Adam Driver: “Paper Tiger uses the same lens as The Godfather”

Meeting with the actor, back in Cannes for the new James Gray film, in competition.

Adam Driver has worked with Martin Scorsese, Noah Baumbach, Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, Joel and Ethan Coen, Spike Lee, Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Mann, Leos Carax and Jim Jarmusch. An impressive roster to which we must now add James Gray. We took advantage of his visit to the Cannes Film Festival, where he came to present Paper Tiger (which he shares with Miles Teller and Scarlett Johansson) in competition, to discuss with this lover of great authors.

James Gray is a great admirer of Francis Ford Coppola with whom you also toured. Do they have anything in common?

Francis was first a theater director. He brought this dimension to cinema. In his writing and the way he organizes things on set, James resembles him. For Paper Tigerwe used the same lens that we used for The Godfather. If Megalopolis had a surreal and disproportionate scale, it remained deeply personal. Each scene was inspired by his own experiences. James is a fan of a more intimate staging but shares this almost autobiographical relationship.

Before Tiger PaperJames Gray has already presented five feature films in competition at Cannes? He always left empty-handed, which of the five would have deserved a Palme d’Or?

Adam Driver: The Night belongs to us ! It contains all of his authorial concerns centered around the same family dynamic. I discovered it recently during a retrospective on the Criterion publishing website. The car chase in the rain with Robert Duvall is magnificent! I learned that it had been very difficult to shoot, that the rain had been added digitally. This perhaps adds to the desperate beauty of the film.

Before working with Coppola, you toured with Michael Mann (Ferrari). Thanks to your star status, do you feel like you’re helping these great filmmakers make their films possible?

Michael doesn’t need my help with anything! He’s a genius. If I hadn’t made this film, he would have found someone else. A project that is difficult to finalize can put off certain actors, not me. Suffering can be a powerful force for creation – not always, of course. As for the demands of a filmmaker, they are never too great.

Comments collected by Thomas Baura

The synopsis of Paper Tiger : New York, Queens, 1986. Two brothers who are complete opposites unite for a dubious affair linked to the Russian mafia. But what should have been an opportunity becomes a nightmare, endangering their family, their integrity, and their brotherly bond.