One thing that you kind of know about the 'Star Wars' universe, but that you learn in a much more impactful way as you get into it, is that living in that universe is hard.
— Alden Ehrenreich
I was still auditioning when I was in college, but I wasn't really giving it the old college try. I was giving college the old college try.
I tend to be a bit of a hermit. A bit monkish. I like to tune out the context.
I don't find it very helpful to know who else is going up for stuff, generally.
This movie 'On the Road' with Kristen Stewart - they were trying to make that movie for 30 years. She says she wants to do it, and they can finally make it. You have so much at your disposal if you're in a successful commercial film.
Something that is appealing to me about old Hollywood is job security.
There's a lot of directors I'd still love to work with - one of them is Spielberg, because he kind of started my career, and I've not worked with him yet.
I just can't imagine having to do an accent all the time - like, in your whole career.
My mom wouldn't let me do child acting.
Paul Newman made eight of my favorite movies. He chose a certain kind of movie I really identified with.
I made short films in school.
I think everyone in high school at one point feels like they're on the outside observing what's going on. Even if you're very popular, you have an outsider experience.
With 'Running Scared,' I originally wanted to do a piece that was going to be about a couple, and the whole thing would be based on wall posts on Facebook. So the idea started there.
I'm glad that I had the upbringing I did where I was just part of what everyone else was a part of. And prom and all that.
I just really want to continue to play those roles where I really have something to do, and mainly, above all, work with people that I can learn from - directors I think are so great.
It's always been very important for me to be surrounded by people. It's never been enough for me to be successful alone. I want to be around people my own age who are also doing things I can learn from.
An era that I specifically like is sort of late '50s, early '60s. I guess mid '50s, too. I like these types of films that deal with post-WWII America and this more complex leading man that kind of emerges from that.
It's just cool to have lunch with Harrison Ford.
I had an iPhone, and then I'd forget my iPhone at home, and I'd be like, 'God, I feel so good. I'm having such a good day.' And then I'd realize, 'Oh - it's because I'm not checking my email nineteen thousand times.'
Like, you think, 'Oh, it's 'Star Wars,' everybody has a spaceship' - but no, actually, in the 'Star Wars' universe, having a ship is like having a yacht.
Whenever you hear somebody else is auditioning for something, you sort of assume they're going to get it. You should try to just ignore it.
It's appealing to me to get to be in a commercial film without feeling like I sold out.
I really don't know what it's like in 'Twilight,' but I know in the young-adult genre, there are these cold, aloof guys. If you start thinking that's the ideal guy when you're 13, by the time you're 25, you're going to have had some seriously bad relationships.
I carry around a black leather Moleskine journal all the time. And I always write ideas down, especially when I'm on set and working with actors like Jeremy Irons and Viola Davis and learning from them.
I listen to some really bad country.
My mother always cultivated my imagination from the time I was very little.
When you work for the Coens, they are so fun and so organized. They treat everyone with such respect.
Acting-wise, I've had all these experiences. Yet when I look at certain people whose careers I admire, they've gotten to play so many different characters.
When I was 12, I decided I was only going to watch Westerns for a few months.
There's movies that I would've loved to be in that I just wasn't even considered for because they need a name. And that happens so frequently that, after a while - from a creative standpoint - you just want to be able to have that opportunity to work with the best people. That opportunity is available to you with a certain level of notoriety.
I feel like some of the best roles that I've gotten to play I could've never preconceived. These things happen to you in an unexpected fashion, so it's hard to pre-imagine what that would be because some of the best opportunities I've had I could've never anticipated or expected.
My feeling is that I don't really care about the genre or the size of the movie. I care about the quality of the writing and the quality of the characters.
I was told one time never to go longer than an hour in an interview because you reveal yourself too much, but I never follow that rule.
The people I see every day have known me since I was a little fat kid.
One of the beautiful things about being a part of 'Star Wars' is that it's one of those few things that are community-building in that way. Maybe that way of putting it is a little self-important. But it is something we all have a connection to, something everybody knows about. There aren't that many of those things.
I don't have social media, and I'm not, I guess, that adept at being on the Internet.
I remember when I was 13 and telling people I wanted to be an actor, and being met with, 'Have fun waiting tables,' so I figured maybe that's not such a great idea after all.
I find it remarkable. It's surreal for me that I've gotten to work with so many people who are not only great filmmakers but whose films have had such a direct effect on me.
When you watch a lot of movies as a kid, the stories do shape a little bit how you view the world.
Every movie I've done, it's always the same criteria: finding a great story, and finding a great part to play.
What drew me to 'Beautiful Creatures' was the character that I get to play, Ethan. Within three pages, I knew he is so specific and interesting.
No one remembers it; none of my friends remember me having it, but I had really bad acne for, like, years.
My parents weren't involved in show business, but my parents would show me. We'd watch old films in the house. Little film festivals of Westerns and stuff like that when I was a kid. I knew I wanted to be those guys in those movies before I knew what being an actor was.
The biggest challenge to being an actor is, when you're not working, just being unemployed: the downtime and not having anything to do.
I had a great high-school experience. I had a lot of friends that I'm still really good friends with, but there's always times where a group can't understand what the individual is experiencing, or you're going through something at home that you can't bring to school and have a total understanding among your peers.
My parents were big film buffs.
I think, for me, the only real value to fame, stuff like that, is that you can then have a lot more creative power to get certain movies made and to do certain things.
Oh, I've been ridiculously lucky to work for, I'd say, five of the greatest directors of all time... and a lot of other great people, too.
To be honest, you go to a bat mitzvah in Los Angeles, and you can count on at least a few industry people to be there.
I did my first film with Francis Ford Copploa, which spoiled the hell out of me.
