How and why is Adam Driver a movie star?

Serious question. I don’t really get him, or the appeal of him.

Serious answer he can get it

He always did kinda give Robyn a boner

He's a fascinating screen presence who can play docile and feral, sometimes at once.

wins otm, Alfred otm

He has a physicality that can work to his advantage, and what might seem a weakness with one director sometimes works for another. For example, I don't think he was good or worked in the Gucci film, but I liked him in the Ferrari film.

It's kind of remarkable that he is a full decade younger than Leo, in a lot of ways they are similar actors except that Driver is more convincingly versatile.

Huh, I would never think to ask this about Adam Driver.

When I first heard he was cast in the Star Wars sequels, I thought he would be playing Nien Nunb‘s son.

I'm mostly impressed by wide breadth of big name directors that he has worked with at this point: Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, Noah Baumbach, the Coen Brothers, Steven Soderbergh, Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, Jim Jarmusch, Terry Gilliam, Leos Carax, Ridley Scott, Michael Mann, Francis Ford Coppola, etc.

He reminds me of Sterling Hayden--seriously ripped from the neck down; sadly busted in the face.

He was a strangely compelling presence on Girls and was clearly a serious-minded, interesting-looking actor with an unusual background (not a lot of young actors these days who are military veterans). Not surprised that he has carved out a successful career since then, though I think I was surprised a bit at how quickly he jumped from secondary character on a niche HBO show to major character in a Star Wars movie.

the voice, man

One of the few actors to deserve both his Oscar nominations.

outer........space

Huh, I would never think to ask this about Adam Driver.

― jmm, Friday, May 22, 2026 9:56 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

A buddy of mine saw him take his shirt off in the shower. He said that Adam Driver has an eight-pack.

The only time I don’t get Adam driver is when the uber app is down

I'm kinda with Raymond on this. I looked at his filmography and there were 3+ films I'd seen that I didn't recall him being in. I did like him in Paterson and Marriage Story.

I always get him mixed up with that other guy.

A total snooze of an actor for me. Absolutely uncompelling except for Scorsese's "Silence" where his El Greco-ish physicality fit the the role.

outer........space

I like him, but I don't think he'll ever top that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCZKm194K_E

UH OH!!

I mean, what other actors of around his age (42) are more distinguishable and/or better?

Also good on SNL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaOSCASqLsE

he's a great actor. Excellent in Paterson, Marriage Story, House of Gucci... he's one of the only redeemable people in the Star Wars trilogy. He is god awful in Megalopolis but so is everyone else.

xpost lol I realize this skit get referenced upthread but it didn't hit me.

Morbs had a crush on him.

fun in the dead dont die and blackkklansman

I assumed his appeal was to people who wanted Woody Allen but a beefcake and probably not a sex criminal.

i appreciate him as a throwback distinctive looking star actor

him saying "ghouls" in the jarmusch film and the entire bit in llewyn davis justify him alone

new star wars trilogy wasn't good, but if you stick to the end he sells you on the fact he was an actor playing one type of guy who was trying hard to be a different type of guy

For more of Morbs's takes and others:

ADAM DRIVER

i guess i don't understand enough about the 376 star wars movies and TV shows released since i saw Episode 1 in theaters to be able to find humor in that SNL clip, though something tells me it has more to do with it being SNL

fella has an odd look but i like it. can't say i think much of his acting though. he's not any better or worse than most actors of his level of fame

To be fair, I haven’t seen him in that much:

While We’re Young
Silence
Logan Lucky
House of Gucci
Ferrari
Megalopolis

I’m never compelled by him. His performances often feel like part of an extended parody of movie star leading man work. Like “can you believe I’m getting away with this?”

He makes more sense to me as a background character actor - he was decent enough in Silence and Logan Lucky, maybe in part because he’s not front and center.

outer........space

― My homies buttthole surfers' record sounds like a f (Western® with Bacon Flavor), Friday, 22 May 2026 18:38 (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

OTM

If you didn't like the taped SNL Star Wars thing, here he is having a blast live as Abraham H. Parnassus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7HD2xG92-0

Morbs had a crush on him.

indeed

I remember Morbs talking quite a bit about having seen Driver off-Broadway in Angels in America around the time Girls debuted.

I’m watching the second season of Beef and I’d put Charles Melton in this sphere of meathead looking actors that I never worry about when I see the name in the credits.

He's terrific in Silence.

Other good work:

Frances Ha
Inside Llewyn Davis
Paterson
BlacKkKlansman
Marriage Story

He reminds me of Sterling Hayden--seriously ripped from the neck down; sadly busted in the face.

