'Star Wars' star Adam Driver credits military stint for success in Hollywood: 'It gives you a lot of confidence'
'Star Wars' actor Adam Driver credited the military for his rise to stardom in Hollywood.
The 35-year-old, who joined the military after 9/11 and served the country for three years, says his time with the armed forces helped shed some of the inhibitions he endured while attempting to pursue a career in acting.
At 17, Driver, who was born in San Diego but raised in the small town of Mishawaka, Indiana, joined the Marines shortly after the 9/11 terror attacks. Talking to Associated Press on Wednesday, the star said that his time in service gave him the courage he needed to become an actor.
Driver served with the Marines for a good three years. Designated as a Lance Corporal, he was part of Weapons Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines in the role of an 81mm Mortarman with the United States Marine Corps. He was medically discharged after an injury to his sternum during a mountain biking accident and did not deploy as a result.
According to Fox News, Driver said that his time with the military helped shed some of the inhibitions he endured while attempting to pursue a career in acting. The actor even relocated to New York City and convinced himself that he would do OK on the streets if he failed to make a life out of acting. Had Driver not pursued acting, he would have had to make do with civilian jobs with the police, bomb disposal squad or security.
“It didn’t seem like a realistic job where I was from, and there wasn’t really a lot of opportunities,” he Driver. “But the military kind of stripped you away from – I think, even if it is an illusion – being scared of the civilian world.”
“You have that kind of like survival mentality in the military,” Driver added. “It gives you a lot of confidence going back out into the world.”
Soon after kicking off an acting career, the 'BlacKkKlansman' star also took to charity to help military veterans.
He is the co-founder of 'Arts in the Armed Forces', an organization dedicated to providing arts programming for active duty service members and veterans, as well as military support staff and their families.
Driver rose to prominence with 'Girls', a 2012 HBO comedy-drama series. He played Adam Sackler, a supporting character.
His most impressive performance came in 'BlacKkKlansman' (2018), an American biographical crime film that follows the first African-American detective in the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) as he sets out to infiltrate and expose the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. Driver played Detective Philip "Flip" Zimmerman, and was nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.
He garnered global recognition for playing the antagonist, Kylo Ren, in the 'Star Wars' trilogy. He was part of 'The Force Awakens' (2015) and 'The Last Jedi' (2017), and will reprise his role in the upcoming, 'The Rise of Skywalker', the final installment slated to release this December.
He is currently starring opposite Keri Russell, his fellow star in 'Star Wars', in 'Burn This', a Lanford Wilson play. This will be his third Broadway appearance.