Ezra Miller finds some ‘Perks’ but some drawbacks

The actor costars in ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ but worries about being pigeonholed, especially after self-identifying as ‘queer.’

“I am incredible,” Ezra Miller told a waitress assuredly.

The server didn’t bat an eyelash, jotting down the actor’s order before retreating back into the kitchen. At Cafe Gratitude, an organic vegan restaurant in Hollywood, such proclamations are commonplace. In fact, they’re required if you want to order food or drink, which all have mantra-like, inspirational monikers.

Despite his hippie attire — drawstring pajama bottoms combined with a formal blazer that had strings of his long hair stuck to it — Miller, 19, found the trendy eatery to be ridiculous.

“I might have wanted the ‘I am luscious,’ but I definitely wasn’t going to say that,” he said, hesitantly sipping the concoction of coconut milk, hemp seed, kale and almond butter that had arrived at the table. “This is kind of gross. But it’s mostly like a textural gross. I could really use the cream of a cow right now. I could really drink some blood right about now. ‘I am bloodthirsty’?” he says, suggesting a new menu item.

The thing is, it actually wouldn’t have been entirely absurd for Miller to publicly declare his incredibleness. He had arrived in Los Angeles earlier in the day from the Toronto International Film Festival, where he openly wept with joy during the world premiere of his new film, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” And after finishing his revolting-looking smoothie, he would head over to the ArcLight Hollywood to walk another red carpet and debut the movie for local audiences.

Based on director-writer Stephen Chbosky’s bestselling 1999 novel, “Perks” follows a group of teenagers coming of age in suburban Pittsburgh. The film’s protagonist, Charlie — played by Logan Lerman — is struggling to fit in during his freshman year at high school. He finds eclectic seniors who take him under their wing, including a promiscuous girl he quickly develops a crush on (Emma Watson) and her flamboyant, boisterous stepbrother (Miller).

Though the film is peppered with dark moments — Miller’s character is verbally and physically bullied over his homosexuality — it’s perhaps the lightest role the actor has ever portrayed on screen. In the quirky 2009 family dramedy “City Island,” he played a teenager with a fat fetish, then moved on to a pill-popping bad boy in last year’s “Another Happy Day.” But the most disturbing of his movies has no doubt been “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” in which he plays a troubled young man who goes on a violent rampage at his school.

After “Kevin” launched at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011, Miller was officially deemed one of young Hollywood’s rising stars — but almost instantly began getting pigeonholed by the industry as well.

“After ‘Kevin,’ everyone was like, ‘Do you want to play a murderer? Maybe a rapist? No? Well, how about a murderer?’” Miller recalled with a smile.

Not surprisingly, the free-spirited actor — who also plays in a band called Sons of an Illustrious Father and was charged with marijuana possession while filming “Perks” — detests being labeled. Last month, in an interview with Out magazine, the actor described himself as “queer,” a revelation that created a flurry of media interest over whether Miller had come out as gay.

“I didn’t think people would care,” said Miller, seeming slightly peeved about the media attention. “I don’t need my sexuality celebrated, and I certainly don’t need it to be criticized. I didn’t necessarily want it to be observed, but here we are.”

The actor, who will begin shooting an adaptation of “Madame Bovary” opposite Mia Wasikowska in November, is also worried that his openness about his sexuality may affect his ability to secure a variety of roles.

“I’m hoping to avoid labels; they’re sticky. And I can certainly still shoot a gun probably better than a bunch of the straight actors around,” he said, toying with his unopened pack of cigarettes. “I wouldn’t want to lose out on my macho action movie just because I told people I was queer. That would be a damn shame.”

Growing up in Wyckoff, N.J., Miller struggled to fit in with his peers from a young age. As a kid, he had a stutter that was so bad he could barely get a word out, much less form a sentence. Speech therapy didn’t work but singing did, and his kindergarten music teacher encouraged him to start performing opera. At 6, he landed a role in Philip Glass‘ contemporary opera “White Raven.”

Meanwhile, his affinity for film was growing. Though he was only a boy, he urged his father to read him gritty Stephen King novels and begged to watch Alfred Hitchcock‘s “Psycho.”

“The natural result was that I had terrible nightmares, and I would wake up in the middle of the night certain of coming atrocious enemies,” he said. “I understood that I was intaking this horrifying material, and it was obviously showing up the second the lights went out. But I think that might have been why I wanted to keep watching those films and reading that stuff, because the fear was so overwhelming. I felt like I needed to see ‘Psycho’ again so I could beat the fear — or figure it out enough to neutralize it.”

While filming “Perks,” Miller was the most ebullient personality on set. As his costar Lerman described it: “Ezra’s eccentric. He’s the definition of a fun, artistic personality. Like, he’ll just tap his leg and come up with an incredible song.”

