Paul Walter Hauser

I don't worry about that so much because I also know I'm fiercely competitive and I'm not fully mentally well. So I know that when I'm 60, I'll still be getting weird and doing different stuff. It doesn't mean I'm better than so-and-so. It just means that's how I'm built, I think. I may be proven wrong in 30 years. Who knows?

But my hope is that when I'm 60 and maybe have a couple more nominations or something under my belt, And some people are like, that's a classy actor. That's a real actor, that guy. I hope I'm still showing up and doing shows like I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. I hope I'm still showing up at WrestleMania and someone's putting me through a table. I hope MLW is still having me back.

These are the things I do think about is never take away your self-amusement and your competitive spirit and your sense of play.

and i don't think that'll happen to you you know what's it like being competitive as an actor dude people don't even think about the way i think about it i'm i'm a weirdo like i i'm way too insecure and in my head with competitive nature i i don't think guys like paul dano and adam driver think the way i think i think they're very content focused and they probably don't think about it as much i i very much think about the guys in my bracket

And I'm, you know, Aaron Paul said to me very early in my career, I did a movie with him that few people saw. And Aaron Paul gave me advice. He said, you got to beat the town. Who are you the next of? Who are you up against? Who are the guys you see at all your auditions? You got to beat those guys out. And I kept a list of like 30, 40 guys that I was slowly trying to get all the jobs.

And then eventually I, there were like me and four or five other guys in the top bracket. And I was like, damn, okay. And now I'm at the point where if these three people pass, they come to me. So it's like, I'm still in my head. I'm still like, I still have this dogged obsession of, I want to, I want to be the guy that gets the offer before them.

But you know, that also never stops because Christian Bale says that about DiCaprio. He has been very vocal about saying like, if DiCaprio passes, I get the offer. And it's like, so maybe that happens forever, you know?

Oh, no, no, no. Never that. It's all support. It's all love. It's just me trying to make me the best, not to anyone else's detriment or put down. It's just... me trying to show my teeth every time I open my mouth. That's all. But I love the guys coming up. I love Will Poulter, Fred Hechinger, Joseph Quinn, Chalamet is great. There's a lot of guys coming up that are great, I think.

What happened with that? It's all fake news. It's... Tarantino and I have never had a meeting. He's never contacted me. Some random blog site said that I was in contention or was overheard.

i had been offered the lead in the movie critic and it was news to me and me and my manager were freaking out i remember i was sitting on the toilet on my cell phone i'm like texting and suddenly i my phone blows up and i go on twitter and it was just like and all these people are talking about it i was like what the hell is going on and you know for us we thought maybe it was true and we just hadn't

been given the offer maybe somebody internally spilled the beans at a luncheon at the san vicente bungalows and somebody texted somebody and they put it online you know you never know yeah but uh but it turned out that i guess bill maher had tarantino on his show the basement show that looks like everybody's a prisoner to bill oh yeah the one where he like smokes weed in front of hawk to a girl and everybody looks like a kept woman while he drinks and gets high yeah but yeah he

he and tarantino very briefly talked about me and mar was kind of putting me over saying like he was in richard jewell he was good and tarantino was like yeah he's been in a few things but whatever i think people just thought i was gonna cast him because you know he looks like he could be a movie critic and i was like oh like it totally was like uh like a kidney shot from a boxer i had to i had to take a knee and be like oh that hurt yeah oh i wish i wasn't contention but also like

know there's a real world out there where wars are being fought if i'm not a tarantino movie i think i'll be okay but yeah i i do i do love the guy i love his work and you know i'd love to be a fly on that wall and and do anything in one of his movies yeah and also i think if you're if you're having your name thrown around in baseless rumors for a quentin tarantino movie but they're believable enough where people like i could see that happen that's probably a good thing too right

Certainly. Yeah, it certainly brings a smirk to your face that people can believe that. And, you know, I've had I've had meetings with big name directors who were thinking about using me for something. And for whatever reason, they went another way. And and if anything, that is just fodder for encouragement. Like, hey, you you never know. You could wake up and.

You could wake up and I could be doing a recurring guest star on a sitcom or I could be in a Spielberg movie. And that's kind of a fun, exciting way to live your life, you know, to sort of feel the pendulum swinging back and forth. And the key is to just have fun and honor every commitment.

Treat a scrimmage like the Super Bowl is what I always tell young actors because you never know who's watching and you want to honor everyone. the fact that anyone gives a crap about you and gave you a role because they could cast somebody else. Yeah.

No, but I'm a fan. I love his brief but impactful performance in Can't Hardly Wait. And I've certainly been a fan of his from Stand By Me. And he seems like a nice guy. Yeah.

I think it'd be a little shallow to just say that he's got a hot wife and did the now cult classic Kangaroo Jack, right? I was trying to go for deeper cuts.

Is it Rebecca Romaine? Yes. Oh, you pervert. You're a pervert.

Yeah. It's not like I know how to spell her last name. Capital R-O-M-I-J-N. Exactly. That would be crazy. I would like to see you and Jerry in a movie together. I feel like that would be good. Yeah, you and Jerry. Jerry's a good actor. Or maybe that's the next hit sitcom is he's my stepdad and I'm like, we're trying to help each other out and we're both total messes or something.