Tall, charming, handsome, what’s there not to like about Adam Driver? With his successes on the big and small screens in recent years, he’s fast becoming one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. But what else is there to this fascinating heartthrob? Read these 43 facts and find out!
Adam Driver Facts
43. Modest to a Fault
Driver actively refuses to watch himself onscreen, no matter what sort of program or project it is. He won't even listen to audio of his own performances when he’s doing radio interviews.
42. Old Habits Die Hard
Driver broke his long tradition by attending the premiere for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but it’s almost shocking how much it took out of Driver to go see himself on screen. According to Driver himself, the fact that he was masked through most of it helped a great deal, but the experience was still so “disconcerting” that he very nearly threw up in the cinema!
41. Soon I’ll be Ready for that Cheers Reboot!
To prepare for his role as a bartender in Logan Lucky, Driver learned to make Martinis. He must have learned his craft well, given that he had James Bond himself (Daniel Craig) on set to do taste-tests!
40. It’s Called “Silence” for a Reason!
Prior to filming for Martin Scorsese’s period piece Silence, Driver and his co-star Andrew Garfield decided to do some real research so they could properly portray Jesuit missionaries. They spent seven days at a Jesuit retreat in Wales, and followed all the retreat’s strict rules, including one which forbade them to speak. We can only imagine what it must have been like to hear the sounds of their own voices again after that!
39. Skipping Lunch
Driver also prepared his physical appearance for his role in Silence. He lost 30 pounds before filming began, only to lose another 20 as filming progressed. That can't be good for you.
38. Prestigious Premiere
Driver’s first theatrically released film was the big-budget period film J. Edgar, Clint Eastwood’s biopic on the life of FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover. Not bad for his first time on the big screen!
37. Don’t Call Me Adam! It’s Kylo, Damnit!
Reportedly, Driver would stay in character throughout the shoot of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He would even keep his helmet on when the cameras weren’t rolling. No word on whether he would ever forget that he couldn’t actually use the Force, though.
36. It’s Gonna be a Train in the Sequel
While acting in the indie film Paterson, Driver lived up to his name by getting his license to drive a bus. Driver wanted to be able to go into “autopilot” mode while driving, to enhance his own performance, and to also allow for more camera angles during filming.
35. Can’t You Just CGI Me In?
It’s always tough when two important jobs get in the way of each other, but things got ridiculous when Driver was starring both Girls and Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. He reportedly had to fly back and forth between New York and London to honor those commitments.
34. He’s a Dog Guy
Driver is the proud owner of a Rottweiler-Pit Bull mix named Moose.
33. I Beat Out Magneto and Elrond?
Before Driver was chosen to play the role of Kylo Ren, the studio was seriously considering Hugo Weaving and Michael Fassbender to take the role instead. We’re not quite sure why, especially given that Weaving is only 17 years younger than Harrison Ford.
32. Did They Pass Notes To Each Other?
Driver met his partner, Joanne Tucker, when they were both students at Juilliard. After years of being in a relationship, they got married in 2013.
31. Decent Exchange
According to Driver, he and his wife both swapped experiences and interests to each other over the years. Driver credits Joanne with introducing him to Gouda cheese and, and Driver introduced her to Rolling Stone magazine as a possible alternative to the New Yorker. You can decide for yourself who got the better trade.
30. Trouble with Parents
It turns out that Driver had a lot of inspiration to properly portray Kylo Ren in the Star Wars movies. Driver not only has a strained relationship with his biological father, but he also struggled to live under the very strict, religious rule imposed by his stepfather, a Baptist preacher.
29. I Hit a Few Speed Bumps on the Road to Adulthood
After he graduated high school, Driver attempted to get into Juilliard. After he was unsuccessful (he would later try again after he was discharged from the Marine Corps), he moved back in with his mother and stepfather. However, they made sure he wasn’t going be a mooch, and they charged him $200 per month to live under their roof. To sustain himself, Driver worked as a door-to-door vacuum salesman and as a telemarketer for a basement-waterproofing business.
28. I Belong to Another Era
Interestingly, Driver has barely any social media in his life, as he finds himself unable to understand technology to the point where he’s “very scared of it.” Ironic, given his big success in maybe the biggest science fiction film series of all time!
