Jacob Elordi: You are, like, the actor's actor.

Clayton Davis: Variety Studio is the only place to see candid one-on-one conversations between top stars as they talk about the year's most buzzed-about films.

Robert Downey, Jr.: It's nowhere to live thinking your best days are behind you.

Colman Domingo: My whole journey has always been about being a multi-hyphenate.

Clayton: With Robert Downey, Jr., and Mark Ruffalo; and Colman Domingo and Jacob Elordi.

Mark Ruffalo: You really have to get outside of your comfort zone.

♪♪♪ Clayton: Welcome to Variety Studio, "Actors on Actors."

I'm Clayton Davis.

Angelique Jackson: And I am Angelique Jackson.

Today we're hearing from some of the world's most talented actors.

Clayton: And the secrets behind their unforgettable performances.

It's quite marvelous to see these next two actors together again.

Robert Downey, Jr., and Mark Ruffalo are breaking down their latest roles while reminiscing about their superhero pasts.

Clayton: Fans know Oscar nominee Robert Downey, Jr., as the beloved character, Ironman.

However, in "Oppenheimer," he takes on the role of Lewis Strauss, a nemesis to the creator of the world's deadliest weapon.

Lewis Strauss: Truman needs to know what's next.

J. Robert Oppenheimer: What's next?

Clayton: Academy Award nominee Mark Ruffalo is downright hilarious in "Poor Things."

As a slick lawyer, who becomes infatuated with an unorthodox female creation in this reverse Frankenstein tale.

Duncan Wedderburn: I know you're upset with me.

Forgive my kidnapping of you, but it was for love, a romantic jape, don't be such a--about it.

Bella Baxter: I want a drink.

Duncan: Of course, my darling.

The ship is fun, a whole world to explore.

Do you love me?

I love you.

Robert: We really met when Fincher cast us in "Zodiac."

I have a story to tell.

Mark: Okay, okay.

Robert: We were shooting a scene in the mailroom and we've done it about 60 times.

And you know, Mark's been working a bunch of days in a row.

I'm feeling a bit mischievous, and he's like, "We got it, right?"

And I was like, "Yeah, I mean, this is ridiculous."

And then Fincher says, "Well, do we got it?"

And he goes, "Downey, come here.

I want the scene shot like this, 'cause I want it to work."

I go, "You want it to work as a oner?

No, we don't have it," and he goes, "Downey says we don't have it, so Mark, you can go to lunch.

We'll scrap all those takes and we'll start over again."

And you looked at me.

Mark: And he invented the delete button.

There was no delete button ever in digital cinema, and he specifically had it invented so that he could say, "We're gonna delete takes 1 through 45, bsst."

And you're just like, "No, no!

No, no.

Thirty-eight was my baby."

Robert: But isn't it because some part of this just wants to be off the hot seat and done?

And we also know that there's always that thing.

A, you wanna make Mom or Dad happy.

B is that you want to feel that there's progress that's being made because you're helping.

Mark: Yes, and you just want someone to say that was good enough, let's move on.

Do you feel like, after all this time, that you still have that kind of, I don't know, that sort of push and pull with it?

Robert: Of course, yeah, everything is--it's a constant battle between either seeking approval or seeking my own subjective kind of, like, being able to maintain interest over time, you know?

And then we had this on this whole decade and a half "Marvel" run where we were just looking at each other like, "What are we doing?

Who's a wizard?

Who's coming from outer space?"

Which I think was another great challenge.

Mark: To take that step into a studio world, which was totally different back then than it is now, and you and I know what that is.

It was such a different world.

They didn't really cast people like us.

And just to see you transform that whole concept of what a studio picture was and to elevate sort of this character work within that big tent pole system, which appealed so massively to so many different people and made the space for other people like us that, you know, I'll never forget I was like, "I don't know if I'm right for this," and you're like, "C'mon, Ruffalo, we got this."

Robert: Yeah, how's that new brownstone on the Upper West Side?

Mark: Thank you.

Robert: Yeah, oh please, dude.

I mean, who--I don't know who thanks who.

It's just kind of--it really is odd, for those watching at home.

It is a surreal experience to be sitting here with you, lo, these years later, and now to both be here on behalf of projects that I think we're so proud of and are done by such gifted filmmakers and, you know, you kinda wonder, right?

Like, didn't I already have my act 2?

Isn't this the slow decline?

Have they foamed the runway?

So back to your first question is, of course, there's--it's nowhere to live, though, right?

It's nowhere to live thinking your best days or your best creative moments are behind you.

