- 2 months ago
Jesse Plemons joins GQ as he revisits some of the most iconic characters from his career so far: from his role as Todd Alquist in the neo-Western crime drama Breaking Bad to his portrayal of Ed Blumquist in Fargo.Bugonia opens in select theaters October 24, 2025, and expands nationwide October 31, 2025: https://www.focusfeatures.com/bugonia.Credits:Director: Kristen DeVoreDirector of Photography: AJ YoungEditor: Robby MasseyTalent: Jesse PlemonsProducer: Sam DennisLine Producer: Jen SantosProduction Manager: James PipitoneProduction Coordinator: Elizabeth HymesTalent Booker: Meredith Judkins LeeCamera Operator: Shay Eberle-GunstSound Mixer: Kari BarberProduction Assistant: Abby DevinePost Production Supervisor: Jess DunnSupervising Editor: Rob LombardiAssistant Editor: Billy Ward
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Because it was that one scene, wanting to find some way of showing the idea that,
00:07you know, he might have picked something up at one point or another,
00:12I've never needed a shower more than after shooting that scene.
00:24Breaking Bad.
00:26Sir? Sir?
00:30Yes.
00:32There's a nanny cam in the living room clock.
00:36I disabled it, I just thought you should know.
00:42What's your name?
00:42Todd.
00:43Sir?
00:44Breaking Bad came along in a kind of creative try spell.
00:51There was a short breakdown of who Todd was.
00:54You know, looks innocent and innocuous enough, but he's got something to hide.
00:58I went and did the audition and was honestly just happy and didn't even really care because it was fun.
01:08I think that was the only time I read, got the call that I got it and I'd be flying to Albuquerque and
01:14then landed in Albuquerque and I think had maybe a week or two before I started shooting and watched the show from start to finish.
01:24And so I was meeting Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul just like in the thick of my fandom for the show.
01:31And it probably, you know, actually worked for what I was doing.
01:36I remember talking to one of the other actors that was in those scenes after the fact.
01:40I had no idea what was coming next, but I was convinced I had just completely messed up the whole trajectory
01:50of Todd with this introduction scene.
01:53It's crazy what you can convince yourself of.
01:56But I was really nervous and I was like, God, I'm stepping onto the show that people love so much.
02:00I had zero information.
02:02It was all really vague and because I wasn't a regular at this point,
02:06it was a really kind of unnerving experience to try and get some information out of the writers,
02:13which they never gave me, but they would look at me kind of in fear.
02:21And I had no idea why.
02:23And then eventually I got the script for the Train Heist episode and understood why they were looking at me like that.
02:32We'd done the sequence leading up to Todd shooting the kid.
02:37Mind if I ask you a question?
02:39No, go ahead.
02:41I get why we want the tank for the methylamine, but why this other one for the water?
02:45Vince was directing that episode, Vince Gilligan.
02:47He must have just seen how desperate I was and just asked him if he could give me anything,
02:54any information.
02:55I was like, how can he do this in such a cavalier way?
03:00In his way, he gave me a scenario.
03:03He said, so you know when you're driving and you're on a narrow road and say a raccoon runs out in front of your car.
03:15If you swerve to the right, you go into the ditch.
03:17If you swerve to the left, you go into the oncoming traffic.
03:21So what do you do?
03:25No!
03:26No!
03:26That was it.
03:28That was truly the foundation for Todd for that first season.
03:34Eventually, once I had kind of settled into it and took that little scenario
03:43as much as I could, it became a lot of fun because it was kind of all instincts and
03:52you know, it seems like such a simple story, but actually was exactly kind of,
03:59it was all I really needed to hear in that moment. Dark, but very helpful.
04:05Game Night
04:08Any plans for this evening?
04:10Nope.
04:12Perhaps a game night?
04:14You're just going to stay in, just the two of us.
04:16Boring.
04:18I see.
04:21I do hope you keep me in mind for any future game nights.
04:25I remember reading the script and I only made it to Gary's first scene before I called
04:35my agent and said I would do it. I was like, I don't care. I don't care where it goes.
04:41I want to play this part. There was just something that seemed like such a unique opportunity to play
04:47a character in kind of a throwback big studio comedy that was just in a different movie entirely.
