Billy Crudup is nothing like Timothy, his character in Noah Baumbach’s new film Jay Kelly. 

Timothy is a Method actor with a very particular way of preparing for a role; Crudup is not. “The particular kind of acting that he was looking for in this scene is sort of anathema to the way that I work,” Crudup tells Krista Smith in a new episode of the podcast Skip Intro. In the scene, movie star Jay Kelly (George Clooney) sits down with an old friend who missed out on the part that made Jay’s career. Old resentments soon rise to the surface, after Jay needles Timothy into delivering a “sense memory” performance on the spot. 

It may not be his style, but true to form, Crudup found a way to make it work. “[Being] given any opportunity to learn again, especially in your 50s, is an incredibly rewarding experience,” he says.

It’s no surprise: Unlike his character, Crudup is a Tony- and Emmy-winning actor with a long list of beloved performances on film and television, including in Almost Famous, Jesus' Son, and The Morning Show; and on Broadway in The Coast of Utopia and The Elephant Man. The actor’s success gives Timothy’s scene with Jay in the film a metatextual edge. Timothy never got his big break, but  he once had a very real chance at it. 

For Clooney’s character, Timothy is a reminder of the way Jay’s life could have gone, if he hadn’t taken that pivotal part. “If you keep waiting for your great life to start, you’re gonna miss the life that you have,” Crudup says. “This happens in our profession in particular. It always feels like you’re at the slot machine, and you’re one tick away from the jackpot.”

Peter Mountain/Netflix

To play Jay and Timothy in their earlier jackpot-hunting days, Baumbach turned to actors Charlie Rowe and Louis Partridge — but not before entertaining a different possibility. “Noah had this idea that maybe George and I would play the younger
versions of ourselves,” Crudup reveals. “Maybe the younger versions would play part of a scene and then the older versions would play the rest of the scene. So all four of us were prepared.” 

It’s a fitting tribute to Jay Kelly’s dreamlike structure, in which Clooney’s fading movie star walks in and out of the past, seeing triumph and regret pass in front of him like falling curtains. Success and failure both come at a price — a familiar lesson for any actor. “You see it happen to people,” Crudup says. “It’s a very rare experience. Statistically, actually the most common experience is the one of the character that I play.” 

Tune into the full Skip Intro interview to hear Crudup talk about his early stage performances, working with the late great Donald Sutherland on Without Limits, and the 25th anniversary of Almost Famous. You can watch the full interview with Crudup above, and stream Jay Kelly on Netflix right now.