The second “East of Eden” star Mike Fist used the word “dread” to describe how he chooses his roles in a recent interview with IndieWire, I had to stop him. “You keep saying”fear!”
The “Challengers” and “West Side Story” actor smiled, laughed and shrugged. “I know, I know, but it’s just true,” he said. “The truth is that’s really the only thing I’m looking for, because that means you care. That is what’s exciting.”
Since the Ohio native first moved to New York City at 17 to begin professional acting, that kind of happiness has been his goal. First known for his stage work — most notably “Dear Evan Hansen,” which earned him both a Tony nod and a Grammy win — Fist shot to big-screen fame with his electrifying turn as Riff in Steven Spielberg’s 2021 adaptation of “West Side Story.” Since that starring role, Faist has been very selective with his projects, including Jeff Nichols’ “The Bikeriders” and Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers.”
His latest role is another one born of careful consideration and personal connection: the dark, complex Charles Trask in Zoe Kazan’s adaptation of “East of Eden.” For fans of Faist – the rare actor we haven’t seen enough of since his first major Hollywood role – the seven-part series offers another look at his many talents. For a man who grew up respecting James Dean, it couldn’t be better.
Of course, Kazan is not the first in her family to adapt John Steinbeck’s seminal novel for the screen. Her grandfather Elia Kazan did just that in 1955 with the classic starring Dean. But although that film focused on the younger Trask brothers at the heart of the story – Caleb and Aaron – Zoe Kazan expands to include the story of Adam (Christopher Abbott) and Charles Trask, and how their lives were spent when Cathy Ames (Florence Pugh), one of the great monsters in literature, arrived.
When Kazan first met Faist, he said she made it clear that they were not remaking his grandfather’s film, but making a full-blooded adaptation of the John Steinbeck. novel. “That meant we’re going to go back and we’re going to bring in the [older] Trask brothers and study that relationship,” he said. Getting to know Charles and reading that character, I fell in love. I loved him. There was something about it that I said, ‘I can’t do this. I have to do this.’ That’s what you’re looking for. You’re looking for something you can’t say no to, and you have no choice.”
And, he said, “With that, there’s this feeling of total excitement and then total fear. [That’s] the truth.”
Although Kazan’s approach to the material is different from her grandfather’s – not only in terms of its length and scope, but the way in which he explains Cathy and her motives – it is clear that her love of the story is rooted in her grandfather’s work.
When Faist and Kazan first met to discuss the project, he said, “I joked with her and said, ‘This is a little meta, you’re involved in this.’ After a while, it became very apparent that, yes, it was, but she also had this very short-sightedness and an urgency that came with it. When you get the opportunity to work with people who have such brilliance, it makes you want to rise to the occasion. ”
After all, it is a story that has lived in Kazan, in all forms and variations, all her life. Faist likes that kind of commitment. “He reminded me of Spielberg; he was kind of like him. He wanted to do ‘West Side Story’ for decades, and he really had that kind of vision and clarity and tenacity. You could feel that,” Faist said.
What does Faist feel when he sets up a project he is passionate about? Well, fear, yes, but something else, too.
“There are two things you really feel: There’s hell and then fear,” he said. “But [with a project like ‘East of Eden’]this thing is, like ‘OK, this person has control over the thing. The trust is there. We are going to be able to roll up our sleeves, and we are going to be able to get to work.’ That’s what I’m looking for, this ability to go all the way, to really commit, to be as honest as you can, and to give, to give. everything what you can do.”
Kazan’s tenacity, he said, was felt throughout every part of the process. “The amount of resources that were then given to this thing! When I arrived in New Zealand a month before, and you walk on the stages, and you walk on where everyone has been working for six months before that, and you meet hundreds of people,” he said. “The sets that were built, the costumes that were created, and the props that were made, the amount of real human thought that went into this. It makes my job so much easier. I couldn’t feel more fortunate.
Part of Trask’s intricate family tree, Fist plays alongside some of his favorite co-actors, including recent Tony nominee Christopher Abbott, a stage and screen star Faist has been “searching for years.
