Adam Driver is earning praise on social media for how he sensitively handled a divisive interview question during a recent appearance on “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” The host told Driver directly that he does not look like a typical movie star and asked if his physical appearance was a “hindrance” in his career. Wallace has been widely criticized on social media platforms such as X for his “gross” and “rude” question.
Prior to addressing Driver’s looks, Wallace noted that members of the press have compared Driver to the likes of Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson during his career and asked how the actor feels about such claims.
“Those are the actors that made me want to be an actor, you know, so that’s a nice comparison,” Driver said, while adding that he often chooses to ignore both compliments and negative takes about his career.
“The New Yorker also called me a ‘horse face’ so I don’t — I take it with a grain of salt,” Driver said. “I remember reading one reviewer [who wrote]: ‘His agent probably doesn’t know whether to put him in a movie or the Kentucky Derby.’ So I take it, you know, if you believe the good thing, then you have to believe the bad thing. So I try to not absorb anything.”
That’s when Wallace said to Driver: “You don’t look like the typical movie star.” The CNN and Max host wanted to know if that was a “help or a hindrance” to Driver’s career.
“I’ve worked consistently which is nice, with people that I’ve wanted to always, dreamed that I wanted to work with,” Driver answered. “So in that sense, it hasn’t — I look how I look, I can’t change that. So I guess it helped me.”
“A hindrance in only breaking mirrors wherever I go and and having a misshapen outsized body that I can’t fit through doorways, or most clothes or fit into most cars,” the actor then joked. “Apart from that, it’s good.”
Wallace continued to drill down on the topic by throwing to a photo of Robert Redford and asking Driver if he ever thought his life as an actor would be easier if he looked like the “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” icon.
“It would just be different,” Driver said. “Who doesn’t want to look like Robert Redford? I’ve accepted this is how I look.”
Variety has reached out to representatives for Wallace’s show for additional comment.
Driver is currently on the awards circuit touting his leading role in Michael Mann’s “Ferrari.” Neon is opening the biographical drama in theaters Dec. 25.
