Adam Driver: Slacker to Star Wars
Has curly hair, towering height,….and a mischievous grin. Adam Driver has gained fame playing unreliable, lazy, slacking, goof-offs, but it has taken him all the way to a three-time-Emmy-nominated role as Adam Sackler, the love interest to Lena Dunham’s Hannah Horvath on Girls (2012-2017) and Jason Bateman’s youngest brother in This Is Where I Leave You (2014).
Right now, he has become known throughout the world as Kylo Ren, one of the latest villains created especially for the new Star Wars (2015-2019) trilogy produced by Walt Disney Pictures. Adam Driver definitely has a promising future ahead of him in motion pictures, though he also has gotten off to a remarkable start, having worked with several of Hollywood’s best directors and appearing in television, and theater too.
Adam Driver was born on November 19th, 1983 in San Diego California. He developed an interest in acting, appearing in plays in high school. After 9/11, he enlisted in the Marines, where he served for two years and eight months, but after breaking his sternum, he was medically discharged. As a result of his service, however, he created the AITAF (Arts in the Armed Forces), a non-profit organization that performed theater for every branch of the military both in the United States and abroad.
Later, he attended University of Indianapolis, but ultimately decided to move to New York to study Drama at Juilliard. In 2010, he appeared on Broadway in two different plays called The Retributionists and Mrs. Warren’s Profession. He also made appearances in television shows like The Unusuals (2009) and Law & Order (1990-2010) before winning the role of Adam Sackler in “Girls.” Prior to getting that role, Adam Driver also had bit parts in the movies J. Edgar (2011) directed by Clint Eastwood, and in Touchstone’s Lincoln (2012) directed by Steven Spielberg. During his time on “Girls,” he also made the romantic-comedy What If (2013) opposite Daniel Radcliffe and “This Is Where I Leave You.”
Believe it or not, Adam Driver was not Disney’s first choice to play Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). Academy-Award-Winner Eddie Redmayne auditioned for the part and so did Lee Pace. (Michael Fassbender and Hugo Weaving were both also considered). Finally, Driver was cast, though he had to fly back and forth between New York and London to film both “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” and Seasons 3 and 4 of “Girls.” Although he did enjoy portraying the character of Kylo Ren, he disliked his character’s mask, because it affected his vision during filming. Despite that, he never broke character throughout filming and even kept the mask on when cameras weren’t rolling. “The Force Awakens,” was also a reunion for Adam Driver and Oscar Isaac who plays Poe Dameron in “The Force Awakens.” Driver previously worked with Isaac in Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), which was co-written, co-produced, and co-directed by Ethan and Joel Coen. Both Driver and Isaac will be reprising their roles in Disney’s upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017). In between both “Star Wars,” movies, Adam Driver also made Silence (2016) starring opposite Andrew Garfield and directed by Martin Scorsese and Logan Lucky (2017) starring opposite Channing Tatum and directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Adam Driver has become almost ubiquitous in the entertainment industry despite a young career. No doubt he will go on to much more success, but will probably remain most often recognized as Kylo Ren. (Whether or not he will be in Star Wars Episode IX (2019) remains to be seen.) Whatever he does next, his track record so far indicates that it will be great!
No comments:
Post a Comment