Press imagery for BAFTA Playback is available to download here
Transcript
JEREMY ALLEN WHITE: Hi, I am Jeremy Allen White. We are going to watch some clips and scenes that are very important to me.
Starting it with some moments I’m very proud of that have to do with the TV show, The Bear.
[TITLE: THE BEAR]
[CLIP STARTS]
CARMY (WHITE): We are going to start operating like a French kitchen. That means there’s going to be a chain of command. Okay? This was developed by Escoffier, and I think-
RICHIE (EBON MOSS-BACHRACH): Escoffi-gay? [laughs] Love that dude.
What’s up? I don’t know what’s going on…
CARMY (WHITE): We’re implementing a French brigade.
RICHIE (MOSS-BACHRACH): Yeah. Got it. Cool. Yeah… EEGH! Fuck that.
TINA (LIZA COLÓN-ZAYAS): That’s bullshit.
CARMY (WHITE): Okay.
EBRAHEIM (EDWIN LEE GIBSON): Carmy, no no no no. I was in a brigade once.
TINA (COLÓN-ZAYAS): What happened?
EBRAHEIM (GIBSON): Many people died.
TINA (COLÓN-ZAYAS): See, Jeff?
CARMY (WHITE): Okay. This is- it’s going to be different. All right, look, this is- this is what real kitchens do, guys, is what real teams do, okay? Everybody takes care of their own station. They keep their own side of the street clean.
Yeah? Okay.
[CLIP ENDS]
WHITE: Man, it was so fun. That was from the first season. And that was such a special time ‘cause there was no expectation for our show at all. You know, nobody knew anything about our show. When we were making the first season, it was such a… it was made in such a vacuum, in such a bubble.
None of us knew each other. We all got so close and we all cared so much. And I think we knew how special the thing we were making was, but you just never know if it’ll be received that way, so I remember that time in the first season, you know, with a lot of fondness ’cause it felt like we had a secret and it was just ours for a while and that was very, that was very special.
[IMAGE: The cast of The Bear onstage at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, accepting the award for Outstanding Comedy Series]
WHITE: It was just the best. That night was so fun. Ayo had won. Ebon had won. I had won. It just felt like… we just kept going. There was such momentum.
And everybody was kind of, like, floating through the evening and I also, you know, I just love everybody I’m looking at, you know. We all just care about each other so much and, and are so supportive of one another and it’s just a, a beautiful thing. It was a beautiful moment.
I’ve been doing this for a very long time and I’ve always been very lucky. And I’ve worked, you know, consistently really since the age of 14 or 15. But I just never expected this.
I think, you know, one of my first films I ever did, I did with the director Antonio Campos. I would do Law and Order, and I would do like a play every once in a while in New York. That was enough, in a lot of ways. I was just, I was like, if this is the rest of it, this pursuit is good and it makes me happy.
And now I think the biggest shift is, you know, it’s opportunity, it’s choice. It used to be very simple. I would just do the next job, you know, ‘cause I had to. And then for a little bit it was kind of like, oh well, I’ll do the next job where there’s someone I feel like I can really learn from and that I admire a lot.
And now I’m in the very privileged position of, you know, sort of everything coming my way. There’s someone I admire there. Whether it be the writing, directing, the producers, other actors, it’s the ability to make those choices and, and shift and shape a career. And have some say, you know, in the process.
Up next, we’re going to watch a clip from Stanley Kubrick’s, A Clockwork Orange.
[TITLE: A CLOCKWORK ORANGE]
[CLIP STARTS]
ALEX (MALCOLM MCDOWELL): There was a window open with a stereo on, and I viddied right at once what to do.
[Alex (McDowell) strikes the Droogs with his cane and kicks them into the water]
[CLIP ENDS]
WHITE: I think it was just one of the first films I saw, like, it felt taboo watching it at the age I did. I was 14 or 15.
I remember how emotionally affected I was and there was a real fear, not that I was scared of it so much as–I guess it was more of like an excitement about what a movie can do and how a movie can make you feel.
