If this was a quote attributed to Tom Cruise, coming in to the Mission: Impossible franchise at the height of his box office powers back in 1996 then you might not be totally surprised, but when the moderately well known (in the US anyway) Adam Driver expresses surprise that the third biggest hit in cinema history made him more popular, well…it seems slightly odd.
However, that’s what our generations big bad said, and who are we to argue with Mister Intensity himself?
“I was aware that more people would see it than see most things I do, but I don’t think I could have anticipated how often I’d get recognised because it’s so different for every person. I’m very tall and I look a certain way. I can’t blend into a crowd.”
And that infamous intensity? Driver is surprised he is viewed that way.
“I like to stay focused on set but it’s not because I have a process that I’m imposing on everybody else. Sometimes you have to be more focused in between scenes because what’s happening is that, on something like Star Wars, it’s pure comedy in between takes. It’s stormtroopers running into walls because they can’t see through their helmets. So I don’t know where the intense thing came from.”
Having had every intention to shake his hand as he walked past us at The Last Jedi premier last year before seeing that laser-stare sweep my way, my hand retreated faster than the Rebel Alliance did from Hoth, so from experience – and I’m 6′ 4″ so I’m not exactly a jawa when it comes to the height stakes – he is pretty intense.
