An Interview with Will Poulter
When Will Poulter speaks, it’s with an open heart – as frank and reflexive when speaking about himself as he is about others. He listens carefully, digests his thoughts – nothing he says is filler. Add to that an enviable degree of self-awareness to speak well beyond his 22 years, and there you have it: all the makings of an actor armed for world domination. If that weren’t already apparent having played the antagonistic Gally in the Maze Runner, it certainly will be upon the release of The Revenant, Poulter’s most visceral picture to date, a kingpin of a cast that includes Tom Hardy and Leonardo DiCaprio. Starry-eyed as it may sound, it’s Poulter’s profoundly earnest affection that will find him a formidable fixture of the screen – that, and an exquisite ability to act by instinct, rendering emotion with remarkable acuity, even if youth puts a limit on the life experience he can call. But for a practiced people-watcher like Poulter, immaturity was never going to be an inhibition. He meets with ZOO to discuss the many virtues of inexperience…
REBEKKA AYRES: You star in The Revenant alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy. Can you tell me a little about the film and your character?
WILL POULTER: It’s really a survival tale – an exploration of what humans can endure for the sake of holding onto life. It centers around Hugh Glass, Leo’s character, based on the real-life figure who famously survived a bear attack. There’s a lot of drama about how the people around him reacted to that incident, and controversy about his perseverance in pulling through. He was so neglected by society, even after enduring such a horrific ordeal, and he sought revenge. I play Jim Bridger, who’s almost like an assistant understudy to Hugh Glass. He’s a young man who is very much caught in the moment, trying his best to do the right thing, but he’s very conflicted. He’s a young guy who finds himself in a situation that even the most morally adept and assured adults would want to run from. It was quite a traumatic thing, I imagine, for Jim to find himself in this situation at such a young age.
RA: You speak of him with such empathy. Could you see common traits within his character and your own?
WP: I’m not sure, I certainly know I wasn’t as tough or that I wouldn’t have been able to survive a true, hard winter like that – I barely even survived shooting it. I guess I can at least appreciate that idea of feeling young and feeling ill-equipped with certain circumstances. Even in my career, at times, I feel that I’ve found myself in places where it’s been really tough because a role has required me to draw upon experience that goes far beyond my years. It’s felt like I’ve been pretending to be a man before I really became a man myself.
RA: I imagine for any actor, to work side by side with DiCaprio – that’s it – it’s the one on everyone’s bucket list. How did you find it? Was it as intimidating a prospect as it sounds?
WP: On paper it was. The initial thought of acting opposite him was pretty scary. It was hard to get my head around. But he’s so down to earth and cool, focussed and professional, that really he just channels your mind onto the same thing and it makes everyone around him up their game. I felt like when Leo was on set, there was this unspoken understanding that this was going to be the best scene there could possibly be, and if it wasn’t, we’d do it again until it was. He really had that presence about him. It’s usually encouraging for a young actor like me to be around that.
RA: What was the most valuable thing you learned on set?
WP: That we were all most effective when we pulled together as a team. I think any crew and any cast has the best chance of succeeding when they’re all part of the same team. At times, we didn’t always operate as a team because of the weather, the long hours etc. It inevitably causes the team spirit to fracture slightly. When we operated as a bunch of individuals and we weren’t all on the same page, it didn’t work, but when we all came together and we all focussed on collaboration, we achieved some very special things on this film.
RA: How do you find you grow as an actor? Is it all about learning on the job? Do you read reviews?
WP: I don’t read reviews to improve as an actor. I think the quality of a performance is so subjective, and I’m not really sure exactly how I learn. It’s a mixture of internal instincts that makes it difficult to put into words. But I would never read a negative review and think ‘oh, I’ve got to stop doing that’. I don’t allow it to impact on my process or affect how I approach a role the next time because I rely heavily on my instinct that it’s so much more of a personal process – so personal that I can’t allow myself to be shaped by what other people think.
RA: It reads through when I speak to you that you have a very strong and clear sense of direction both for yourself and your career. Would you say that’s true?
WP: It’s definitely important for me to maintain integrity and make sure that my decisions are creatively-driven. I’m not doing this job or in this world for any other reason other than that I love the craft of acting and I hope that I can contribute to society in some way with what I do. I feel really lucky to have a job and I think it’s a really great job. For that, I think I owe it to the people that are kind enough to support me by watching my films. I owe it to them to do a good job. I’m quite cautious now. I’m gun-shy about the choices I make in my career.
RA: What is it that you look for in a script or a part?
WP: I would never discriminate according to the size of a movie or the genre. It’s more about the quality of the writing, the sense of integrity, the authenticity of the characters and their relationships. That’s what I’m really interested in exploring. I find humans and how emotionally complex we are as beings just fascinating – I think about it day in, day out. I’m not weirdly analytical but I love to observe and study people. Any part that gives interesting and clear insight as to the emotional makeup of humans is interesting to me.
RA: How do you get inside the heads of the characters you play?
