'Ponyboi' stars Dylan O'Brian, Victoria Pedretti, River Gallo, Indya Moore and Director Esteban Arango stop by The Hollywood Reporter's studio during the Sundance film festival and detail the intricate look of Dylan O'Brian's character, from how he should style his hair to the tattoos on his body.
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00:00 When I moved to LA, I just like longed to be back in New Jersey.
00:04 And it's, I think it's a place that I think has produced some of the greatest artists of our time.
00:11 What is one word or phrase that you would use to describe your experience on the film?
00:19 In production.
00:21 Intersectional.
00:24 Oh, man, the wordplay there. I like it.
00:28 Transformative.
00:36 Honey, that was good.
00:42 I don't want to take it away, guys.
00:47 My next.
00:50 I like transformative, honestly.
00:56 Just a blast. I had a fucking blast.
00:58 Blast.
00:59 Yeah. I guess I turned that into multiple words and said, "Fuck. Sorry."
01:04 At the end of the day.
01:06 Do you, Dylan, do you want to describe your character and the inspiration for your
01:15 appearance and your vibe and look?
01:18 Yeah, this was, talking about the collaborative process.
01:24 There were some conversations early on. I think we all had our own ideas, three of us,
01:31 and those all kind of intersected, came together.
01:37 Like, I remember you and I having like a hair thing.
01:48 Oh, yeah.
01:49 Remember?
01:49 I had a lot of hair ideas.
01:50 Because you had a very like Pauly D inspo hair thing, and I really wanted to cut it short.
01:56 Just like all the pieces started coming together, right?
02:01 We had this barber do this really cool cut on me that just sort of combined all.
02:08 Remember that day in the trailer when we were doing it?
02:10 We were doing the goatee and you were like, "Leave the chin strap."
02:16 I was like, "Sure."
02:16 You know?
02:18 And then you fought for the chin strap and kept it, thankfully, because I love it.
02:23 And yeah, just like adding the slits in the eyebrows and the tattoos.
02:29 Esteban literally texted me about a tattoo idea early on when I first came on board,
02:37 and I was like, "I love it, and I'll leave it as a surprise."
02:40 And yeah, it just kind of came together and really informed me.
02:44 I mean, those things just help so much, especially with something that was a departure for me,
02:52 for sure.
02:52 It's not who I am, by any means.
02:54 I definitely felt like I knew exactly, I knew this guy.
02:58 I knew kids like this.
02:59 I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
03:01 But all those things just really evolve as the process comes together, and the tattoos
03:08 come in, and the hair, and the clothes, my fit.
03:13 I could never have stepped into the role in a way that I felt like I ended up doing without
03:17 all those pieces, the process.
03:19 What should people who maybe don't know a lot about the intricacies of the different
03:26 areas of Jersey and all of that, what should we know about it?
03:29 For me, I always thought New Jersey is this allegorical, liminal space that it's between
03:38 two big cities.
03:41 Mostly my experience being so my proximity to New York, where all your dreams can come
03:46 true, and this mythology of America, or around the world, where it's the center of such culture
03:54 that New Jersey becomes this ugly cousin to it.
03:57 And I think I resisted acknowledging that for a lot of my life.
04:05 And as an older, and more specifically when I moved to LA, I just longed to be back in
04:11 New Jersey.
04:12 And I think it's a place that I think has produced some of the greatest artists of our
04:18 time.
04:19 I mean, Meryl Streep, Bruce Springsteen, Whitney Houston.
04:23 Wow.
04:25 Yeah, I think it's something to be said about the culture that it's people, hardworking
04:31 people, often blue-collar people, who look out for each other and who know the value
04:39 of community and know the value of being the last kid picked in gym class.
04:46 And I think it's a feeling that unites the state.
04:51 Thank you.
04:52 [BLANK_AUDIO]