Thomas Mann on Growing Up in Netflix’s ‘The Land of Steady Habits’

At 26 going on 27, actor Thomas Mann finds himself at a bit of a gray area in his career. He’s caught between being able to convincingly playing boys or men. He’s extremely fortunate that his timing happened to line up with a new Nicole Holofcener film, The Land of Steady Habits, which premieres on Netflix this Friday, September 14, shortly after its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Holofcener makes the kinds of movies that studios have all but given up making – but ones that play very well on streaming services. Her incisive comedies follow people in their everyday turmoils with a gentle sensitivity while also bracketing their class privilege. Her latest film provides Mann with a quintessential Holofcener character to play: Preston is adrift between stages in life, trying not to estrange himself from supportive family and friends, fending off a struggle with alcoholism that landed him in rehab. Yet in spite of how abrasive his character can be, Mann makes us feel sympathy for Preston’s predicament and root for his better angels to triumph.

Decider caught up with Mann prior to the Toronto premiere of The Land of Steady Habits to discuss how he created Preston, why finding such a rich character is tough for actors his age and how Netflix is helping people discover more films like Holofcener’s.

DECIDER: How do you tackle playing characters like Preston with addiction issues?

THOMAS MANN: Well, you approach it like anything else. I liked the character because he’s so truthful, and it’s sort of after his addiction, and he’s dealing with the ramifications that come from that. People with those issues end up alienating a lot of people in their lives or making selfish decisions. So, I think now he’s recovering from that aspect of it. His relationship with his father really suffered a lot from it. It’s really about empathizing with the character and not judging him. I know people in my life with those issues, and it’s a never-ending struggle. It’s not something that ends, it’s still lingering in his mind.

Did you do any specific research on it?

I sort of am familiar with it with certain people I’ve known in my life. Everyone’s experience is different, so I just used the script as my bible. I read the book, and there’s a lot more insight into the character there. He met this girl and followed Phish around on tour. None of that stuff is relevant in the movie, but it was interesting to hear about all of that. It informs my performance in an invisible way to the audience – they don’t need to know about it, but it does give me some insight into who Preston is.

We see a lot of “sad white guy” movies from white guys. How was Nicole Holofcener’s viewpoint different on this subject?

That’s kind of the point of the movie. It knows it’s about privileged white people. That’s the thing about Preston, he has every reason to be happy and successful but still can’t get out of his own way. It’s frustrating for him and the people around him. You can have everything you need to be successful and happy, but you still have to work really hard at your own personal relationships. You have to take responsibility for those, and that transcends wealth.

Do you differentiate Preston from some of your other selfish, self-loathing characters like Greg from Me and Earl and the Dying Girl?

If Greg continued on his path of alienating people and keeping himself in a bubble, maybe he could have turned into a Preston type. I never really think about it in those terms. I never try to connect my characters in my career. It’s interesting to hear other people make those connections.

It seems like you’ve graduated out of playing high school age characters [Mann fist-pumps]. How does that shift work, if it’s at all conscious?

I don’t have any control over it, really. I’m at the mercy of the jobs that come my way. As you get older, you hope people start to think, “Oh well, what if he was the young cop in this movie?” It’s nice not to play a son or a high schooler anymore. Now my characters get to go out in the world and not sit in a classroom. What I love about The Land of Steady Habits is that Preston feels like he’s smack-dab in the middle, and when the part came to me, that’s kind of where I was at in my career. I can’t play 17, but I can’t play 30 either, so what is there for me to do? And Nicole, God bless her, came to me with this part. I didn’t have to audition or anything because she’d seen Me and Earl, and it came to me at the perfect time in my life where I was feeling stuck and didn’t know what my next career move would be. Or if people would even have me as an adult actor. Things change over time, especially in this industry. I was really thrilled to find a character that mirrored where I was at in my life in terms of age.

Do you find it difficult to find those in-between parts? I think there was some study that came out that said mid-20s is the worst age for men on screen because you can’t play coming-of-age anymore, but you aren’t quite ready to play adult parts.

It’s a dead zone! In a way, I’m just going to take what I can get and make the most of it and gain as much experience as I can. I went and did a play in New York [Dead Poets’ Society] for a while, and that was the greatest acting boot camp I could have given myself. Shortly after that, I did The Land of Steady Habits, and that was a turning point for me. And this year, I’ve done two movies where I have a wedding ring, so how great is that?

Are there any filmmakers in particular you’re really dying to work with?

Oh, yeah. I have a list on my phone of 20 directors I want to work with, and something tells me if I say it out or put it in print, then it won’t happen. But I do have a list of 20 directors on my phone who are my goals.

Is it just a matter of reaching out? I remember Robert Pattinson talked about having directors and begging them for meetings for years.

See, that’s brilliant. The thing is, you have to be in a place where people also want to meet you too. So you have to get lucky there, but I have written notes to directors before. Sometimes it feels more desperate than other times. But usually, it’s a nice to get a note from someone if they’re being sincere. I figure it never hurts. It lets them know you’re a fan of theirs. It might not be this movie, but five years down the line, they’ll remember, “that kid who’s a huge fan of me, they’re pretty good, I’ll give him a shot.”

It also probably takes vulnerability to put yourself out there like that.

Yes, because you could not get a response and go, “well, that’s not going to happen.” But most of this job is just not taking things personally, and I really do mean that.

I feel like, recently, the conversation around Netflix original films has started to change. They’re hitting a nerve in a way they haven’t before. Do you feel the perception changing?

Nothing compares to the experience of going to a cinema and seeing a movie on the big screen in the dark where no one can use their phones. But that being said, there are a lot of movies that people would never see if it weren’t for Netflix. For someone like Nicole Holofcener, she doesn’t make big-budget action movies, they’re very intimate, specific stories just about people. They require more patience and focus. It’s great that anyone in the world on September 14 is going to be able to watch this brand new Nicole Holofcener film and hopefully rediscover all her old movies and realize she’s the reason Catherine Keener is a big movie star today. She’s unsung in a lot of ways, and I really hope this changes that. Netflix has done a lot of good.

I’m not sure that I’ve seen you talk about this, but weren’t you originally cast in Lean on Pete?

Yes! I worked one day on that movie, and obviously the scenes got cut. I shot three scenes that were all consecutive, and they’d almost work as their own short film. Which also made it easy to cut without changing the story. The whole thing was just me and Charlie Plummer [who plays Charley, the film’s protagonist], three beautiful scenes of dialogue. I played this character named Lonny who picks up Charley after he gets separated from Lean on Pete. I was really bummed about it, actually, because I was a really big fan of [director] Andrew Haigh. I ended up seeing the movie and thought it was beautiful. But it’s always a bummer, that’s the first time it ever happened to me. I still had the experience of working with those people.

I think it takes maturity to say that the work is its own reward.

Yeah, and even if you make a bad movie, that’s still experience. You learn from that and get better at protecting yourself from those situations. But yeah, if I get to spend the day with Andrew Haigh and Charlie Plummer, two people I really respect, it was totally worth it.

Maybe the scenes will be on the Criterion Collection special features.

I told Andrew that! I said, “when this gets the Criterion treatment, it’s going on the Blu-Ray.”

Marshall Shaffer is a New York-based freelance film journalist. In addition to Decider, his work has also appeared on Slashfilm, Slant, Little White Lies and many other outlets. Some day soon, everyone will realize how right he is about Spring Breakers.

Watch The Land Of Steady Habits on Netflix