Tye Sheridan is one fortunate 17-year-old kid. He’s worked with directors Terrence Malick on The Tree of Life, Jeff Nichols in Mud and David Gordon Green in Joe. That’s pretty significant list for someone who kicked off his career with such respected talent.
He talked to Indiewire recently about his incredible success in the industry.
Sheridan explained to the Indiewire about what he learned from working with Malick.
He said, “Well I feel like it was a learning experience for me, and he taught me to just be natural in front of the camera. He didn’t give me a script to read. He wanted my dialogue to just feel natural. If I was gonna have dialogue in the scene, he didn’t want it to be written, he didn’t want me to prepare, he just wanted me to say it and improvise. He basically just cast me as the character he wanted me to be in the movie. I was just being myself in front of the camera. But you know, it was a great experience working with him because he is a genius. And it was just such an interesting process.”
The teen was able to take his experience working with the veteran filmmaker to the set of Joe where director Green cast many non-actors. It was a surprising opportunity for Sheridan who understood what he was up against.
“It was great, and if you weren’t careful, some of those non-actors could really show you up. I’m serious, they’re really talented and they have all the confidence in the world because they’re not aware of what could go wrong on a film set, they’re just thinking, ‘Oh man I’m being treated like a prince, and I’m in a movie with Nicolas Cage, and life is great,’ so really they have all the confidence in the world,” he said. “And it’s great to have someone like that to work with, because really they keep you on your toes, and sometimes you don’t know what they’re gonna say, and sometimes what they say is gold, and you just kinda have to roll with whatever they’re doing.”
It’s obvious Sheridan knows what he’s doing. His follow-up films include The Forger with John Travolta, Last Days in the Desert with Ewan McGregor and Dark Places with Charlize Theron.
