There Will Be Oscars

You were all quite young when you started. Angelina, didn't you study at the Lee Strasberg center when you were 13?
Jolie: Yeah. Method is a very strange thing to study at 13. It's all about recalling things from seven years ago. [Laughter]
Day-Lewis: You were asking about films that might have set us off on that path. I'm not sure if it's the same for you, James, but certainly when I was coming up as a kid there was absolutely no expectation whatsoever of working in movies. They still don't make very many films in Britain, and so all our expectations were focused on the theater. You know, film was kind of a secret hope that you didn't talk about too much, because it was considered to be an inferior form by people where I come from. Theater was the thing.
Clooney: There is this weird pecking order, you know. Theater actors look down on the film actors, who look down on the television actors. Thank God for reality shows, or we wouldn't have anybody to look down on.
McAvoy: What is really interesting about coming to L.A. is that there is an expectation to make it into films, television or whatever. Whereas as a child it was never even a consideration for me. But certainly in L.A. it is different because it's everywhere. But even at home in Scotland I think there's kids going, "I want to be a famous actor."
Day-Lewis: Actors were weirdos when I was growing up.
Clooney: They're fine now. [Laughter]
Day-Lewis: It was like flying the freak flag. You know, that was where the pride was—that you were a pariah of some kind.
McAvoy: I don't know if you ever had a similar thing, but to see someone on television or in a film who was from your hometown was really embarrassing. You couldn't watch it. Because that guy who's speaking with such a strange accent—that's your accent. Scottish television was full of English things and American things, so every now and again when you got the odd Scottish program, you were, like, that's terrible.

I might be misattributing this quotation, but I think Matt Damon said at one point that you stop emotionally maturing at the age you get famous.
Clooney: Matt did; you're right.

Is there any truth to that?
Clooney: Well, if you do, that would be your own fault.
Jolie: Yeah, but I think your daily life experience does change and therefore there are certain things that you don't do. My favorite thing used to be to just sit in the subway and watch people; just walking by myself everywhere and living among people and watching them and talking to strangers. And I lost that. It was the hardest thing to lose. And I think that does affect you. You learn quickly how to get to know people, how to build maybe a smaller, more intimate world so that you can grow and learn from people and still be the same. But it is different.
Cotillard: The light on the American actors is very bright, and in France it's kind of different. But each time I go back home, it's so weird that I don't have the same life anymore. People are staring and looking at me, and I can't look at people as I was able to do it before.
Day-Lewis: Ellen, how are you finding it?
Page: It's kind of intense right now. And a little surreal. Just sitting at this table is a little surreal. I've been so absorbed in it that I don't really have the outside perspective right now. Daniel, the other night at the Critics' Choice Awards, you said that it gets to a point sometimes when you start being unable to recognize yourself. And now I have those moments, or even just moments within the moments, of being like, what? But it is what it is. You know, I don't know what's going to happen.

James, I loved the story you told backstage about your experience with the paparazzi.
McAvoy: I've only ever had anybody waiting outside my house once. We got in our car and we were followed, and it was very weird and disconcerting. We thought we would just go about our daily life and just ignore it, all that kind of thing. I think because we had once read that Clive Owen said just ignore it. Like, do whatever Clive Owen does—he's a solid guy. We were going into town to buy something for the house, and we went into a parking lot that costs £10 an hour, and on seeing the price of the parking, the paparazzi went, "F--- that." They left us alone. So the lesson is, if you're being chased by paparazzi, don't drive fast. Just find a really expensive parking lot, and you will be fine.
Clooney: I just found out about 10 days ago that I must live 300 or 400 yards from Britney Spears. I found out because I came home at 10 at night and there's all these helicopters over my house with these spotlights on. I have a guesthouse where my assistant sometimes stays, and I thought someone had broken out of prison. Like something out of "Die Hard." I get my baseball bat, which is what you always do in every film—I actually think Clive Owen said, "Get a baseball bat"—and I called up my assistant, who I thought was in the guesthouse, and I said, "Are you OK?" And she said, "Yes." And I said, "Look, if there's someone in the house with you and you can't talk, say the word 'Stonehenge'." And she's like, "What the f--- are you talking about? I'm in my apartment." I go, "You're not in the guesthouse?" "No." So I'm, like, "Well, then, what the f--- is going on?" And I go out and I'm running around with a baseball bat in my robe. And it turns out it's paparazzi over at Britney Spears's house. So now I have to move. [Laughter]

Angelina, do you travel with a baseball bat?
McAvoy: And Clive Owen?
Jolie: No.

Angelina, you've hit upon a strategy of dragging the press with you somewhere important, like Africa. Like, "If they're going to follow me, I might as well go where I want people to see what's happening."
Clooney: She's been really good about it. [To Jolie] When you guys showed up in Pakistan after the earthquake, at a point when our government, had they taken that moment to step in, could have actually made a huge difference in the area, you and Brad were the only people that were really showing up there. I remember specifically watching and thinking, "That is such a great use of people following you with a camera." They have done it a bunch of times.
Jolie:  They [the Pakistani media] didn't know we were there at first. We turned on the TV when we got back home and there was a picture of us unloading our gear. It said, "Aid workers have arrived." [Laughter]