Lee Pace is the third recipient of Vultures very official honorary degree.
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A woman mourning her murdered lover.
A mystical pie-maker endowed with the ability to raise the dead.
The Elf King of the Third Realm.
A tortured Mormon husband.
A vampire named Garrett.
I remember thinking,Wow, Ive done it.
Then I watched the film back a year later and all I saw was myself.
Watch the full conversation below, or read on for the transcript.
A lot of the people I connected to were characters in stories I read and watched.
One of my favorite movies, that Ive probably seen more than any other movie, isLabyrinth.
I was a competitive swimmer for years.
Theyd have to poke a hole in my eardrum every year.
It was so painful.
I had to stop swimming, and I was devastated about it.
I thought my life was over.
You know how it is at that age.
I thought I was going to die.
And my mother responded by saying, Well, youre real dramatic!
Why dont you try theater arts?
There were competitive drama tournaments, so I got into that and I fought like hell.
Were you doing two- and three-person scenes?
You would be having a dialogue with yourself.
We would pass around Stanislavsky and Uta Hagen.
It was the first time I readAngels in Americabecause at that time it was just coming off Broadway.
We didThe Heiressfor aUILone-act play, and we took it to state.
We didnt win, but we went all the way to state, and I playedDr.
Sloper.So there I was with white paint in my hair and all these lines drawn on my face.
I see pictures of it and I look absolutely ridiculous.
But I wasseriousabout that role.Serious.
We also did a musical every year, and I didCrazy for You.
You know, acting!
What were your parents thinking?
But I was very determined once I started doing it, and I wasnt good at anything else.
I had no other options!
I actually started working with the Alley Theatre in Houston.
My parents were probably really concerned for me, but I wasnt listening.
I think they appreciated my foolish, driven,Im gonna do this insane thing with my lifeattitude.
At that point, we didnt know much about Juilliard.
My parents are from Oklahoma.
I was 17 years old when I went.
I think it was that competitive spirit that made me go,I want to get in.
And I was certain I was going to get in.
It was the only school I auditioned for.
I mean, foolish, right?
Its insane, actually, that I was pinning my future on that.
Id never been to New York, and thats what I thought.
And then I didnt really leave Lincoln Center.
Which is your favorite wing at the Met?The Temple of Dendur is pretty incredible.
Its a banger, that one.Yeah.
But I never left Lincoln Center.
I mean, all we did was talk about Chekhov and debatethe authorship question of Shakespeare.We were such nerds!
Theres nothing better than those words.
They are the most extraordinary words the English language has ever produced.
Which is your favorite Shakespeare play?I loveMacbethfor so many reasons.
I loveRomeo and Juliet.
I love the wit and comedy ofAs You Like It.
I havent done any Shakespeare since.
No Chekhov, no Shakespeare.
I would love to,loveto!
But Im very grateful for having had the time there to do it.
I didRichard IImy fourth year, which was great fun.
You play Calpernia Addams, the trans woman he was in love with.
It is a lot for a first screen role.
I worked very closely with Calpernia Addams while we were shooting.
She was there for the entire filming.
I remember thinking,Wow, Ive transformed completely.
Ive just done it.Im someone completely different than myself.
But then I watched the film back a year later and all I saw was myself.
I didnt understand anything about being on a film set at that time.
They had to teach me what a mark was!
I found the situation she was in fascinating.
They found his brains 13 feet away from him.
I wanted to honor him and be a part of his story.
When I read the script, I couldnt stop thinking about it.
I visited Anna Friel recently in London.
I adored working with Anna.
Ive never met someone who loves life like Anna Friel.
What a great experience that was.
Everything moves very fast.Yeah, it was a big web connection show they had very high hopes for.
But success becomes a different thing when its on a web link.
Youre all there together feeling the same thing, doing the same thing.
With TV, youre sort of doing that as well, but you have no control over it.
But we got canceled.Pushing Daisiesgot canceled.
Im still upset.I always think about it as a win because Im proud of what we made.
I enjoyed the experience with those people.
These directors who have taken an interest in my interpretation of a role.
Ive worked withRobert De Niro, Steven Spielberg.
Lots of personalities, lots of challenges.
