For Mike Faist, Choosing Roles Comes Down to Big Feelings: ‘Hell Yes’ and ‘Total Dread’

The second time “East of Eden” star Mike Faist used the word “dread” to describe how he picks his roles in a recent interview with IndieWire, I had to stop him. “You keep saying ‘dread’!” The “Challengers” and “West Side Story” actor laughed, smiled, and shrugged. “I know, I know, but it’s just true,” he said. “The reality is that that’s really the only thing that I’m looking for, because that means you care. That’s what’s exciting.” Since the Ohio native first moved to New York City at 17 to start acting professionally, that kind of excitement has been his goal. Initially known for his stage work — most notably “Dear Evan Hansen,” which netted him both a Tony nod and a Grammy win — Faist rose to big-screen acclaim with his electric turn as Riff in Steven Spielberg’s 2021 adaptation of “West Side Story.” Since that star-making role, Faist has been very picky with his projects, including Jeff Nichols’ “The Bikeriders” and Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers.” His latest role is another born of careful consideration and personal attachment: the dark, complex Charles Trask in Zoe Kazan’s adaptation of “East of Eden.” For fans of Faist — the rare actor we simply haven’t seen enough of since his first major Hollywood role — the seven-episode series offers yet another look at his many talents. For a guy who grew up revering James Dean, it couldn’t be better. Of course, Kazan is not the first person in her family to adapt John Steinbeck’s seminal novel for the screen. Her grandfather Elia Kazan did just that in 1955 with his Dean-starring classic. But while that film focused on the younger Trask brothers at the story’s heart — Caleb and Aaron — Zoe Kazan’s expands outward to also include the story of Adam (Christopher Abbott) and Charles Trask, and how their lives were upended by the arrival of Cathy Ames (Florence Pugh), one of literature’s great monsters. When Kazan first met with Faist, he said she made it clear they weren’t remaking her grandfather’s film, but making a full-blooded adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel. “Which meant that we’re going to go back and we’re going to include the [older] Trask brothers and examine that relationship,” he said. “Being introduced to Charles and reading that character, I fell in love. I just loved him. There was something about him that I said, ‘I can’t not do this. I have to do this.’ That’s what you’re looking for. You’re looking for something that you can’t say no to, and you have no choice.” And, he added, “along with that, there’s this feeling of total excitement and then total dread. [That’s] the reality.” ‘East of Eden‘COURTESY OF NETFLIX While Kazan’s take on the material is different from her grandfather’s — not just in terms of its length and focus, but the way it interprets Cathy and her motivations — it’s clear that her love for the story is rooted in her grandfather’s work. When Faist and Kazan first met to chat about the project, he said, “I joked with her and said, ‘This is a little meta, you being involved with this.’ After a little bit of time, it became very apparent that, yes, it was that, but she also had this very succinct point of view and an urgency that went along with that. When you are given the opportunity to work with people who have such clarity, it makes you want to rise to the occasion.” It is, after all, a story that has lived in Kazan, in all its formats and variations, her entire life. Faist likes that kind of dedication. “It reminded me of Spielberg; it was kind of similar. He wanted to do ‘West Side Story’ for decades, and that kind of vision and clarity and persistence was really there. You could feel that,” Faist said. As for what Faist feels when he’s setting about a project he feels passionate about? Well, dread, yes, but something else, too. “There are two things that you really feel: There’s a hell yes and then a dread,” he said. “But [with a project like ‘East of Eden’], there’s this thing, like ‘OK, this person has the reins on the thing. The trust is there. We’re going to be able to roll up our sleeves, and we’re going to be able to get to work.’ That’s what I’m looking for, this ability to go there all the way, really commit, be honest as much as possible, and to give as much as you can, give everything that you can to the thing.” Kazan’s persistence, he said, was felt through every part of the process. “The amount of resources that were then given to this thing! When I got down to New Zealand a month prior, and you walk onto the stages, and you walk on to where everybody has been working for six months prior to that, and you’re meeting hundreds of people,” he said. “The sets that were built, the costumes that were created, and the props that were made, the amount of just actual human thought that went into this. It makes my job super easier. I couldn’t feel luckier. I couldn’t feel luckier to be a part of that.” Christopher Abbott and Mike FaistCourtesy of Josh Shinner/Netflix As part of the twisted Trask family tree, Faist gets to act alongside some of his