Skyler Gisondo has spent over two decades building a reputation as Hollywood’s go-to nice guy. Ever since his screen debut at 6 years old in a Pizza Hut commercial, he has charmed audiences with a string of endearing, witty sidekicks—including his turn as the iconic Jimmy Olsen in James Gunn’s “Superman.”
But his latest role, in Lance Oppenheim’s A24 psychological thriller “Primetime,” completely flips the script. It’s intense, it’s dark, and it’s a massive pivot from Gisondo’s bread and butter. In “Primetime,” he plays Dan Plumb, a musical-theater actor so desperate for his SAG card that he joins a chaotic television sting operation. He stars opposite Robert Pattinson’s unhinged portrayal of “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen.
In this conversation, Gisondo, discusses his dramatic turn in “Primetime,” breaks down his best advice for aspiring actors chasing their first SAG credit, and shares what it was like reuniting with Ben Stiller to play his onscreen son in the upcoming sequel “Focker-in-Law.”
When you’re known for comedy, do you feel an extra layer of pressure to prove your dramatic range?
Big time. When Lance and I first spoke about the project on Zoom, I thought it was a general meeting, maybe an audition. Then I realized Lance was already excited about the idea [of me playing Dan]. We took to each other quickly. We were the same age, and we became fast friends. There was this immediate transparency, and I found myself saying, “Man, are you sure? I'm not sure what you've seen of mine that made you think this would be a good idea.”
But I was so floored by the idea of getting to work with a filmmaker like Lance, and actors like Rob and Merritt [Wever]. It was not the kind of opportunity I had gotten before. And, of course, there’s that immediate pressure of real uncertainty of: “I don’t know that I can do this.” Reading the script, there were things demanded of this character that were just so outside the scope of anything I’ve ever done. And I really was fueled by Lance’s just unwavering conviction that it was a good idea. He instilled such confidence in me from early on, and I think as a result of all of that nervousness, I worked harder than I ever had.
Because the character felt like the furthest departure from myself, I started studying “To Catch a Predator” segments quite religiously. I also worked with a musical-theater singing coach to bring the register of Dan’s natural voice a little bit higher, so it wasn’t as comical when I shifted to that very high register. A small alteration like that can be really helpful when there’s a lot of self-convincing that needs to happen. When you sound less like yourself, it’s easier to get places.
But yeah, I was tremendously nervous, but I got comfortable with the way that Lance and [director of photography] David Bolen work. Coming from the [documentary] world, they bring a spontaneous, anything-can-happen style of filmmaking. That forced me to get comfortable acting from a place of real uncertainty, which I came to love. It was a very formative experience for me.
Dan has to put on a performance while you are acting for the camera. How hard was it to balance those two levels of acting without making his undercover work look fake?
There was this kind of meta thing of: I started acting when I was a kid, so there was so much in Dan I could understand. I remember being younger and just that eagerness, that excitement, and that desperation. The thing you’ve always wanted is dangling right in front of you.
My actual audition scene was Dan’s audition scene in the movie. It worked out fortunately for me, and I got to channel all of my own nerves into Dan’s nervousness at getting this enormous opportunity. Then, when Dan first meets Chris, he’s just awestruck by him. Chris has everything Dan wants—he’s the star of his own television show. For me, Rob is an actor who I am in awe of and so deeply admire.
There were these parallels where Dan was living some exaggerated version of things that I could relate to and had felt. It was helpful to get to tap into a lot of that.
Did playing that type of character bring back any memories of your own early audition days?
Totally. Just that feeling of getting to work with great actors at a young age, who you can’t even believe you’re breathing the same air as them. Somebody you idolize. Because it’s a film set, it’s such a specific ecosystem, and it’s all new to Dan. I remember that feeling of being younger and on bigger sets for the first time, so I was thinking about that often. And oftentimes, because I started acting when I was so young, I just don’t remember a lot. So I would call my mom and ask her about different experiences, look at photos, and try to remember old things.
What advice would you give to an actor today who is struggling to get those first union credits?
I would say that so much is out of your control as an actor, and all you can worry about is what you can control. Oftentimes, the amount of rejection may seem extremely discouraging, or just the sitting around and waiting for the phone to ring. But you never know what seeds you’re planting. With everything that you do, you may audition for something, not get it, and think it was a waste of time. You think, I just spent too many days preparing. But maybe you just made a really big fan in that casting office. It might be six years from now that they have something, the stars align, it’s right for you, and opportunity will strike in a real way. So I would say, if it’s what you want to do, it really is just a matter of putting your head down and doing the best work you can do every day with every opportunity.
I've had the experience this last year of getting cast in things and then being a part of the process to find other actors. For instance, I’ve been chemistry reading with other actors. You might read with 15 actors, and they’re all great; no one’s better than anybody else, but the role requires this one thing that this person’s essence is just right for in this moment. There’s nothing any of the other actors could have done differently to get the job. Realizing that these last couple of years really helped me let go. I think I used to think when I was younger, If you go in there and you’re undeniable, you’re gonna get the job. But there’s so much else going on. So often, it’s not about whether or not you were the best. It’s just whether or not you were right for that part at that time.
Trying to distance yourself from the rejection and not taking it personally is a big thing too. So much of acting is just about confidence, and so just finding your confidence and holding on to it.
“Primetime” is inspired by “To Catch a Predator,” which is obviously very dark territory. How do you shake off that heavy subject matter when the director calls cut?
