I met Paul Dano at the Waldorf Astoria, while Whitney Houston's funeral played in the background. I was nervous, I am always nervous, when I meet someone that I have such long standing memories from. You may remember Paul Dano in his role in Little Miss Sunshine (the driven, stoic, silent teen) or opposite Daniel Day Lewis in There Will Be Blood. Two great movies, one great actor and me, sweaty palms and fandom. Now Dano portrays Nick Flynn, opposite of the great Robert DeNiro in the adaptation Another Bullsh*t Night In Suck City, retitled Being Flynn.

Of course, Dano instantly put me at ease. Soft spoken and cordial, after every question he paused to consider his answer, even though it might have been a question that he's answered multiple times that day. It was a relief, to say the least. Being Flynn opens in theaters nationwide March 12th.

So let's talk about Being Flynn. What drew you to this character?

Paul Dano: I was just really moved by this guy's story. I think everyone can relate to fathers and son, mothers and sons, parent/children dynamics. And even though my experience with my parents is nothing like Nick's, I think just our natural human instinct, I was immediately able to empathize and engage my imagination, emotionally, with what he went through. And then I think, being in my twenties, you're shaping a lot of who you are, you're making more choices for yourself than you ever have in your life. I think watching this guy's downhill journey and then watching him pick himself up and say, 'Well I don't want to be who I am right now and I don't want to be my father and I can either just keep going in that direction or I can do better." You know? And that's so hard to do, I think. Most people just keep...it's easier to keep going down than it is to go up.

Absolutely. Do you read a lot of poetry? 

You know, I went to college as an English major and I was sort of a poetry major for a year. A deluded poet, perhaps. I do love poetry and I've had a decent enough background with it that it was not a pivotal part of my research, you know, the poetry element. There were enough other things for us to delve into.

Did you see homeless shelters and stuff like that?

Yeah, I volunteered at a shelter. The Bowery Mission. And there we cooked and served food and sat down and ate with people a few times. And I also went out on a truck and went to Thompson Square Park and we set up a table and gave out hats, gloves, scarves, socks, and food. It was the winter and that was amazing. It was also hard to watch people struggle but it was the sort of thing where it feels good doing it but it's also hard.

Is there any part of this specific film that you found more challenging than your other work? I mean, you've been a part of some crazy scenes and lots of emotions and stuff like that. So this one, we saw a lot of different, subtle choices you made. Was that harder for you than, I don't know, screaming at the top of your lungs at Little Miss Sunshine?

I would say that this experience was much more difficult than I anticipated just emotionally day after day and week after week on this film. What Nick was going through, you definitely start to just carry it around with you. I remember going home at night and just feeling really overwhelmed and you know, something is coursing through you. It was a challenging part for many reasons. Its one of the harder parts I've played but I'm not sure that one thing is easier than any other. I don't know.

How do you separate yourself from that overwhelming emotional toll? Do you just live with it during filming and a little bit after?

I was working every day on this film pretty much so if that kind of stuff just started naturally happening and you're spending time with the character, I think that's a good thing. It's easier to stick with it than to not. It's better for the next day of filming and I like that, I think it's great. And when it ends, it's like jumping off a cliff, it's hard. All of a sudden, it's done and it's gone and it's on film and then you're sort of excited to finish but you're also mourning the process at the same time. It's weird; you disappear for a while, and I don't mean in some actory way, just that you're working twelve-plus hours a day every day and your life gets put on hold. It's an interesting vacuum that you step into.

It takes a lot of restraint in a really particular way not to give everything but at the same time you want to give something. Any roles in the future you would love to take on? Like, you know, John Carter?

I would like to do some things that people are not expecting of me because I feel like I'm young and in the first stage of my career. You know, I've been doing it for a while. So yeah I would like to kick some ass at some point. I would love to play a juicy villain at some point. I like sci-fi, I would like to do something outrageous in the sci-fi world. Mostly, though, unless you write stuff or you adapt stuff, it's just about what's getting made at the time and you're subject to that as an actor. Mostly, I want to work with good filmmakers who make films that I like.

