Adam Driver on 'Paper Tiger' and gaming the Hollywood system

NEW YORK (AP) — From the moment he swans in with takeout from Peter Luger and dances a few impromptu steps with Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver looks and moves differently in James Gray’s “Paper Tiger.”

The performance, which critics have called one of his career best, follows a period of reexamination, on screen and off, for the 42-year-old actor. It was partly touched off, he says, by Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis.” That film’s wild theatricality and Coppola’s experimentation helped Driver expand his notions of character and the possibilities of a scene.

“I needed to be reminded of how unprecious it is,” Driver says. “Film is so permanent. You have to be so prepared that you’re not prepared when you walk on set. I tried not to get strapped down with: Well, this character would never do that.”

In the 1980s-set “Paper Tiger,” Driver plays Gary Pearl, an ex-police officer who lures his Queens family-man brother, Irwin ( Miles Teller ), into a scheme along Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal that entangles them with the Russian mafia. Driver’s performance, charismatic and loose-limbed, swells with brotherly love and classical tragedy.

At the same time, Driver has been trying to redefine what he can control behind the camera. Last autumn, Driver revealed that he and Steven Soderbergh had spent two years working on a Ben Solo “Star Wars” film that The Walt Disney Co. ultimately nixed. Increasingly, Driver has pushed back against what films Hollywood is willing to bankroll.

“I never thought of an ultimate plan. It was just directors I wanted to work with,” Driver says of his earlier career. “Now because I’m getting older, you just want to be more purposeful about the things you want to do. And to me, that was a big injustice.”

“Paper Tiger,” which Neon releases in theaters Friday, is almost the epitome of the “they don’t make these anymore” movie. It’s a personal film, made for adults by an auteur, formalist filmmaker. Gray (“The Immigrant,” “Armageddon Time,” “Ad Astra”) has long struggled to finance his movies despite being hailed in places like the Cannes Film Festival as an American filmmaker of the first order.

“When there are directors who can’t get their movie made, it’s like: Why doesn’t someone give Coppola a blank check to do what he wants?” Driver says. “But it doesn’t work that way, and less and less does it work that way because people are so risk-averse and like to quote metrics based on the most recent thing that made money.”

“It’s a reactionary business, as I’m learning. So I just have to figure out a way to game the system. And it seems like it’s about not making money,” Driver continues with a laugh. “If you can just do things that don’t pay you, then you’ll get the thing you want made.”

Driver’s trajectory has been a subject of some reflection lately. Earlier this year, Lena Dunham wrote in her memoir that Driver “hurled a chair at the wall” while they were making “Girls.” Driver, as previously , declined to comment.

The series, which Dunham is set to revive without Driver, was his breakthrough. It was also where Gray first became intrigued with him as an actor. He wrote Driver’s part specifically for him, though it was another show — “Saturday Night Live” — that convinced Gray of Driver’s range.

“When you see that someone is funny like that, you know that they can pull off both sides of the equation,” Gray says. “I know it’s a strange reference, but the ‘Saturday Night Live’ thing helps me understand that he can play both the danger and the humor at the same time.”

Gray has been one of the most eloquent critics of the Hollywood system, arguing against an entirely bottom line-centric approach to moviemaking. That made Gray and Driver a poignant pairing with a shared understanding.

“What you’re really talking about, when you pare it down, is a commitment to movies as a beautiful art form and not something that’s to be dealt with frivolously,” says Gray. “When you recognize that in a kindred spirit, it’s a beautiful thing.”

Particularly in recent years, Driver has joined movies by revered filmmakers who have struggled to gain financing: Coppola on “Megalopolis,” Michael Mann on “Ferrari,” Jim Jarmusch on “Father Mother Sister Brother,” their third film together. Still, he struggles to understand why “Paper Tiger” — made for $15 million, with 24 credited executive producers — wasn’t an easier sell.

“Even with Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller. It was not made for a lot of money. James rose above that in his filmmaking and made it look really great,” Driver says. “But it’s absurd to me. It really sucks.”

Driver launched a production company where he’s working with filmmakers like Jeff Nichols (the two previously collaborated on “Midnight Special”) who aspire to make ambitious films at modest costs with shared equity. Driver is characteristically self-deprecating about it, though, comparing an actor with a production company to “an actor with a guitar at drama school.” He wonders aloud if they’ll spend years developing great ideas “that someone will say no to.”

Yet the lost “Star Wars” project hasn't soured Driver on franchises or studios. Recently, after years of courtship by Marvel's Kevin Feige, he signed on to Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe to play the “X-Men” villain Nathaniel Milbury/Mister Sinister.

“For me it was: Steven Soderbergh wants to make a ‘Star Wars’ film,” he says. “What are we debating?”

“It’s what it is. It’s criminal. Or it felt criminal,” Driver adds. “We’re all moving on. On to the next. And Steven already has something else that’s one of the best things he’s ever written.”

The experience also left Driver with some new hope. Protesting fans flew a plane over the Disney lot and rented Times Square billboards decrying the decision.

“I was blown away by the response to it. In no way did I think there would be billboards in Times Square,” Driver says. “It’s so moving. It did feel like we were all at the bar having a conversation about the films we wanted to see.”

Meanwhile, “Heat 2,” which is set to begin production in January, will reunite Driver with Mann. Also upcoming is the Netflix series “Rabbit, Rabbit,” in which Driver plays an escaped convict, and Ron Howard’s Afghanistan War tale “Alone at Dawn.”

And there is “Paper Tiger,” a modern American classic and an engrossing crime drama that, as Gray describes it, is really about love. Driver's Gary swaggers through the film with the finesse of a prizefighter (Muhammad Ali was an inspiration), projecting a confidence that leads to trouble. He’s giving a performance.

“I spent a lot of time in my 30s, luckily, playing characters that felt very far from me,” says Driver, noting older characters like Enzo Ferrari and younger ones like Kylo Ren. “I started wanting to play characters closer to me.”

Gary, and “Paper Tiger,” were in his wheelhouse.

“There was a confidence where I felt I didn’t have to think about overdoing it or making it unique, just thinking: Do I believe it or not?” Driver says. “That’s really the only metric I should be going off of.”