A, it's not true.

And B, it's just debilitating.

Mark: Yeah, which is why I even brought this up.

Because, you know, you've done it all.

I mean, you have it all.

You don't have to prove anything to anybody, and then you come and you do this part in "Oppenheimer."

And it's none of the mannerisms of anything that we'd ever seen before that you had perfected and had become so second nature to you, and they had that kind of reach for that next thing, is really admirable, and talk about that.

Like, what was that?

Why is that still alive?

Robert: I mean, look, and then we'll move on to a far more interesting subject, which is you in "Poor Things."

All's I know is I got a call, Chris Nolan has a new kind of what it was.

I went over to his house.

It was black type on red paper.

You know, when they send it like that so you can't copy it.

It was like Sudoku to get through in 180 pages.

And I left there just knowing I was gonna do it and everybody and, you know, Susan and everyone was, like, "You need a challenge like this," and I go, "I don't like it when everyone else is telling me what I need."

And the truth be told is it all wound up to "I've tried everything else.

How about trying to really focus on doing as little as possible just once."

And correspondingly, I have--I've known you a long time.

I know what you're like when you're loose, I know what you're like when you're pensive, I know what you're like when you're concerned about the state of the world.

I know what you're like when you're comfortable with the homeostasis.

But I did not know that this character existed inside of you, this cad, Duncan Wedderburn.

From the first moment, and I remember how apprehensive you were about doing this, too, just as I had all this approach anxiety-- Mark: Yes, did you have that apprehension too?

Robert: For Lewis Strauss?

Of course.

And I'm interested to know, for Duncan, how you got past that approach anxiety, because you're just--you're such a thoughtful guy and you're one of the people that I always say has such a strong and formidable moral psychology, and you really don't make decisions lightly.

So, knowing what an absolute archetype, misogynist, self-centered, shaming, blaming guy, but you've redeemed it with this spark that was so delightful.

I mean, I can't tell you what a joy it was watching you in this, but I wanna know what it was like before, during, and after.

Mark: It did scared the--out of me.

And I did say, "Well, you know, this isn't--this isn't the kind of guy I play, you know, and my--everyone was like, "You have to do it," just like you, "You have to do it."

But you really have to get outside of your comfort zone.

And you also start to doubt yourself, like you were saying.

You know, you hit 55 and you are kind of like, "Maybe every--maybe it's as good as I'll get.

Maybe I am on the downward slide of this thing."

I also at that time was, like, really kind of tired of my brand or, you know, whatever people--you put on yourself or, you know.

Robert: And isn't it funny when our wives would flat out say, "Just don't worry, everyone else is tired of it too.

That's why you need to do this."

But with Yorgos and McNamara, I think you obviously had just two amazing partners in knowing how it would be executed and what was in the text.

What was that process like for you, just a little bit, and at what point in the shoot did you feel like, "Oh, okay, I'm cooking with gas now, I get it."

I don't even know what scene you shot first.

I would love to just know that.

Mark: Well, we had this amazing rehearsal period which we'd never had--we never had.

And it was literally 10 days of just theater games: dancing, singing, movement, playing with each other's faces and bodies and then playing together as a group, and then we probably spent maybe only 20% on the actual script.

And when we did read the script, we were telling people, "You have to raise your voice."

Anytime you lifted your hand, that person had to raise their voice when they were doing a line.

Or you had to touch someone's face when you were doing a line and find the most--in the middle of a line, say, "This is the most beautiful part of you."

And it's--so, it just like, it obliterated your ideas of what you think it should be.

And you just get really free and you could go broad or you could go small and no one's judging, you know?

Everyone's laughing or they're not and there's no, you can't do anything wrong.

You can't do anything right, really.

But--so for you to be, you know, because I have to say, I also stole from you in this.

Robert: Great.

Mark: Some of Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chaplin.

I mean, you, more than any other actor, you have this kind of physical mischief, you know?

You know the cad very well.

Robert: It's the gift that keeps on giving, isn't it?

Mark: It's beautiful.

Robert: Well, thanks for that, I mean, we're all always drawing from myriad influences, conscious and otherwise, you know?

And again, you know, the crazy thing for me is I've been obsessed for the last 5 to 7 years before Chris called me, probably longer, with the culture of the Cold War because I felt it was so back upon us.

I felt like I had an idea of someone who might have been back in that time, and then Lewis Strauss was the president of Temple Emanu-El which we've walked by in New York a bunch, and I just did my little Lewis Strauss tour.

Mark: And he's a kind of a Salieri kind of, you know.