favorite fellow actors, including recent Tony nominee Christopher Abbott, a stage and screen star Faist has been “studying for years.” “The first time that I met Paul [Dano] and Zoe in person, I was asked to do a reading with the two of them for this celebration of playwright John Guare,” Faist said. “We were doing excerpts from his play ‘House of Blue Leaves,’ and I went to Lincoln Center, because they have archival tapings dating back to the ’60s of everything done in New York. There was three productions of ‘House of Blue Leaves’ done: the original off-Broadway production, a Broadway production starring Ben Stiller in 1986, and then another one with Ben Stiller again in 2011.” In the 2011 production, Abbott took over the role first played by Stiller, prodigal son Ronnie Shaughnessy. “It was that production where I was watching that character and that actor playing that character, and I said, ‘Oh, this person is the one that actually makes this make sense for me.’ And that actor was Chris,” Faist said. The series’ other big star, Florence Pugh, offered Faist a different kind of clarity. As Charles and Cathy, the duo is gifted the show’s thorniest relationship. They don’t just see each other, but they recognize themselves in the other. That’s not a good thing for either of them. “Steinbeck writes it very well in the book, and we say it in the series, but this idea of kind recognizing kind,” Faist said. “This idea of these two people being mirrors and able to see this thing within each other and this knowing that they have about one another.” Charles and Cathy circle each other throughout the series, with Faist appearing in later episodes long after those who know Steinbeck’s story might, ahem, reasonably expect him to still be on the scene. That allowed the duo to really evolve their relationship and bond. ‘East of Eden’GEOFFREY SHORT/NETFLIX “When you first meet Charles, you’re introduced to this person who has been working very hard at stifling this one version of himself, because he’s been dealing with so much shame,” the actor said. “And then his brother comes back into the picture, who he hasn’t seen in years, and he’s trying to repair that relationship. And Charles, at this moment, is trying as best as he can to be good, whatever that might be. And Cathy comes, and he sees that she possesses this other side of him, and that becomes a threat in his eyes because it’s this quality that he is trying to hide, to keep away.” In meeting Cathy, Faist said there’s a sense of “Alice going down the rabbit hole.” As her match in many ways, the actor found another way into Charles that reflects that in a canny style. “On one of the days when we were shooting, Florence said, ‘You’re kind of like the Cheshire cat right now,'” he recalled. “And I was like, ‘I guess you’re right about that. I never thought about it that way.’ And she was right.” Beyond “hell yes” and “total dread,” I unearthed another Faist response when it comes to picking his gigs: “I don’t know.” That one, I suspect, is rarer, but it’s a good one, too. I mentioned that in an interview around “The Bikeriders,” filmmaker Jeff Nichols mentioned that Faist might also be interested in directing or writing his own films. When I asked Faist about that possibility, he jumped a little. “I don’t know. I couldn’t say,” the actor said. “When we made that movie, Jeff was very generous in the sense that he let me shadow him. He let me hang out and kind of see what it was like to be on the other side of things. I was really lucky to work on that project as well because I was surrounded by all these amazing actors, and really my only job was just to sit there and listen and watch.” ‘East of Eden’COURTESY OF NETFLIX The film is based on a book of the same name by photographer Danny Lyons, who Faist plays in the film. He’s a journalist, outside of the motorcycle outlaw lifestyle but very interested in it, an observer both on the screen and apparently behind it, too. He considered the experience a bit more, thoughtful as ever. “In a way, it really got me. I don’t know, it made me fall back in love a little bit with everything that I do. Being able to sit there across from Mike Shannon and watch this guy do take after take after take and finally find his way through it, I mean, for me, there’s nothing more exciting.” So, in Mike Faist parlance, what’s the next thing he’s really dreading? He got, funnily enough, a little Cheshire cat. “There’s a couple of things, and I’m excited about it. That’s all I’ll say. I’m excited,” he said. Any chance for a return to the theater? “Well, I don’t know. Certainly, there’s hope. I would love to return. It’s coming up to probably 10 years since I’ve been on an American stage, and we’ll see. I would love for that to happen.” But, right now? This project? This moment? “I just don’t know how I got so lucky, is really how I feel, genuinely,” Faist said. “It’s a real privilege to be able to get to do this, and I’ll try and do it for as long as I possibly can, as long as I’m allowed to and you guys will let me.” All seven episodes of “East of Eden” will premiere on Netflix on Thursday, October 1.