Actor Adam Driver on Bringing Theater to the Military (Audio)

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When he guess what he wants, he'll crush you. You know it's true. Kylo Wren Star Wars, episode seven, The Force Awakens. Do you recognize that voice? Maybe you heard him playing Adam Sackler on the HBO hit Girls Adam Driver. It is also marine, I learned years ago. You never say it was a marine. Wants a marine, always a marine. He left the Marines after an accident. He went to Juilliard. He stumbled quite nicely into a mega career now as a movie and television star, and he's joining us now.

We want to talk a bit about his career, but we mostly want to talk about his new foundation, Arts in the Armed Forces, which is taking the best modern American theater to the military free of charge. And he's getting ready for a big tour in South Korea. Adam, are welcome. It's great to have it on the show. Thank you so much for having me. Well, you know

I knew your story. I recently just coincidentally, my daughter I washed over shoulder as she listened to one of your ted talks where you talked about that so in a nutshell where people who don't know your story from a kid in the Midwest who wasn't sure what they wanted to do to the Marines two movie star, how did it happen? I was interested in acting in high school, but it didn't really seem like a realistic job to pursue in the town that I was from, a small

town called Mishawaka in Indiana, in northern Indiana. Uh. Then September eleven happened, and I feel like most of the people my age at that time, you know, felt a sense of patriotism, and uh, I wanted to be involved and do something. And I knew that the military um or the Marine Corps specifically, seemed like something that I wanted to throw my energy towards him. It seemed like

the toughest branch to join, so I UM. I left a few months later on like a January or February, and then when I got out, had this maybe false sense of confidence that like all civilian problems are small because I was compared to the military. You know, um, I can stand in lines and pay taxes, and that would be something easily manageable. It's an illusion, but at

the time that's what I thought. And so I knew that Juilliard was supposed to be the best school for acting, and I figured, like, what since the Marine Corps is the best for the military, I'll just I'll just go there. I'll try to go there. And I was lucky enough to get in and then graduated, and was also lucky enough to keep working after I graduated, and that was that was kind of a I'm going to ask you something some personal stuff later, but I just want to

get out of arts in the Armed Forces. This is a nonprofit organization, and I'm wondering if you could tell us about some of the works that are being performed and also how this came to be. So when when I was at school, UM was really for the first time I was exposed to theater, playwrights, characters and plays that had nothing to do with the military at all. But we're somehow giving me the language to describe my experience in the military, and even just from being from

you know, the Midwest where my household. The emphasism using your language to be able to communicate feeling wasn't something that was often not necessarily encouraged, but just it wasn't something we did very much. But if it was finding through theater the language basically to express myself and and

process what had just happened. And I wanted to share that with the people that I served with because I remember that being an issue just people not being able to express themselves or find the right words, and how frustrated they would get at and how usually anger and violence came from that, just not being able to use their language in an environment like the military. Phrase you know is filled with acronyms for acronyms upon acronyms, but there's not really a lot of emphasis put on um,

you know, language and expressing feelings. Uh. So, we tried to go team up with the various veterans organizations to see if they would be interested in it. Kept getting the response that theater didn't fit in military demographic, that the the people in the military wanted to see cheerleaders, and which is true, My love cheerleaders. But I felt like we were capable considering what we were being asked

to do. We were capable of handling something a bit more thought provoking, like a play, you know, I think that. And I had all these places that I was exposed to for the first time, that Sam Shepard and David Mammott and you know, Deniz Ravance, all these great writers who um, I knew would resonate with the military audience.

So so Juilliard funded our first performance and we went to Camp Helton, where I was stationed at, and we're very confused about what it is we were doing there, and we were kind of confused about what it is we were trying to do, and somehow, over the course of the evening that's it seemed to all the theater and the military together just seemed to make complete sense. And it's the best across across section of the best people that we have in this country, you know, to

defend it. Why not bring them the best form of entertainment like life theater. Well, I think I first understood more than military mentality years ago when I went to an Army base to profile a lieutenant colonel who was leaving active duty after about twenty years and wanted to transition into corporate America. I was trying to get a middle management and you get, it becomes very clear the skills you gain in the military, and certainly in combat

or just just serving. But how to convince people have never served in the military, how that translate. It's interesting to me that the military itself couldn't see that maybe its own members could benefit and understand theater. So I mean, it's almost like the military itself not realized. No, this is a very diverse group of people with a lot going on the Yeah. Yeah, it's the most you know, culturally diverse, complex group of people who are in life

or death stakes daily. We're in acting, you kind of pretend your circumstances or life and death. Uh, their day to day actually is life and death. And so I think that really great writing has those stakes built into it so people automatically find And we were also presenting things like that that weren't. It wasn't streamers. Those are great, that's a great play, but it's not it's not a

theme centered around military. We hope to show characters that highlight the human struggles that we all share that our life and death. There aren't specifically, you know, within the context of being in the military, because I think that's you know, these people the people that within a job that um is very stressful, But at the end of the day, they're not um uh, they're people within a

military setting. So it's it doesn't completely define them. It's not like they won't be able to Everyone has mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters that uh stories that are um. Hopefully they'll find resonance. One some examples of the places in which your organization arts in the Armed Forces A I T a F have performed Walter read military Medical Facility, the Center there also just did one I believe in April at Fort Hood in Texas. What

what how can businesses? How can how can people participate? If they agree with this approach, they want to bring more arts to the military, what do they do? Then go to our website which is www dot A TA dot org A I T A F. And I think it also depends on where you're at within this the journey of being in the military. If you're a civilian that we definitely need volunteers and people to help us. And if you're if you're in the military, you can reach out to us through that website and and try

to bring us to your base. If you're a veteran. I think it would be the exact same thing on either side of UH. We're very much a new nonprofit. Well we've been we've been going for six years, but only in the past couple of years of it is it really picked up steam and for the first time, Basis are reaching out to us and they want us to come there and and that's that's as simple as it is. We have a very there's there's a low overhead, so you can get to to any of us pretty quickly,

and we try. It's such a the project is designed where we bring like a play or monologues, so we'll take a uh we're doing Lobby Hero in South Korea, for example, so it's a four person play. All we're doing we're flying out there. We're reading the play, no sets, no costumes, no lights, just on music stands. We come in and we say hi, and we talk to people and we read the play and then and then that's it. And so it's an easy to transpo in and out.

I just have to put a plug for boom BERGALP because we also have a growing recruiting military veterans program and reaching out with various services for veterans just gonna ask you any advice since you're here. We're a business channel. We think about jobs and stuff. For somebody who's interested in theater, military, you know, a veteran or not. What what would you say, Adam and me as far as how to get a job, Just just what's your one

thing that comes to mind? How to get a job or pursuing it or not pursuing What's what's someone know or have inside them? Everybody's different, I would say, everyone has. You know, the things that I have to compete against is a straight white male or completely different females or people of color. So um, but I can tell I

can say my experience going to school. I mean, I was lucky enough to go to Juilliard, to great school, but by no means guarantees you work at all or that you'll find a long career because of where you went to school. But for me, especially coming out of the military and having all this energy and wanting to find something to put it in like theater can give you. I didn't know anything about theater culture or military culture. So to find a place that I could that gave

me that structure was helpful. Thanks very much for spending time with us. Adam Driver, of course, the actor who'll be starting next in Martin Scorsese's movie A Silence. And also he's the founder of arts in the Armed Forces. This is Bloomberg. Thank you,