WithThe Hobbit, Peter Jackson is a true visionary.
What a privilege to work with someone like Peter Jackson.
Not to mention Ian McKellen.
I dida scene on a giant elkwith Billy Connolly on a giant pig!
Talk about something I would never have imagined I would get the chance to do.
We just watched a clip fromThe Hobbit.
Peter Jackson invented a cinematic language on those movies.
Its really worth a rewatch just to see.
Theres that scene whereGandalf is in Bilbos houseand theyre all handing him different things.
They couldnt shoot that at the same time, obviously, because they were all different sizes.
Its an extraordinary piece of choreography and props.
Its not just cinema.
Its a whole other thing that hes doing.
What a fun role.
What does thinking about elves mean for you?Well, I believe in elves!
Im going to need more information about that.Well, Ive got proof.
And I thought,Oh, fuck!
Ive lost my phone and Ive got four more days.
It must be in here!Three days go by, the phone is nowhere to be.
I mean, Ive lost it.
Im certain I left it back there.
But I woke up the last night and the screen is stuck to my back.
They said,Son, you dont need that here!
Were going to take that technology away from you!
you better think about other things.
Look around, be where you are, you dont need that phone.
It will not help you.So they took it away from me for a while.
But theyre not evil, so they gave it back.
Is that not proof?
We had this incredible cast of people.
We took those meetings really, really seriously.
We would fight about the characters.
And shes like, Hes a monster and youre a monster for defending him!
I would get on the phone with the showrunners and say, This is not fair!
You cant do this to Joe!
Its like a child screaming up to God saying, Give me my way!
it’s possible for you to feel that in the performance.I felt it, I did!
Its so much of who Joe is.
Joe is railing against all this unfairness he perceives.
Itwasworking!We all liked it.
AMC liked it and supported it and wanted to see us keep making it.
At some point, I realized,This is not a show about winners.
Hes got a bad reputation and he cant shake it.
No matter how much he wants to evolve, people remember who he was.
I love that show.
Im so proud of the point of view of humanity that we got to investigate during that time.
But I would never describe the way I work as Method-y.
I dont even know if I understand what that means.
Right now, Im feeling really securely like the Emperor of the Galaxy.
He is a beautifully written character who is going through the fire.
For that long period of time, every day, I was just getting the skin ripped off.
Who knows what happens?
That part is for the audience to decide.
And because the play is so brilliant, its immediate.
It washardto play that character.
It is a thing that is placed around someone.
It is a thing that isdoneto someone.
And people who find themselves in a situation like that deserve our patience and gentleness.
That was the same moment in your career where you came out.
It was aNew YorkTimesprofile, which is a huge moment for any actor.
I never felt like that was a choice I made.
But the media has a way of talking about things.
I reserve my right to explore all the different facets of humanity through my work and in my life.
Have you seen the showHeartstopper?
Its so beautiful.Isnt it beautiful?
Its lovely.Its so, so good.
And one of the actors faceda similar Tower of Babel about the whole thing.
I want to see all of the people you inhabit in your career.
I actually dont care about anything else.
I dont want to know it; its none of my business anyway.
Id rather take your word for it than some kind of hot take on it, you know?
One of your strengths is the ability to inhabit all different kinds of people.
There is something more meaningful about that way of revealing yourself.Storytelling is such an important part of humanity.
I think its how we agree on our values.
And in that storytelling, the tribe figures out,This is who we are.
Storytelling has gotten much more sophisticated now, but it is still how we all connect.
I get chills just thinking about it.
Ill never be one to say, Oh, Im just an actor.
This is a worthy profession.
This is a worthy thing to engage in because its how we get through moments like that together.
This is crucial to us.
Is there a challenge you still long to take on?Oh, yeah.
You know, I actually readWashington Squareon the flight over here.
Hes very fascinating, but there are so many things about him that …
I hadnt lived enough life yet.
You know, the roles do get better.
They get more interesting, more complex, because your life gets more complex the older you get.
So I definitely look ahead and I thinkYeah, thatll be interesting.
Is there a role you long to play that you havent had the chance to yet?
Lets will it into the world right now.Oh my gosh!
We are in Hollywood, right?
Dreams actually can come true.
Hes the American master.