― Infanta Terrible (j.lu), Friday, May 22, 2026 9:01 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

LOL

to answer this question though, isn't it sort of obvious? he's a great actor with a great range of intensity and wounded tenderness, and is a magnetic screen presence

a magnetic screen presence

I don't get the appeal either. And I just watched The Force Awakens; started it last night, finished it this afternoon. It's a bad movie and he's bad in it. He was fine in Logan Lucky and no worse than anyone else in The Last Duel, but Ferrari was utter tripe - the first Michael Mann movie I've ever ragequit — and he was laughably bad in the hour or so I saw.

Paterson was OK, I guess.

isn't it sort of obvious? he's a great actor

He’s not tho, that’s the point of confusion.

Driver’s signature feature/impediment is that specific mumblebellow. I find him compelling as a presence, he never feels like he’s fully immersed, but I’d take Driver’s detached intensity over most other A-listers.

wins otm, Alfred otm

― Wildfowler (Noodle Vague), Friday, May 22, 2026

Not really in the ILx demographic but he's the driving force behind all the Reylo fanfiction transmuted into published romance novels turned into films.

I asked earlier who else in his age range is comparable, and just realized his peers are Jeremy Strong and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as far as serious actors; it's just that Driver got bigger in film earlier.

Gosling (45) too. Driver could've really made some of those Gosling noirs even darker.

I'm generally speaking not someone who goes around stanning for specific actors. But if I had to I'd stan for Driver which makes the premise of this thread quite amusing to me

i think its absolutely fabulous carry on to head on away to a star wars sequel to run the rule over someone's screen presence

is this trolling am i being trolled etc

paterson is a very good example of his strength at being a really interesting background actor. its a quirk of the film that hes the lead really

compelling in Girls, BlackKklansman, Last Duel, Dead Don’t Die, HoGucc and others

excellent in Side Llewyn Davis, Logan Lucky, a few others

v capable in some others, ill-fitting in some different others, seems uninterested in being “a movie star

“

i think its absolutely fabulous carry on to head on away to a star wars sequel to run the rule over someone's screen presence

yeah i was biting my lip on this

paterson is a very good example of his strength at being a really interesting background actor. its a quirk of the film that hes the lead really

― Wichita Referee's Assistant (darraghmac)

Yup. In Jarmusch's best films he makes background into foreground.

Re acting: I don't care for Good Acting so much as Compelling Screen Presence. Driver's got it.

Grading any actor on how they performed in any Star Wars movie is such a laughably bad take. “Y’all, I just watched Jaws Revenge - Michael Caine is a terrible actor!”

He's kind of like Oscar Isaacs or Pedro Pascal (two other Star Wars vets): he's been in good stuff and bad stuff, but he's never made the bad stuff *worse*.

Oscar Isaac, too.

I like Pedro Pascal as an idea(l) of a screen presence more than Glenn Powell and he's way hotter but he still plays like Hollywood's latest attempt to create a leading man and the public isn't taking.

Glen Powell is much more of a candidate for the thread question, I swear that moment when he was suddenly everywhere felt like living through that season of buffy where she suddenly has a sister who everyone says was there the whole time

it's strange for me to see people say he's not a good actor. in what specific way is he not good? do you find his line deliveries unbelievable?

Pascal hasn't really has many lead roles, not yet. I think that might determine whether or not he's more than the next Jeremy Renner (another solid actor whose lead bona fides never quite panned out, even setting aside the accident). Pascal, Isaac and Driver - even Powell, and Gosling - all share a certain slyness, imo. Kinda like Robert Downey Jr. at his best, like they know when the material is silly or pulpy but can play to that comfortably. Unlike, say, George Clooney, or Tom Hanks, or Matt Damon or Brad Pitt (maybe) or other old or getting older leading dudes.

Sometimes feels like Pascal is just a nice guy who agrees to appear in movies to lend a bit of charisma rather than investing in the role. I was very emotionally convinced by him in The Last of Us though.

Sounds about right.

He was probably best in Game of Thrones.

Are there people on this board that genuinely go to Glen Powell movies outside of his looks?

That's the problem -- his looks ain't nothing special either.

I don't think I've seen a Glen Powell film, but he looks like someone asked AI to merge Luke Wilson's face with the face of the lead actor on some CBS series you've never heard of.

....and with Warsaw Pact technology reproducing Matthew McConaughey's voice.

if you think of Everybody Wants Some!! as a Dazed and Confused sequel of sorts, Powell kind of slots in as a McConaughey analogue

He was terrific in the former; don't want him as a lead.

it is odd seeing him in big things when i think of him in Girls wanking