Lewis Pullman Knows What to Do When It’s All Too Much

It’s not always easy being Lewis Pullman. Sure, the Top Gun: Maverick and Thunderbolts* star might be presenting at the Oscars and is looking spiffy in his Saint Laurent suit, but there’s a lot more to the man than most people know.

I got Pullman to open up a little bit on a phone call a few hours before the 98th Academy Awards. He’s not shy—in fact, that’s a common misconception he dispels later on—rather, everything he does is thoughtful. Let’s just start with the intention behind his Oscar’s outfit and the choice to wear Saint Laurent.

“I’ve been a fan of Anthony [Vacarello]’s work and everything that he does since I started out in this business. Saint Laurent does such a delicate ballet on that razor wire of giving a nod to the past, while also really challenging the status quo in very subtle and classy ways. And I like that,” he tells me. “There’s also something really cinematic about Anthony’s work that I admire. Maybe if I was in another profession, I would gravitate elsewhere, but there’s something about the classiness of the pageantry that he’s able to capture that I really enjoy.”

A cinematic outfit for a cinematic evening, and an evening that’s also a family affair. “I’m presenting with my dad. We are not coordinating,” Pullman laughs. “He is doing his own thing. He had some suits that Warren [Baker, Bill and Lewis’s stylist] had given him about two years ago that still fit. So he’s tossing one of those on and got a new pair of kicks.”

Our conversation continued, and we began to dig a little deeper past the traditional surface of modish takes, finding our way into a discussion of deep fears, personal misconceptions, and dealing with the pressures of a world that can sometimes feel a little too much. Pullman’s got a lot to say about it.

The Presenting Look

I don’t know how I got so lucky—maybe I got to him a little early or he just had an opening or something—but Warren is a true genius of what he does while making it look so effortless. He’s definitely much more conscious than I am about tweaking, catering, and having little easter eggs nod to whatever the occasion is. He’s a storyteller, while also being very gentle in his consciousness of making sure that I feel good, confident, and that it’s still me under the clothes. He’s definitely aware of what the fit should be as a presenter versus any other position. I think that there’s some presenter-ly touches to this outfit.

Fashion in the Family

I get so much [style inspiration] from pictures of my mom and dad in the ’90s. They were really challenging the status quo—they had a kind of hippie, beatnik, jazzy thing going on that they did so well. And growing up with an older sister, if I was ever going out, I would knock down my sister’s door and be like, “Is this cool, or is this cool?” So my sister is a huge inspiration for me, too.

On Style Purgatory

Why I love Warren so much is because he’s broken me out of my redundancies. I am definitely a creature of habit, wearing what feels comfortable, and it’s usually a pair of boots and a T-shirt and then some sort of jacket. I can’t stay away from navy blue. For some reason, I end up just buying different versions of the same thing and keeping myself in style purgatory. So it’s good to have somebody gently nudging you and herding you in different directions that challenge you a little bit.

Not to be pretentious, but as an actor it’s helpful when you put things on to try to identify: “Why doesn’t this feel like me? Why does this?” And then I have to be like, “Okay, maybe I’m going to an event where this is not totally me, and I need to inhabit a shade of a different character in order to walk through this room confidently.” I build a language around some things that might feel esoteric—like why I feel uncomfortable or look weird—let’s look further. Let’s unpack that. Why do I feel weird? Maybe I didn’t grow up seeing this? Or maybe it’s a different culture or place. That kind of dialogue is strangely fulfilling for me.

A Common Misconception

I’ve heard people say that I’m shy, and I know that I can be, but I just think that I gradually open up and shed that shyness. It depends on the situation, but I can be very, very not shy. I can be reserved when I first meet someone, and it takes a while to trust that I can be myself and not be shut down. Or … or! Sometimes it’s verified, like, “No, I’m just gonna stay shut here because I don’t really feel safe and this isn’t really a place to open up.”

On Extreme Fears…

I’m definitely afraid of losing my mind, I think more than dying. That terrifies me for some reason—leaving my body in the real realm but my mind being somewhere else. It’s something that’s extremely terrifying. I often have deathbed fears. I don’t want to be on my deathbed and wish I’d been a better friend, you know? I definitely do the deathbed exercise quite a lot. Oh, also, one of my big fears is swimming in the middle of the ocean, not being able to see any land, and I’m just treading water.

…and Mild Grievances

I hate when I’m in a rush and try to put my seat belt on in the car, and it goes into lock. I hate that. Other things that I hate? Asking for the Wi-Fi password. I don’t think there’s any cool way to do that. It is always an embarrassing act. I will go to great lengths without Wi-Fi so that I don’t ask for the Wi-Fi password. I don’t know why, but I think that that is like a criminal offense.

A Perfect Day

Sleep. Wake up without an alarm. Coffee. Hike with my dog—I’ve got a Blue Heeler, a little cattle dog. My whole family lives in a cul-de-sac about 15 minutes away, so I’d go over there and hang with my whole family, and my two nephews, and my niece. Then maybe I’d play some music with some friends, and then grab a burger and beer with my friends and go see a movie or something.

When It’s All Too Much

Whenever I get overwhelmed or it feels suffocating or I’m not enjoying it, I remind myself of why I love what I do so much and that I wouldn’t rather be doing anything else. I often think, “Well, if you’re so stressed about this whole thing, and you’re creating this big deal about it in your mind, what would you rather be doing?” It’s this comforting practice where it reminds me that the stakes are not so high, because I think about how I could enjoy working on a ranch or being a musician. It reframes it: you’re lucky and it’s not so damn life-threatening after all. Sometimes, it feels like there’s a lion at your heels when there’s literally nothing.

We’ve got a ranch in Montana with my aunt and uncle and a bunch of cattle. I think if I were to ever give up, I think my aunt would hire me to do irrigation, put in fence lines and do cattle drives with her. Hopefully she’d hire me.

Up Next

I’ve got a movie with Sally Field coming out next month on Netflix, called Remarkably Bright Creatures. It’s based on a book—a lot of people would even call it “The Octopus Book” (that was its nickname as a lot of people forget the title). I just saw it recently. It’s so incredible. It’s a very touching story. It comes out on Mother’s Day. It feels like a classic, Sally Field movie, like a revival of those movies that we loved so much with a contemporary glaze over it. It was with a great director, Olivia Newman, who did such a good job. I really do feel like we did justice to the book. I love the book a lot, and so it’s always a hard challenge, but we did our damndest.

I’ve also got this movie called Wishful Thinking that just premiered at South by Southwest on Thursday with me and Maya Hawke. It’s a surreal rom-com-drama. It’s very much like if Like Crazy and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind fused into one. It’s a beautiful, beautiful film. I’m really proud of that, and my best friend from high school directed it.

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