Jacob Elordi thought he was going crazy until he saw a classic John Cassavetes film.
"I probably made three movies that I thought were pretty bad when I was young, and I had hopes and dreams of being this kind of terrific, ferocious stage actor.
So I was pretty not fond of myself at that time," explained the Australian actor during an event presented by Cartier Cinema Club at Santa Monica’s Aero Theatre on Friday."And I watched this movie and it was one of the first times that I saw the creative process of an actor sort of fleshed out in detail.The movie made me feel a lot less insane and alone."
It proved to be such a pivotal experience in his creative life that Elordi handpicked that film — 1977’s *Opening Night* starring Gena Rowlands as a renowned actress teetering on the edge of a breakdown as she inches closer towards big Broadway opening night — for Friday’s screening, which marked the first stateside Cartier Cinema Club event after the initiative’s launch last month at the Venice Film Festival.
The luxury house created the initiative to honor the spirit of cinema while paying tribute to artists who make big-screen work.Cartier ambassador Elordi not only selected the film, he sat for a 30-minute discussion about it alongside Oscar-winning filmmaker Sean Baker and moderator Kim Gordon.
Like Rowlands’ character, Myrtle Gordon, Elordi thought he, too, "was having some form of mental breakdown." But he was able to exhale once he saw how the storyline played out.
Rowlands stars alongside Cassavetes, Ben Gazzara, Joan Blondell, Paul Stewart, Zohra Lampert and others.
"This movie showed me that what was actually happening was hopefully the artistic process, the process of creating to a character.
You can’t just learn the lines and say the lines.It showed me all the stuff that was going on inside that I thought was sort of my body and mind breaking down [but] was actually a part of the acting process," explained the Oscar nominated Frankenstein star.
Elordi revealed that he watched *Opening Night* last week in preparation for today’s event, and he had some similar thoughts to those from his first watch, notably because he’s about to start another new movie shortly that has thrown him for a loop.
(Though he didn’t name the project, he’s due to start shooting Ari Aster’s *Scapegoat* alongside Scarlett Johansson, Jude Law, Ella Purnell and Caleb Landry Jones.)
"I’m getting ready to do a movie now and I’ve been kind of throwing myself on the floor and wondering, should I just drink a lot of vodka?
Or should I smash a window?What do I need to do to get to this point?" he wondered aloud."And me re-watching the film now after making over 10 movies or something like that, again, it invited me back into the creative process and what it means.You can be searching for a character and not know that you’re searching for it.It starts happening in your toes and your knees and your chest.And that’s why I picked this movie because it always makes me feel less crazy and more like I’m actually a part of a process of filmmaking that’s been happening for a long time."
Gordon, a screenwriter known for work on *Nightmare Alley*, directed by her partner Guillermo del Toro, then asked Elordi if that’s because he’s so absorbed by Rowlands performance.
He is and was."Yeah.I mean the amount of times that I just want to throw myself on the floor and cry and scream and tell the director to go fuck themselves and just drink and drink and drink.It makes me feel a lot less alone as an actor."
That said, Elordi drew laughs when he said that he had no clue how Rowlands pulled off any of her scenes on the big screen, particularly the ones where she was really throwing herself around and acting under the influence.
"I don’t know how you do that and not look like a ham because everything she does is so big and so expressive, but it’s all completely contained in truth inside her."
"I've watched that scene so many times.
You can spin around in circles until you're dizzy, you can get drunk, you can do all sorts of things, but I don't know how she does that.I don't know how she does anything.She's a genius."
Baker then talked about Cassavetes' filmography and how much he admires all of his work.
"You often get asked as an independent filmmaker, 'What's your favorite Cassavetes film?' And it really depends on the day because, first off, they're all masterpieces.
They deal with very personal, universal issues and struggles that we all go through.So it really depends on where you are in your life," he explained."It's where I am in my life and that's how I gravitate towards a certain title.I said Husbands back in the day because I think that was my guy film.Then when I started exploring genre cinema, I was more drawn towards The Killing of a Chinese Bookie."
Later, when he started working more with actors and refining his filmmaking skills, Baker said he leaned more toward A Woman Under the Influence and Opening Night.
"I can go on forever about him.He's basically the godfather of U.S.indie cinema and showed us in many ways how to do it."
Morgan ended the conversation by asking both Elordi and Baker if they take inspiration from the many risks Cassavetes took throughout his career.
