“I would sign up immediately to have the same film career as the other ‘ugly’ guys of Hollywood. Like Sean Penn, Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro.

Because I know that there’s nothing handsome about me. Starting with this face – half Russian Jew, my father’s legacy, and half Galway Irish, from my mother’s side. And it’s covered in scars, including my neck, thanks to a serious car accident in 2007. I was sitting next to my friend, who was driving, and we went off the road. The car flipped eight times. The police told us that 99% of accidents like this end up killing you. I had to have several surgeries on my face. Getting back full muscle function took a lot of time and effort”.

Miles Teller, star of Whiplash, nominated for an Oscar as Best Film, just shy of his 28th birthday, is also a musician, like the character he plays in the movie: he taught himself guitar and drums (his character’s instrument), and also took piano and saxophone lessons. “Music was the constant in my gypsy childhood“, he says, “my father was a nuclear engineer and we moved constantly. In the course of just a few years I lived in Georgia, Florida, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. I dreamed of joining a rock band, and I still perform with friends.

Since I starred in Footloose in high school, it was easy to reprise the role in the 2011 remake (directed by Craig Brewer, ed), right after I graduated in theater from the Tisch School of the Arts in New York. And to think that I’ve never seen the original version…

As for Whiplash, after the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, I don’t think that winning the Oscar would necessarily change me. I hate the diva thing. The other day I was in Venice, a tourist like any other, and until recently I shared an apartment in Los Angeles with two college classmates. I greatly value my freedom, I want to stay connected to reality, play sports at the park with friends, sing with my sister who is trying to make her way in the country music scene. After every take, I detach. I never bring a character home with me”.

Yet the character of the young jazz drummer tormented by Professor Fletcher, who mercilessly pushes him to the mental and physical extremes required to achieve the highest levels of artistry, seems part of who he is. “It’s because I really do play that instrument! And it’s also because it was a team effort, in the sense that there was an incredible synergy with director Damien Chazelle and his crew; it felt like we were a baseball team, my favorite sport. But I’ve never had a music teacher like the one in the film, and I don’t know how I would react to his Full Metal Jacket methods. Though I do think that sometimes we need someone who can push us to where we wouldn’t be able to go on our own.

I agree with two of Fletcher’s maxims: the expression ‘good job’ stinks of mediocrity, I don’t like it. And then it is true that talent is not enough, you need serious commitment. I definitely would never leave my girlfriend like Andrew does: love should never be sacrificed. If anything, it’s great to share things. My girlfriend, who’s starting out in the fashion world, comes with me from set to set; it’s our project as a couple”.

Miles will soon appear on the big screen as Mister Fantastic in the remake of The Fantastic 4. “I wish I could stretch like my character”, says Miles, who in the meantime is filming “Arms and the Dudes” with Todd Phillips. His first love, however, remains music. “And who knows if La La Land, a musical, also directed by Chazelle, may not become a reality?”.

Groomer Marco Minunno@W-management using Bumble & Bumble

Fashion Assistant Stephanie Kherlakian

Fashion Editor Robert Rabensteiner

Photo by Jamie Hawkesworth

L’Uomo Vogue, February 2015 (n. 457)

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