Adam Driver talks about Jarmusch and putting filmmakers first

Props, mementos and photographs adorn Adam Driver ‘s Brooklyn office. There’s an artwork Jim Jarmusch gave him for his 40th birthday, the doll from Leos Carax’s “Annette” and dozens of on-set photographs, including one of Driver and his son in the Millennium Falcon. “A friend who saw all this said: ‘Oh, so you care,’” Driver says, chuckling. Driver, 41, can come off as stoic but his passion for movies and, in particular, the filmmakers who make them, runs deep.

In a relatively short amount of time, he’s worked with a litany of one-name directors: Scorsese. Coppola. Spike. Mann. Spielberg. Jarmusch. Soderbergh. In a movie age where franchises, not filmmakers, have ruled the industry, Driver has stayed remarkably loyal to directors compelled to make personal films. He gamely followed Francis Ford Coppola into “Megalopolis” and helped Michael Mann realize his decades-long passion project, “Ferrari.”

This fall, he co-stars in his third Jarmusch movie, the Venice prize-winner “Father Mother Sister Brother.” All Jarmusch needed to do was ask, Driver says, and he was in, no matter the role. While “Father Mother Sister Brother” was playing at the New York Film Festival, Driver met a reporter shortly before leaving to Budapest to shoot “Alone at Dawn” with Ron Howard. It’s a meaningful film for Driver, a former Marine. In it, he plays John Chapman, an Air Force combat controller who was killed fighting in Afghanistan in 2002.

“It deals with character and story and — just tying it with ‘Father Mother Sister Brother’ — that’s why I like these filmmakers so much,” Driver says. “They’re seemingly few and far between and are making films that feel like they were directed by a person.” But Driver’s faith in filmmakers isn’t always shared by the powers that be in the industry. In a lengthy conversation that often touched on Driver’s concerns about current Hollywood trends, he revealed that he and Steven Soderbergh spent two years developing a “Star Wars” film that was ultimately nixed by the Walt Disney Co.

“I always was interested in doing another ‘Star Wars,’” says Driver, who starred as Kylo Ren in the trilogy kicked off by “The Force Awakens.” “I had been talking about doing another one since 2021. Kathleen (Kennedy) had reached out. I always said: With a great director and a great story, I’d be there in a second. I loved that character and loved playing him.”

Driver says he took a concept to Soderbergh for a film that would take place after 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker.” That movie culminated in Ren’s redemption and apparent death. Driver had undertaken the trilogy with an arc in mind for Ren that inverted the journey of Darth Vader. As the trilogy evolved, it didn’t play out that way. Driver felt there was unfinished business for Kylo Ren, or as he was known before turning to the Dark Side, Ben Solo.

Soderbergh and Rebecca Blunt outlined a story that the group then pitched to Kennedy, Lucasfilm vice president Cary Beck and Lucasfilm chief creative officer Dave Filoni. They were interested, so the filmmakers then pulled in Scott Z. Burns to write a script. Driver calls the result “one of the coolest (expletive) scripts I had ever been a part of.”

“We presented the script to Lucasfilm. They loved the idea. They totally understood our angle and why we were doing it,” Driver says. “We took it to Bob Iger and Alan Bergman and they said no. They didn’t see how Ben Solo was alive. And that was that.” Soderbergh, in a statement, said: “I really enjoyed making the movie in my head. I’m just sorry the fans won’t get to see it.” Representatives for Disney and Lucasfilm declined comment.

It’s been a period of transition for the feature-film operations of “Star Wars.” Kennedy, the longtime Lucasfilm president, is expected to step down by the end of the year. After a feature-film lull, numerous projects are in various stages of development or production including Jon Favreau’s “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” Shawn Levy’s “Starfighter” with Ryan Gosling, a film directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy featuring Daisy Ridley returning as Rey, a James Mangold-directed movie and a new saga helmed by Simon Kinberg.

Associated Press