Camila Cabello, Jay Will and Chiwetel Ejiofor stop by The Hollywood Reporter's studio during the Sundance film festival to discuss 'Rob Peace.' Ejiofor reveals what was most appealing to him having Will and Cabello be a part of this film and Cabello shares if she has the "itch" to further her acting career.
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00:00 Music is like my first, it's like my home, you know what I mean?
00:03 It's like the, I feel like it's like the language that I speak, you know what I mean?
00:07 Whereas acting to me is kind of a different, a different muscle.
00:10 It's like something I feel like I, I don't know.
00:13 It's like more, it's a little bit more of a, more of a foreign language to me,
00:19 but when I'm doing it and in the middle of it, it feels so fun.
00:22 [Music]
00:25 Is this anyone's first time to Sundance? Everyone's?
00:28 Guilty.
00:29 Yeah?
00:30 I'm charged.
00:30 Yeah, how's it, how's it going so far?
00:32 What, how does it fit expectations?
00:36 Ooh.
00:36 I had no expectations and that kind of helped me out the best way.
00:39 I didn't want to overcrowd myself with like, what I can expect when it hasn't even happened yet.
00:45 It was best for me to just stay present and just prepare, just my own little preparation.
00:50 It's really cool.
00:51 I love the, I love like the film chaos.
00:54 This is chaos.
00:54 It's chaos.
00:56 I love like running into like, I don't know, like actor.
01:00 Laura Lennon.
01:01 Yeah, I was going to say, was there anyone, you did said you didn't have any expectations,
01:05 but did anyone have, did you guys have like people you kind of hoped maybe you would run into?
01:11 I haven't seen John Carlyle yet.
01:13 Oh, he was here an hour ago.
01:14 Yeah, I saw the picture, it was like in the other room and I'm like, I haven't seen him.
01:18 I actually have met him once, but we were parked to like in, I think it was in LA, just at the traffic light together.
01:25 Did you? That's crazy.
01:26 That's really sick.
01:28 I love, I love Stephen Yeun.
01:31 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:32 He's great.
01:32 Very cool actor.
01:33 Yeah, but he, I didn't run into him.
01:35 I think he was here a couple days ago.
01:37 What was it about these two that was most appealing to you as actors for this film?
01:43 What?
01:45 Do you mind if I start with you?
01:47 Please don't.
01:48 Oh my God.
01:51 I mean, Jay, for me in this part, he just, he made the film make sense.
01:56 He kind of, he held it all together and he made it one.
02:00 And that was something that, you know, I did speak to a lot of people and we did do, you know,
02:06 there were a lot of auditions and all of this stuff and nobody was able to do that the way that Jay did it.
02:14 Jay was able to understand, he just sort of got it intuitively and also the charisma, the kind of, the energy that he brought to it, you know.
02:21 But it was that thing for me that was just center off the page that he understood how to make it a whole,
02:27 how to make Rob Peace's experience in all of these different places and all of these different spaces,
02:32 all the different challenges that he had, how he managed to kind of make it one consistent person that you can completely believe in.
02:39 And so that, and then with Camille, we kind of, you know, the, Camille's charisma and energy, you know,
02:48 and I saw the film that you did and you just jumped off the screen and held it.
02:53 And I kind of, and I knew that with her and Jay together, there was going to be this real energy, you know,
03:01 that they were kind of, you know, that there was, you wouldn't know who was going to win in any kind of interaction,
03:06 you know, when they're confronting each other or when they're, you know, when you're engaging with them.
03:13 So it was just very rich, you know, so I just felt like, you know, that this is, this is the, there is such,
03:18 you know, the heart and the story within this relationship and this dynamic.
03:22 And then obviously that extends out to the rest of the cast and Mary J. Blige and what she brings to the, to the, to the part.
03:30 And, you know, and I loved the sort of energy that Mary J., you know, obviously she's iconic,
03:35 but she kind of also is so truthful as an, as an actor.
03:39 And, and, you know, and I just felt that was exactly what I needed,
03:43 that she wasn't going to kind of push for a sort of dramatic moment or something.
03:48 She was going to sit in the truth of this relationship and her own understanding.
03:52 And a lot of people reached into their own understandings of these circumstances and these characters and lives lived,
03:58 full lives lived, you know, to tell the story.
04:01 - Mary, Mary threw a lot at me and in the best way, she threw a lot at me.
04:04 It really reminded me of a mother figure, honestly, like the, the, the, the way she said the lines,
04:12 just the way she, you know, replied back to me.
04:15 Just the energy that I have with her in the characters.
04:21 I don't know, it pushed, it gave me a lot of gifts.
04:23 When, when an actor throws something new to you, you didn't expect, it's like, oh, thank you.
04:28 I appreciate that.
04:28 She constantly kept it new for me.
04:30 She constantly kept it new.
04:32 And I kept it new for her.
04:33 So it was, it was all, it was a cipher.
04:35 It was a full cipher.
04:36 I had a great experience with Mary.
04:38 - After doing this movie, did it, do you feel like it gives you the itch to do, to keep pushing further into acting?
04:45 Or does it feel like you're scratching the itch a little bit and want to do more music or?
04:51 - That's such a hard question.
04:52 'Cause I just feel like I, I don't know, like I'm, I'm, you know, I'm just a fan of just like art that I love.
05:02 So, I mean, I feel like when I, there's a project that somebody wants me to be a part of that is inspiring to me and is exciting to me, I'll do it.
05:12 You know, whether it's like, you know, one second on screen or the whole time, like, I just want to be a part of it.
05:19 So I don't know.
05:20 It's, and, and also to me, like acting, because I have done less of it than music, then I, for me, like feeling like I'm in great hands and feeling like I'm being guided by the right people
05:32 is really important to me, which is why, like, it was amazing to work with Chiwetel because every day I was just like, I know that I'm going to get to a good place with this scene.
05:42 Like, I really trusted the process.
05:44 Like, I was like, we're going to start here and then we're going to end here.
05:48 Like, we're going to find it.
05:50 You know what I mean?
05:51 And I learned so much.
05:52 I learned so much from it.
05:54 And music is like my first, it's like my home.
05:56 You know what I mean?
05:57 It's like the, I feel like it's like the language that I speak.
06:01 You know what I mean?
06:01 Whereas acting to me is kind of a different, a different muscle.
06:04 It's like something I feel like I, I don't know.
06:07 It's like more, it's a little bit more of a, more of a foreign language to me.
06:13 But when I'm doing it and in the middle of it, it feels so fun and like such a fun, it's like a different language that's really fun to explore.
06:24 [BLANK_AUDIO]