‘Everything is Extra!’: Adam Driver Put on Weight and Had a ‘Back-Up Stomach’ for Baumbach’s ‘White Noise’

variety.com:

Manori Ravindran International Editor “Everything is extra!” blurts out Don Cheadle at the press conference for “White Noise” at the Venice Film Festival.

The Noah Baumbach-directed film, an adaptation of the 1985 Don DeLillo novel, opens the Italian festival on Wednesday night, and is nothing if not theatrical, as its cast members explained at length before the screening. “When [Baumbach] started re-reading the book, I did too,” said Greta Gerwig, who is Baumbach’s real-life partner. “[The writing] has this quality that makes you want to say, ‘Listen to this!’ and read sections out loud.

There’s a performative quality to it; you want to share with other people. It seemed to be both emotionally and intellectually exciting.” When asked whether the film was trying to convey DeLillo’s language or Baumbach’s, Adam Driver noted that he “didn’t define it as one or the other.” “A lot of material in the book was curated by Noah and we rehearsed it like how we normally work on movies together,” explained Driver. “It felt very theatrical.

Although this one, there are moments of big theatricality…but it’s the same process of a play just condensed into one bit.” “White Noise” follows Jack (played by Driver), a professor who made a name for himself by teaching Hitler studies at a liberal arts college in Middle America.