Liev Schreiber Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters

Sid, you okay?

Cotton.

Can we talk for a sec?

Mm-mm.

This isn't a good time. [Cotton scoffs]

Come on, Sid.

You sent me to prison.

I did over a year for you. You can give me two minutes.

At that point in my career,

I didn't really fully understand

the value of being in a franchise.

I was just like, How many times can I play this character?

And now I realize

that you can play that character

as many times as they want you to.

[upbeat music]

Ray Donovan.

You got a job for me, tell me what it is.

If not, thanks for the pen. You got a nice house.

No, wait, Mr. Donovan.

Exactly what do you do?

I knew what a fixer was.

I mean, they've been around forever

and in the old days,

when, in the studio system,

when actors were under contract

to various studios,

there were these guys who were contracted to protect them

and to keep them out of trouble and harm's way,

which, with some of these actors, was fairly difficult.

So that was the first incarnation of fixers

that I knew about,

and then, of course,

as we moved into the age of litigation,

they became some of these insane lawyers

who go above and beyond

the boundaries of what their practice allows them to do

to protect their clients and to go after people.

After doing it for seven years,

it was a dual-edged sword.

I was relieved to be done,

but I was also disappointed

that we didn't have a chance to finish

the arc,

the narrative.

It felt early.

It felt like we hadn't done that,

we hadn't achieved that yet

with where we stopped,

and then the next thing was just how,

you know, you shoot these things

and you do this work

kind of in a bubble.

Like, in the theater,

you have an audience

and you can feel them reacting,

but sometimes with these TV shows,

you don't know.

You don't know what's out there

and you don't realize

the extent of the support you have,

and I was really, really moved

by how upset the fans were

that we got canceled

and how they rallied

to get us to finish our story,

and that was a great feeling.

♪ So ♪

♪ Tell me I'm crazy ♪

♪ Maybe I know ♪

♪ Can't help ♪

We did our best with the time we had

and the shot we had,

but, you know, Ray could've gone a lot further.

I don't know if anybody's really interested in,

you know, Ray with a colostomy bag,

but I was really, really grateful

that people stayed with us so long

and that people cared about us enough

to actually write to the network

and petition to have us complete our narrative.

And as far as I was concerned, the movie was for the fans.

Well, it was actually an episode

from a previous season

that I'd already started to work on with David

that we ended up expanding

into what became the movie.

So we'd already started that work

and it was me really loving the actors

who played Young Ray and Young Mickey

and wanting to fill in some of those blanks

to sort of do the origin story a little bit

and pursue that.

It was an extraordinary cast.

That was like, that was probably the hardest part

of leaving that show

is that that becomes your family

and Jon will always be like a brother to me,

and Eddie and Dash

and Paula,

Pooch.

It's hard to describe that feeling

of how close you get

when you work together that much

over that long a period of time,

and then to not see each other

was a really hard period of adjustment for me.

[upbeat music]

Scream 1 through 3.

I thought it was super cool.

I mean, I'd never worked in the movie business, really,

and suddenly, here I was at this thing

that was like

really a hot ticket.

Yeah, the decoy scripts

and signing NDAs.

I didn't think I would ever have to do something like that,

but, yeah, I was very excited.

All I knew about the first Scream

is I hadn't really done much at that point.

I'd just gotten outta school

and I was like, This is the most

anyone is ever gonna pay me

to walk up some stairs,

'cause that was really all I had to do

in the first Scream.

And then the film just took off

on the backs of all these other actors

and Kevin and Wes.

It was a phenomenon.

I had lucked myself into a job,

'cause it was ongoing.

And then we did Scream 2

and ultimately, Scream 3.

Kevin really was the genius

behind the script

and he was open to collaboration

and all I remember was thinking,

You know, this guy's kind of a ham,

Cotton.

He likes attention.

I think that was the piece

that Kevin was interested in,

that he sort of ran with.

I think I suggested something like,

Everybody gets their 15 minutes. Cotton wants an hour.

No, uh-uh, Sidney.

I don't know,

maybe because I fucking deserve a little exposure.

[Cotton laughs]

I mean, come on, Sidney.

You drag my name through the mud.

Everybody thinks I'm some kind of psycho killer,

and all I'm asking for

is one little fucking Diane Sawyer interview

to maybe get my side.

At that point in my career,

I didn't really fully understand

the value of being in a franchise.

To be frank, I was like,

Let me get out of this

while I can.

Get out,

get out while things are going well,

and I just thought it would be fun

to be one of the iconic kills from the top.

I was working and doing a lot of stuff,

a lot of other stuff in New York in theater

and I was just like,

How many times can I play this character?

And now I realize

that you can play that character

as many times as they want you to.

I kind of suggested that they knock me off.

Part of the device of the movies was that

somebody in the first five minutes gets killed

and we really don't expect them to get killed.

