Adam Driver trained as a bus driver for his ‘Paterson’ film role.
The 32-year-old actor – who recently admitted he hates watching himself act on the big screen – has starred in numerous acclaimed movies, including playing main villain Kylo Ren in sci-fi blockbuster ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’.
But before he stepped on set to shoot scenes for his latest role – playing a 32-year-old bus driver and amateur poet in new film ‘Paterson’ – Driver made the decision to take bus driving lessons to help him convey the role as accurately as possible.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph newspaper, he said: "I took a three-month course in New York, which is complicated, to parallel park, you know … In Queen’s the bus driver got very angry. He’s like, ‘There are stupid kids, they’re stupid because they’re ignorant, they haven’t developed yet."
Speaking about why he decided to have bus driving lessons, Driver explained: "I decided to do it, on my own. It seemed like his (Paterson’s) physical life was very important. He has this very well-worn groove of a daily routine, so I didn’t want to be thinking about what button or handle to be using to drive a bus."
Driver’s character lives his life by strict routine that follows the same pattern every day – which includes walking his dog to a bar for one beer every night – until a disaster threatens to wreck his happy life with his wife.
Driver will appear in two more ‘Star Wars’ sequels and his career is going from strength-to-strength but no matter how successful he becomes he is adamant he won’t let being a movie star change him.
He said: "Nothing’s going to change me, just because of working on a big movie. Nothing says, ‘OK now you have to be a different person.’ "
Driver’s next project is depicting one of two Portuguese Jesuit priests in Martin Scorsese’s ‘Silence’, a role which required him to lose 30 lbs.