Director Chbosky echoed that sentiment, acknowledging that “whatever darkness there is in Ezra, he’s always shown me the lighter side of himself.” Which isn’t to say there’s not something deeper below the surface. “Obviously, you can tell in his performance and his choices that that darkness is there, but he’s battling it very well for a young person.”

For his part, Miller appears content to keep any hidden demons to himself — though he doesn’t mind if people perceive him to be a bit off-kilter.

“I think everybody’s crazy,” he said, “and if I’m the one being a little direct about it, that’s fine by me.” {latimes.com}

Perks Of Being A Wallflower’s Ezra Miller, Mae Whitman On How Cast “Fell In Love With Each Other”

In The Perks of Being a Wallflower, an introverted boy named Charlie survives the hardships of high school by finding his place in a group of misfits. The magic of Stephen Chbosky’s novel and movie is that the warmth and spirit of these friends leaps off the page, making you believe in their relationships and feel like you too are a part of their quirky group. Miraculously, the same thing happens in Chbosky’s movie — and we think that’s due to his intuitive casting process which gathered a group of actors who became fast friends on the set in Pittsburgh.

“We sort of all fell in love with each other immediately and we still are to this day,” Mae Whitman, who plays Mary Elizabeth, told VH1 Celebrity. “I mean we spent every night together hanging out in hotel rooms and playing music and being loud and crazy. It was really like an experience of a lifetime for me. It was really amazing.”

Ezra Miller (Patrick) also told us about those afterparties. “The best times for me were in these stuffy hotel rooms where all of us would amass nightly and just play music and kind of lose ourselves in sound and in our relationships with one another,” he recalled.

That kind of instant friendship seems to be rooted in the fact that these were all people Chbosky himself clicked with right away. “We had auditioned two people for [Charlie], and [Logan Lerman] was the second one. Five seconds into the audition, and I knew he was the kid,” he told us. “I knew these characters so well, and I knew them from the inside out, far more than what I thought they looked like. When I sat down with Emma in NY I knew I met a kindred spirit and I knew I had Sam. And when I did the callback with Ezra over Skype, even though it was over Skype, I just knew I’d found Patrick.

“There’s a magical moment that happens when you’re casting a movie and you know the characters, when each character comes in it just goes click,” he continued. “And that’s every character, that’s Mae Whitman that’s Johnny Simmons (Brad), that’s Erin Wilhemi who plays Alice, who has five lines but I’m in love with her performance.”

So when you watch Charlie, Sam, Patrick and their friends toasting at a party or exchanging Secret Santa presents in the movie, it’s not all acting there. These are real interactions among friends.

“It’s an incredibly rare thing I think to find a whole group of people outside of the high school experience,” Miller said of the cast. “After college, I feel like it becomes increasingly rare for a group of people to meet each other all coming from such different places and to completely recklessly abandon self and really find a family or a tribe. That’s beyond a lasting memory; it’s a lasting reality that I’m endlessly appreciative of.” {vh1.com}

Ezra Miller talks about ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’

Ezra Miller won critical kudos for his breakout performance playing Tilda Swinton’s psychopathic son in Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin last year. He follows that with his beautifully nuanced work as Patrick—the stylish, gay high school senior who, along with his equally dazzling sister Sam (played by the luminous Emma Watson), acts as a creative and social mentor for the shy freshman Charlie (Logan Lerman)—in writer-director Stephen Chbosky’s debut film The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

The movie, based on Chbosky’s 1999 acclaimed novel, is a coming-of-age story in which Patrick and Sam act as emotional cheerleaders as Charlie slowly comes out of his shell. The book made a huge impact on the 19-year-old Miller, who came out recently as queer and whose enthusiasm for the project was evident in an exclusive interview with Windy City Times.

Windy City Times: I want to start with a quote from one of your interviews: “Getting socially outcast can be the best and most informative thing that can ever happen to you because you have to learn who you are to separate from the pack.”

Ezra Miller: [Laughs] Yeah, I agree with myself!

WCT: So it sounds like your high school experience was closer to Charlie’s than it was to Patrick’s—true?

Ezra Miller: I w as loud like Patrick but I was confused like Charlie and I was stoned [laughs] like Bob [another character in the film]. That’s as best as I can sum it up. Hopefully, I had dance moves like Sam.

WCT: Who didn’t hope that? She’s the coolest. So, was there someone in your arena that was like Patrick and Sam for you to look up to?

Ezra Miller: Yes. The weird sort of frame tale of all this for me is that my Patrick and Sam were Esther and Maggie. [There were] Esther—my first girlfriend, the girl who took my virginity and all this crazy stuff—and Maggie, my best friend through those high school years. And the two of them are actually the people who told me I had to read Perks of Being a Wallflower. They were simultaneously the seniors who took me under their wing. So a shout-out to them—they’re the beast’s toenails, as far as I’m concerned.

