Caleb Landry Jones Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters

All I know is I had time to, uh...

[parodies being a scared character]

[parodies being a happy character]

Blowing on a harp. [mimics upbeat harp tune]

[singing] Hey, dancing behind the train tracks

hee hee hee, I'm happy, I'm really happy!

[sighs]

[laughing] But that's me, that's all on me!

[upbeat rock music]

[Caleb] No Country For Old Men, Boy On Bike #2.

And my first audition, my first job,

could've quite possibly been my last job where

as I saw it as most definitely my last job.

Not to say anything against Joel and Ethan's choices

in casting me, but I thought the film

was quite perfect up until Boy On Bike #2 rolled up

with Boy On Bike #1, who was wonderful.

Hey, mister.

You have a bone sticking out of your arm.

Alright, let me just sit here a minute.

We had the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack

on quite often, 'cause that film had

come out and was available on, y'know, on a wide spread

to be bought and heard.

So we had that soundtrack, and I knew that movie,

but that was all I knew.

Yeah, I didn't think there was a chance

in heck that that was gonna happen.

I never read the script either,

but my mom said it was very good.

She quite preferred it to the book

for the pacing, I believe.

Said it got down to it, y'know, it really kept going.

If it wasn't for that job, I wouldn't have

become obsessed in the way that I did with film.

I loved film and was obsessed with film

in a certain kind of way, for directors,

but after being on set,

that just, it really changed everything in how,

I never saw a film again the same way,

and I don't think I can ever again.

It was very important, though, for me.

[Caleb] Caleb Sweetzer, The Last Exorcism.

I got that job with my Texas agent Linda McAlister.

Had to go to New Orleans, drove with these two guys that

we probably would never get along in normal circumstances.

One guy was auditioning for it too, and the director,

Daniel, took me outside after the audition,

the other kids were waiting hours for me

'cause I was like one of the last ones to go,

and they were really fussy about,

one of them was fussy about how long it had taken.

And the director runs out and he says,

Caleb, that was really great, but you're stoned!

And this was at a time when I wasn't smoking in the morning

or in the afternoon or in the evening,

only at parties or something,

or in a treehouse or something,

when someone else brought it,

digging it out of their sock or something.

He thought I was stoned, and I said

No, sir, I'm, I've, [stammers]

I've gotten stoned before but I'm not stoned!

It was a long trip and I wish I was, but I am not, sir!

Well, would you mind coming back up and doing that again?

Of course, absolutely, but let me

go tell the buddies who are really angry with me just to

please give me fifteen, fifteen minutes?

Yeah, yeah, no more than that!

Okay, great!

But that was a great experience,

'cause there was no script, except for

guidelines, more or less, what the scene was

or what was happening physically.

But we got to come up with the lines,

and it was really, you just had an objective.

That was the first time I had more than one scene!

So I got to, hey, I'm gonna play this scene this way!

Oh, this can happen and I can now feel this way about it!

Wow, I'm gonna try that!

And it kinda worked. [laughs]

Right, uh, well you're going the wrong direction.

You wanna make a U-turn, actually.

[Driver] Okay.

You wanna take this road and go straight.

[Driver] Uh-huh. You see things you've

already seen before, keep on going,

you're gonna hit the highway.

Okay? And then I want you to go back where you came from.

That was the first time someone really let me

kinda bring something, and really got to have fun with it,

even though it wasn't a fun process by any means.

It was very lonely. Sticky.

[upbeat rock music]

There were, like, three auditions,

and I think we had an idea that it was X-Men

but didn't know what the character was.

I was just thinking a lot about Jack Nicholson

in the audition for some reason.

I remember practicing at my buddy Jesse's house,

while they were playing songs and drinking,

I was working on this audition

that I think was X-Men, but wasn't sure.

And I remember it said he screamed, and I thought,

man, there's one way to really not get the job.

You know, by just coming in and going,

[screams in terror]

you know, as loud as you can.

