Hollywood’s Up And Comers Dish Out Advice At AFI’s Young Hollywood Roundtable

On living in New York and Los Angeles

Gerwig and Larson share more than just a fear of social media. The two rising stars began their climb in Sacramento, CA, though Gerwig now lives in Manhattan and prefers it to LA.

“I always feel like a big failure in L.A.,” Gerwig said. “It makes me feel like I should somehow be different than I am. I don’t know why. But in NY I always feel like I can kind of melt in. In L.A. people are always like, ‘why do I know who you are?’ and I’m like, you don’t.”

Teller marveled at some of the weird customs in L.A. “I remember when I first moved out here I went to a bar and I was just talking to somebody, you know, casual conversation and then he found out I was an actor and he’s like ‘oh I’m a producer, here’s my card,’” Teller said. “Then I met like four other people that night that were like ‘dude my dad does reality TV, here’s my card’ and I’d never seen people giving cards just saying ‘actor.’ It was the weirdest thing.”

Jordan, who grew up in Newark, New Jersey, said LA mostly “lives up to the hype,” but “you need a core group of friends” to get through.

 On going to college:

Half the panel finished college, while the other half felt it was an unnecessary way to spend money. “I think my mom and dad really wanted me to explore college,” Jordan said.  “You know at the time my sister, she graduated from Temple University and she had tons of students loans that she had to pay back and she graduated at the top of her class, but there weren’t any jobs waiting for her when she finished and that was my example. I was like ‘mom look at Jamila, she graduated at the top of her class and she has no job. You want me to be more in debt? So, once they kind of gave in to that they allowed me to come out to L.A. to really pursue what I wanted to do.”

Gerwig decided to get a degree in she knew would seem useless. “I loved acting, but I went to Barnard and I got a B.A…. I think my mom was a little freaked out that I wanted to be an actor so I was like ‘I’ll show you, I’m studying philosophy… really not be a money earner,’” Gerwig said. “There’s lots of ways I can mess up my future. I think because of the pressure to start early when I was in high school, like Mandy Moore was already younger than me and I was like well it’s over. I already felt like when I graduated from college I was going to be too old to do it. I thought that I would probably never be an actor because it seemed like everyone was big by the time they were 20 or not at all. I think in some ways because I was just like oh I’m going to go to school and figure out a way to do something in theater or film, I don’t care what it is… it allowed this to kind of be a great surprise when things were able to work out, but I didn’t have any expectation that they would.”

 On embarrassing YouTube videos (with links!)

Did you know Brie Larson was signed to be a songwriter at the age of 12? Did you know she plays guitar and sings for more than a handful of music videos? Did you know they’re all available on YouTube and she’s embarrassed by it?

“I wanted to be in musicals as a kid… music was something that inspired me, but it wasn’t something I was trying to pursue. I don’t know it was just something I sort of fell into for a while,” Larson said. “I was signed at first as like a songwriter, but I was 12 so it was a joke. I’m embarrassed by it, but most people don’t have their 12 year old videos that are out on YouTube for the world to see.”

Miles Teller seemed the most uneasy about his amateur work available online (though he did mention them a lot). “When something goes online, it’s permanent,” Teller said before name-dropping a short film he made in high school. Take a look at “Moonlighters” for yourself, below.

 On meeting famous actors for the first time:

Even being famous themselves, the group was not above getting star struck and they had their fair share of embarrassing moments in front of their idols.

“I mean I remember the first thing I did was ‘Rabbit Hole’ and I remember I had met Nicole [Kidman] briefly for like a lunch, but I didn’t talk,” Teller recalled. “It was Nicole, the DP, and the director and they were talking… and I was just sitting there trying to eat salad and not just stare because Nicole is like six feet tall and she’s absolutely beautiful and her skin… is like a unicorn. I had to give myself a pep talk, but at first I was like… I know who you are, definitely know who you are.”

Gerwig wished she could have a do over with her idol. “I so internalized Woody Allen and doing your weird neurotic impression of Woody Allen to Woody Allen is terrible. I feel like if I could’ve gone back in time I would’ve been really confident,” Gerwig said.  “I saw Penelope Cruz with him and she was like ‘oh Woody!’ and she was joking with him, it was so nonchalant. And I was already doing something like ‘eghhhhh’ [makes a weird creature sound]. I could feel that he like whispered to someone ‘keep that girl away from me’ … and I’m in Rome and I’m a leper. I was just kind of a disaster on that one. It’s really hard for me to be around people I admire.”