. Those three movies are instrumental in who I think I am as a person. Paul Thomas Anderson was also another [influence], being a California native. I'm such a feeling person, and all his films make me feel things in regards to my parents and my friends, and they all have things that [relate] to the way I navigate the world.I skateboarded at Hollywood High, and the Baker Skateboards team was there all the time, and they were my heroes.
I stressed myself out for years and years and years, trying to impress people. In retrospect, I see working in film is different than that. It's not this thing of performance, it's more of a vibe. It's more about having a sense of self and then being courageous enough to express that. They'll pick up if you're being honest or not. In the audition circuit, it’s very easy to put up a façade of, “This is what I think you want.” It’s trying to sell somebody on something.
All of that trickles back down to the idea that there was no time for me to create an idea of what I thought people wanted. I was like “This is me,” and they responded to that. He's not a sex symbol. His button is always a little too tight. His jokes are bad. Everyone else in the show [is] a bad ass and a little bit snarky. My character either speaks in business jargon or he's talking like some kind of self-help book. I've never done a performance that feels so polarized, and I think it's dope. As long as people are watching the show, watching what Mickey and Konrad have created, and they have a feeling, even if the feeling is, “I hate the actor in it.
Those missing pieces make it harder to suss out whether DVD’s earnest exterior is for real, or whether it’s a front. Would you say we’re seeing his true self? He’s just the best. He has a way of being a mentor without talking down to you or making you feel any kind of way. We love to play. He's changed my whole point of view with acting, because he set that as an example. He is always playful. We did a scene on a telephone, it's an intense scene, and he's supposed to be threatening me. Every take, he would do something weird. Sometimes he just wouldn't talk and I'd be like, “Hello, Ken?” or he would provoke me, or he would burp.