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\t\t\t\t\tOn Abdul-Mateen II: Yves Saint Laurent shirt, tie, pants. On Braff and Wilson: own clothes. On Ford: Paul Smith suit; Ford\u2019s shirt, tie, socks; John Vanderhoff shoes. On Powell: Caruso suit, shirt; Saint Laurent shoes. On Ahmed: Louis Vuitton suit, shoes; Completed Works ring; stylist\u2019s\u202ftee.<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Beau Grealy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n\tThe reflection comes early in a boisterous hour-plus with the sextet \u2014 Glen Powell<\/a> (Chad Powers), Owen Wilson<\/a> (Stick), Zach Braff<\/a> (Scrubs), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II<\/a> (Wonder Man) and Riz Ahmed<\/a> (Bait) \u2014 gathered at The Georgian Hotel for THR\u2018s annual Comedy Actor Emmy Roundtable. Over a few Bloody Marys, the men swap stories and advice about navigating fame, fandom and their own insecurities.<\/p>\n \n\tWhat\u2019s the wildest thing a fan has come up to you and said?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tHARRISON FORD<\/strong> \u201cMy mother wants to sleep with you\u201d \u2014 loudly announced in an airport.<\/p>\n \n\tGLEN POWELL<\/strong> I didn\u2019t mean it, by the way. It was the first time I was meeting you \u2026<\/p>\n \n\tFORD<\/strong> I know. And your mom didn\u2019t mean it, either. (Laughter.) <\/p>\n \n\tRIZ AHMED<\/strong> Once, somebody asked me to sign something, and I signed it and then they chased me down the street and started yelling at me: \u201cThat\u2019s not your signature!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tZACH BRAFF<\/strong> I was once parallel parking in Manhattan and doing a really poor job, and a guy just walked by and went, \u201cYou\u2019re killing it, Braff.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tOWEN<\/strong> WILSON<\/strong> You feel that somehow your street cred is on the line with parallel parking.<\/p>\n \n\tBRAFF<\/strong> I know. And it\u2019s bad enough when you\u2019re doing it anonymously and fucking it up.<\/p>\n \n\tGlen, you must get some wild ones? <\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tPOWELL<\/strong> I did have somebody ask me to sign a photo that was like a family photo that there\u2019s no way they would have access to. <\/p>\n \n\tFORD<\/strong> Of your family?<\/p>\n \n\tYAHYA ABDUL-MATEEN II <\/strong>And they asked you to sign it? <\/p>\n \n\tPOWELL<\/strong> Yeah. So, I\u2019m sitting there like, \u201cWhere did you get that?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAHMED <\/strong>That\u2019s scary.<\/p>\n \n\tFORD<\/strong> Did they already have the rest of your family sign it and you were the closer? <\/p>\n \n\tPOWELL<\/strong> I was the closer. (Laughter.) There\u2019s [also] a woman in London who has been printing out pictures of my face for the last 80 days and has eaten my face every day. Literally will eat my face until I give her a role in a movie.<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> Whoa, you\u2019ve had some really chilling encounters. <\/p>\n \n\tPOWELL <\/strong>I didn\u2019t know this was a thing until it was described to me while I was on the red carpet. They\u2019re like, \u201cHey, the girl that eats your face is on the red carpet.\u201d I go, \u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBRAFF<\/strong> How did she get red carpet access?!<\/p>\n \n\tPOWELL<\/strong> That\u2019s what I was like. \u201cGuys, come on, this is a real liability.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tFord says he can\u2019t tell the difference between a Star Wars, Indiana Jones or Shrinking fan: \u201cYou should be able to spot it coming.\u201d \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Beau Grealy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n\tRiz\u2019s show, like Yahya\u2019s, is about an actor in that fake-it-till-you-make-it stage of his career. He\u2019s literally keeping the tags on his Prada sweaters to return them after auditions. What do you miss most and least about that phase of your career?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> I wouldn\u2019t miss doing auditions. That\u2019s always a very uncomfortable thing. I had a friend that went in for an audition, and he got really bad cottonmouth, where it was almost like his voice was whistling.<\/p>\n \n\tABDUL-MATEEN<\/strong> Aw, man.<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> And you know when you finish, everybody says, \u201cWell, thank you. That was terrific\u201d?<\/p>\n \n\tABDUL-MATEEN<\/strong> But everybody knows \u2026<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> Everybody knows! And he was so embarrassed, and he leaves and he went out the wrong door.<\/p>\n \n\tABDUL-MATEEN<\/strong> Oh no.<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> He was out on the balcony.<\/p>\n \n\tABDUL-MATEEN<\/strong> Oh no.<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> And rather than go back inside \u2026<\/p>\n \n\tABDUL-MATEEN<\/strong> He jumped off?<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> He climbed down the fire escape. So, you think about the people in the room waiting, going, \u201cOh, God. Now this guy who can\u2019t talk is out on the balcony. Well, we got to wait for him to come back. Where is he?