I trust you.

I'm touched.

I don't trust him.

Say nothing.

I'm gonna die!

All right, look, we're not make you do anything

you don't feel comfortable-- Here, let me help.

[screaming in terror]

Eric?

[screaming]

[unearthly screeching]

I'm sure you've talked to people that speak

about the harnesses and stuff that they use,

and they're very restricting.

I think it's the more an actor knows about

what they're involved with, sometimes, the better.

And later on, I wondered if I coulda helped out

[laughing] with some things that,

I don't know, little movements and things that,

if I had seen in a larger scale,

I wonder if I could've helped

just by a shoulder dip, or the smallest little things,

a turn, faster here, something, and maybe could have,

[clicks tongue] been a little better.

But you don't know much as an actor.

[upbeat rock music]

Got to work with the late Phil Hoffman, and John Turturro,

and people I've been dreaming to work with for,

since I saw their work and

found myself watching all of their work.

And that was, I was,

playing bad guys is funny.

I dunno, I was having real trouble with

not knowing if you leave the character.

I still don't know what to do.

That film was strange 'cause it was dealing with

a very racist character,

a very misunderstood, very angry character,

very blind, very stupid,

very, ah, narcissistic,

and so I tried my best to be that for a good month.

[sighs] I hope it, I hope it works out.

[upbeat rock music]

[Caleb] Get Out.

Another role where the character hated his family.

That was more fun than some others

because I think he had fun. [laughs]

Even though I remember at one point,

I think I remember, like, feeling I had

the whole family in me, like every single one of them.

And I remember puking out every single one of them,

calling 'em all out by name, including, like

some of the people that were working on the film.

And Jordan did stuff like call 'em on when I,

I like, getting 'em as far [laughing]

away from my body as I can.

That was weird.

You an MMA fan?

[Sister] Dude.

Dude, what?

What?

Hey, Jeremy, why don't we, uh,

let someone else have the floor for a second.

He's dating my sister, you had your chance.

I can't get to know the guy?

Never met Jordan before,

spoke to him briefly on the phone.

The script was unlike anything I'd ever seen.

Yeah, I couldn't even think of like a B-movie,

you know what I mean, that like,

would have been in the 80's or something.

I couldn't think of anything!

I haven't seen too many B-movies, but I've seen a few!

[Caleb] Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,

Red Welby.

Read for her son first, and it went okay, apparently,

and Martin gave me the job for that part.

And then the film didn't happen for a while,

almost two years, something?

I was working on the middle of

working on Get Out, actually, and Keener

was helping me out with the audition,

she made me leave and do it again and come back,

because Martin asked me to audition

for the Red Welby character,

because he thought now that I was too old for it.

And absolutely, it was just what I thought

from the beginning, was,

I don't know, because he's in high school still,

and I always hated how you got the James Dean

in high school, you know, I mean.

Some of those actors really helped me a lot

in that process, I don't know what I would've done

without a few of them saying this and that,

here and there, just make me believe

in myself once again, and okay,

[stomps feet] yeah, come on man,

get on with it!

You know, kinda.

Yeah, that's, uh, that what the contract says,

looking over it all.

Dolores says so too.

When you need this next payment by, Red?

[sighs] Well, now, really.

Three Billboards, I was,

once again like God's Pocket, I was working with

[laughing] so many people that, like, man!

If you'd told me I would work with them

all in one film, I'd have, pfft, yeah,

get outta town, you know, no way Jose.

I'd flick beans right in your face with a spoon.

And Martin McDonagh's script is perfect, man.

Everybody working on that film

was great from costume, to camera, to fuckin',

everyone was top notch, just great at what they do!

And for me, there's a lot of reasons why

I think that one is very important to me.

[Caleb] American Made, JB.

Tom Cruise is another one that is [laughing] amazing to be,

just standing around him!

Fuckin', you know, just in the same room with him,

'cause he's a movie star, you know?