WP: Again, it’s quite hard to articulate how it happens. There are little things that you take on in the lead up to a role. Progressively you start accepting certain aspects of the character you’re playing.
RA: Is it easier if you wholly relate to them or if you’re completely different?
WP: It’s interesting, it’s certainly comforting when you find a piece of yourself in a character – an aspect that you have innately in your nature already, or at least had at one point. I remember when I was playing Dean in Wild Bill, I felt like I was playing a younger version of myself. I was 20 at the time, but I was playing an 18 year-old and very much felt like I was looking back on my younger self. The situations my character was dealing with at that time were very relevant to me at one point. Although Dean came from a very different background to me, there were aspects of his character that I could relate to at 18.
RA: What’s your ultimate role?
WP: I’m not sure…I’d love to play an out-and-out villain. I feel like I’ve played darker characters, assholes, but no out-and-out villains – I’d love to do that. But anything that stretches me. Something really difficult.
RA: What do you see as your biggest challenge?
WP: I’m not sure, I don’t think I’d know until I came across it. Thus far, The Revenant has been the hardest thing I’ve done to date. I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out to be the biggest challenge, but at the same time, I’d be disappointed if it was, because I want to keep pushing myself.
RA: And you’re currently in training for your next project, War Machine, so you’re on a strict regime when it comes to diet and exercise. Do you think this will be one of those roles to really challenge you, considering all the physical demands and discipline?
WP: I think so. I like that with each role comes a new set of challenges. Every project is unique in that sense and requires individual undertakings. This one, I’m really excited about, War Machine. It’s being made with Netflix and Plan B, which is Brad Pitt’s company, and he also stars. I’m off to film next week, so I’m looking forward to it.
RA: Which do you prefer to watch: big blockbusters or indie pictures?
WP: I love them both, but I suppose on balance, I prefer to watch the independent films. Generally speaking, they tend to be much more creatively-driven than your average studio-backed film, but I hope that’s changing. I hope that more often, the big funded movies are becoming stronger creatively, or at least there are now more platforms becoming available where the films that require a little more money in order to be made are also becoming stronger in terms of their concepts – that is, they’re not making creative compromises simply to get bums on seats. I think online media is actually driving that massively.
RA: What inspired you to become an actor? Was there a moment of enlightenment watching a certain film?
WP: I think, if I’m honest, I wasn’t good at anything at school. I didn’t really have much to offer at all, and acting was the only thing I really loved and felt comfortable doing. It felt like my one and only option, really, and I was very fortunate that I got an audition at the age of 12 and got the part. I think back to that moment and how things would have gone if I hadn’t have got the part – just going back to school – and it panics me because I don’t know what I would be doing now. I really don’t. I’m really blessed that I get to do what I love for a living. Not enough people feel like they love their job and I’m just so grateful that I do.
RA: Did you study acting formally from a young age or was it just towards higher education that it went from hobby to ‘discipline’?
WP: I didn’t go to stage school, just a regular school in London. I lived for drama at school and tried to be in every sketch show, production and play – anything going, I was trying to be in it. Then I had the chance to act outside of school and work on projects and it was really, really fun. I was lucky that my school was very accommodating with it.
RA: And just as you started university, We’re the Millers was released. It must have been quite a surreal shaking-up of a student life. Did it ever feel like you were missing out on more normal experiences?
WP: I’m very lucky in that I have a really good relationship with my family, so I’ve always maintained a very regular home life. I’ve got a very cool and close group of friends with whom my relationship hasn’t altered at all. There have been constants that have remained throughout, and that always made it a great deal easier for me. University was something I really wanted to attempt because I wanted a taste of what it was like to be a student and have that experience. I didn’t want to look back on my life and regret that I never tried it, but it was a time in my life that I really couldn’t afford to put myself through the three years. I studied for a year, but then on cost-benefit analysis I made the decision to leave as it would cost a lot and there were job prospect on the horizon – I think it was Maze Runner, so I went to film that and absolutely loved it. It was such a fun experience – the best I’d had since I started, so I never really looked back. I don’t have a regret in that sense.
RA: The sense of camaraderie within the cast is something that really comes through on screen with Maze Runner. Is that the film you’re most fond of?
WP: Yeah, I think so in terms of the camaraderie. We’ve all become so close. It’s one of those things, with Maze Runner and The Revenant, we’ve all stayed in very close contact, and we’ve all made the effort to do so – and that’s not easy with a group of actors. Even when a cast gets on extremely well and makes friends, it’s very difficult to keep in contact long-term because everyone is all over the place. As actors, we’re a bit hopeless because we’re moving around so much. It’s been nice in the case of both films that I feel like I’ve come away having made friends for life.
RA: You grew up in West London, your family mostly work in healthcare. Did it make you the black sheep in a way?
WP: (Laughs) Yeah, the black sheep. But I’m very lucky in that my family are so supportive. It’s weird when I compare my job to what my family do, because I’m very humbled by their work. Theirs are largely selfless jobs, whereas mine, you could argue, is quite attention-seeking and self-driven. I’m humbled and very, very proud of what they do.