\u201d Then looking out and seeing him like Starsky & Hutch jumping off a fire escape.<\/p>\n \n\tFORD<\/strong> That should have gotten him the part.<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> You\u2019re right.<\/p>\n \n\tABDUL-MATEEN<\/strong> Where is he now?<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> Actually, it was my older brother.<\/p>\n \n\tPOWELL<\/strong> Wait, it was Andrew?<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> It was Andrew.<\/p>\n \n\tPOWELL<\/strong> That is great.<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> So, yeah, I wouldn\u2019t miss stuff like that.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tStyling by Felicity\u202fKay. Louis Vuitton suit, shoes (group shot); Completed Works ring; stylist\u2019s\u202ftee.<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Beau Grealy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n\tAnyone else?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tAHMED<\/strong> What popped into my head was this sense of dancing like no one\u2019s watching is the best dancing. And I think about some of the films I did in the beginning, and I was 100 percent certain no one would watch, which was so liberating.<\/p>\n \n\tYou could just take swings. But sometimes you get that thing in your head that people will see this, and it can get in your way.<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> Inhibit you, yeah. I also wouldn\u2019t miss that feeling you get, when you\u2019re a bit more established, of being nervous, where you do feel self-conscious. It\u2019s nice to get to a place where you have some confidence, like, \u201cOh, they can\u2019t really do anything to me now.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tABDUL-MATEEN<\/strong> I actually went through a bit of a wave because breaking into this thing with my first job, I was like, \u201cI like my ideas.\u201d I was a big fan of myself, and I\u2019d go out and that was really the energy [I\u2019d bring]. And then I started to get feedback, and it was like, \u201cOh, maybe I don\u2019t have the best ideas.\u201d That was the first time that I was engaging with that. <\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> That idea? That possibility? What a reckoning that must have been. (Laughter.)<\/p>\n \n\tABDUL-MATEEN<\/strong> Right, right, right. But now I\u2019m enjoying the freedom that comes with having been around the block a couple times. I\u2019m like, \u201cNo, I do like my ideas.\u201d My ideas are what make me me.<\/p>\n \n\tFORD<\/strong> I\u2019m reminded of a piece of advice that Marlon Brando is said to have offered. He said that you can\u2019t care or they\u2019ll see it on your face \u2014 but you\u2019ve got to care before you decide to not care. You\u2019ve got to care a lot to take care of your part of the job. But then that not-caring part is like turning out the lights and dancing. It\u2019s critical to be able to retain that freedom that you felt when it didn\u2019t matter so much. Because now all of a sudden, it\u2019s your fault that the movie is not making money, so you\u2019ve got to be a little bit more careful. No. You shouldn\u2019t. You can\u2019t. It\u2019s the end of it when you do that.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\u201cI was so obsessed with Zoolander, I wrote a treatment for Zoolander 2,\u201d says Powell. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Beau Grealy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n\tZach, you were in your 20s when Scrubs hit the first time and then you made Garden State. What was the blessing and the curse of having that success so early? <\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tBRAFF<\/strong> Well, I think it dovetails with what these guys were just saying where I was instantly so huge, so fast, and I got very self-conscious and didn\u2019t know how to follow it all up. You hear a lot of bands talking about their first album. Garden State was a success, and they were like, \u201cAll right, good. What\u2019s next?\u201d And I was like, \u201cWhat\u2019s next? I\u2019ve been writing that movie my whole life.\u201d (To Wilson) You must have experience with this, with your films \u2026 <\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> Yeah, yeah.<\/p>\n \n\tBRAFF <\/strong>I felt like it peaked and I was hosting SNL and all these things were happening, and I didn\u2019t really know how to keep that going or follow it up, and I got in my head about it and was overly precious about it. And once you start getting in your head too much, you really can get in your way. I think I did in some ways.<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> Sometimes it does seem like the old studio system where directors were just thrown in [to the next thing was healthier].<\/p>\n \n\tAHMED<\/strong> And because you\u2019d just get on the horse and go, people were given more opportunities to swing and miss.<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> Exactly.<\/p>\n \n\tAHMED<\/strong> Now, there is so much pressure on every swing. Like Harrison said, it\u2019s your fault if the movie is not making money. And there\u2019s so many eyeballs on everything, and there\u2019s people eating your face every day on TikTok. So, it can be hard to convince yourself that no one is watching because everyone is watching all the time in the most intense way in a business that feels more precious.