Robert: That's what Chris said.

Mark: What did you relate to in that?

Robert: Bro, c'mon.

I mean, I know what it's like to wish someone else hadn't embarrassed me in the street, wished that I'd gotten past that velvet rope to go into that club, wished that I'd gotten the call back for that part, wished that I'd gotten the second date with that girl, wished, wished, wished, wished, wished.

So, Chris constructed the story to what happens when people don't listen to each other, don't make space for each other.

Or, in this case of someone who can't even relate to people because he's got the weight of the world on his shoulders, but that still doesn't mean they don't feel like, "Hey, you know what?

If I get a chance to stick it to you, I will because you embarrassed me three times.

Three times.

Again, like, I know this kind of person.

I know the political animal.

It was really thinking about--he didn't want voices, he didn't want accents, he didn't want makeup, he didn't want anything.

And it was really freeing because you know me, I'm very ectomorphic, I don't like to be constrained.

And it's all Chris wanted.

So I thought, "Well, this is gonna be hard but easy."

Mark: It's transformative.

I didn't see Robert Downey, Jr., in there.

I didn't see--and you know, I didn't see that.

And it was so exciting.

And it's so interesting because it was that containment.

You have the comedy, the movement, you know, I remember every time we worked together, you have props set, you have this, you're moving from there to there to there.

It's ba-bi-da-boom-ba-da-boom.

And it's electrifying.

Robert: Again, why I'm telling you, I mean, "Poor Things," you're next, buddy, that's all I gotta say.

Well, it's so fantastic.

♪♪♪ Angelique: This pairing is pure euphoria.

Small screen co-stars, Colman Domingo and Jacob Elordi reunite to break down their latest big-screen roles, including the pressures of portraying historical figures.

In "Rustin," Colman Domingo portrays Bayard Rustin, the architect behind the 1963 March on Washington, an openly gay man whose achievements are just now being recognized.

Bayard Rustin: And the easiest way to combat that feeling of not being enough is to find someone we consider less than.

Less than because they're poorer than us or because they're darker than us or because they desire someone our churches and our laws say they should not desire.

When we tell ourselves such lies, start to live and believe such lies, we do the work of our oppressors by oppressing ourselves.

Angelique: The Emmy winner also stars in the musical re-imagining of "The Color Purple," playing Mister, the abusive husband of the film's main character, Celie.

Mister: What happened to you?

Harpo: Nothing, I was just--just kicked by a mule.

Mister: Was this mule wearing a dress?

[laughing] You gonna be all right.

Angelique: Jacob Elordi steps into Elvis Presley's famous jumpsuit for "Priscilla."

The movie examines the turbulent relationship between the King of Rock 'n' Roll and his queen.

Priscilla: I like this one.

Elvis Presley: Solids suit you better, and I hate brown.

It reminds me of the army.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Elvis: Mmm.

Black hair and more eye makeup, it'll make your eyes stand out more.

Priscilla Presley: Mm-hmm.

male: It's 4 o'clock, boys.

We got to go.

Elvis: C'mon.

Angelique: The Australian actor also plays an aristocrat in "Saltburn," an Oxford classmate's object of desire.

Felix Catton: That is so kind, thank you, are you sure?

I mean, it's a bit of a faff, moving it back to college.

Oliver: Oh, you want me to take yours back?

Felix: Oh, no, no, no, I just-- I'm sorry, I just thought I'd-- Oliver: I mean, I can wheel it back to college.

It's not that far.

Felix: Oh, thank you, thank you.

I'm sorry, I don't know your name, I'm Felix.

Oliver: Oliver.

Felix: Oliver?

Oliver: Yeah.

Felix: Oliver.

Oliver, I love you.

I love--mwah.

I love you.

Mwah, I love you, I love you, seriously.

Thank you so much, mate.

Colman: Jacob Elordi.

Jacob: Mate.

Colman: Hey, buddy, how you doing?

Jacob: Good, good, I think this is the first time we've had an actual--well, it's going to be the first conversation we've ever really had.

Colman: Absolutely--well, yeah, it really is, actually.

Jacob: 'Cause we're always in passing, we're ships in the night.

Colman: We see each other every so often at, like, a premiere or something like that, but never having this time.

So this is like an overdue coffee.

Jacob: It really is, it really is, without the coffee.

Colman: Our "Euphoria" connection.

Jacob: Yes.

Colman: You--first of all, how has it been for you?

I feel like you were sort of shot out of a cannon when you did, sorry, "Euphoria," in terms of, like-- Jacob: It was.

Colman: Right?