27. Losing his Onscreen Virginity
Driver shot his first ever sex scene while on the set of Girls. Driver was initially very hesitant to film something that was normally so private, but Lena Dunham’s confidence and comfort with herself inspired him to go through with the scenes. Safe to say that Driver is more surprised than anyone at the bizarre sex symbol status that he’s earned since his time on the show. According to Driver himself, “I was, like, the script says ‘Handsome Carpenter,’ so someone else is going to get the part. They’ll have someone handsome, not me. I mean, I’m not in any danger of getting leading-man parts.” Famous last words...
26. What a Glorious Day!
One of Driver’s lesser-known films is sci-fi thriller Midnight Special. According to director Jeff Nichols, the day that Driver arrived on set for the first time was the same day that he got the big news that he’d been cast as Kylo Ren.
25. I’m the De Niro to His Scorsese!
One director with whom Driver has a very good working relationship is Noah Baumbach, who first cast Driver in his 2012 film Frances Ha. Since then, they have collaborated together on While We’re Young, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) and will reunite for an upcoming film this year. As Driver himself has declared, “I could work with him on anything.”
24. He’s Musical Too?
For the Coen bros. film Inside Llewyn Davis, a movie about the New York City folk scene during the 1960s, Driver played his own music live during filming. Not only that, he and his co-star, Oscar Isaac, would later be reunited on the new Star Wars films.
23. Early Training
In all fairness, we shouldn’t be too surprised that Driver is musically inclined. When he was a kid, he participated in church choirs and learned piano in school. When your biological father and stepfather are both preachers, a childhood in choir seems inevitable.
22. Thanksgiving is Awkward
Sadly, the subject of Driver’s relationship with his parents isn’t a happy one. When Driver was cast in Girls—which was indisputably his breakthrough role—he didn’t bother to tell his parents about it. According to Driver, “It’s just hard to keep in contact… We have very different lives.”
21. So What Does That Make You?
Reportedly, Driver originally passed on the role of Adam Sackler on Girls because he “thought TV was evil.” To be fair, there’s a reasonable argument on both sides of that statement.
20. This Time, It’s Serious!
Driver’s failed attempt to get into Juilliard must have been hanging over his head when he tried for it a second time. So, what did he do to convince the panel that they’d been wrong to reject him? Driver turned to the Bard himself, William Shakespeare, to help him out. He performed the opening monologue from Shakespeare’s Richard III, and this convinced the judges that he was meant to study at Juilliard.
19. It’s Better than Squatting in Central Park!
When Driver succeeded at getting into Juilliard, it meant moving to New York City and finding a place to live. Naturally, he was staggered by the quest to find affordable living space in that city, so before he found his future home he made do by staying with his stepmother’s uncle. But, because this uncle only had the top floor of a house to himself, Driver was consigned to live in his closet. Armed with only “two full bags of clothing,” Driver lived this Harry Potter lifestyle until he found a place of his own. Coincidentally, he ended up working alongside the real Harry Potter on the film What If.
18. Channeling the Dark Side of the Force
Actors have to put a lot on the line when it comes to auditions, and they all deal with that kind of pressure in different ways. Driver’s strategy was a bit unorthodox: he trained himself to hate the people for whom he was auditioning. That way, he would be able to console himself with the knowledge that he “didn’t like those people anyway!”
17. Remember to Let the Wookie Win
While filming Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Driver revealed that he got himself a ping pong table for downtime on the film. His fonder memories include different members of the cast playing ping pong while still in costume. I'd pay to see that!
16. Awkward Beginnings
After his failed first attempt to get into Juilliard, Driver decided to go to Hollywood on the strength of his experience in the odd high school play. Driver set out from Mishawaka, Indiana in a 1990 Lincoln Town Car, aimed for the west coast. However, the car broke down just outside of Amarillo, Texas. Even after he arrived in California, his savings were gone after two days, forcing him to return home prematurely.
15. Good Thing I didn’t Play a Murderer…
Allegedly, Driver would find himself getting recognized for his character on Girls, and the reactions were not always positive. At least one person outright called him an “asshole” when he was going to the store, because we all know that actors are exactly like the characters they play.
14. Easter is a Nightmare for Him
For a time, one of Driver’s more peculiar eating habits was the consumption of six eggs per day, but removing the yolks from four of those eggs before eating them.
13. What a Hunk
Much to Driver’s own surprise, his appearance in Girls has garnered a surprising following who view him as a sex symbol. There is at least one Twitter account devoted entirely to Driver’s chest, while he has been photographed by Vogue and took part in Gap’s “Back to Blue” campaign. According to his Girls co-star, Lena Dunham, she’s “been asked what he smells like more times than [she’d] care to admit.” But for real Lena, what does he smell like?
