Miles Teller joined us at The Savannah Film Festival this week to debut his new movie Bleed For This & to accept SCAD’s Vanguard Award.
Miles rocked the red carpet before the screening and gave an incredible performance in the film. Afterwards, he did a Q & A. Here are a few things he had to say:
Q: Nothing really prepares you for what is asked of you when acting in a movie. Did you ever hesitate to take this role?
A: No. Vinny(who he plays) is an animal. I really value all of the things that he represents in his life: courage, pride, determination, focus, drive. He has a reputation of being a warrior and having so much heart. He literally risked paralysis to be a fighter because he knew he was meant to be a boxer and breaking his neck didn’t stop him. I knew that it would be a tall order but I knew it would be the most gratifying experience of my life.
Q: Which boxing movies did you watch to prepare you for this role?
A: There’s a great catalogue as far as boxing movies go, but I’ll pass this to Vinny because there’s a movie that changed the course of his life as a boxer.
Q: How do you mentally tackle a non-fiction character vs. a fictional character?
A: If someone were to make a movie about my life, I would hope the actor would take it seriously. A lot of people are going to be introduced to Vinny through this film, so it’s important that I did it right. I want to be spot on to who Vinny is. We cut archival film of Vinny into the movie and I wanted to have it completely down so that my scenes looked the same as him. With Vinny, we didn’t have much communication during prep, so I had to study archival film. I listened to interviews and worked to get his accent down. I didn’t want to associate his voice with his mannerisms because I felt they were two different things.
Q: What was your training regiment for the film? How did you handle wearing the halo contraption?
A: Film days are long, you’re doing it 12 hours. To get into the shape to be boxing all day was intense. I lost 20 pounds and cut it down just to get into the door and be aesthetically similar to Vinny. The halo was really tough, honestly. I feel bad saying that because he(Vinny) wore it for 6 months screwed into his head, I just wore it for 12 hours a day on set.
*All questions and answers are paraphrased but still accurately reflect the words of Miles and those asking questions
Photos by Ali Forrest