Jacob: I think I was 19 when we started that, and I'm-- Colman: How old are you now?

Jacob: Twenty-six now.

Colman: Oh, wow.

That's been a journey, man.

Jacob: It has been a journey, and it's wild that I've--that we've barely sort of crossed paths, which is kind of a gift, too, because I can kind of sit back and I just get to marvel at your work because I have--I've got no concept of it.

But you knew Sam Levinson beforehand.

Because Sam had--he had told me about you, and he had pitched you, you know, this severely talented, deep thespian, which is all I've ever wanted to be.

That's like--that's God to me.

So I was always kind of a little bit intimidated on set every time I saw you because you're about it.

You know, you're about your craft.

You are, like, the actor's actor.

So I'm interested with you, where does--and I have an idea 'cause of something you just said on a talk show.

You said something about your mother.

You said, "We are the dreams of our mothers."

Or what did you say exactly?

Colman: Where would we be without the dreams of our mothers.

Jacob: Right, but you're like a living embodiment of-- Colman: I'm a mama's boy.

Jacob: Me too, when you said that, man, I started crying because I realized, like, I take my mom everywhere with me, but I realized in that moment I was like, "Wow, every performance I give is really just an extension of the things that she wanted for me.

And I--and you said that and I was, like, "Wow."

So I'm interested to hear how that pushed you into--'cause she's the only reason why I do what I do.

Colman: Listen, and your mother's still around now?

Jacob: And she's still around, yeah.

And I let her know every day, you know.

Colman: Oh man, you're about to make me cry.

That's beautiful, no, because my mom was my best friend.

And we talked about everything.

She was such a dreamer.

She was spiritual and lovely and believed in the good of mankind.

And I think she impressed that upon me.

And I do it--I do it for her.

I lost my mother in 2006.

I was devastated, and I had a good friend talk to me, and I said, "Well, what am I gonna do with all this love?"

And I didn't know what--how to be in the world.

And she said, "You're gonna pour it into everything that you do."

Jacob: I like what you said where you said, "What am I gonna do with all this love."

Not all this grief, not all this sadness.

"What am I gonna do with all this love."

And that comes out in your work, all the time.

And I'm just really, really damn happy that people are noticing it now, you know?

I really, really am.

And I felt that when I watched "Rustin."

First of all, with Rustin, here's my first thing.

I felt like a fool because I turned it on and I was like, "I know nothing about this.

How am I gonna go and talk to this man about this?"

And then I did a bit of digging and I realized nobody knows anything about this.

Colman: No, no, many people don't.

I thought it was such a travesty that we didn't know anything about Bayard Rustin and his story and his influence on the civil rights movement.

And then the idea that someone like President Obama and Michelle Obama were ushering in, making sure this story's told.

There's a great sort of weight and responsibility that you want to do all that you can to just show a living, breathing soul who was just an ordinary human being trying to do something extraordinary for all of our good.

So, it had to be done with love and grace because I respect this figure so much and I wanted to do all that I can to get the nuances of his body and his voice and his mind, all the technical work that you have to do to sound like someone but also I don't wanna mimic.

So I had to, you know, his voice, Bayard's voice, is maybe three octaves higher than mine and a bit reedier.

And I would find that middle ground which still has a bit of me as well, 'cause I'm like, "I've gotta bring me."

And I feel like that's something I witnessed with you.

Really, that's--it's, first of all, Elvis is iconic, right?

And now you have an experience with this beautiful filmmaker, Sofia Coppola, that is a quieter--it almost felt dream-like, exploration and psychological and showed another dimension to Elvis that I think that usually you see the showman.

Jacob: Sure, sure, yeah.

Colman: What was your approach to Elvis?

I've been dying to ask you this.

Jacob: You know, it's so-- I feel like I could just say, "Ditto," and that would sort of seal the deal.

It's kind of exactly what you said.

There is technical elements, you know, because you can learn how to dance, you can do your best to learn how to sing and you can curl your lip and you can do these things and, you know, you can do it, it's there, it's--that's all mimicking and copying and, you know, and letting it get into your bones.

But there is--I realized really quickly with Elvis that there's a deep spiritual element to him.

And then it was trying to figure out where's the--for me, it was where's the boy in him?

And something happened on the last day of filming when he says to Priscilla, he says, you know, "Maybe another time, maybe another place."

And I said it and it's an emotional scene and I'd been sitting with it and I hadn't really thought about it.

I didn't wanna get too bogged down on anything.

And I just started weeping in this hotel room in Vegas.