That was the first time I'd ever met anyone that

it affected me, but I didn't realize

I'd looked up to them as much as I did,

that they'd affected me as much as they did.

And so your heart is beating, and you're going

whoa, this ain't, that's not cool, man!

How does this person have that much control

[laughing] over my physicality right now?

I didn't say anything, man, you

can talk to the goddamned laywer!

Where we going, man?

I got to slam doors, and,

flick 'em off, and it was a blast.

You know, got to come to work, was blasting

Alice Cooper with my shirt off, in a rental car.

That was the best, man!

You're going to work, you're gonna go tell Tom Cruise to,

that's, that's, come on, man, you gotta be joking!

And then I'm gonna blow up?

[thunderous explosion]

[glass clattering]

[Caleb] Florida Project, Jack.

I left another film, went over there for two days.

It was very fast and I read the script

and I loved the script, and I'd seen Tangerine.

And I loved this idea of this film all coming

from this perspective of these children.

And, you know, this wild place, you know,

full of, full of great wonder and great danger.

And then this character Bobby,

[laughs]

and dealing with it back in the hotel.

And then knowing that Dafoe's playing that,

and knowing how, uh, Sean goes about his films,

kinda knew what to expect to some degree.

It was great, and the crew was, I mean,

they were great and everybody,

running around and it was like,

it was beautiful, and the whole thing

was happening 24/7, is what it felt like.

It felt like there was no start and stop.

It felt like it was happening 24/7,

whether or not the camera's rolling or not.

The whole thing was alive.

And it was great, but it literally, it just got to meant,

stepping in and going,

wow, and then you gotta go, okay!

They put me up in the nice Disney hotel!

Guys, don't pay to go to this place,

but if you can ever sneak in somehow,

or get someone else to pay, go!

Because they got fireworks in the nighttime,

chess pieces big as, I don't know what, as yourself!

Wild place, kinda creepy!

[Caleb] Twin Peaks: The Return. Stevie B!

Dream come true, more than even some other

of the dream-come-trues, in another kind of way.

Watching Eraserhead the first time

and having to shut it off to go do something

is good, man, that's good.

I'll tell you all about it at dinner.

And, in between, I'll tell you

how much I love you.

And I'll tell you how beautiful you are,

and I'll tell you I wonder how sexy you are.

I know I do things wrong a lot.

Of course I felt the pressure to get it right.

You let me do that, whatever that meant.

Very few people do this for me, and he's one of them.

And, so, to get to be a part of that is

an absolute honor.

[Caleb] Heaven Knows What, Ilya.

I didn't know what exactly I was getting into

and at the same time I did, 'cause I talked

to Josh on the phone and he told me

[laughing] what we'd be doing.

Really, the only question was, how?

Depending on how certain people feel about each other,

I was let free to go about,

destructively figuring out how to do that.

And I regret a lot of choices that I made.

But at the time, it's all I knew how to do.

Yeah, it's all real.

I mean, it wasn't real.

It was all real and it wasn't real.

Ilya is a real man, and he's no longer with us,

and Arielle Holmes.

If you love me, you would have killed yourself by now.

You hear me? [bottle clatters]

If you love me, you would have killed yourself by now.

So why are you still here?

[crying] You want me to, Ily?

Yes.

As much as we could take from what was going on,

while also trying to reproduce what had happened.

It was unbelievable, I've never

done anything like that, still.

For me, it set me up in a way that

allowed me to go about the process

in a way that I'd never, that I've been allowed

to go about in the hotel room, or on my own in the street,

but never with other people, especially in a city.

To just, to let loose, and then,

I've always tried to contain it.

And that one was, you couldn't do that.

That changed a lot of how I worked later, I think, too.

There hasn't been a job that I've been a part

that hasn't been important or that hasn't

meant something and taught me,

changed me in some way, whatever,

every film has done this and I've been

so fucking lucky and blessed

to have this be this way.

[upbeat rock music]