Jennifer Lawrence interviews Oscar-nominated ‘Causeway’ co-star Brian Tyree Henry [WATCH]

Tom O'Neil
·26 min read

“Causeway” stars Jennifer Lawrence as Lynsey, a returning Afghanistan war vet  who befriends Henry (Brian Tyree Henry) in her hometown of New Orleans while recovering from a brain injury. The acclaimed film from Apple TV+ was directed by Lila Neugebauer, known mostly for New York theater (including directing Elaine May’s Tony-winning turn in “The Waverly Gallery”) and episodes of “Maid” and “The Sex Lives of College Girls.” The screenwriting team is Luke Goebel, Elizabeth Sanders, and the much-discussed novelist Ottessa Moshfegh, making her first entry into Hollywood. 

Henry reaped an Oscar bid for Best Supporting Actor and recently joined Lawrence (the second-youngest Best Actress winner ever for “Silver Linings Playbook”) for a candid conversation about “Causeway.” Watch their lively discussion here or read the transcript of their remarks below. 

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Jennifer Lawrence:
Thank you guys for seeing our movie. I have my co-star and Oscar nominated, Brian Tyree Henry. If he would like to make his grand appearance now. Saunter when you’re ready.

Brian Tyree Henry:
Hi, everyone. I didn’t know you were doing this until three minutes before, so this is a great surprise.

Jennifer Lawrence:
Surprise.

Brian Tyree Henry:
Oh my God.

Jennifer Lawrence:
Brian, we both worked with Lila on this project. But you’ve known Lila for a very long time. Could you tell us about how you know Lila? And what you really think about her?

Brian Tyree Henry:
And what I really think about. This is not the place. Lila and I go back to our time at Yale School of Drama. I was in School of Drama. She was an undergrad there. And when you’re at School of Drama, you’re always in rehearsal for the rest of your life. So we were in a rehearsal for this play called Bombing Gilead. And Lila just had this amazing nature of sneaking into rehearsals, when she shouldn’t be there. And so, we formed a bond. She saw me perform. We would talk about theater all the time. We would smoke cigarettes, drink coffee. And be like, this play is trash. And this is great. And [inaudible 00:01:35]. And we just always knew that we wanted to work together in some capacity. I graduated… I think we graduated at the same time. She went off to do theater in New York. I went off to do theater in New York. And we kept meeting and just yelling at each other like, when the hell are we going to work together? When are we going to do this?

And when the chance came around for me to do a play with her, I left and did TV. And we missed that opportunity. But then she called years later, with this project, Causeway being her first feature. And on top of knowing that you were a part of it as being a reason why I said yes, her doing this and it being her first feature was a no-brainer for me. So Lila is, as you well know, just one of the most gifted minds. And one of the most amazing visionaries I’ve ever met in my life. Not just as a person, but also as an artist. But because of who she is as a person, it just makes you… I don’t know. It’s the most fulfilling expression of art in one person. How would you describe Lala, Jay?

Jennifer Lawrence:
Fuck. Well, I think she’s a real actor’s director.

Brian Tyree Henry:
For sure.

Jennifer Lawrence:
I mean, you have described the squat.

Brian Tyree Henry:
The Lila squat.

Jennifer Lawrence:
The Lila squat.

Brian Tyree Henry:
What I mean by that, before you guys put this on the internet somewhere. The Lila squat basically is, let’s say that Jay and I are in a take or whatever. And she yells cut. And we’ll be talking or whatever. And then you turn, and she’s right there. And you’re like, what is she… But it’s because, she wants to really get in there with you. She wants to have a discussion, she wants to really figure out what it is that you want to know. Where we want to go. It’s like there’s something about her that’s so visceral, and wants to be a part of what the conversation is. And sometimes she just wants to squat and be there, to let you know that she’s there.

Jennifer Lawrence:
Yeah. She’s one of those people that when she’s looking into your eyes and listening, she is really listening.

Brian Tyree Henry:
Really listening to you. Yeah.

Jennifer Lawrence:
Yeah. She’s an amazing read of a person, and a moment. She’s brilliant. But you just reminded me of something that I… I’ve always been amazed at the stamina it takes for theater actors. The people that I know, that do eight shows a week.

Brian Tyree Henry:
Six days a week too. Yeah.

Jennifer Lawrence:
It blows my mind.