<\/p>\n \n\tGlen, do you feel that? You can sometimes read headlines and think that you\u2019re almost supposed to save the theatrical experience \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tBRAFF<\/strong> Are you going to save the theatrical experience?<\/p>\n \n\tAHMED<\/strong> Could you please? <\/p>\n \n\tPOWELL<\/strong> Guys, please don\u2019t do this to me. (Laughter.) The thing that I think I\u2019ve started realizing is that it\u2019s very easy in this business to get in your own head or let the noise influence the way you feel about the job. And the thing is, sets are the happiest places on earth for me \u2014 if I\u2019ve done the work ahead of time. I actually did a movie with Owen when I was, like, 15, called The Wendell Baker Story. His brothers [Andrew and Luke] directed, and I played a paperboy. I remember getting the call that I was going to get to be in a movie with all these guys. I mean, Zoolander was also one of my favorite movies of all time. I almost got kicked out of church camp for doing a walk-off onstage. <\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> Whoa. <\/p>\n \n\tPOWELL<\/strong> That\u2019s another story. But after getting it, I remember practicing in our cul-de-sac with my mom, just throwing papers over and over and over, hundreds of rolled up papers, and then the feeling of confidence when you step on set, knowing that you are going to throw a paper better than anyone else. For me, discipline is the key to my happiness. If I feel like I haven\u2019t done the work, then that imposter syndrome, and probably the world at large, starts getting in your head and messes with it. But if I\u2019ve invested in it properly, I get to tune out the world and just enjoy the ride.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tWilson\u2019s own clothes.<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Beau Grealy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n\tWhat do you wish you knew about navigating fame and success and all that comes with it when you were starting out?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tFORD<\/strong> You don\u2019t have to, whatever it is.<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> Oh, that\u2019s good.<\/p>\n \n\tFORD<\/strong> We do have a choice, and we can make choices about our behavior. And for me, what I want to be is useful. I\u2019m not there to show off. I\u2019m there to do the work and get it done. And I love the company and I love what we\u2019re doing together and I love occasionally being scared of what I don\u2019t quite know how to do.<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> I remember a friend saying, \u201cIf you\u2019re on a set and you\u2019re not feeling really lucky to be there, there\u2019s a problem.\u201d And I\u2019m sure sometimes you do get that, where you\u2019re like, \u201cHmm, I don\u2019t feel that lucky to be here.\u201d (Laughter.)<\/p>\n \n\tABDUL-MATEEN<\/strong> Oh, yeah.<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> I\u2019ve worked on lots of things that haven\u2019t worked, but at least while I was working, I got to a place of believing, \u201cThis could be pretty great.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBRAFF<\/strong> Have you had this experience where it was awful and then it comes out, and you\u2019re like, \u201cFuck, that was good?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> I\u2019ve had much more the other way. (Laughter.)<\/p>\n \n\tPOWELL<\/strong> I have this letter in my office from Richard Linklater that he wrote to me right before Everybody Wants Some!! came out. We had the best time ever making this movie, and he probably knew it was going to make zero dollars \u2014 and he said, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to separate the experience of making a movie from the experience of releasing it. You\u2019ve got to literally protect both of those experiences as different things because otherwise the experience of releasing a movie will taint what it felt like to actually make it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> That\u2019s really good.<\/p>\n \n\tPOWELL<\/strong> It\u2019s saved me from a lot because that noise can get really loud and just taint how much fun this shit is.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tStyling by Jan\u202fMichael Quammie. Yves Saint Laurent jacket, shirt, tie, pants.<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Beau Grealy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n\tWhat would you all do if you had anonymity for a day? <\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tABDUL-MATEEN<\/strong> I assume I have it. One thing I\u2019m pretty adamant about is making sure that I keep the ability to do whatever I want to do. Because Harrison Ford said I don\u2019t have to. He said I don\u2019t have to make a choice. <\/p>\n \n\tFORD<\/strong> Also, if you\u2019re just acting like a normal person, nobody\u2019s going to pay attention to you.<\/p>\n \n\tBRAFF<\/strong> (To Ford) I see you walk around Manhattan. You\u2019re one of the most famous people on earth and you don\u2019t seem to let it affect how you behave.