It was the first Kubrick film I ever saw and was introduced to me by, Antonio Campos, one of my first films I ever did was this film, After School. And, and this was on like the list of kind of like homework. And so I’ll always associate it with, with After School, with Antonio, with the people I made that film with.
And I think it was it felt so wrong. But exciting. And I think that was my first cinematic experience where I felt that kind of, like, electrified, I suppose, yeah.
[BEAT]
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere.
[TITLE: SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE]
[CLIP STARTS]
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (WHITE): [singing chorus from Born to Run]
[CLIP ENDS]
WHITE: It’s so nice. I mean, I really don’t like looking at my face. And, so it’s nice to sit and see myself and feel good.
You know, when I started this process and started learning about Bruce. You know, I never held a guitar before. I had very little stage experience, even in acting. I never really sang in any professional way or had any training. And so when I see, you know, that scene and scenes like it in the film or clips, I just feel such a great sense of accomplishment.
You know, I really had a period when I picked up a guitar for the first time with Dave Cobb, our music supervisor. It felt so incredibly alien to me and I had no idea how in six months I was going to be able to move with any kind of like confidence and physicality portraying Bruce on stage, you know. He looks like he was born with a guitar in his hand, and I just didn’t know if that was possible.
And I remember in the first month, you know, getting together with my guitar teacher, Eric Vetro, my singing teacher, and feeling that sort of like pressure and time moving, getting closer and closer to moments like this one.
And really having to break it down into like the simplest terms of: this is my body, these are my hands, this is my brain. Like, it is capable of a lot. If you just give it time and repetition. Your body is is capable. It can learn.
I was really giving myself these sort of like, motivational speeches every morning. I feel such a great sense of accomplishment. There were a lot of moments of doubt in the preparation and I’m so glad, I guess I pushed through that doubt because, you know, we, we got here.
[IMAGE: Bruce Springsteen on-stage during a soundcheck at Wembley Stadium, clasping hands with Jeremy Allen White]
WHITE: This is the moment my friend Molly was with me and she took this photo. This is the first time we ever met. He was so warm and immediately sort of, like, generous and honest.
It was wild seeing him- this was at a soundcheck at Wembley and it’s such an intimidating space. The scale of that stadium just generally and especially being, like, in an empty Wembley.
And then seeing Bruce and the band, even in soundcheck, perform with such passion and physicality. I remember just thinking, oh boy, I’m gonna have to try to do something like that, you know.
But then meeting him, shaking his hand and spending time with him on stage before, you know, he went on to perform with everybody. He was so warm and gentle and kind of… settled. On stage, he’s like, coming to chop your head off. But his relationship to the world is so like, wonderfully, gentle and calm, you know?
PRODUCER: [off camera] Just going to finish on what you would recommend to the audience… if there’s one television show or film they should watch, at least once in their lifetime.
WHITE: I mean, The Sopranos is the best show, I have to say. You know, it’s a show I rewatch frequently. It’s a show I love so much. It’s about a very lonely man and belonging. And I think our greatest films and series are really about belonging or the absence of belonging.
I can put that show on any time. The great James Gandolfini. That’s a good rec. If you haven’t seen it, you should watch it.
[Shot of a wooden sign that reads ‘One bad turn deserves another,’ from the set of the Gallagher house in Shameless]
WHITE: Oh my gosh, look at that. That’s wild. That’s from… Shameless. ‘One bad turn deserves another.’
Wow. [looking around the set] Got the guitar. Oh, man. Iron Claw…
This [the sign from Shameless] is so great. This was in the bottom of a staircase where we would always wait to, like, go down the stairs into the kitchen scene, of the stage in the Gallagher house. I remember just staring at that sign. Waiting for, like, “Jeremy, action!” Good find on that one.
PRODUCER: Thank you, Jeremy.
WHITE: Yeah. Appreciate you. Thanks so much, you guys. That was really nice.
