BlackBerry, a tech rise and fall film, surprised audiences earlier this year by being not just another film about a brand. The Matt Johnson directed film has a great ensemble cast, but TV favorite, Glenn Howerton, easily became a stand out and an early contender in the Supporting Actor Race. Our Awards Editor, Jillian Chilingerian, was lucky enough to speak to Howerton about his work on BlackBerry and his career.

Jillian Chilingerian: I really love the film. I’ve seen it three times. I saw it back in May, and it just has been one that’s stuck with me. And now we’re in November. I think I’ve seen everything up until this point. And it’s just been one that has keep reoccurring in my mind and specifically, your performance, so I would love to kind of talk more about it.
Glenn Howerton: Wow, you’ve seen it almost as many times as I have.

Jillian Chilingerian: It’s a great rewatch. You notice so many different things on each watch.
Glenn Howerton: Oh, good. Well, do you watch all the, like, Oscar contender movies that many times?

Jillian Chilingerian: I mean, like, I watched Babylon 10 times last year, but I won’t do that for everything. But I like to get at least two watches. Because sometimes you do the first watch. And you’re like, ‘Oh, I loved it.’ And then sometimes it could be the environment or something. And then I watch it again. I’m like, ‘Oh, I didn’t really like that.’ So I always try to give everything a few watches just to make sure.
Glenn Howerton: That’s smart.

Jillian Chilingerian: I love actors that we know from comedy who transition more into a dramatic role. We see you doing that here in BlackBerry. But it’s also kind of comedic. And so I’m wondering, what was that approach for you of kind of jumping into this when you got the material and found the character?
Glenn Howerton: I mean, my approach was definitely, much less overtly comedic, for sure. I recognize that there that there was comedy in the script. But Matt Johnson and I felt very strongly that the performances, I mean, I try to to give like a very, almost dramatic background to every performance, even if it’s a comedic performance, what I find the funniest is when the situation is funny, inherently funny. And the character’s want is really really funny. Whatever it is that the character needs or wants is ridiculous. And that’s what makes it funny. I think in this particular case, it’s funny often just because of the extremes that that the characters are living in. And it’s comedy through the lens of a release valve, just because it’s such a tense movie in a lot of ways. But Matt, the director, did such terrific job of creating this tone of both thriller and comedy at the same time, but without us ever really tipping into pure comedy land. So yeah, I mean, my approach was from a much more dramatic, it was a much more dramatic approach to this character than what I’ve been doing.

Jillian Chilingerian: I was just thinking about Foxcatcher with Steve Carell the other day, with transition of like him leaving ‘The Office’ and then two years later taking this really scary role, and then getting an Oscar nomination. I love seeing that play out with actors we see in comedy shows or films.
Glenn Howerton: Ah, yeah. You know, I’ve never talked to Steve about this. I know that for me, my background is not in comedy. Although I guess now you’d say it is in comedy. But prior to being on ‘Sunny,’ my background wasn’t in comedy. I’d done comedy. I’d always enjoyed doing comedy. I think in retrospect, I think I was always meant to do comedy. But it was never my intention to be a comedic actor or comedian or stand up or to be in sketch comedy or improv, I love all that stuff. It just was never the path that I was intending to take it just kind of sometimes you go where life takes you and you go where you’re drawn at any given moment. And you know, at that point in our lives, where we created ‘It’s Always Sunny,’ we were keen to create our own thing and shoot our own thing and the easiest thing to shoot on the cheap is something that’s funny because it doesn’t have to we didn’t feel like it had to look great. So it was kind of a comedy almost by default. Because all three of us not one of us came from a comedy background. Kaitlin [Olson] kind of did but she didn’t come on until after we’d shot the initial home movie. And when we shot the the actual show for effects so yeah, I guess In some ways this this feels like me getting back to our roots a little bit.