WCT: How surreal it must have been—because I understand that this book was a talisman for you, as many of these kinds of books are growing up—to then actually find yourself playing this role. Did you feel this huge weight? Was it really cool?

Ezra Miller: Yes, for me I had the added convenience of having conceptualized this character for four years with no knowledge that it was some sort of actor’s preparation just because I loved this story and admired this character and sort of loved the symbol of Patrick. And so when it came time to try and portray this person I already had a lot of accumulated information, which is always what I want for playing a character.

I want to feel like there’s far more in my mind about who this person is than I’ll ever have to refer to so a lot of it can become atmospheric backlog in the character’s head. So, yeah, I would just say it was helpful [laughs] in a funny way. And also, of course, there is the weight of how much this book meant to me and to so many people; certainly, if this moviemaking process had been in the hands of someone besides Stephen Chbosky, the author of the book, I think it could have been a terrible time and a terrible mistake. But because we were all under the counsel of Steve there was a comfort that we were following through on this guy’s heart vision—which is kinda like x-ray vision.

WCT: Sure, sure.

Ezra Miller: To understand myself as a marionette for Stephen’s Perks of a Wallflower vision, to reach a new form sort of provided the comfort of not feeling like I had to all alone capture this character who I’d admired so much in literature. From the second I met Steve, I think a lot of those nervous jitters subsided.

WCT: I love that the characters find validation and inspiration from things like “Rocky Horror” and I’m of the age where I actually did that back in the late ’70s.

Ezra Miller: You did the floor show?

WCT: I wasn’t in the floor show but I saw the movie dozens of times, and my best friend helped create The Anticipation Players here in Chicago. Did you experience any of that “Don’t dream it, be it” message of the movie in your own life?

Ezra Miller: I was privileged and fortunate to have radical older siblings and my sister Caitlin—when she was supposed to be babysitting my sister, Saiya, and I—showed us The Rocky Horror Picture Show on VHS. And I remember when she turned it off, she turned on us with this menace and did the hardcore shakedown like of, “If you tell mom and dad that I let you watch this ridiculously inappropriate musical movie all hell will break loose from my corner.”

Seeing that movie at age 8 or however old I was completely blew my mind in a bunch of ways. Obviously, there’s the mystery and appeal of the raw, sassy, sweet sap of sexuality that runs through that movie like a river and then also, I just remember being incredibly fascinated and obsessed with Tim Curry and Frank N. Furter and that performance. Just the range of physical capability—what he was doing with his body—I remember being blown asunder by watching that. Yes, later I went to a couple of shows during my high school times, and when I found out I got the part I started going every week to absorb the feeling. The whole cast and crew actually went out to see the floor show that they put on in Pittsburgh and we had a really amazing time.

WCT: It’s a delightful irony that you got to step into that drag. There are two very interesting powerful documentaries that have been making the circuit that speak to the importance of queer history: Vito, the profile of queer activist Vito Russo, and How to Survive a Plague, about the history of ACT UP. How important is it as a young, queer person to think about our history—to take a moment and honor that?

Ezra Miller: I think it’s so essential—as we gird our loins and ready our arms for the next round of trying to push mass consciousness and social awareness forward—that we always look to the people who have fought to allow even the ground we stand on now, taking our time to get ready for that push. And certainly, I had an incredible experience this year trying desperately to help organize activism and actions in New York City during that very exciting time [of Occupy Wall Street] and I remember ACT UP coming through one day and putting the entire coalition to shame with their fierceness and their diehard commitment and their bravery.

You had people who were incredibly sick who were standing on the front lines getting tackled and kicked by cops and marching on. I think it’s crucial that we look to especially that particular time of crisis and how the creative vehicles that we were able to board in order to fight and survive in that time of crisis. It’s definitely something to refer to frequently.

WCT: Are there queer mentors, creative mentors—such as Tilda Swinton—that you’ve looked to as you’ve come out as queer? You’re obviously going to be a spokesperson for a while, which is an unfortunate thing to throw on you, but being so talented and articulate that’s going to be part of your deal. [Laughs]

Ezra Miller: I would definitely not want to speak for anyone but I’ve got a loud mouth and I’m down to yell at people, you know what I mean? [Laughs]

WCT: You have a lot of great mentors who made you who you are and I’m assume we’re going to hear more from you in this arena…

Ezra Miller: Yes—I feel incredibly lucky to have had those mentors and to have had people who have empowered me and who have let me know that I’m seen and that I’m recognized and that what I’m doing is valid. I think it’s that sort of support system—my family, these amazing collaborators who stand generously in my corner as I struggle to figure all of this out—[who will] hopefully make [it] possible to continue to work in this industry and to continue to try and be my whole, unadulterated self when involved with this sort of work. {windycitymediagroup.com}

Ezra Miller discovers ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’

he perks of being Ezra Miller include a walk in Central Park and a street show that breaks out while he’s on the phone for an interview.

