body.
Truthfully, as annoying as it sounds, we were eating all day on set.
You get there and you have a breakfast sandwich.
Oh, theres a muffin, okay.
My genetics are pretty good, I thank my father and my mom for that.
I think the tan helps.
I train and I exercise, so I look all right.
And you realize what goes into that.
Heres the deal, the drugs work.
They do what needs to be done.
Its an interesting process that I, frankly, am too scared to try.
Ive never even smoked pot, so Im not the guy to attempt it.
But it was so much fun to do.
It was like a fucking tool.
Its so gratifying to actually do that.
Were they real-feeling phones?
What were they made of?Yeah, they were totally real-feeling phones.
Because we only had a finite number of them.
Youre also a voice actor, and youve bookedthevoice role in that you are actually Mickey Mouse.
Whats the difference between how you prepare for a voice versus a screen role?
In general, it is easier to prepare for voiceovers for me because I have a vocal agility.
Im able to bend and shift my voice.
Its something that Ive always had as a weird, stupid human trick.
So one of the neat things about VO is that I can be a 600-year-old wizard.
I can also be a dinosaur.
I can be a car.
I can be Doc Seismic onInvincible.
Come on, Minnie, lets go.
Would you agree?Yes.
Sometimes I get heated when I talk about this.
I mean, all of Jimmy Stewarts characters are pretty fucking similar.
I rarely play myself onscreen.
Because I think it was like, Lets pull this outside of this.
So what does he share with Russ Hanneman?
Well, theres an energy, a bravado.
There is a I know more than anyone else in the room quality.
Theres a Napoleon complex.
Its fun to be a dummy who thinks hes smart.
Okay, last question: Do you think JQ will forgive Wiley?Oh, what a beautiful question.
What attracted me to JQ was the level of energy and how big and vast the character was.
But truthfully, what kept me engaged was that there is this vulnerability.
Hes a broken man.
Hes childlike in his affection for Wiley.
It broke my heart.
But I think hell forgive him.
Its interesting, I think JQs love for Wiley would allow him to move mountains.
And we find out, obviously, that Wileys actions werent to discredit or destroy JQ.
They were quite the contrary; they were actually to save him, right?