04:57In the stage direction when Gary's introduced, in that first version of the script, they had some
05:03comment describing him as having some sort of Michael Shannon intensity. You know, I'm not saying
05:11that it was the same as with Landry, but there was just sort of a knee jerk. It was like,
05:17I think I got it. You know, I think I know this guy. And there was just so much room for,
05:23to play around and just like revel in the uncomfortableness and making people uncomfortable.
05:30I was like, yeah, this sounds like a lot of fun. But at the core of it, he was just the loneliest man
05:37in the world that just desperately wanted friends. Three bags of Tostito scoops, I notice.
05:50There was a special on these tonight. Three for one. Three for one. Yep. How can that be profitable
05:58for Frito-Lay? I don't remember what I was thinking specifically with the Frito-Lay line.
06:02I remember just doing everything I could before shooting that scene to really bond with that dog.
06:09And then when that dog licked me during the take, I was like, yes, this is really funny. But I had this,
06:16I had this dream before I did that movie. I was standing like on the dock while the Titanic was about to
06:27set sail. But I was the only one that knew that it was going to sink. And everyone else was like.
06:35And that kind of informed a lot of Gary, because he just,
06:40yeah, he kind of, he sees it coming and you don't.
06:47Killers of the Flower Moon.
06:48Oh, I was sent down from Washington, D.C. to see about these murders.
06:57Huh. Let me see. See what about them?
07:02See who's doing it. Growing up in central Texas in a little town outside of Waco, there's a Texas Ranger
07:11Hall of Fame Museum in Waco. I think I went to as a kid and I grew up.
07:18I mean, I keep telling myself I have to stop talking about Lonesome Dove because I feel
07:24it's just my favorite movie of all time. And it's about these two retired former Texas Rangers that
07:30take one final journey from Texas to Montana. And my whole dad's side of the family, they all rope
07:39and ride and that sort of stuff. And I grew up doing that. So there was a part of it that did
07:44sort of feel like it was kind of in my DNA to a degree.
07:48Killers of the Flower Moon, the book, goes a little deeper into who Tom White was. And then I also
07:55received the most incredible research packet from the Scorsese camp with just like everything I would
08:02ever want to know. Photos and this book that was written just about Tom White. I guess the thing that
08:10I sort of had to confront in that part was my own kind of mythologizing about Texas Rangers,
08:20because Tom White was kind of the exception to the rule in terms of the Texas Rangers.
08:29You know, the lore in the South, which most of them sort of started themselves,
08:36you know, they're the good guys. Not to say that there weren't, but there's a pretty dark history to
08:43do the Texas Rangers. I read a complete history of the Texas Rangers and it and really the effect
08:51that it had on me was it just made me admire him that much more to have been a part of this, you know,
08:57group and to have had such strong morals in that time. Not that he didn't have his faults, but he was a
09:05very morally driven man, truly a servant of justice. And then to get to shoot in Oklahoma and to get to
09:21meet the Osage who were all so incredibly welcoming and to have the privilege to kind of like witness
09:29all of them and the sort of catharsis that came with with the movie being made. It was just really,
09:37really special. The Master.
09:44You know, you should wake up, Val. Father speaking, you might learn something.
09:51He's making all this up as he goes along. You don't see that?
09:55I can sleep and wake up and not have missed one thing. I got the call that Paul wanted to meet
10:02and wanted to his house. And, you know, we discussed all the different potential ways the
10:11character could go. I think he was still working on the script. I don't think the movie was fully
10:17financed at that point. And then I think I went and did Battleship, which is like a great double feature.
10:25And then, yeah, the Master was all of a sudden happening. And we,
10:29we had had all this amazing conversation maybe a year or so before. By the time I got there,
10:34we never fully landed on which, which version, you know, made the most sense for the film to get to,
10:45at that age, work with those four greats, you know, PTA and Philip Seymour Hoffman,
10:56and Joaquin Phoenix, and Amy Adams, to kind of just get to be a fly on the wall and watch and
11:01occasionally pop in and try and, you know, hold on, was something that, again, was a huge turning
11:11point just to get to sort of peek behind the curtain and see these amazing artists figure a scene out.