“What more do you want than an entire bus filled with street performing artists?” says Miller in an excited voice. “They’re killing me right now with their talent.”

The same is being said about Miller. He is killing critics with his role as Patrick in “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” Already there’s Oscar buzz for his role as a teen secure in his sexuality.

“I’m really happy to have played someone who is exuberant, proud and vibrant,” Miller says. “He’s secure in his own happiness and existence. He retains his joy, despite the fact that the other kids give him a hard time and society gives him a hard time.

“You can hold your own defiantly. You can break the rules and cross lines in order to find out what’s true.”

“Perks,” based on the best-selling book by writer-and-now-director Stephen Chbosky, centers on a shy freshman with emotional issues (Logan Lerman), taken under the wings of two seniors (Miller and Emma Watson) as they teach him about life and love.

“We confront real issues that have gone unaddressed in pop culture for a while,” he says. “The reach of issues that are grappled with in the film is immense.”

Miller, 19, a native of Hoboken, N.J., read “Perks” when he was 14. “I loved Patrick from the start,” he says. “He’s not an egomaniac, but he loves himself. He sees his own good and his own worth. He can love and support all the people he values in life in a way that’s honest.”

Miller had the chilling title role in “We Need to Talk About Kevin” (2011), about a troubled high school student who goes on the type of rampage that makes headlines. The role was why he wanted to do “Perks.”

“He was such a hard character that I wanted to play someone who was heartwarming my next time out,” he says with a laugh. “This reinvigorated me toward playing Patrick.”

He began his career training to be an opera singer, but switched to acting.

“My future is all about speculation,” he says, mentioning that he’s also recording a disc with his band. “I’m also just trying to fuse back to my city of New York while I determine my next move. That move usually makes itself painfully clear.” suntimes.com

Ezra Miller on The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Burning Things in High School

He broke out as the creepy-psychopath-outsider in We Need to Talk About Kevin, and now Ezra Miller is moving to the friendlier side of the high school cafeteria in The Perks of Being a Wallflower (opening this weekend). He plays Patrick, an arty-stoner-clown whose forward-thinking irreverence could get any of us through the Breakfast Club years. We caught up with the 19-year-old at a Cinema Society screening of the movie last week and got to talking facial hair, burning things, and the cast’s hotel room jam band.

What were you like in high school?
I was like this. I was slightly shorter, I didn’t have any facial hair. Which I am still just working on, it is budding, it is fledgling at this point.

Have long have you been working on your facial hair?
Dude, I have been focusing on it since probably age five. I never believed hormones could do it all for me. So it was all about mental focus, telekinetically pushing the hair out of my face.

Have you seen progress with that?
Much, at long last.

Because you have no problem with the locks part …
Some people said it would take age but I really I think it has been the disciplined training.

So what was your vibe like in high school?
I think it was similar but it was always so hard to observe. I am hoping that I feel a little more comfortable and at home in the places I exist in than I did then.

Did you party a lot?
Oh yeah. Life is a grand party.

So not wallflower-style.
No, no. Involvement, but often failed and misadventurous involvement.

Did you grow up in the city or suburbs?
I grew up in the suburbs of suburban New Jersey.

It doesn’t get realer than that.
Pretty much not. Those Housewives are super real, as real as it gets.

Especially for teenage partying …
Well, yeah, you have to set things on fire and then yell to feel even remotely okay.

Did you related to that aspect with this character?
I see Patrick as having much more healthy responses with humor and dance and theatrics. I had those as well, but the burning and breaking things was still definitely necessary for me.

In high school you were more on the burning/breaking tip?
Yes, yes, certainly. Burning, breaking, yelling, hitting things turned into playing drums.

What did you do for fun in your suburban New Jersey phase?
The No. 1 thing the people I have spent time with in my life have done for fun is playing music. And that is what I have certainly done the most.

We drove around and smoked pot.
Oh yeah, no no, you drive around, you smoke pot, and then you return home and play music. But the driving thing is not recommended. I have some friends who got in horrible, horrible car accidents that riddled their bodies with steel so it is not necessarily advisable for the kids.

I heard you had a band going on set?
There were two band projects that spawned in Pittsburgh. The first was called Octopus Jam. It was the free-flow experimental virgin variety. And then the more formulated, calculated, whole, and brutal effort of our jam sessions became known as Waist Band.

How would you describe the band’s vision?
It was like vaudevillian, progressive, ska, techno, jazz fusion. Crown Plaza Suite style.

With a lot of snyth.
No, none. But the wailing of children sounds synthesized. {vulture.com}