<\/p>\n \n\tAHMED<\/strong> It\u2019s a weird thing as actors because we all want to be looked at on some level. We also don\u2019t want to be seen.<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> Yeah, that\u2019s interesting.<\/p>\n \n\tAHMED<\/strong> So there\u2019s this weird push-pull, but I very recently made the decision to stop hiding. I don\u2019t want to wear my baseball cap or these glasses. And you know what happens? Nothing. A couple of people go, \u201cI like that movie.\u201d The world\u2019s a slightly friendlier place. Every now and again, maybe something weird happens. OK. You get on with your day. <\/p>\n \n\tFORD <\/strong>Right.<\/p>\n \n\tAHMED <\/strong>I think part of why we feel so happy and safe on these film sets is because we can be unguarded, and we can have these collisions and connections. So, I just said, \u201cI want to treat life like that a bit more.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tPOWELL<\/strong> (To Ford) We did Expendables 3 together. Oscar-nominated Expendables 3. We were at Cannes, going down the Croisette in tanks. <\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> So Hollywood.<\/p>\n \n\tPOWELL<\/strong> Oh, it was so Hollywood. We literally invaded Cannes in tanks. <\/p>\n \n\tAHMED<\/strong> It\u2019s why we love you guys in Europe. We really are big fans of Americans. (Laughter.)<\/p>\n \n\tPOWELL <\/strong>But I remember showing up, and you have some of the biggest action stars in the world in this movie, and a lot of the guys had these big bodyguards that are jacked, they got the earpiece, and they just looked like they had something to protect. And then you walked right from the plane into Cannes, and no one bothered you. I watched it happen, and I was like, \u201cWow, if you don\u2019t act like it\u2019s a thing, it won\u2019t be a thing.\u201d You figured out how to do it. It was awesome.<\/p>\n \n\tFORD<\/strong> Well, they thought I was you. (Laughter.)<\/p>\n \n\tPOWELL<\/strong> By the way, there was no reason for me to be in that cast. <\/p>\n \n\tFORD<\/strong> There was no reason for anybody to be in that cast! (Laughter.)<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\u201cOnce you start getting in your head too much, you really can get in your way,\u201d says Braff of early successes in Scrubs and Garden State. \u201cI\u202fthink I did in some\u202fways.\u201c \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhotographed by Beau Grealy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n\tGlen<\/strong>, I believe<\/strong> you wore your Chad Powers prosthetics out in the world, or at least to a Starbucks<\/strong>?<\/p>\n \n\tPowell<\/strong> Yeah, I\u2019ve worn them out just for fun. Not as a lifestyle.<\/p>\n \n\tAbdul-Mateen II<\/strong> He\u2019s giving it a test run.<\/p>\n \n\tWhat was your experience walking in those shoes?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tPowell<\/strong> There\u2019s something really fun about it \u2013 you\u2019re putting on prosthetics and doing something a little crazy. The buy-in of the show is kind of wild, but there\u2019s something, as an actor, about the freedom of getting away from your face for a bit and just really, really swinging for something. But it\u2019s not going to be a lifestyle. You\u2019re not going to see me go off the reservation and full method.<\/p>\n \n\tYahya, not too long ago, you defined \u201cfreedom\u201d as being at a place in your career where you don\u2019t have to live in New York or L.A. anymore. Talk to me about these moments where you think, \u201cMaybe I\u2019ll move to Kansas and just be a farmer.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tABDUL-MATEEN<\/strong> Glen and I have been talking about my little farm thing. And, actually, I met Riz back in 2021 at an event at the Soho Farmhouse.<\/p>\n \n\tWILSON<\/strong> The place outside of London?<\/p>\n \n\tABDUL-MATEEN <\/strong>Yes.<\/p>\n \n\tBRAFF<\/strong> I love that place, but I know a lot of English people will be like, \u201cThis is an American fantasy of where we\u2019re from.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAHMED<\/strong> Don\u2019t ruin it for him.<\/p>\n \n\tBRAFF <\/strong>No, I love it, too.<\/p>\n \n\tABDUL-MATEEN<\/strong> I\u2019m going to own it, man, because as soon as I got on those grounds, my whole body just said, \u201cShh.\u201d So, I\u2019ve been looking for that \u2014 this idea of, \u201cI don\u2019t have to be in L.A. or New York constantly chasing the work, chasing the work.\u201d Looking for a farm is really just stepping out on faith and saying, \u201cYou know what? I need to stop and actually go get a life and trust that the work is still going to be there.\u201d That\u2019s really what my farm is about.<\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s still a dream, not a reality?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tABDUL-MATEEN<\/strong> I\u2019m getting closer. Has anyone seen Lenny Kravitz\u2019s farm in Brazil?<\/p>\n \n\t<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n
\nPaul Smith suit; Ford\u2019s shirt, tie, socks; John Vanderhoff shoes.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n
\nStyling by Warren Alfie Baker. Caruso suit, shirt; Saint Laurent shoes (group shot).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n
\nBraff\u2019s own clothes.<\/span><\/p>\n