11:17I find it quite difficult to comprehend, or more to the point, believe that you believe, sir,
11:24that time travel hypnosis therapy can bring world peace and cure cancer.
11:29I have never been to the pyramids. Have you?
11:32No. And yet we know that they are there. Because learning men have told us so.
11:36But Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul had known each other for a long time at that point. And
11:41there's a scene where one of, it's like a fundraising event, and it's the first time that someone speaks
11:49out against the master. We had been shooting this scene for a long time, all morning. And, you know,
11:57there was a big monologue, high intensity. Paul likes to do a lot of takes, which I enjoy. But then,
12:03you know, you reach a point of exhaustion, and you're sort of at a loss, and then you move through
12:09that. We were approaching lunch, and everyone was kind of tired. And I was just sitting there
12:14watching the show, you know? And I see Paul, like, go up to Hoffman in between takes, and he's like
12:24looking at his forehead, and he sees this little piece of hair, and he just goes, and he just plucks it
12:31off of his forehead. And Hoffman was like, what the fuck? Right after that, they did a take. And
12:39that was when the pig fuck line came out. If you already know the answers to your questions,
12:45then why ask, pig fuck? He had never said that before. Funnily enough, they ended up recasting that
12:53part of the person that was speaking out against Master. It shows a different location. We shot it
13:00again, but pig fuck remained. That's kind of what I think about when I think about that movie. Just
13:06getting to witness that firsthand was crazy. Civil War.
13:15Those two guys over there, they're my colleagues.
13:25What kind of colleagues? That came on the heels of me wrapping this mini series I did in Austin
13:33called Love and Death, and then shipped the family out to Atlanta for Kirsten to start shooting that.
13:40An actor fell out. Kirsten was like, Jesse's here. Why not him? I read the script, met with Alex, and
13:51even just reading the script, when that scene comes, there's just a really drastic, evident
14:01shift in the whole tone. And I mean, it was like heart pounding even to read. And so it felt like
14:12I knew I wanted to do it to get to be in another film with Kirsten, where she was the lead. And again,
14:19I had a conversation with Alex, where we talked a lot about different moments in history where,
14:29you know, horrific massacres like this had taken place.
14:37We talked about, you know, Vietnam. I was reading this book that a friend of mine had recommended.
14:44There's a series written by a military psychologist. One of them's called On Combat, and one of them's
14:50called On Killing, and really interesting. I don't know if I'd recommend it unless you're doing something
14:55like what I was doing. It's just sort of getting into that, that sort of psychology. And then I was,
15:01I was fortunate enough to have a little bit of time with Ray Mendoza, who's the military supervisor.
15:07And that was my biggest concern was making sure I looked as if I knew what I was doing with a gun.
15:17And, you know, he served time in Iraq, obviously, and gave me a, you know, really quick sort of boot camp.
15:26And he was really helpful to me in sharing stories and his experience, all that. This idea that this
15:34outfit, you know, might have, might have in the beginning started out looking, you know,
15:41a little more buttoned up, proper military garb. But we're talking about apocalypse now and the
15:49soldiers that have just been out for too long. And because it was, was that one scene wanting to find
15:56some way of showing the idea that, you know, he might have picked something up at one point or another.
16:05I've never needed a shower more than after shooting that scene.
16:14Friday Night Lights.
16:18I think I'm going to get me one of those signs that say Landry Clark,
16:21utterly useless. Allstate Dirk King. Yeah, probably be on that team too.
16:26When I was, I guess, a couple of years into, you know, my transitioning out of like child actor,
16:34going through the awkward phase, as every teenager does, and kind of not really knowing
16:41where I would fit or what kind of parts I might be playing. And then became the token, like troubled
16:47kid on all the procedural shows like Judging Amy and Cold Case. Again, the redhead that was up to no good.
16:56I had done an episode of Grey's Anatomy, met the amazing casting director for that, Linda Lowy. And it was,
17:05I guess, maybe a year and a half later or so that I got called in to read for Friday Night Lights. Being from Texas,
17:13I'm pretty protective of all things having to do with Texas or even just Southerners because, you know,
17:24with anything, it's tricky to get it right and to not turn, you know, the characters into caricatures.