I found I was learning a lot on this movie because I hadn’t really worked on something [this dark] before. I found that I wasn’t really able to shake it off right away, and also that I kind of couldn’t go in and out of things easily. I found it necessary to walk around with this dark cloud over my head a little bit at times.
That was also exacerbated by the fact that we all became really good friends on this movie. We were all a lot of people around the same age, and so sometimes you’re walking onto set, first thing in the morning, and you have a scene where you’re just at your lowest and most isolated—and you know you need to be crying—and you’re being greeted by a bunch of your friends just excited to see you, like, “What’s up, dude? How was the weekend?”
I realized, “Oh, I can’t.” You know, some actors have that ability; it’s like a faucet or a light switch that they can just turn on and off. But I found that I needed to be a little bit off to myself oftentimes.
What was it like bouncing off of Robert Pattinson’s energy during those high-stakes scenes in “Primetime”?
Working with Rob is truly the most inspiring experience I’ve had. He’s somebody who Lance, our director, said jumps off a cliff every take—and that’s how it feels. He’s just such a force. Whatever he is doing, it’s always so unexpected, and there’s just this kind of electricity coursing through him in every take. When you’re working with an actor who’s that dynamic, it’s pretty tough to be bad. Honestly, you can let go of any rigidity or game plan you had and just be present and see where things go.
It always felt so alive, because Rob would just bring this enormous energy every take, and it really was very formative for me. Previously to that experience, whether or not I realized it, I don’t think I was an actor who had a ton of variation take to take. Once I figured out the shape of the scene, it became about perfecting that one shape that I thought was the right thing. Then, with Rob—somebody who’s trying such different things take to take, never afraid to fail (which he never does), but just going for broke—you get to places you could never get otherwise.
It inspired me to want to do the same moving forward. It’s easier said than done, I think. But it is something I aspire to, for sure.
Beyond “Primetime,” you’re playing Henry Focker in the highly anticipated “Focker-in-Law,” joining Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller. But this isn’t the first time you’ve worked with Stiller, having also appeared alongside him in “Night at the Museum.” What was the reunion like?
It was awesome. Ben, that was another massively formative experience. “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb,” I was 17 years old. It was the first time I had been a bigger part of such a big movie. Ben was such a hero of mine, and he was just so generous. Even though I’d been working for over 10 years, I look back on that movie as entering consciousness as an actor in some way.
Seeing the way Ben worked, how much he cared, and how much he put into it—and then coming back and working with Ben about 12 years later—it’s funny. I would see him doing things before takes and realize that’s something I’ve been doing for over 10 years. It had been so long I didn’t even realize I had gotten it from Ben—little mannerisms or things to sort of drop in and get into something. It was also helpful for the movie, because it felt familial immediately. Ben was just this person I had such love for, and he had always been so good to me.
That whole movie was so surreal. I mean, Robert De Niro, Ariana Grande—just these titans. Robert De Niro is literally the greatest actor of all time, and he’s playing your grandpa.
So, just a lot of pinch-yourself moments. It’s also a franchise that I so cherished as a kid and grew up with—we kind of all did. Definitely, in a different way than “Primetime,” I felt an immense responsibility to get it right, because it sort of feels like a superhero movie in some way. We had a really good time.
“Night at the Museum Secret of the Tomb” Courtesy TSG Entertainment/20th Century Fox
Speaking of superheroes, you’ve said you initially thought you were auditioning for Clark Kent before realizing the role was actually for Jimmy Olsen in James Gunn’s “Superman.” What advice would you give actors handling major franchise casting calls when details are kept under wraps?
I think it’s different for everyone. For me, auditioning for a movie like that, the thought process is always that you can’t for an instant entertain the stakes of what you’re doing. You can’t worry about that; all you can do is bring yourself to it and hope that that’s right for that filmmaker’s vision.
When I got sent [the script] again, I thought I was auditioning for Superman. So heading into auditioning for Superman, no part of me was like, “I’m gonna try to be Superman.” Thank God, because I’m not that. If that’s the version of it they want, I’m probably not that guy. So I’m gonna do my unique version of what that would be, and if that's what James was imagining, it would be great.
Going into filming, I started to look through all the comics and watch the old movie, and then I stopped myself. I think the weight of the responsibility was coming down on me, and it was almost really stifling in some way. I thought, I need to put all of this to the side and just have fun with this the way I would any other character in any other movie. That freedom is the most essential thing to doing something worthwhile.
Looking back at everything from massive blockbusters to indie projects, what is the biggest lesson you’ve learned about acting that you still carry with you today?
For me, the biggest thing is that there is no catch-all. Every time you think you've cracked the code, the next day you might suck, and it might be awful. The biggest thing for me is just all of the greatest actors that I've worked with—the common thread is this relentless curiosity. I don't think any of them allow themselves to grow complacent. The second that you think you have figured it out, you can kind of lose whatever that spark was.
Every experience is different. Whatever amount of preparation I do, truly, ultimately, the biggest thing is just presence. When you're working with great actors and great filmmakers who you know you can trust, you do the preparation, you do the work, and then you have to be ready and willing to let go of whatever ideas you had and sort of see where things go.
As an actor, the thing I remind myself over and over is: You are a very small piece of a very big machine. There are a hundred moving parts, and filmmaking is kind of a magic trick. Sometimes things feel good but are not going to look good. Sometimes they feel awkward but actually are going to look great. There's so much going on. You don't know what the director, the editor, the cinematographer, and the composer are imagining, so just focus on your little piece. Don't concern yourself with the bigger picture. Be present, let go of any sort of game plan you had when the camera starts rolling, and just pray to God that it turns out all right.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