“The first time I met Paul [Dano] and Zoe personally, I was asked to do a reading with both of them to celebrate this playwright John Guare,” said Faist. There have been three productions of ‘House of Blue Leaves’: the original off-Broadway production, a Broadway production with Ben Stiller in 1986, and then another with Ben Stiller again in 2011.”
In the 2011 production, Abbott took over the role originally played by Stiller, Ronnie Shaughnessy’s prodigal son. “It was that production where I was watching that character and that actor playing that character, and I said, ‘Oh, this the man is the one who really makes this make sense to me.’ And that actor was Chris,” said Faist.
Another big star of the series, Florence Pugh, offered a different brightness to Fist. As Charlie and Cathy, the two have the most difficult relationship in the show. Not only do they see each other, but they recognize themselves in the other. That’s not a good thing for either of them. “Steinbeck writes it very well in the book, and we say it in the series, but this idea of type recognizes type,” Faist said. “There’s this idea of these two being a mirror and being able to see this thing within each other and knowing that they’re about each other.”
Charlie and Cathy circle each other throughout the series, with Faist appearing in later episodes long after those familiar with Steinbeck’s story, ahem, would reasonably expect him to still be on the scene. That allowed the two to develop their relationship and connection.
“When you first meet Charlie, you get to know this person who has worked hard to block this version of himself, because he’s been dealing with so much shame,” the actor said. “And then his brother comes back into the picture, something he hasn’t seen in years, and he’s trying to mend that relationship. And Charlie, at this point, is trying the best he can be. goodwhatever that may be. And Cathy comes, and he sees that she has this other side of him, and that becomes a danger in his eyes because it is this quality that he tries to hide, to keep away.”
When he met Cathy, Faist said that “Alice was going down the rabbit hole.” As his match in many ways, the actor found another way into Charlie that shows that in a canny style. “One of the days when we were shooting, Florence said, ‘You look a bit like the Cheshire cat right now,'” he recalled. “And I was like, ‘I guess you’re right about that. I never thought of it that way.’ And she was right.”
Beyond “hell yes” and “absolute fear,” I discovered another Faist response when it came to choosing his gigs: “I don’t know.” That one, I suspect, is rarer, but it’s good, too. I mentioned that in an interview surrounding “The Bikeriders,” filmmaker Jeff Nichols said that Fist may also be interested in directing or writing his own films. When I asked Faist about that possibility, he jumped a bit.
“I don’t know. I couldn’t say,” said the actor. “When we did that movie, Jeff was very generous in the sense that he let me shadow him. He let me hang out and see what it was like to be on the other side of things. I was very lucky to work on that project as well because I was surrounded by these amazing actors, and my only job was to sit there and listen and watch.
The film is based on a book of the same name by photographer Danny Lyons, who Faist plays in the film. He is a journalist, outside the forbidden motorcycle lifestyle but very interested in it, a spectator both on the screen and apparently behind it too.
He considered the experience a little more, than ever before. “In a way, it really got me. I don’t know, it made me fall back in love a little bit with everything I do. Being able to sit there across from Mike Shannon and watch this guy take take after take and finally find his way through, I mean, to me, there’s nothing more exciting.”
So, in Mike Faist’s parlance, what’s next that really scares him?
He got, funnily enough, a little Cheshire cat. “There’s a couple of things, and I’m excited about it. That’s all I’ll say. I’m excited,” he said. Any chance of returning to the theater? “Well, I don’t know. Sure, there’s hope. I’d love to come back. It seems like it’s been 10 years since I’ve been on an American stage, and we’ll see. I’d love for that to happen.”
But, now? This project? This time? “I don’t know how I got so lucky, really how I feel, really,” Faist said. “It’s a real honor to be able to do this, and I’ll try to do it as long as I can, as long as I’m allowed and these guys will let me.”
The seven episodes of “East of Eden” will be shown for the first time on Netflix on Thursday 1 October.