Michael Stuhlbarg Had No Idea What ‘Digger’ Was About When He Filmed the Movie

Michael Stuhlbarg didn’t know what to expect when he got to the set of “Digger.” He just knew he had to be there.

The production of Oscar-winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new movie with Tom Cruise was shrouded in mystery, even to its star-studded cast, which was kept on a need-to-know-basis about what kind of movie they were making.

Still, Stuhbarg and the rest of the cast, which includes John Goodman, Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller, and Jesse Plemons, wanted answers.

“Our rehearsals allowed us that kind of time to ask as many questions: ‘What have you heard?’ ‘What can we expect?'” Stuhlbarg told Business Insider over the phone, describing the cast as a “repertory company” that filmed over seven months. “We were all in the same boat of learning about the movie at the same time.”

Those who haven’t seen Iñárritu’s provocative, twisty new climate-change satire have been kept similarly in the dark. Here’s what I can tell you: Tom Cruise plays an oil tycoon named Digger Rockwell who has a lot of explaining to do when one of his wells explodes. Riz Ahmed plays an environmentalist on Rockwell’s team, John Goodman plays the president of the United States, who is leaning on Rockwell to fix the problem, and Stuhlbarg plays his sheepish vice president.

Stuhlbarg’s performance matches the movie’s satirical tone as he delivers perfectly timed comedic reactions, often without dialogue, as the situation becomes increasingly dire. He attributes that talent to his training as a child under the iconic mime Marcel Marceau.

“It was one of those things where silence and thought was captured in a large scale,” he said. “Every beat, every moment, every breath, every gesture needed to be registered by Alejandro’s orchestration.” 

It’s just the latest top-notch performance from Stuhlbarg, who broke out playing the lead in the Coen brothers’ 2009 drama “A Serious Man” after decades in theater. Since then, he’s had memorable roles in everything from “Boardwalk Empire” to “Call Me by Your Name.”

For the latest interview in Business Insider’s Role Play series, Stuhlbarg spoke about playing Timothée Chalamet’s dad in “Call Me by Your Name,” getting blindsided by Woody Allen’s directing tactics on “Blue Jasmine,” and the unique way Daniel Day-Lewis connected with him on the set of Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln.”

On learning the movie business from the Coen brothers and getting acting tips from Woody Allen

Business Insider: You got your start on the stage, appearing in over 35 productions playing everyone from King Richard II to Hamlet, before you got “A Serious Man.” At that time, were you content to be a stage actor the rest of your life?

Michael Stuhlbarg: I hadn’t really thought about it, to tell you the truth. Theater was where I was initially most comfortable, so to get to work with Joel and Ethan [Coen] for an extended period of time in front of the camera for the very first time, it was absolutely a learning experience.

I remember speaking to Joel before we started and he said, “Do you want to look at what we’re doing?” And I was like, “Nah, you let me know if you need me to see something, but otherwise I’ll do it and you tell me if it’s working or not working.” 

What was it like to be the star of a Coen brothers movie? You were the face of that movie, on the poster, all over the trailer, the award campaigns. For someone from the stage, was it daunting?

I was ready for it when it happened to me. I had built my sea legs enough; I felt like I was the right guy for that moment. And the rest of it was a delight. It was a remarkable welcome into a craft that, even though I knew very little about it, I felt like I was ready to listen and apply what I needed. And I had the best people in the business to guide me. 

That’s quite the understatement. By 2013, you had worked with the Coen brothers (“A Serious Man”), Martin Scorsese (“Hugo”), Barry Sonnenfeld (“Men in Black 3”), Steven Spielberg (“Lincoln”), and Woody Allen (“Blue Jasmine”). Would you say working with Woody Allen on “Blue Jasmine” was the project where you had the most restrictions put on your performance?

He knew what he wanted, and I think I just went along for the ride. There were some cases where he would basically go through it himself, being the actor that he is. 

Meaning, you’re standing there watching him act out the scene as you?

Yes. If I wasn’t giving him what he needed, he would jump in, give it a go, and then I would jump in and try to provide the color that he was asking for. 

As an actor, do you just think, OK, this is the gig? Or is there a shot to your ego? Hey, look at my resume! Why did you hire me?

I don’t really mind, to be honest with you. I’m there to help a director achieve a vision. Very rarely am I so imprinted with a role that I know deep in my bones that what I have to offer is the right answer for something, because I never know how it’s going to be captured —from what angle? I might be just part of the frame; who knows how things will be captured. So that’s a part of cinema. I choose my battles very carefully. I’ll say that. 

On going down mobster rabbit holes for ‘Boardwalk Empire’ and working with Timothée Chalamet

You said you got obsessed with playing infamous Jewish Mob kingpin Arnold Rothstein on the HBO series “Boardwalk Empire.” How obsessed did you get?

When you’re given a real person to inhabit, like I was, obsession can be helpful in terms of learning as much as you can, which was simply my objective. Gambling, I had a tutor for, and billiards, I also had a tutor for. And there was a biography about him that gave me a lot of things to apply to my performance as well.

He was a historical character in a historical fiction story, so his real life provided the background. And that then led to the imaginative leap that we all have to take in storytelling. 

Your performance as the father of Timothée Chalamet’s character in “Call Me by Your Name” is a career highlight. How do you go about working with younger actors, and did working with Chalamet change at all when you did “Bones and All”?

We all meet each other where we are. So I don’t think of it as young and old, I think of it as individuals meeting and sharing energy together. With “Call Me by Your Name,” I felt naturally drawn to want to share as much as he would want to share with me. He was so dynamic and fun. It was fun to engage with him at that time in his life, and then we got to meet up again a couple of years later. His experiences had been remarkable to him, and that was reflected in his energy. You throw your energies together and hope for good things. 

On battling Daniel Day-Lewis in ‘Lincoln’ and exchanging grins with Tom Cruise

Compare and contrast acting opposite Daniel Day-Lewis, as you did in “Lincoln,” and Tom Cruise in “Digger.”

The circumstances dictate how behavior is manifest. With Daniel, we were all so delighted to get to be in that world of President Lincoln: 1860s in America. It was part of that adventure for all of us to remove all anachronistic items from our persons when we entered these rooms so we were absolutely in the world. And Daniel was as welcoming as anyone has ever been, and open to play. Generous. Wonderfully weighty in his bearing down upon my character, as his character is trying to get me to vote his way, and I enjoyed very much being a barrier to that.

And when you mean weight with Daniel, you mean literal. 

Yes! He came over between one take and kind of took his elbows and leaned from behind on my shoulders, so it was the physical manifestation of how his character was trying to apply pressure to my situation. It was both wonderfully unique to him and really generous, because it gave me something to play off of. I hope to get to play with him again. 

With Tom, this experience has been unlike any other, and the world in which we are creating is huge and full of dynamic energy and ideas. To see his enthusiasm, which is so infectious, and his delight, generosity, and support to all of us to find our way and make us feel comfortable so we can provide what was needed, it was really fun. 

I remember in the Situation Room scene where we are all watching what is happening on a screen, he looked over to me between takes, and he had a big old grin. He said to me, “I really enjoy playing with you!” And I was like, “Me too, let’s do it some more!” It was a lovely moment.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. 

“Digger” is in theaters now.