Do you write at all?

I dabble a little bit. I'm definitely going to make a film at some point and maybe sooner rather than later. Maybe I'll write it, maybe not. But I'll give it a go at some point. I could certainly never write a novel or something like that.

Do you think that stepping behind the camera you would still take what you know as an actor with you?

Yeah, I think so. Hopefully working with actors and helping to capture the right performance, but I would certainly take my obsessions with me too. You go home thinking about it. You wake up thinking about it. You go to work and do it. You dream about it all day and night. But directing, I think, is a slightly different animal. I wonder if it would be less emotionally difficult or not. I don't know until I do it.

It would probably be more stressful maybe.

It would probably be more stressful, yeah, because you're wearing more hats and you're managing a lot more people.

When did you decide that you wanted to be an actor, because you started out pretty young. So, when did you decide that, after college, “okay, you know, I'm going to do this again?” Because a lot of people put it on hold and try other things.

I started young and I sort of always tried to keep it in check in a weird way. I feel like I don't know if it was calling to me or if I was moving towards it but I definitely tried to go to a normal high school and played my sports and had good friends and then go to college. But it was just inevitable, I think, and I remember being 18, being in college, being out of the house, and just going 'I'm going to do it.'

It's your thing.

Yeah.

It's a pretty commendable thing to know when you're 18 years old.

Yeah, I guess so. I remember it was kind of scary to admit that I really wanted to do it and pursue it. But yeah, I just don't think there was another choice for me.

If you could clone yourself, and have another person, what else would you do?

Something more useful to the world. (Laughs) No! If I was going to do something else and it was othing to do with film, I think farming sounds really interesting. I'm not cut out to be a doctor or a scientist but that would be cool. So I guess it's actor or farmer.

I'd be a truck driver. I just feel like that would be a good way to see America.

Maybe a chef. I like food.

Chef is pretty good. Are you any good in the kitchen?

No. I'm strictly a sous-chef. My girlfriend is a very good cook; I just chop.

Chopping is very dangerous, though. And very important.

I do a good job.

What's on your iPod right now? What gets you going?

Oh, what have I been listening to recently? Recently I've been listening to Electric Light Orchestra, that's a strange one to bust out. And Supertramp. I don't know why those two got me going recently in the apartment. At home I listen to a lot of folkier stuff; I've definitely been doing my Donovan and my Harry Nilsson and stuff like that. When I'm out on the subway, probably hip-hop or something like that. And for work I choose stuff that's geared towards that. It varies all over the place, though.

Was there a particular artist that you chose for this role?

Did we say the Minutemen and all that already?

No.

Okay. The Minutemen and Galaxie 500. Those were the two things that Nick actually listened to that I connected with for a couple different things in the character. I also did a bunch of The Hold Steady for this, I don't know why. I just felt, you know. Badly Drawn Boy did the music [for the film].

Okay.

And probably some Radiohead and probably some kind of hip-hop, but Minutemen and Galaxie 500 were the most important. And The Hold Steady.

A man of eclectic taste.

Yeah.

So I have a very peculiar question for you and this is just brought on by a heated debate that I had last night with some friends. If the Louvre is on fire and you could either save the Mona Lisa or a security guard, what would you do?

I'd definitely save the security guard.

What if it's the only copy of the Mona Lisa?

Well, you know the theory that it's not the real deal in there.

Yeah, I saw that. So maybe we should do the statue of David?

...Yeah I'd definitely save the security guard.

Good man. Was there any other part-

Who would save the Mona Lisa?

It's a question of aesthetics. My mom is an art teacher so she brought it up, but it's more about the guise of when, in Egypt, the library was on fire do you save history and knowledge and stuff like that? Or do you save a person?

Yeah it's interesting.

Well I think they're beckoning me. Thanks so much, it was really lovely talking to you.

Yeah, nice to talk to you.

--

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