Inside The Actors’ Studio

PITT: I feel for the people who are just getting into the business. It sets the wrong focus.

DOWNEY: I got a story for you. I go to Japan. "Iron Man" is opening there. I'm like, dude, this is my walk of fame. I go there and they go [he mimics a Japanese accent], "Small problem with your passport, it links up to some incredible criminal activity." I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. "You did not make claim of said activity." I was like, "I got tired." "We would like to interrogate you." I was like, "Interrogate? Fine, great." Six hours later, I'm sitting there in the Japanese interrogation suite. A lady comes out. "So were you in jail or prison?" I go, "Both." "How long?" "Sixteen months." "Do you know the name of the first infraction you had in 1995?" I was like, "It's hard for me to remember because I've been arrested so many times." "We cannot let you enter our country." They decided later that I can come in to do the press, "but I must please never come to Japan again." So—I'll wrap this up quickly. We go to the Iron Chef restaurant. They give me the finest Kobe beef, and I am doubled over for Yoo-hoo status for the next two days.

LANGELLA: I don't know what that means.

DOWNEY: I ate a piece of beef that was superexpensive, I got a parasite and I was Yoo-hoo. I was Brown Betty for two days.

LANGELLA: See, he has his own language.

DOWNEY: Then what happens, a Japanese robot shows up on the red carpet. He carries in a 500-pound barrel of sake. I'm going, like, I kind of have plans for Christmas, you should keep that away from me. They wanted me to smash the sake cask open with the robotic "Iron Man."

LANGELLA: Can I ask this side of the table [Hathaway, Pitt, Downey] something? How much influence do the handlers and the notion that your films are making money or not making money have on your choice, because you three are extraordinarily hot. If your film tanks, do you have people around you saying the next thing you do has got to be a moneymaker? Or do you just ignore it completely and say, "The next thing I do is from my heart"?

PITT: I have nothing to prove anymore. The only thing that's worth anything is when I explore something that's interesting to me. I did a film a couple years ago, "The Assassination of Jesse James," and it's on the books as a failure. I loved that movie, I had such a great experience.

DOWNEY: But it's on the books as a failure.

HAWKINS: I can't believe that. "Jesse James" is phenomenal.

PITT: Thanks. You're the other one. My point is, I am absolutely free to follow the things that interest me. I believe if it interests me, there will be a few other people interested as well. If I'm satisfied with it, to me it comes down to discovery.

HATHAWAY: I always had an exit strategy, which was if this doesn't work out I'll be blessed to do theater. After the experience of "Brokeback" and the experience of "The Devil Wears Prada," I thought, I'm about as famous as I think I'm comfortable with. So if all this disappears, I'm really fine. I set that as my endpoint. And then "Rachel" came, and then infamy came, so it's very odd now that I'm much more famous than I thought was possible. At the same time, it feels so temporary and unimportant. I freed myself before any of that happened to make the projects that I care about. I wish I were a better strategist and see things through and how they were to play. But I'm much more interested in the process of making the film.

DOWNEY: I'm not very popular for saying this, and the missus tells me to keep it on the QT, but lately for me, the biggest, most commercial projects that I've done are the most creatively satisfying, the most collaborative and the ones that the audiences respond to. And I jump off and do an indie, and they can't hit their ass with both hands, it's 50 monkeys f–––ing a football and then you have to go and pump your kidneys dry in Sundance. What's next, f–––ing Shakespeare in the park for the pagans for three months?

HAWKINS: I've done that!

HATHAWAY: I like to think of this as an adventure. My mom is an actress, and she's a good actress and she's a great singer. The best credit she ever got was a pre-Broadway run of an original show that wound up not going to Broadway. She raised three kids and she's had a great life. But this is absurd. I'm just happy to know what this feels like.

You know, Anne, your mom is on YouTube.
HATHAWAY: Why is my mother on YouTube?

She's performing this great song.
HATHAWAY: Oh, my God. I didn't know! Well, check her out, everybody in NEWSWEEK. She's really talented.

Anne, you've talked about Jonathan Demme as the first director to see you "flying your freak flag." How do you get to the point where you trust how the director sees you?
HATHAWAY: Jonathan just happens to be a wonderful human being, and the kindest-hearted person I've ever met. I felt there's no point in hiding anything, because he was going to see it anyway, and he was open to it and he cared. He did become a bit like a therapist.

PITT: I look for a sexual bond.

HATHAWAY: Well, we have that as well.

LANGELLA: I've been at it longer than anybody. Since we're all actors, we know what it's like to go from the dark to the light. We're the only ones to know what it's really like at "action!" to suddenly be naked in front of a lens. You have to have a director who knows how vulnerable you are. A director can crush the soul of an actor with a phrase or a word. If I finally feel like I trust the director, I'll give him anything. But if I don't, a portion of me that self-preserves says, "Just get out of my way, leave me alone, don't hurt me. If you're not going to help me, don't hurt me."

HAWKINS: You have to be open and yet also try to protect. I imagine the more you do, you're only as good as the last thing you did. You're always out there, and you're starting all over again.

Is it true, Sally, that when you started working with Mike Leigh, you didn't know "Happy-Go-Lucky" was about you?

HAWKINS: I knew that hopefully I'd end up with a nice part, but I didn't know how much.

DOWNEY: I heard that in "Happy-Go-Lucky," because your character was optimistic and bubbly, having to keep that up for all those weeks took a toll. Is that true?