Brian Tyree Henry:
You’re going to learn soon, because we’re going to do a play together. Stop this bullshit. You’re going to do a play, and we’re going to do it together. Every time I bring this up it’s like, she’s going to fucking kill me.

Jennifer Lawrence:
I just think that I would be really bad at it. So it’s better if I’m just like oh, I don’t want to. And then nobody sees me just epically fail at it. I’ll just be like, no. I don’t want to.

Brian Tyree Henry:
No, it’s fine.

Jennifer Lawrence:
But I am curious about the differences between… You do television, you do theater. And then you do Marvel movies. And then you make a film like this. And I’m not…

Brian Tyree Henry:
I’m with it. I’m with it. I will let it go.

Jennifer Lawrence:
As I was saying, I mean, what are the… Well, this is a five part question. What are the differences? When do you feel more I guess, involved and embodied in your character? And does it blow your mind when you’re making a film, and then you have a take? And then once we have the take, that’s it. And you never revisit it. As somebody who does it multiple times a week, when you’re doing theater.

Brian Tyree Henry:
I think that there’s quite a few similarities between stage and film. The only thing that I know to be very different with stage, once that curtain’s up, it’s up. You have to tell the story from beginning to end. If you drop a line, if you forget a cue, the show must go on. That’s just how it goes. What I find very interesting, depending on who you work with in TV and film, your character development is something that you go through on your own personally. And then once you’re in front of the camera, someone says action. And you just go. What I really want to say first and foremost about what was so amazing to work with Jennifer is that, there’s such a duality in you that’s so cool, that you don’t really get in this business. And what I mean by that is that, we would meet on set. We would discuss everything but the movie sometimes. And then when we would get in front of the camera, there was just a presence of safety.

You just felt so fun and easy to play with. I could also feel us also inspiring one another. There would be this really cool spark that would happen where we’d just be like, okay. Well, let’s lean into this more. Let’s figure this out more. And I think that, that’s also fun about film is that you were making a discovery if you’re lucky, with someone else in the moment.

Nothing is truly linear In film. Sometimes we could start at the end of the movie, and then build up to the middle. And so-and-so. And so forth. But the thing about me with my characters is, I’ve found this true strange codependency with them, because I care about them so much. And I haven’t really figured out how to relinquish them after a project is done. Say when you do a play, the curtain comes down. You go out the stage door. You possibly get chicken wings and french fries, and you take ass your home. Whereas with a film, it lingers a little bit longer because the process is a little bit different. Such a fucking good question. I should ask you that. You’re the Academy Award winner. I don’t know.

Jennifer Lawrence:
You’re the Academy Award nominee.

Brian Tyree Henry:
But I’m a nominee. But no, there are different things. The most important thing is to find the humanness. I know that sounds so crunchy granola, but it’s true. To find the humanity in these people. To find exactly why they are where they are. How you want to get them out of it. Because, I… For example, with James, I judged him immediately when I read it. I was like, why is he still in the same place?

He lost so much in a car accident, but chose to work in a autobody shop. Why is he alone? Why is he still drinking? What is the… Why? And in that I realized it was because I was questioning a lot about myself, and me doing the same thing. And me using James as a mirror in a way, of having to confront my own shit. Which film gives you lots of space to do. It gives you lots of space to do that. Do not use acting as therapy. If any of you are in here thinking about doing this shit, don’t do it. See a therapist for real. But no, it’s true. It’s the humanity of who these people are. And building that up. And trying to see them to the other side.

Jennifer Lawrence:
I wrote this question. No, I did. You just… Were there emotional questions you feel were answered through making this?

Brian Tyree Henry:
Because, we’re-

Jennifer Lawrence:
I’m like, did you read this document?

Brian Tyree Henry:
Yes. You gave me your email password.

Jennifer Lawrence:
But you’ve called this movie a baptism.

Brian Tyree Henry:
Yeah.

Jennifer Lawrence:
Would you also say the same for the making of it?

Brian Tyree Henry:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Because it took us, what? Two and a half years to get to the final product of this. This movie didn’t let us go. We filmed it the first time, and we went about our merry ways. And then a pandemic happened where we all questioned who we are, and what humanity even means. And then we looked at what we had done and we were like well, there’s something else to that too. There’s something else to these people, especially Lynsey and James of well, what is this connection? What is this trauma bond that has been created? And is there a way to build something other than that? Is there another way through that? Is there another side to that? And also, we were changing. Our lives changed, and we continued to have the conversation about it. We couldn’t shake it. You couldn’t shake it for sure.

