As Woody Guthrie in “A Complete Unknown,” Scoot McNairy has only a handful of scenes and maybe one word of dialogue. But the character actor makes a distinctive impression, applauding Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) when he sings to him, or sharing a close friendship with Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) who cares for him. There is something in McNairy’s expression that shifts from love, to pain, to joy, to soulfulness, to heartbreak. It is a small, beautifully modulated performance in a great film, and McNairy invests himself fully in the role.
“A Complete Unknown” is the third film in four months to feature McNairy. He can also currently be seen as Amy Adams’ hapless unnamed husband in “Nightbitch,” where he ultimately learns to be a better dad. Earlier this fall, McNairy played Ben, who was on the receiving end of James McAvoy’s nastiness in the American remake of the European horror film, “Speak No Evil.”
"I pulled a lot of the performance out of emulating my mom."
But these very different roles are part of McNairy’s appeal as an actor. He has been turning in scene-stealing performances for decade, appearing in best picture Oscar winners, such as “12 Years a Slave” and “Argo;” nifty indies like Tim Sutton’s “Taurus” and Ross Partridge’s “Lamb,” as well as some beloved TV series, including “Narcos: Mexico” and “Halt and Catch Fire.”
His characters often struggle on screen, but McNairy does not play them as defeated; rather he expresses their hangdog weariness, which can sometimes be cynicism or sometimes cockeyed optimism. He is riveting on screen because his body language and facial expressions allow viewers to scrutinize his performance and understand what McNairy’s characters are thinking and feeling. It is exciting to watch him play characters going through a period of discovery.
The actor spoke with Salon about playing Woody Guthrie, making “A Complete Unknown” and other aspects of his career.
How did you approach playing Woody Guthrie? Given that he does not talk much in the film, can you describe how you internalized your performance? You mostly react to others — stare, cough, laugh and make noise. You express so much without words.
What is your process for giving such a physical performance?
In going into it, there was not a lot of footage of Woody Guthrie, so I leaned on a ton of photos of him from that time in his life at Greystone [Psychiatric Hospital]. He had very specific mannerisms in those photographs, and we ended up shooting the film in the exact same place where these photographs had been taken. There were photos of him trying to play guitar and of him smoking. It was more of me leaning into understanding the characteristics of what Huntington’s disease is and studying other people who suffered from the illness. It involves a lack of motor skills and has a lot of similarities with dementia. My mother has dementia, and it is an awful disease, so photographs of Woody’s stare and his look reminded me of visiting with my mom. I pulled a lot of the performance out of emulating my mom and those visits with her.
There is a different vibe when Woody is with Pete Seeger and when he is with Bob Dylan. He seems inspired by the young singer. Can you discuss Woody’s relationship with each man?
Pete’s role is that of caretaker, and he has admiration for Woody as a hero, or a legend or someone he idolizes. He is so grateful for his music. When Bob comes into the picture and Woody meets him, the same feeling Pete has [for Bob] is expressed by Woody as well. Wow, here is the young talent singing this folky music. Everybody in the film, as they come to know Bob’s music, is mesmerized by him. Woody feels the same way. He thinks, here is this younger version of ourselves [Pete and Woody] and such a better version of us that we could have ever imagined. Woody just takes a liking to him and his music. Even though he is incapacitated in some ways, that music that inspires Woody — and he knows good music when the hears it. And you see that when Woody first hears Bob’s songs.
Let’s talk about the songs. The music Bob plays in each encounter is meaningful. “Song for Woody” is performed at their initial meeting and “Blowing in the Wind” at a subsequent meeting, with Woody’s “So Long, Been Good to Know Yuh” playing at their last meeting. What are your thoughts about the music used to tell the story in the film?
I think the final song “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know Yuh” is the farewell, a bit of the passing of the torch. Bob is acknowledging that Woody is gone, and that represents that. “Blowing in the Wind,” it’s the same. It’s the middle of the film when things are changing in the world and also in Bob and also in Woody. That was a great representation that James Mangold had chosen those specific songs for those moments.
Can you talk about playing a real person? Did you have a particular mindset about Woody given that we see him only near the end of his life?
You kind of approach every character differently and you just do what you have to do to figure them out. Sometimes that process can be completely different from the last one. With Woody, not as much. I didn’t have a lot of tools in regard to bringing Woody to life. The only thing I had were those photos from Greystone from that point of his life. I was focused on the mannerisms and copying the photographs I had seen of the way his head was tilted. I didn’t have anything to go off of.