Jillian Chilingerian: Oh, I love that! You probably have been hearing this every single time someone is talking to you about the film, but you play very intense characters but like, I don’t know watching this for the third time, he has his moments where he’s kind of exploding but there’s so much subtlety that is very compelling and very nuanced. He has this like corporate shark mentality, but also you see him, especially towards the end of the film, really trying to find means of survival when everything seems to kind of be, you know, imploding. So I’m wanting to hear about your choices of channeling kind of those nuances to him not just being like this angry, one dimensional man.
Glenn Howerton: Yeah, that’s a good question. I think the key for me was really kind of examining what it is that drives this guy. And I chose to play it. It was apparent to me in the script, and again, after many conversations with between me and Matt and our producer, Matt Miller, who was very involved in that entire process as well. It became clear to me that that the most interesting way to play this man was to play that underneath it all is this tremendous fear that he’s not as smart and capable as he thinks he is? Hmm. So there’s a tremendous amount of overcompensating, I think for that by being almost tyrannical and really kind of overpowering any space that he walks into, for fear of there being a power vacuum, and him being the reason why there’s a power vacuum. I think that he sees himself as a very powerful force. And I think he does on on many levels, I truly, truly believe that he has what it takes to run a multibillion dollar business. However, the fear that he could be found out as being not as capable and smart as as he thinks he is, is always right on the surface. And I think that leads him to being petulant almost at times, right? Like in the NHL meeting, when he doesn’t get his way. He doesn’t get his team, he becomes almost quite petulant, because, again, he’s overcompensating in that moment, his greatest fears are coming and he compensates by threatening people and almost becoming verbally violent with them. You know, so I think in those in those quiet moments, where you see him thinking, I think you see a little bit of the cracks in his veneer in those moments. And it was always important to me to know always, both during the lines and in between the lines, what what Jim was thinking, so that I could have those thoughts and then trust that whatever it was, that he was calculating or considering would become part of the performance just by virtue of the fact that I was thinking those thoughts.

Jillian Chilingerian: Whenever I watch things, I feel myself very attuned to characters that I can see that something is circling in there. I just find those performances just so fascinating, because sometimes you wouldn’t, I don’t know, as a viewer wouldn’t think about that extra layer. And in this movie, when I saw that third time, I really took note of how he’s really calculating. And, you know, we’ve seen him up until that point of like, kind of figuring his way out around these obstacles until the point when he can’t.
Glenn Howerton: I think that any great drama, you’re presenting characters are at a turning point in their lives, where everything is either falling apart or it’s going to or their lives are about to change for the better. You know, but they’re always at this crucial point in their lives, where everything’s about to change, and they’re clinging to desperately clinging to what it is that they’re trying to achieve. So I think it’s really important to there’s no, there’s no point at which someone who’s feeling that way, isn’t constantly fighting for their life. Whether it’s on the line or between the lines, you know, every time you’re listening to another character speaking, you’re thinking about how you can continue to achieve your objective, right, like you’re taking in the information, but you’re still thinking like, okay, how can I get my way? How can I get what I want? You know, so I think it’s in those moments. I think that’s what makes it can make a really exciting performance come out. I think that’s what can make a performance really come to life is that there’s never any dead space where the person is just sitting and listening, they’re always thinking about their next move, you know, so it fits. That’s why even something as seemingly boring as a chess match can be absolutely, you know, riveting to watch, because you can just you can see the tension on the person’s face, you can see them thinking, it’s just quite riveting.