Lila couldn’t shake it. And we just… I don’t know. There was something amazing about going back. You don’t know who you are until you’ve shot something, and the world collapses. And then you have to go back and be those same people-

Jennifer Lawrence:
Two years later.

Brian Tyree Henry:
Two years later. And I don’t know. And it felt like a baptism. And the reason I say that, especially… There’s a scene in the movie with us in the pool, which we did re-shoot and had to go back to. Because baptism is that thing of cleansing yourself, and absolving yourself of your sins. And we all know that eventually when you come out that water, you’re going to sin again. But there’s still this feeling that you have cleansed yourself. And it felt… This movie and our connection as two people, and that felt like that. It felt like we wanted to be made whole again.

We want it to be cleansed of all the pain and all the things that we have suppressed. And we wanted to emerge anew. That’s why it was so cool to watch how much fun we had in the pool. And this invitation of us really committing to try something new, to being friends. And then of course, the veil drops. And the hammer comes down. And then, there’s no way we can undo that. There’s no way that we could come out of that water the same as we went in. And so, it felt that way. It felt like life had given us all this opportunity to turn the lens on ourselves, and really figure out what it was that was buried underneath for us to discover. And God bless you for not giving up on it. Because going back to do it, and to bridge that gap. And to expand on what our relationship was as two people. Because I think, we talked about it early on. We didn’t want it to be this movie where it was boy meets girl. They fall in love, and this thing. We didn’t want to follow-

Jennifer Lawrence:
There were so many different versions, guys.

Brian Tyree Henry:
So many different versions. And we were just like, nah. It’s not about that. It’s about two people existing in space and time, trying to really figure their shit out. Trying to build a friendship. And this is the kind of relationship we wanted to see. This is the relationship we knew it was possible. Because, it truly became about beginnings. And I find that endings are inevitable. We all know that. Endings are hard. We all know that an ending comes. But what is it to truly begin something? Beginnings are actually the hardest part. And you watch two people trying to figure out how to do that in every single way. It was like watching us be newborns, and then adolescents. And then having to… Yeah. It definitely felt like a baptism in that way. Yeah.

Jennifer Lawrence:
What made you get involved in the arts? When did you start? I mean, we always talk about our trauma.

Brian Tyree Henry:
The arts.

Jennifer Lawrence:
Which is something that I recognized immediately, there was… I’ve had a lot of co-stars.

Brian Tyree Henry:
Am I your favorite?

Jennifer Lawrence:
Yeah.

Brian Tyree Henry:
Yeah. Okay.

Jennifer Lawrence:
But you and I were so similar in how we go in and out. And you were always so present, and dialed in. And completely embodying Oakland. And then, could snap our right out of it. And so I remember thinking to himself, I wonder if he’s had childhood trauma.

Brian Tyree Henry:
And that’s how we became best friends.

Jennifer Lawrence:
Yeah. And so I went over and I was like, hi. I’m Jen. But I guess, what age did you start thinking how you can turn this survival skill into an act? A literal act of acting.

Brian Tyree Henry:
Where I was really fascinated the most about meeting you is with the ease in which you could talk about your pain. We would sit in this sweltering heat of New Orleans. And if you’ve never been to New Orleans, please go. Because, it is a place that truly begs of you to bring your pain there. And begs of you to resist this magic. There’s something about this place, that just makes you just lay your burdens down.

And you would talk about your upbringing in Kentucky. And just what you saw, and your family. And what you had experienced. And I was in shock of just how similar… Because, I’m from the South. North Carolina. I have my own things with my own family. And you just talked about it in such a place of resolution that you have made, to go above and beyond that. And how there was a recognition that I never thought that I would find in somebody like you.

We just sat down next to each other and was like, let me tell you some shit. Honestly. How about this? It wasn’t like we were trying to go through the depression and neglect Olympics together. But it was a shared journey that was so easy to talk about. And I also felt a place of safety. It felt like you could talk to this person and just… Which is something that we have to be careful of, coming from where we’re from. We don’t necessarily know who we can trust. We don’t necessarily know what to share. We don’t necessarily… But with you, I had never felt seen in such a way, through the lens of that trauma.