Which, now, I'm kinda kicking myself,

'cause I would've liked to be in

Scream 5? 6? I can't remember what number it is.

[upbeat music]

X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Your little mind games don't work on me.

Victor!

[tense dramatic music]

I was really just following the script

that I was given,

and the script that I was given

outlined these brothers

who were kind of two sides of a coin,

one that

was able to control his rage better than the other

and that the problem with both of them

was that they had this rage in them

which was part of their superpower

but also

part of the trouble.

Initially, I was so excited

when Hugh came to me,

and then I realized,

Oh, this is a superhero thing.

I went to Hugh and I said, There's a suit, right?

And he's like, What do you mean?

I was like,

'Cause, you know, the muscles and everything,

that's not real, is it?

He's like, Ah, mate,

you gotta work out.

That was the beginning of my tutelage,

Hugh teaching me how to train.

There was this part of my toolkit as an actor

that I wasn't taking advantage of,

that I always thought your body is your body

and that, you know,

changing it

was not part of it for me.

And Hugh taught me how to do that.

I was having the time of my life, you know.

I had done a bunch of stunts,

and fight choreography was something I always loved.

And this was just two months of...

Like, I was in heaven.

I was having so much fun.

And building the character with Hugh,

I was working with somebody

that I just

I really enjoyed working with.

Lynn is somebody I had worked with before.

We'd done Hamlet together.

And it was just a great trip.

We were in New Zealand.

We were in Australia.

It was...

I look back on that time,

very fond memories.

[Producer] What led into you

not rejoining later in Logan?

They didn't ask me!

[Liev laughs]

No, I mean...

I don't think it was,

I don't think he was part of that story.

I don't...

He wasn't part of that story.

I would've loved to bring Victor back,

anytime,

anywhere.

But it wasn't part of that narrative.

I'm wondering if I'm getting

a little long in the tooth, so to speak,

but probably not for Sabretooth.

[wood breaking]

[dramatic music]

[Logan yells]

[Logan grunts]

And trying to understand

why Sabretooth is always coming after Wolverine.

It's like, Why is he always coming at him?

And for me,

it made sense when these guys were pitching to me

that they were related,

that they were two sides of the same coin.

And, you know,

I always loved that narrative arc from the comics

that Sabretooth just shows up on his birthday every year

to whoop his ass.

I just thought, You can put that anywhere.

I mean, Ryan did such a great job

with that transition,

'cause I felt like it was,

in many ways,

so antithetical to who that character was in Origins.

But I'm glad

that Ryan was able to correct that mistake.

[upbeat music]

Isle of Dogs.

I've always been a huge fan of Wes.

So when he finally asked me to do something -

and he asked me to play a dog,

which is something that I actually excel at

in my own home;

I'm sort of known for my dog voices -

I was really excited,

'cause I was like,

Not only am I gonna get to work with Wes,

but I'm gonna be right in my sweet spot,

which is dog voices.

And, of course, I get to my first session with Wes

and I'm doing all my silly dog voices,

and he's just like, Yeah, no.

I really,

I really sort of just wanted your voice.

And I was like, Oh. Shit.

That's...

I finally get to do my dog voices

and he really, he just wanted my voice.

You're my new master.

My name is Spots. I'm at your service.

I'll be protecting your welfare and safety

on an ongoing basis.

Part of what's so great about Wes' characters,

especially the animated ones,

they're so human

that he just wants those sort of naturalistic traits

on the animals.

But it was,

it was a really, really thrilling experience for me.

I think Wes is on a very, very particular cinematic journey.

'Cause I've done another film with him -

a couple more.

We just finished Asteroid City,

which is coming out soon.

You'd have to ask Wes this,

but for me, I see the progression

of the films,

and I think that Asteroid City is a natural progression

of the rest of his films.

It's actually a film within a film.

And in terms of the acting on it,

I was really intrigued

by how specific he was about the acting style.

Because I think the progression

in his film

from Bottle Rocket to Asteroid City

is really compelling to me,

how he uses actors

and even the stop motion animation part.

I think it's all part of that,

that there is, I think,

almost a world in which

he wants to merge those two forms,

and in Asteroid City,

I think he does it.

He does a pretty great job of it.

How Wes uses actors

is integral to films.

You know, they're part of his whole thing,

and not everybody can pull that off.

But when you have someone

whose vision is so specific

and clear,

it's really satisfying to let go

of certain elements of control,

knowing that you're gonna go somewhere interesting.

You're gonna be led somewhere

that's gonna be compelling.

[upbeat music]

Spotlight.

Whether Mr. Garabedian is a crank or not,

he says he has documents that prove the cardinal knew.

As I understand it,

those documents are under seal.

Okay. But the fact remains

a Boston priest abused 80 kids.

We have a lawyer who says he can prove Law knew about it,

and we've written all of two stories

in the last six months.

