Interview by Ally Ferraro

Photography by Dove Shore

Styling by Oretta Corbelli

Grooming by Angelo Rivera

You started acting at a very young age. How many movies did you work on so far?

Oh, my gosh. I worked on my first film when I was eight. It was a remake of this musical called The Music Man that I shot in Toronto. I started working on that set and realized that I loved it and continued working from that point on. As a young actor, it was easier to find work on TV shows. I remember the first major success I had, it was a show called Malcolm in the Middle, a comedy sitcom that was very popular in the States. From there, every once in a while I would book a film. I remember that I had watched Malcolm in the Middle when I went to the audition for a movie called Click, which was an Adam Sandler movie. Even back then, film and television kind of built off of each other and worked off of each other. If you had success in one, it would help you get the other. But nowadays, the delineation between film and television has really kind of gone away to a certain extent. I don’t think I would be able to count how many movies I have worked on.

How did you feel after your first movie? Did you feel like a star?

No, I didn't feel like star, but I don't think my aspiration has ever been to be whatever the definition of Hollywood movie star is. My idols as a kid were always people who are really interesting and strange and could lead a film. I was a big fan of Philip Seymour Hoffman, even from a young age. He was one of those actors that I remember watching and being amazed at what they could do in front of a camera. Same with Steve Buscemi or Gary Oldman. I remember being 11 or 12 years old and watching Paul Dano in Little Miss Sunshine and thinking that I want to do movies like that. There was something that was vulnerable and funny and sweet and strange, and it was the kind of movie that I really wanted to be a part of. And I don't look at those performances or those films and say “Oh movie star”. I look at that and I say, human. I see something touching, something sweet, something vulnerable. And I think that the problem with movie stars is they want to suppress vulnerability to bring out glamour. And while there's nothing wrong with glitz or glamour, you need more than that to tell a truly human story.

You interpreted the Joker in Gotham, how did you feel taking that role after Jack Nicholson?

I was very familiar with Jack Nicholson because of The Shining. The Shining was a movie that my my mom showed me when I was 10 or 11 years old. Scared the absolute bejesus out of me. She covered my eyes for the scene where the woman comes out of the shower and turns into a monster. But everything else, she let me watch. And I remember watching that performance and seeing the slow slip into insanity that Nicholson did. It was so fascinating and so incredible and chilling. But I don't think I had seen the original Batman when I was a kid. I was very familiar with the animated series where Mark Hamill played the Joker, and I went to the movie theaters in 2008 and saw Heath Ledger play The Joker. And it was a very surreal moment when I got hired to play that character because I remember walking out of the movie theater seeing it with my mom and saying, I want to be able to do something like that. It is like one of those things where it sounds like it's revisionist history or too good to be true, but that really was. I was 14 years old and I remember just really, really being inspired by that performance. So be the first person to touch the role after Heath was an honor and something that I certainly have never taken lightly.

Do you have any specific acting technique that you use?

I think that when you label something as specific as a certain method or technique, you tend to close your options of your available techniques and toolbox and methods. The human experience is too complicated to just go, “Oh, I'm going to use sense memory or Oh, I'm going to use this exercise or this technique”. The good part of those techniques is that you're able to train it like a muscle to have an immediate emotional accessibility or ability to access your body in some way. So there's plenty of techniques from vocal training, from even singing or dialect training to dance training. I grew up taking dance classes regularly, martial arts classes regularly. I had initially started in musical theater, and local theater. And there's a certain level of performance and usage of the body there that I think that was still remembered at some point for playing the Joker because it's an extremely theatrical character, especially my version of it. That being said, the American style tends to be very internal and very inside out. Much of the time there's an importance on trying to find the reality of the person's mindset. And then trying to understand and live truthfully within that. Most recently, the acting coach that I've been working with very regularly was a student and protégé of Stella Adler. And Stella's methods kind of came from the Stanislavski and Meisner techniques, but she had her own sort of spin to it. I would not say that I use the Adler method. I think that again it’s too specific and too narrow of a definition. And I think there are plenty of ways to access. The character, and frankly, every second and every moment, every beat requires a different way to be able to access it. And you need to have the flexibility to be able to find that however that might be revealed in the moment. It's slightly mystical.

Do you like to transform when you take on a part?

I do. But it's an interesting thing because no matter how far the character might seem to be from yourself on paper, it's incredibly important to still find what you have in common and what you understand as a point of access to them. And you need to kind of retrain your internal dialogue in a way that you can start to match or align it with what the characters would be. Obviously not outside of the context of a scene or a set, but when you're within it to be able to understand the intention. What is driving them, what is making them angry, upset, jealous, whatever it might be. You need to almost hypnotize yourself to be able to feel that genuinely. It's very strange with a character like the Joker when I was playing Jerome and Jeremiah. They’re very much people who I would not like to have any sort of relationship with in reality. But you have to find those parts of you that you can understand what it is that these characters are doing so that you can commit to it, revel in it and relish it in a fictional context. You have to bring reality to the fiction.

How was your childhood like living in LA?

I was born in Santa Monica. At the time, my mom was living near the beach. We moved to South Florida when I was a baby. And so for the first 11 years, I lived in South Florida. And again, my mom kind of went to the beach and she found the ocean. I think that that was some escape or comfort for her was always being near a beach. And for me, even now, my favorite cities are always still close to the ocean. I lived there for the first 11 years and then moved back and spent my young adult years and most of my very formative years in Los Angeles. And,  you know, we came out for my career. That was why my mom moved back to LA. It was to give me the opportunities to be able to act. Before we properly moved back, I would fly out by myself at 10 or 11 years old and stay with family friends so that I could audition for what was called pilot season. I would go audition and be there for a few weeks and hope that I could get something. And if I didn't, then, I would fly back. A few years I had success, a few years I didn't. But we were chasing the dream. We didn't have very much money, but my mom was willing to take the risk. And that's something that I am extremely grateful for. LA is a funny place because it’s a lot of what people associate with it is kind of Beverly Hills mansions, slick fast cars and plastic surgery. But the LA that I know tends to be people working jobs to survive. A very blue collar kind of place, a lot of times very multicultural. What I associate with LA is the sense of community, that's what I love about LA and the stuff that I grew up loving. I'm very thankful that the friends that I found in LA were grounded, smart, humble, creative people. And I'm very thankful for my upbringing in LA because it is a place that is full of people who want to express and create, and that's a very motivating thing. I'm glad to call it home.

You are now promoting the new Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, that is just about to be released, how has that been?

I very much enjoy promoting it and talking about it because it's been a really wonderful project to be a part of. It's a story that I'm very proud of and one that I was very involved in helping create along with many other very talented individuals. It's a rather beautiful story and I think it's very unique to Star Wars and something that I don't think anybody really knows what's coming yet with it, which I think is very cool. I've seen people kind of make some guesses about it, but no one's really hit the nail on the head with it yet. It's a very human, very beautiful story. And it’s darker and more complex and richer than what we got to do with the first one, and I loved the first game, but I think that this story is a big step up and something that I am very happy to talk about. So I'm looking forward to people seeing it.