And then here we are sitting there together, making this movie. And we’re just like well, we’re not going to let it be the thing that puts a stamp on us. We’re going to lay it down, and move the hell on with it. And in essence, that helped me discover how to be an artist. Because it’s like, if we could get through that shit, and if we can do that, then there’s nothing we can’t do. Because, we are not the sum of our pain. We’re not the sum of the past. Time only moves forward. So the past is the past. But meeting you gave me an opportunity to absolve it, honestly. So that was… Did I answer the… I didn’t answer the question at all, did I?

Jennifer Lawrence:
No, you didn’t. I asked when you started acting, or what led you to the arts. And then you were like, her childhood was fucked up.

Brian Tyree Henry:
I was like, let’s talk about Jen’s stuff real quick. But it was that, man. I mean, it was a way to survive. I was in a house full of adults. And I liked to imitate them. I liked… There was a big part of me that realized, oh my God. I’m just a child watching my parents grow up. I never got a chance to [inaudible 00:16:08] my parents. I never got a chance to be like, oh my God. Daddy’s Santa Claus. I just watched these two black people in the South, trying to make ends meet. And trying to make sure that everything was okay for this young black boy. But there was so much strife and so much pain that they couldn’t hide. That I was like well, how can I make them smile today? Well pretend this, and do this. And I watched how it affected people. I watched how people got lost in what their shit was, if I was pretending to be something. The problem with that is, is that you grow up doing the same thing. Makes relationships really hard.

Jennifer Lawrence:
Okay. So from a child, you’ve just been acting since you were a child? To survive.

Brian Tyree Henry:
Okay. Yes. Not to make money.

Jennifer Lawrence:
No. I don’t suppose your parents were giving you money for your blindness. They’re like, we are enjoying this so much. Here’s one dollar.

Brian Tyree Henry:
They’re like, please stop. Here you go.

Jennifer Lawrence:
Yeah. I’m really only interested in the questions I wrote.

Brian Tyree Henry:
I know. As you should be.

Jennifer Lawrence:
Okay. Our characters have a very complex relationship. For you, what made that friendship such a big part of who James becomes? How does it shape his journey? I didn’t write that one, and did not realize it was going to be about me.

Brian Tyree Henry:
I can tell by how you read it, that it wasn’t yours.

Jennifer Lawrence:
Yeah. And also, I didn’t realize that it was going to be about me.

Brian Tyree Henry:
Yeah. Here we go. How did it… Oh, man.

Jennifer Lawrence:
How does it feel to be nominated for an Oscar?

Brian Tyree Henry:
Pretty awesome. You know what was really cool, Jay, is that because of who we were and how we were with each other, it helped inform who James and Lynsey could be. It helped really shed a light on what was possible for the two of them. And I think about that moment where we’re moving the rowing machine. Because, we had a little wiggle room to improv with each other. And we would throw things back and forth, just to see. And there was just this glimmer of them having a ray of hope of something. Here you have Lynsey going through this stuff with her mother, and going to these doctors. And dealing with the fact that her brother’s gone. And she can’t… All this shit. And then somebody comes along, and there’s this little glimmer that no one’s asking anything of you, but to just… I don’t know. Have a burger.

And you have these two people who have been labeled disabled. And now… Basically what this new label means is that, here’s what you can’t do. Here are the limits to who you are. And this is what you aren’t allowed. And you have to learn how to relive your life in a completely different way. But for that moment, the two of us weren’t that label anymore. There was just a glimmer of hope. So any moment that you saw us, or which I realized you saw this glimmer of… Because you don’t smile honestly, in the movie, until I come along. That’s not a flex, first of all.

But honestly, Lynsey just didn’t have this… Everything… All the things that… All the obstacles she was met with, were all telling her that she couldn’t do something. And that she shouldn’t do something. And here you have another person who had already gone through that, and there was a glimmer of her not being her disability for a minute.

It was a glimmer of her actually getting back to who she was. And I think that, that was what was really great. Is that both of us served as reflections of who we could be, and who we were. And it continued to build that way. So every moment that we were together, there was just a glimmer of something. Even you just being like, get in the pool. Oh. When I smoke, it does this. Or tell me about why you don’t want to be in this city. It was the blossoming of a friendship. What a true friendship is like. So much so, it reminded me of those adolescent friendships we started. It was like hey, do you want to play? Do you want to play? Okay. Cool. Nobody cares about where you’re from, or how much money you have. But do you want to play? It’s it. And that was so revitalizing to me.