I had been a huge fan

of Marty Baron

as an editor and as a journalist in general.

And I was extremely nervous

going to Washington to meet him.

I just, I couldn't imagine what he was thinking,

like, Who's this guy

from this Ray Donovan show

who's coming to play me?

To my surprise,

it seemed like he was just as nervous.

And so that was a really sort of interesting meeting.

But watching him work

and knowing

how principled he is

and how important it is

for him to hold powerful people accountable

and to speak truth,

to speak,

specifically, to speak truth to power

and how well he's done that.

And what a kind of gift he's been

to the communities that he's worked within

and how often he was not from those communities

was a really interesting story.

And I thought that Tom and Josh

did such a great job showing the isolation

that he felt there,

or that they suspected he felt.

For instance, in Boston,

there was something about his shyness

and his quiet power

that I just thought was interesting

and I thought worked well

with that theme of isolation

that Tom and and Josh had fleshed out in the script.

That is one of the proudest moments in my life

is to have made Marty Baron happy,

'cause I was terrified.

I mean, whenever you're playing characters who exist

or are alive, it's even worse.

It's a lot of responsibility,

particularly when they're people like Marty Baron.

But you just have to kind of trust

that you're not responsible to them.

You're responsible

to the narrative that you've been given,

the script,

and your character is really just playing a role

in something that expresses an idea

and a theme in a particular way.

So if you stick to that,

more often than not,

it's the best way to go.

That's the fun of acting.

That's the fun of making films

is you're handed a script,

you read that script,

and you try to,

as an actor, I think it's our job,

or at least this is what one of my teachers,

Lloyd Richards, used to say,

that an actor is an instrument of the playwright.

You read this script

and you try to figure out

what that playwright is trying to express,

or in the case of a film,

what that screenwriter is trying to express,

and how your role accomplishes that,

what you need to contribute to the film to accomplish that.

And part of what I love about the work

that Tom and Josh do as filmmakers

is that it's a lot of little pieces

that are assembled together

to express something.

And Marty's was a little piece,

but it was a really, really important piece.

And for me,

it was about those people

who have the courage

to hold powerful entities, organizations, accountable.

I really feel like Marty,

as an editor,

spoke to a time

when journalists were very, very reliable.

[upbeat music]

A Small Light.

And once we're up and running,

we'll need more people.

So why don't you come back in a few months?

My parents are gonna make me marry my brother

if I don't get a job.

But it's not as bad as it sounds.

I'm adopted.

But still,

would you want to marry your brother?

Most people know the story of Anne Frank.

It's kind of been in American curriculum for a while.

Hopefully it stays there.

People are challenging that now.

But not everybody knows Miep Gies,

who is the woman who actually hid the Frank family

for almost two years

and fed them

and kept them alive until they were found.

I think seeing that story

from a new perspective

is part of what keeps it fresh.

I think the other thing that keeps it fresh

is Bel's performance.

I also think Tony and Joan's script,

trying to make it have a contemporary feel

really helps you understand

how these things have a way

of repeating themselves.

And so I do think it's important

that we teach a new generation

about these stories, that, you know

for some reason, anti-Semitism is on the rise again.

And it's like, we have to check it,

we have to look at it,

and we have to go, No. No hate. No lies.

We can't do it.

You know?

And you have to remind people what happened

and what the truth is.

And I think to do that in a compelling way,

certainly for future generations,

you have to come at it with a fresh story

and a fresh idea.

It's your birthday!

And your wife called this morning

and asked if I'd surprise you with a cake.

But we got really busy and we worked through lunch.

I didn't have time to go out.

But there's a really nice bakery just down there.

So either you come with me

and I'll buy you a cake

or please just explain to your wife that I tried,

because frankly, I find her quite scary.

She's very intimidating.

With someone like Otto, I get,

you know, the pressure's on,

because it's a sort of a very, very well-known character

and has been interpreted many times before.

But, again, you just gotta lean into

what the script you've been given is trying to do.

What's the arc of that script

and how do you help express it

through your character?

You know,

the people at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam

and Anne Frank House in LA

were all really, really generous with me

in terms of giving me footage

and resources and material.

I was trying to find,

as you do in this situation,

I was trying to find things I hadn't seen before

for a real,

you know, to have a fresh take on it.

And so I was kind of interested

in what were the things

that Otto didn't want published in Anne's diary,

and getting to see some of those

and knowing how much he was struggling

within his own family dynamic

for that period of time

when they were locked up at Opekta.

That was a really interesting thing to know,

how much he was struggling in his marriage

and couldn't do anything about it.

He couldn't be alone

and work it out.

He had to sort of tough it out

for that period,

surrounded by people all the time.

And just those little nuances

and details of someone's humanity

kind of make it feel,

hopefully, a little bit more relatable.