Philipe, our DP, had set up the lights so that they were like a beating heart that was slowly dying, like the Vegas lights outside the window, these red lights which it was his heartbeat, slowly going out.

And I looked at Cailee and I was crying and I--Cailee Spaeny, my co-star, and I just--I said, "They killed this boy, you know?

They killed this boy."

And that was the divine coming in, sort of informing whatever it was, and to this day I can't--I won't ever be able to put words to it or explain it.

And I am deeply spiritual, but also not at the same time, I've been very analytical.

Colman: There's that part, like you're saying, there's that part of what we do that people, they think, I mean, I think that you have to be open for that thing to happen and not try to press on it, you know?

There's something that I found in your performance that was--there was a vulnerability, and George C. Wolfe, who was the director of "Rustin," he--we talked about vulnerability.

I said, you know, "Yeah, you can't act vulnerability.

The circumstances have to be set up in every single way for, hopefully, it to happen."

You know what I mean?

You know, what were the--what was one of the biggest challenges that you had with playing Elvis?

Jacob: I mean, the biggest thing is I didn't wanna play into his fame but play him as a victim of it.

And to play him as a man who was suffering, because with these kind of great figures that we have, we never really think of them as suffering.

'Cause the way that Priscilla sees him is as a man who's suffering, you know, and her--and she loves this man who's suffering.

So I just wanted to be true to that, I suppose.

Colman: And did you have a chance, knowing that you were--because the wildest thing is I did "Rustin" and then I did "Color Purple" right after.

Jacob: Really?

How long?

Colman: I was prepping that at the same time with-- Jacob: They're so different.

Colman: Very different.

But I'm wondering with you, did they--were you able to let go of the process of Elvis or did you just move whatever energy and transform that with your character in "Saltburn"?

Jacob: "Saltburn" was first.

"Saltburn" was first, and then we had 3 weeks until "Priscilla," so I was basically playing a, what I would describe as, like, the personification of sunlight, which is Felix.

And then sort of went into Elvis, but they were kind--Elvis was kind of like a nice sedative to playing Felix, you know?

What about you, shooting them so closely?

'Cause you went from "Rustin" to "Color Purple" to the devil.

Colman: I went to light to dark.

Jacob: To the devil, you know, essentially.

Colman: You know what, I think it was actually, you know, that exploration of looking into the darkness, of looking at: I have darkness in me.

People, you know, see this happy go lucky person but I'm like I have everything that Mister has in me.

I just make a choice every day, you know, to live in the light.

But I could go to the dark place too.

And that's human.

Don't you think that that's our job, actually, is like, I have no intention of just playing heroes.

I love, when I get the opportunity to play someone that I find pretty, like, that Colman feels, is pretty despicable.

I'm like, and morally wrong, ethically horrific, and I'm like, "Oh," but I wanna get to learn why.

Like, why does that person do that stuff?

What is their operating system?

What happened to them?

Who hurt them?

Those are the questions I ask because I feel like a character like Mister, immediately I thought, "I have to love him.

I've got to love him so hard and believe that everyone else is the villain, and he's the victim of circumstance and he has wants and needs and desires like everybody else but can't get them in some way, so what does he do?

He abuses others.

And so, for me, that makes him more human and I can understand him.

Maybe that's it, maybe that's--like you're saying, it's like there is something a little selfish about this work, 'cause I'm like, "I think I wanna know more about people and find out what makes them tick and what makes them do what they do."

We're artists, we need that, so we can actually, you know, replicate that in our lives.

Jacob: Yeah, you need to be a part of the world, the earth.

You know, my mom gave me the same advice.

Colman: Did she?

What's she say?

Jacob: Every day, she said, "talk to someone, look 'em in the eye, and listen."

She said, "Really listen.

Actually listen," you know?

Colman: Look at our mothers.

We come from good-- Jacob: We're lucky.

Colman: I think so, we're-- Jacob: That's a blessing, you know?

Colman: It is a blessing.

Clayton: We hope you've enjoyed this episode of Variety Studio "Actors on Actors."

Angelique: Please join us again next time.

Robert: This relentlessly self-centered-- holding for sound.

This is too important.

I could loop it later.

Mark: It's really good.

We could hold this.

Robert: Can you imagine if I go into ADR for 3 days to fix the next 70 sentences I say?

Jacob: Yes, you should be so lucky.

Colman: Thank you, thank you.

Thank you.

Jacob: You're blessed.

Colman: We'll be doing the 2 o'clock show.

Jacob: The next one's cigarettes.

Here's what I got to say, Col.