You come into a new situation, something that you haven’t done, you’re going to have some nervousness. It was about how you would do something, it was about you and what you were able to articulate to get to this scene’s ending point. KG: The Safdie brothers, I can honestly say, they made the set really calm, really chill. I felt very relieved because I really thought that I had conned all these people and then the day comes and I don’t know my lines? It was cool when the wheels were in motion and we were all just perfect. You know? I was like, What if I forget my lines or what if I freeze and what if I’m uncomfortable? What if I don’t know how to act? After the first day I was like, okay, I can do this. JF: For me, I was just kind of like, Okay, now I tricked all these people into thinking I can do this so I better fucking perform. How did each of you feel the night before you started shooting, with this being your first movie? JF: He’s the most entertaining person ever. So we were just sharing and everybody’s kind of. Sometimes I have to stop and be like, Is this shit really happening? You know, I have some really good stories. Listen, everybody that knows me - Jules, you probably noticed me - knows my life has been like a big-ass storybook. I talked to Josh and Benny last week, Kevin, and they said they knew that you were the right person because you’re such a good storyteller that you sweat when you tell stories. Just like how I can’t picture anyone besides Adam. JF: You know what I mean? I can’t even picture anyone besides Kevin. I wrote about this at the Toronto International Film Festival : Every time you come back into the story, it almost seems like a miracle that you actually showed up. JF: And it’s crazy because nobody else could have played role. They said, “Yeah, we’re going to give you this.” I was just like, “Okay.” After that they called, I was here and we all met up for coffee. This was my first time, I’m not speaking for you. I can say the one thing: I don’t think all of us knew that we were a part of something special - it felt special, but you didn’t know it. I got on the phone with these guys and it was instant synergy, just like how Jules was talking about. It was only when they went to retired players that I was brought up. It was written for Amar’e Stoudemire and then they went to try to get Kobe Bryant in it and they rewrote the script and then they tried to get Joel Embiid, and none of it connected. Kevin Garnett: For ten years they were going back and forth with this whole story. I was just like, “Sure I’ll be in your movie and if it doesn’t happen, whatever.” It wasn’t until the screen tests that I was like, Oh shit, I need to be in this movie, like I will die if I am not in this movie. And then they did Good Time, so I was like, “Is it happening? Is it not happening?” I didn’t realize what this movie meant, you know. JF: I was hearing about it, and then they did Heaven Knows What, and then I was hearing about it. So over those five years, what had you been hearing from Josh and Benny about this movie? They said they auditioned like 300 girls and I stood out. I got approved for a screen test and the chemistry was there, the energy was there it was undeniable. Even though they knew that they wanted me in it, obviously I had to prove myself to the money guys and the producers and the studio. Julia Fox: I’ve known Josh and Benny for a while and they’ve been talking to me about this role for like five years. “I can’t say that on the top of the list, but it was fun.” “I love being in front of the camera.” Garnett, however, is a little less certain of his future on set. “It became life or death,” Fox says of the opportunity to act in Gems, a movie the Safdies had been telling her about for years. Sitting together at the Crosby hotel, Garnett and Fox reflected on their first gigs as actors. Howard and Julia have their share of street squabbles, but mostly she’s by his side. Howard lends Kevin Garnett the prized uncut gem he plans to auction off at Sotheby’s, and spends the rest of the movie trying to get it back and flip it for even more money. Howard is the movie’s beating, bleeding heart, but Garnett and Fox are two standouts in a cacophonous New York opera. Julia Fox, a longtime friend of the directors, plays a beguiling 20-something devoted to Howard’s skeevy charm. Kevin Garnett plays himself, but in 2012, when he was a Celtics power forward playing against the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference semifinals. In order to explore each, directors Josh and Benny Safdie, known for working with first-time actors, hired two people to play a version of themselves onscreen. But Howard is driven by twin addictions: to basketball and to his girlfriend. Uncut Gems is propelled by the boundless, boneheaded ambition of a jewelry-store owner named Howard Ratner ( Adam Sandler).
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