"Woody just takes a liking to him and his music."
James Mangold did say something to me that I thought was really interesting before we started the film. He told Joaquin [Phoenix this for “Walk the Line”] “You are not Johnny Cash. You are not him, and you won’t be him.” Joaquin was absolutely phenomenal portraying Johnny Cash, but we also see Joaquin in that role as well. As well as with Timothée. He’s playing Bob; there is a part of Timothée we get to see with that. The same with Ed Norton. You want to see Ed play Pete. You want to see Timothée play Bob — not necessarily a caricature of Bob. You don’t lose your sense of self in these portrayals.
Scoot McNairy as Woody Guthrie in "A Complete Unknown" (Searchlight Pictures)I’m also curious about how you approach playing a character in a remake as you did with “Speak No Evil,” earlier this year.
I genuinely loved the original film. I was so taken by it. The ending of that film had a specificity to that culture; the issues sparked an eyebrow raise. I loved the Ben character in the original; the subtlety of him and the weakness of him as well. I like it so much that I based my character, off of the original. I didn’t feel the need to stray too far from that. I thought it was a riveting performance.
What about playing a character adapted from a novel, as you did for “Nightbitch”?
In “Nightbitch,” the characters are named Mom and Husband and that is the intention of Rachel [Yoder’s] novel. I think those characters were meant to feel universal down to their names to connect to being a mom and what that is like, and a husband. It’s interesting they didn’t name him Father. In that case, it wasn’t taking a role from the novel, but it was trying to express those relationships and how hard it is to raise a kid. I’m sure Amy [Adams] was the same with the difficulties of motherhood, and the struggles and trials and hurdles you go through — how those relationships culminate or rub up against each other. Sosie [Bacon], my [off-screen] partner, was helpful, as well as [director] Marielle Heller, in telling me why saying this would upset a mom or a woman. But if you say it like this, it would infuriate a woman. I wanted the character to not be an a**hole, but someone who is confused and wants to do the right thing and is trying to hold his ground in the relationship. But at the end of the day, men will never ever understand motherhood no matter how much you explain it to them. That comes through in the film. He loves his wife so much, but he can’t understand what she is going through.
What are your thoughts on the spin you put on the idiosyncratic characters you play?
I don’t feel I’m doing anything different than any other actor. I try to keep it real and grounded. I do gravitate to roles and stories and scripts that are grounded in reality. Maybe I’m still in the discovery process when we are shooting, or maybe I want to keep discovering. So maybe it’s me discovering something new during that take, or something I am trying to work out or understand. I don’t know that there is a lot of intention that I am aware of when that’s happening.
I do my best at trying to emulate my interpretation of the thing. I enjoy acting and working with good actors and I am genuinely surprised when they do something or change up their performances or bring a character to work that I didn’t expect. I think you are just seeing me truly enjoying myself and having fun and diving into these roles. I love acting and having this full 100% permission to do something else or be someone else with no guardrails. That is a feeling of freedom that you don’t get in society, and the world we live in all the time, so I really soak up moments in work where you can be somebody who is a part of you and a departure from you. That may sound like acting bulls**t. I try to do something new each time and challenge myself to move around in the space, but I’ve also been really lucky to be able to work with the people and projects. I don’t take that for granted. So, I’m over the moon and excited to be able to do what I’d doing and the characters I get to I play and directors I get to work with.
So, you are not going to turn down playing Woody Guthrie for James Mangold?
I’m not going to turn down James Mangold. He is someone I have been wanting to work with for over 15 years. And Ed Norton is someone I have been wanting to work with since “Primal Fear.” You get these opportunities. And it is a sense of, “James, I’ll hold your coffee. I just want to work with you and be around you and see how you work.” Same with Ed Norton. I have a genuine interest in these people and humanity and what make people tick, and what makes people do things and what makes people act a certain way.
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Do you have a favorite Guthrie or Dylan song?
“This Land is Our Land” is so embedded in me at such a young age 6 or 7 or 8 years old. I don’t know where I heard it. I spent so much time at my parents’ place in Paris, Texas on weekends in the summers. I don’t know if they played it up there. As for Dylan, the list goes on for so many for different reasons. Every time there is a drizzle, or rain I always want to put on “Buckets of Rain.” That song pops into my head for some reason.
“A Complete Unknown” is currently in theaters.
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