It was so refreshing to see these two people from such different sides of life, but from the same town, grew up together, discovering each other for the first time. And that helped me build a lot with James. Because, then we get to the scene where we’re in my house. And we’re just sitting there. And that’s what I really loved the most about the two of them, is that they could sit in silence and still be fulfilled.

We could ask the questions of, what do you want to do? You want to move in? You should move in. There was just a grace. They gave each other grace. And I realized how rare that is to see. Especially between a black man and a white woman in a movie. There’s always some kind of trope. There’s always some kind of thing that we are denied, and we can’t be. We shouldn’t. And there’s all these different levels of [inaudible 00:21:22]. And I think that what you and I really wanted to do was show that we are just existing in space and time. And that this friendship is possible. And that this is what it looks like. These two people have suffered so much. So why not give each other a chance to find some kind of friendship and hope in each other?

Jennifer Lawrence:
Hell yeah. Your James was so layered, and finite, and perfect by the time you showed up. So I never even thought to ask you this question, but did you work with a dialect coach? Did you to work on the accent? And if so, were there certain phrases that you would use to get into it? And if so, did the accent… Because, I did a southern accent once. And the southern accent, it became synonymous with the character. As soon as I could say this sentence, then I was in.

Brian Tyree Henry:
Yeah. I find that I’ve been challenged with playing a lot of natives. Locals. Even when I was in Atlanta, I was like, I’m the Atlanta native. Or I’m the representation of this place. And anytime that I’m tasked with that, I want to make it as authentic as possible for two reasons. One, they deserve that. These characters. And the locals deserve to see themselves reflected. And two, I don’t want to get jumped on the street when they’re like, that shit was terrible. What were you doing? And they will do it.

With New Orleans, especially being black from New Orleans, there is a certain twang. There is a certain kind of way that you speak. And it’s very familiar. It’s very… And there’s something… When you’re black and have a dialect, it’s an ownership. And we as black people are constantly having to code switch in our lives. We are constantly having to either adapt or drop the things that make us who we are, in order to make other people feel comfortable. And what I love the most about James is that he is the New Orleans native. He didn’t get out. He didn’t leave. Born and raised, period. And I find that… I didn’t work with the dialect coach. I just listened. I just walked around New Orleans, listened. Talked to people. Oddly enough, I watched a lot of Big Freeida.

Jennifer Lawrence:
I’m really happy I didn’t know that before we started filming. That would’ve really freaked me out. He’s not working with a dialect coach.

Brian Tyree Henry:
I just listened to people. I listened to people. I just really wanted to feel… I don’t want it to feel worked. I don’t want it to feel… I want it to… Anytime that I’m playing a character that’s from the area where we’re in, I just always have to just listen. I just have to… So I do a lot of sitting around in diners. I’ll walk the streets. And sometimes I’ll talk to them, and see if it’s going over well. And if it’s not I’m like, don’t do that anymore. But no, there’s something about being able to show the authenticity of who my characters are. Who these black men are. I want to make sure that any chance that one of them is watching, that they feel seen. That they feel like that reflection is true. That they can really be like, oh my God. Don’t even remind you of your cousin?

Don’t he remind you of… I always want there to be that kind of thing. Because, I want the viewers to also feel ownership in who these people that I play are. Because, they are who they are.

But the New Orleans dialect is a trip. It’s truly… There’s so much history to it. There’s so much nuance to it. There’s so much flavor and coloring to it. And I wanted that for James. And I don’t know if you noticed that whenever James really got deep… For the most part, he was just a southern guy. But when he really got intimate with you and talking to you, you could hear the draw come out even more so. Because, it’s also him letting his guard down. Him being able to just be who he is. And we’re both country people too, and we know what it’s like. I’m sure as soon as you get around your family it’s like, why are you saying the L in salmon? Stop doing that. But that’s your family. But it’s a familiarity. It’s something that I always want people to feel when they see me playing the locals, and playing someone that is from the area. So they feel like a part of them is reflected too.

Jennifer Lawrence:
Everybody, Brian Tyree Henry.

Brian Tyree Henry:
Thank you. Everyone, Jennifer Lawrence.

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