17:31But I went in and I initially read for Matt Saracen. I read with Linda and we're both kind of like,
17:39all right, that was okay, you know? And then she handed me the sides for Landry. And I don't
17:45really know if I've ever had this experience before or since then where it was as if reading those sides
17:56for the, for the first time, I just immediately knew who this guy was. From high school kids that
18:05I knew, I'm sure some aspects of myself are in there too, but I spent maybe 10 minutes in the
18:10waiting room reading the sides and it just, yeah, just felt like, okay. Peter Berg spent a lot of time
18:18at this high school in Texas and a lot of the characters in the show are based on kids that he met.
18:25There is a kid that he met named Landry who's nothing like the character. And I think,
18:31I think he always kind of gave Pete shit for, you know, naming the character after him that was,
18:42you know, the nerd. And so in some ways this was Pete's way of letting him get the girl or something.
18:50NBC was also trying to figure out how to, to get more people to tune in. And so we're trying to
18:56amp up the drama. I'm gonna be back for you.
18:58When I first got those scripts, I was really shocked for one, but also excited at the challenge
19:14because it's, it's a show that was sort of known for its realism. And, um, and so to, to try and pull
19:22off a storyline that was a little more dramatic and out there was, it was also a fun challenge.
19:32Once it had all been resolved and Landry magically, uh, got off, I was begging Jeffrey Briner, who's one
19:40of the producers on the show. And I was like, can we just have a moment in the hallway where we cross
19:46paths and look at each other or something to let you know that Landry killed the guy and he's going to
19:53be carrying this with him for the rest of his life. It was like, no, no, no, no, no. Um, we just moved
20:01right along. Fargo. Just, um, I, I just love you is all. So, so much.
20:20And come on, our kids would be amazing.
20:24I hadn't seen the first season of Fargo. My amazing agent and friend, Brandy,
20:30had and was freaking out. So I was like, okay, okay. I'll watch it.
20:34Watched it. I was blown away because my initial thought was, this seems like a really bad idea to
20:41make a show, uh, based on Coen brothers, existing film for them not to be directing it. And then I
20:50watched the show and I was like, um, had no idea how Noah pulled it off. So the writing was amazing and
20:57the casting and he really captured the, the spirit of, of their little universe.
21:05One of the things he told me, I might've even been written in the script.
21:09And I think at that point we only had two episodes or so. He was like, if Ed was a part of the animal
21:15kingdom, he would be a cow. I was like, could you explain that further? It's like, you know,
21:23he just wants a, a nice field to graze in. And what he wants is, is very simple.
21:32As the season went on and Ed is sort of put in more sticky, awful situations.
21:40I remember thinking about that and I was like, okay, so he's just done all of this, but he's a cow.
21:49Okay. And I was like, oh, a male cow. It's a bull. So I was like, okay. And so it was fun. It was,
21:55it was really fun, um, taking such a sweet, true character, um, that really just, just bought the whole
22:08concept of the American dream hook, line and sinker. And that's all he wanted to just run him through
22:14the ringer like that was, was a lot of fun to play and really tragic. And then, yeah, that actress
22:23and that, and that show turns out she's pretty great. And, um, it was one of those rare,
22:30rare, rare happenings where we met. I was like, I immediately felt like I could trust her. And
22:40like, you know, I knew it was going to be five months of us really going through it and Calgary,
22:46Canada, freezing, you know, uh, going on this crazy journey together, even during rehearsals.
22:52Like I could just tell from a creative standpoint, we approach things in a really similar way. And
22:59we're able to bounce ideas off of one another and without any ego or without any hurt feelings.
23:10Yeah. It's just to work with an amazing actor. It's also just a lot of fun and makes you better,
23:16you know, so. Black Mirror.
23:22When we set up the company, um, I suggested we call it Callister as kind of a little tribute.
23:31Walton didn't really get the reference, but he let me have that one. Again, I think when that was
23:37presented to me, I watched them all, not back to back because you'd have to be a lunatic to do that.
