It’s hard to see a movie this summer and not see Paul Walter Hauser.
The actor is starring in supporting roles in Marvel blockbuster Fantastic Four: First Steps and The Naked Gun reboot, along with a starring role in the finally released Tony Tost film Americana, which went to SXSW in 2023 and was met with relatively positive response before encountering several release delays.
Despite his busy summer on screen, Hauser is quite discerning about the projects he takes on. He reveals he turned down roles in both Kevin Costner’s Horizon and Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers because he knew the roles lacked the depth he’d be looking for when it came time to shooting. “I feel way too competitive and way too hungry to eat garnish and pretend it’s a meal,” the Emmy Award-winning actor tells The Hollywood Reporter on a phone call.
It’s only days after the premiere Fantastic Four: First Steps, and Hauser admits he’s dealing with a bit of sleep deprivation due to his busy schedule and his wife giving birth around the same time. But he stresses life is great.
Below, the Americana star speaks with THR about the film getting a release, turning down roles in hit movies and why he feels like an outsider in Hollywood.
How are you feeling about Americana finally hitting theaters? I know you worked on this a few years back.
Americana is legitimately my favorite movie I’ve ever made, which you can print. I’m not worried about any social blowback there. I just think it’s wildly original, the script was so attractive. It was all about the writing, and Sydney Sweeney was just on the come up where everyone was starting to find out who she was because of White Lotus and Euphoria. When we wrapped, we were told it would go to a festival. A year later, we had it at SXSW in Austin, and we got great reviews, so we were like, “Oh, we’re sitting pretty.” Then we were just sitting. There was no pretty. We were wondering what the hell happened.
It survived a studio going bankrupt and a few other things before finally arriving via Lionsgate.
I don’t know when a good time is to drop a movie like this. I just know no matter whether it blows up and it’s the next Everything Everywhere All At Once, or if it comes and goes and makes $800K in theaters, it’s still going to be one of these movies that will have long-term success. I know people are going to stumble upon it, and it’ll become some 13-year-old’s favorite movie in three years, and it’ll be like what Reservoir Dogs was for me at their age.
You’re in several other projects this summer, and they’re all, thematically, quite different. What is it about these roles that you lock in on that makes it worthwhile to you?
I think with Marvel, it was the fact that I was working with Matt Shakman again [on Fantastic Four: First Steps], who directed me in an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia 15 years ago. There was something so sort of sweet and full circle about that, and he’s such a sweet, good-hearted man. I’ve always wanted to do a superhero movie, and I heard that Robin Williams always wanted to play The Joker, and then he wanted to play The Riddler, and [Jack] Nicholson and Jim Carrey kind of beat them out for that, so I was like, “Man, you got to do this for all the guys who wanted to do it and didn’t even get to.”
What about The Naked Gun?
It was less about being the star of the film or making a bunch of money. It was more that I thought the movie was going to be really good, and it’s a chance to work with the brilliance of an Akiva Schaffer or a Liam Neeson. Both are iconic to me for different reasons, and I liked those guys and I love Atlanta. We were shooting in Atlanta, and I have so much history there with Cobra Kai and I, Tonya and Richard Jewell. Atlanta is like seeing a friend. Then we ended up moving here. I live in Atlanta now.
You live there full-time?
Yeah, full time. That Naked Gun trip was very influential to that life choice, which was cool. Then the third one, Americana, that was all writing, writing, writing. Nobody made a bunch of money on that movie. It was all just we are lucky to speak the words of the Tony Tost brain. I still feel that way. The writers don’t get talked about enough. Doug Mand and Dan Gregor, who worked on the script with Akiva [Schaffer] for Naked Gun; those jokes are banger. I’ve seen the movie twice now. When I saw them on set, there was no reverence. I was just kind of joking around and being stupid with them, and now I almost regret my lack of reverence for them, and the tonality with which I handled myself. I wish I would’ve asked questions and been less assuming.
How much of your Mole Man role was cut from Fantastic Four?
I went from four or five scenes down to about two or three, so that was hard. I had a scene with Vanessa Kirby that I loved, and that was my main reason for really being excited about playing him. [It was like]. “Oh God, I get to work with Vanessa Kirby. We get to do this moment.” I had a lot of fun getting to go in and talk smack to The Fantastic Four in their own lair. I improvised the line where I say to Joseph Quinn, “Don’t get mad at me. I didn’t dress you.” Which is totally me ripping off Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets. It’s just me doing my thing and taking from the best, and then it’s funny to see what they end up keeping.
Where do you think you’re at as an actor in terms of selecting projects? Do you feel you’d found the space you fit in or do you have things you’re still hoping to explore?
There’s so much I haven’t done that I want to do desperately. Kevin Costner offered me a part in Horizon, but it was one line of dialogue and the character had nothing to them. I don’t need to be a piece of furniture in anybody’s movie. I love Kevin Costner, and I want to work with him, and it’d be an honor, but I also want to do something good. The same thing with Luca Guadagnino, [who] offered me [a role] to play the tennis judge during the big matches in Challengers. I could tell it was going to be something, and I love Luca, and he’s been nothing but sweet to me, but also I feel way too competitive and way too hungry to eat garnish and pretend it’s a meal. I would rather hold out for the right thing. On the day I’m just going to be all hungry, and then I’m going to look stupid and then I’m going to feel awkward. In Hollywood, I don’t feel like I fit in at all.
Really?
No, I’m an outspoken Jesus guy, but I also can’t stand Donald Trump. I no longer live in L.A. I am obsessed with professional wrestling, and I’ve made somewhat of a career out of that. In a weird way, I almost feel like I fit in the wrestling world more than I do in Hollywood. I’m a way better actor than I am a wrestler, but I just… I don’t know, when I walk into a wrestling arena and there’s a bunch of nerdy fans with signs and autograph stuff, and I feel like one of them. Whereas, when I’m at a Hollywood function or a premiere, it feels like that awkward high school thing [where] there’s a bunch of pretty people who are saying all the right things, and I’m the only one who wants to truly be some sort of unleashed version of themselves, and I feel very alone in that for some reason.