Jillian Chilingerian: I think what’s really compelling about this film and why it’s hitting a lot of people. It’s really a story not about Blackberry, or the technology, it’s just so character driven, and like with these egos, specifically, like the character journeys of Mike and Jim. Towards the end, I love the scene where Mike and Jim are almost confronting each other. And then Jim simply smiles back at Mike when he realizes what he did. So I kind of want to talk about building that relationship with Jay and how was that developed between both of you playing off each other with these ideas?
Glenn Howerton: I mean, the journey, we talked about the journey of the characters quite a bit. And, you know, we always knew that there was this kind of, you know, Jim, starting up here and Mike starting down here, thing. And then as the movie goes on, you see Mike, slowly rising to Jim’s level, until by the end, he almost, you know, he kind of outsmarts Jim, in a lot of ways. And I think that moment, between them at the end, is initially Jim is fighting for his life, just like he is throughout the entire film. But then very quickly realizes that, A, he’s not going to survive this one. And B, and this is where I think the smile came from, is this moment of realization that he doesn’t want to do it anymore. That he doesn’t want the burden of this anymore, and that he is resigned to letting Mike have all the stress and, you know, responsibility that he’s feeling like he’s been carrying on his shoulders for these last few years. And to just give that over to Mike, and it’s almost like, you know, raising a child, you know, to be a better shark, and then seeing that shark, having that shark bite you and realize, like, oh, wow, what, you know, what have I done? What have I done at this, I’ve turned this man into a me monster. And, and I don’t want to be that anymore. So you can have it, you know?

Jillian Chilingerian: I really love that moment. Because it’s so subtle and no words are exchanged. But you can just tell at this point of their relationship. And then you just give some of the most iconic line deliveries that I have probably ever seen. You have the line in the NHL room, you know, ‘I’m from Waterloo’.’ So, I’m kind of curious for your process of when you read things on the page, what is that like, for you to decide on these deliveries?
Glenn Howerton: Yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you very much. You know, it goes back to what is it that this person wants? What are they fighting for in that moment? I mean, that really is kind of the actory answer, but it really is true. I mean, that is ultimately what it comes down to. I think these characters are literally fighting for their lives throughout the entire film. And I think in that moment, he’s fighting so hard to maintain power, that particular line, it almost doesn’t it doesn’t really make any literal sense. You know, I can sit here and explain sort of what he means when he says it. But I mean, even I mean, the line itself, Matt and I talked about that line. I was like, I don’t I’m not even sure I know how to deliver this line, because I’m not really sure I understand what it means. And I was like, ‘what does it mean?’ And, you know, Matt’s response was very funny. He was basically saying, ‘I don’t really know what it means either, man. I don’t know what it means.’ And I found that both infuriating and also an interesting challenge. There were there was a While there were I was talking to him about just cutting that line. So I was like, I don’t really know how to deliver this line, I don’t really know what it means. And then when it came time to actually film that scene, I thought, well, I’ll just take a swing at it. And let’s just see what happens. And I remember when I got to that moment, it came out very explosively. And in that moment, it wasn’t until I really did it, that it suddenly made sense to me, not in a literal sense, but in a, I don’t know, an emotional sense. It suddenly made sense to me on a on an emotional level. I still don’t really know what the line means. But I’m glad I didn’t cut it up, put it that way, because it has become a line that a lot of people seem to be talking about.

Jillian Chilingerian: Yes, I kind of like that. Because it kind of sounds like you took this process of kind of learning about this character and kind of adjusting everything. And then having that moment where you’re almost kind of replicating, like what he went through, and then we’re it kind of feels, I guess that is what acting is, but then it kind of feels like the natural way of, you know, this is how he might respond after learning so much about him and these different sequences you put yourself in?
Glenn Howerton: I don’t know, what it’s like for other actors. Certainly. I think a lot of actors loath to talk about their process, especially when it really when it comes when it comes to anything, but really, I think, especially when it comes to film, because you have to do so much of the work on your own. Whereas in theater, you know, which is what my background is in, I got very comfortable and accustomed to the process of rehearsing for four weeks with the entire cast and the director. And by the time you actually perform the thing, everybody’s on the same page. And you’ve lived physically as the character for weeks upon weeks, and these rehearsals and again, you’ve been in the space that you’re working in. And, you know, with a film, you’re stepping onto the set, sometimes for the first time, you know, sometimes you’re like meeting the actress who’s playing your mother for the first time, but you know, you’re supposed to have this extremely emotional scene with this character with this actress who’s playing your mother and you’re meeting her for the first time. It’s a very strange thing to thrust yourself into. And I think, you know, after a while, that becomes also the exciting thing is the not knowing what’s going to happen, but not knowing how it’s going to come out the, the sort of like jumping off the cliff and just seeing what happens, you know, is it becomes quite exciting. It’s scary, but it’s also exciting. I think you do all that work on your own, and then you show up on set and you’re like, ‘No, I hope, I hope that what I’ve been working on works, because here we are, it’s time to shoot and we’re spending money.’