23:45But I mean, I remember watching that first season, Daniel Kaluuya, that whole episode and his
23:51performance really blew me away. And the Bryce Dallas Howard episode felt like way too close,
23:56even at that point, uh, to our reality. And then I had a conversation with, with Charlie and Annabelle
24:02and just felt like, well, this, this person is obviously brilliant. And it felt like such a
24:09unique, rare opportunity that wouldn't come along again. And to get to sort of play a real
24:15version of a character and then also this sort of shadow side, uh, fantasy of what he would like
24:23to be was just a lot of fun. Helmsman Packer, take us into that asteroid gas cluster. Into the cluster?
24:31Get suicide, sir. It is our only chance. And I had something in my head. I was like, I can't just do
24:38some Shatner thing. And then we did the script read and I was like, I think I have to do a little
24:44Shatner thing. And Charlie, I think ended up calling me and saying the same thing. I was like, okay,
24:50you're right. And then that was, uh, that was, uh, something I never thought I would do. I'm not the
24:57biggest sci-fi fan, but really loved, uh, obsessing over Star Trek, the show and the films. And I got
25:05really into it. I'm thinking of ending things. I'm not sure Tolstoy got that one right.
25:18Happiness in a family is as nuanced as unhappiness.
25:23Well, I think he was talking about marriage. Ah, here they come. Automatic. Yes. No thought
25:29whatsoever. He's been one of my favorites for a long time, probably a couple of years before
25:38this came my way. My friend and I, who's a filmmaker, we had like a Charlie Kaufman marathon and
25:44watched all of them in chronological order until that marathon. I'd never seen Synecdoche, New York.
25:50It was just mind boggling how brilliant and like singular his voice is. Obviously his movies are
26:00surreal and dreamlike, but they feel so human to me because you're not, you're not having to
26:07play by the same rules and have everything founded in reality. And somehow the way I experience it when I
26:14watch this stuff is just like, there's something so human about it. And I got the script for,
26:22I'm thinking of ending things late at night and I couldn't resist reading it. So I started it at
26:29midnight and finished it, I don't know, 1 32 in the morning and I felt like I had no idea what I just
26:42read, but felt like my emotions had just been like run through this gauntlet. I sort of read like a wild
26:50play. There was a ton of dialogue and we didn't have all that long to rehearse because of scheduling.
26:56And, um, um, I think that first week we were shooting all of the car scenes, which the average was
27:04probably like 11 pages of scene in a leading up to, to starting, um, shooting. Um, we were all feeling
27:13pretty lost trying to get some sort of direct answer from Charlie or anything to sort of
27:21help us understand what this thing was supposed to be. And we had a dinner, like maybe a few days
27:31before we were supposed to start. And I remember David Thewlis asking, he's like, so Charlie,
27:37what is this? Charlie was like, you know, I don't know. I was like, Oh God. But then he went on and,
27:45and said, you know, that he thought the, the, the, the goal or the, the place where he felt like we
27:55needed to exist in was this place of not knowing, not having the answers and of like feeling lost.
28:06Me and Jesse and Charlie decided that we had all this dialogue. If we didn't remember a line,
28:11we were going to just sit in it until it was obvious that it like, it wasn't going to come.
28:19And then we're going to ask for the line. It felt like, uh, uh, an experiment, but it was, yeah,
28:25it was incredibly, uh, creatively exciting. I just love Charlie so much. He's obviously
28:34ridiculously, ridiculously brilliant, but just has such a kind, big heart and is like in the fight
28:44with you fully, you know, power of the dog. And what you said about her boy tonight, Phil
28:54made her cry. She had an ear to the door. She was crying, Phil. What the hell?
29:12We had a couple of weeks of rehearsals before we got started. You know, each director, if they do,
29:18uh, prioritize rehearsing, they approach it a little differently. And I think the first thing
29:24Benedict and I did was dance to an Elliott Smith song, Waltz number two, maybe I think she wanted to
29:35kind of establish this dynamic in a physical way first. And so he was leading me and I was having to
29:44follow and, and then she organized this, this hike, um, for us as well. It was sort of pretty,
29:54thorough the instructions and we did most of it, not all of it. It's kind of a constant discovery,
30:01kind of finding more with each senior you're shooting. It was just really helpful having that,
30:08having that time and the book too. There's some, there was so much in the, in the book to draw from
30:13as well. I really can't dance. You're dancing.