12. Who Pays to Watch TV Anymore Anyway? Wait…
Despite his success on television, Driver doesn’t even own cable. As he once remarked, “I’ve actually tried getting cable, like, three different times and goddamn, it’s expensive.” Well, you got us there, Driver. And I guess HBO isn't technically cable, so I'll give him a pass.
11. Using his Talents to Serve
One way that Driver has given back to the Armed Forces is through his acting company. Titled “Arts in the Armed Forces,” Driver’s company puts actual soldiers into plays, occasionally with some big names like Susan Sarandon and Lauren Ambrose. According to Driver himself, he was inspired by the Dallas cheerleaders that were normally called upon for live entertainment when he was in the military. He admitted that while he “could watch cheerleaders all day,” he “felt like the military could handle something a little more thought-provoking.”
10. A Fish Out of Water
Going from the Marines to Juilliard isn’t easy, it turns out. Driver’s attitude was seen as exceedingly aggressive by his new classmates. By Driver’s own admission, his intensity made a lot of people cry.
9. What the Hell Are You Doing?
On the flip side of that coin, Driver’s decision to go to Juilliard apparently confused all his military friends. Driver recalled one instance when they got together to attend a friend's funeral and he tried to explain an exercise from his class, but his buddies could only stare and wonder if he was crazy.
8. Sure, I’ll Kill Don Quixote
Adam Driver will soon be seen in the upcoming Terry Gilliam film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Driver is the last in a very long line of actors who have been lined up to star in this film which has been twenty years in the making. Despite the project shutting down a couple times even after he signed on, Driver continued to stick with it until Gilliam could get it back up and running. According to Gilliam himself, Driver’s devotion to the project has only proven that he is the man that Gilliam has “been looking for all these years.”
7. That’s Dedication!
Reportedly, due to the low-budget indie nature of Gilliam’s Don Quixote film, Driver will only be paid 6,100 euros for his role in the film. Despite that, Driver has proven his loyalty to the project by being one of the only members of the cast to read the original book that the film is based on.
6. That’s Definitely One for the Bucket List
So, what else is Driver getting out of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote? Commenting on the film, Driver jokingly asked when he’d ever get another chance to “wear a pair of crushed velvet pants on the back of a horse standing in a volcano in Spain?” We’re inclined to agree, something like that could only happen when you work with Terry Gilliam.
5. Call it the Adam Driver Diet
Coming out of the Marines, Driver was determined to live an intensely active lifestyle, and that understandably makes one hungry. Driver’s regular lunch became a whole chicken per day! Driver finally abandoned that routine when he did some soul-searching after finishing a whole chicken and a foot-long sub from Subway.
4. Quite the Don Juan
At one point in the 2000s, Driver was thriving in the theatre world with important roles in two plays at the same time. One was the LGBT-themed play Slipping, and the other was a period drama called The Retributionists. However, one result of being in these plays was that Driver found himself (in his words) “making out with four people a day.” He would first kiss two ladies during rehearsals for Retributionists during the day, then he would kiss his male co-star while practicing for Slipping in the evening, and only then would come home to his girlfriend (and now wife), Joanne Tucker. According to Driver, he went through “a lot of mouthwash and toothpaste before [he] got home.”
3. This Looks Cool, Let’s Try It!
In 1999, David Fincher released the film Fight Club, which became a cult hit almost overnight. Driver was one of many teenagers who was inspired by the film, but he was inspired more than most—he actually began his own fight club among his friends after school. According to Driver, the first rule of his fight club, rather than not talking about said fight club, was “no hitting in the balls.” Still a good rule.
2. I Wanted to Fight!
After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Driver was inspired to sign up for the US Marine Corps. However, a serious injury due to a mountain biking accident led to him being medically discharged, much to his own anger and frustration.
1. A Life in the Marine Corps
When asked what he loved most about being in the Marine Corps, Driver gushed on the isolation of military life, the precise routine, and the Spartan lifestyle expected of him. Driver also appreciated the fact that he was made aware of his own mortality, though this might have been tested a bit too far. In one instance, Driver and his group were nearly exposed to deadly white phosphorous during training. Thankfully for the world, Driver was spared that fate by the wind’s direction.
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22