Jillian Chilingerian: That sounds very daunting. From first reading the script and getting the material until now and you know, doing all these circuits and the festivals, how has that been for you? Was that something you expected? What has that experience been like?
Glenn Howerton: It’s definitely not something I expected. I felt fairly certain we were making a good film, because I’d seen their other film Matt [Johnson] and Matt’s [Miller] other films, and they’re very good. And those guys are very capable filmmakers and extremely intelligent and knew exactly what they wanted and had a very specific vision for this. And the script was just fantastic. I mean, from the first draft I read, it was just terrific. I couldn’t believe that I was getting offered this I was like, ‘wow, I can’t believe I get to do this.’ This is this is such a treat as an actor you know, so I was fairly certain we were making a good film but you just you never know if people are going to actually care or if they’re going to watch it or if it’s just going to be ignored. I mean, I feel like that does happen like good things get made and they just kind of come and go and disappear and no one talks about them and sometimes there’s a clear reason why and sometimes there isn’t and I’m not exactly sure why this one has caught fire like it has and I think it deserves it. I think the film is terrific. I’m very proud of the film and I think that Matt is terrific and I think Jay’s performance is phenomenal. I love all the performances and and I think it’s I think it’s a great movie so I’m just really glad that people are continuing to talk about it and continuing to watch it and I’m excited to see this limited series. I haven’t seen it yet. So they’ve added apparently 14 or 16 minutes of new footage to it? And I have no idea what it is.

Jillian Chilingerian: Oh my gosh, what could it be these 14 minutes?
Glenn Howerton: No, I don’t know. Yeah, I really I really don’t know Matt sort of intimated to me that it has that I think maybe he’s adding in some stuff that we had shot that got cut from the film. I mean, obviously, it was all stuff that we’ve already shot. I don’t know, ha, but I’ll be watching it for the first time with everybody.

Jillian Chilingerian: I love this recent trend of taking movies and making them into limited series. I think they’re also they do that with Australia. And then I know Quentin Tarantino has done that.
Glenn Howerton: I think it’s a cool idea. I mean, I think it opens it up to a whole new audience of people that want to watch it. And, you know, maybe don’t even have two hours to spend, but they do have two and a half hours spread out spread out over three days. You know, I think it’d be interesting. And I like I said, I’ll be watching it for the first time with everybody. So I hope I hope it’s good.

Jillian Chilingerian: I think it’ll get a new audience and a new wave of fans. Well, that was my last question. But this was very fun. You’re the first actor I’ve ever interviewed. I usually do everyone below-the-line and behind the camera, because that’s my space. So I was very excited to do this. Because again, I saw the movie three times. I’m a fan. After I watched a lot of these movies about origins of companies I didn’t know if I wanted another film like that, but BlackBerry is so special and truly great. And I’ve recommended it to everyone because it’s just so incredible.
Glenn Howerton: That’s great. Yeah, I think it’s I think it seems to be striking a chord with with a lot of people. So I’m just very pleased. And thank you for for all your kind words. I really appreciate that. Nice work on your first actor interview.

The film is currently available to purchase or rent at home.
You can read Jillian’s review of BlackBerry on her website, Offscreen, here.
You can read our review of BlackBerry here.