30:17Jesse and I on the mountain top was like gorgeous surroundings. We were, I was kind of blown away,
30:25but I'm not going to lie. I felt so dorky doing this because it's like, we have our tea and we're,
30:32and meanwhile, we have like a child together.
30:34Did you feel like it was awkward?
30:36No, maybe I'm just more comfortable and, uh, awkward situations. I don't know.
30:42No, I was taken, taken by how beautiful the location was. And I mean, yeah, the scene
30:50in relation to me and Kirsten, you know, it's a completely different time, completely different
30:56characters. So it is a little cheesy, but it was, it was a beautiful script and beautiful setting. And,
31:03um, yeah, it was, it was amazing.
31:09Like Mike.
31:12I've been thinking. You've been thinking. That's a change of pace.
31:16Got a pretty big mouth for someone. Don't say it.
31:17So short. He short. I'm not short. I'm just height challenge. That's all.
31:22I've never thought about, uh, Ox the Bully as iconic, but thank you. I was about 12 years old. At
31:29that point I had been acting for quite a long time. You know, I was working some in Texas and in LA. I had, um, had some
31:38really fun opportunities. Um, and I mean, I, I also was kind of, I guess the red hair. I was kind of token
31:47bully number one through four. It was, it was sort of the, the, the pinnacle of my
31:54uh, bully career at that point. The adult actors in that were all amazing. Eugene Levy and Crispin Glover.
32:02But then to get to shoot at the forum and to get to meet all the NBA players and at lunch to get to,
32:09uh, you know, play basketball on the floor of the forum was just crazy. And then there was a motorized
32:15scooter sequence that was just like, uh, you know, a dream for a kid. One moment I remember from Like
32:23Mike, it was a day when we had a ton of extras at the forum and this was the height of Bow Wow's,
32:30you know, fame. I don't remember who it was. Maybe it was an AD or something. He was like, Hey,
32:36come over here and just walk in behind Bow Wow to the, uh, to this, to the,
32:41to the stadium. I did. And obviously walking in behind him, the whole place just erupts and it's
32:48like the Beatles are walking in and just like tears. And it was all so surreal. And like the four
32:54of us main actors, it was like a, our little class in a school year, you know, we, we did all of our
32:59homework together and it was just so much fun. It was, it was great. Megonia.
33:05Welcome to the headquarters of the human resistance. Where's my hair? Your hair has been destroyed
33:16to prevent you from contacting your ship. What ship? Your mother's ship. So,
33:24begonia, where to start? I had such an incredible time working with Yorgos and Emma on kinds of
33:34kindness. And it felt like another opportunity akin to, I'm thinking of ending things that just
33:40sort of exists in its own realm entirely. I remember looking for films to watch before
33:47I did kinds of kindness, uh, just for some inspiration. I was like, no, that doesn't quite
33:52get it. I think I watched some David Lynch, um, shorts that kind of felt like it. And then,
33:59so to, to get the opportunity to work with them again, um, on begonia was a surprise and one that I
34:08was very excited about. The character felt like someone that I think exists. And although it's,
34:16you know, sort of fantastical, it wasn't until a year later. And that was the first time I read it.
34:21I remember laughing out loud and like, so funny. And then the second time I read the script,
34:26I did not at all. I was like, what did I change? Did the script change? It like
34:34was a totally different experience. I loved it just as much, but it was, it was very different.
34:39And maybe it was like the reality setting in of like, okay, you're going to now go be Teddy. And
34:46all he goes through and that film, I mean, the third act is, is some of the craziest, um,
34:57scenarios I've ever gotten to play as an actor. Yorgos surrounds himself with such crazy, talented
35:07people that are all there because they, you know, believe in him and the project. And so it was,
35:16it was really a tough shoot, but one that, yeah, I will cherish forever. You know, signing on to it,
35:28what's coming. And then, you know, there are waves of having to, you know, prepare yourself for all of
35:36that. Yeah. It was just, I'm going to have to figure out how to talk about this movie because it was hard,
35:42but it was so much fun.
35:50Yeah.
35:52Yeah.
35:54Yeah.
35:56Yeah.
35:58Yeah.
36:00Yeah.
36:02Yeah.
36:04Yeah.
36:06Yeah.
36:08Yeah.
36:10Yeah.
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