Miles Teller is doing the promotional rounds to support Whiplash, the little indie movie with major buzz at many different film festivals. JK Simmons is pretty much guaranteed a Best Support Actor Oscar nomination (if not the actual award) for the film, and I’m sure the film will become one of Teller’s calling cards for casting agents for years to come. Miles is still recovering (sort of) from his W Magazine interview, where he basically said that doing Divergent was a business decision that he regretted. He tried to walk back some of those comments, but he’s basically reiterated them over and over, just using different words.

Anyway, Miles has a newish interview with the New York Times, which you can read here. I still find him enchanting, by the way. He’s different than most of the actors his age. He’s cocky and fratty, like the fortunate son who doesn’t know how to NOT win at life. But he owns that too – he’s not putting on a veneer of humility. He thinks he’s great and he’ll tell you how great he is. Some highlights:

He’s a different kind of actor: “I feel like a lot of actors of my generation are not proper actors. I want to break out of that whole group of actors in their early 20s and really start to put stuff down that lets you know I take this seriously.” He added that he wanted to earn a reputation “as an actor of their generation.”

Humble-bragging: “When this all started, my agent told me the feedback was always: ‘Good actor. Not right for the lead.’ They said, ‘Oh, he’s the funny friend.’ I mean, when I say, ‘When all this started’ — it’s like four years. I’m pretty hot now. I guess I was lacking sex appeal at the time. I don’t know if I found it. Maybe what I lack in abs I make up in — ” he arched an eyebrow — “weight?”

He’s not screwed up on a personal level: He’s never needed “acting as therapy…My parents are still together. I have two older sisters that love me.”

His scarred face: “I’m not super-vain. I was never going to be a model. But it was getting to the point where casting directors were like, ‘It doesn’t make sense for the character to have scars.’ ”

Comparisons to John Cusack: “I guess we look alike. We did some similar movies. He was a leading man that wasn’t traditionally good looking, who was offbeat and quirky but confident. I get it. But I don’t want his career.” Instead, he aspires to the paths taken by Ryan Gosling, Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn.

His criticism of Divergent: “I have never done a movie just for financial reasons,” he said, noting that “on paper,” he had wanted to work with the “Divergent” team. “When you’re on big-budget movies, just sitting in your trailer for a long time, you feel removed from the storytelling most of the time.”

He’s ready to play men, not boys: “‘Whiplash’ was great. But even then there’s an attachment to youth, the loss of innocence, all that stuff. And it’s time to play some grown men.”

[From The NY Times]

He’s all of 27 years old, an awkward stage for most male actors. Only the guys like Ryan Gosling manage to do interesting work at that stage and still play their real age (or older). I’ll admit, I always think Miles is younger too, because of the films he does. I would have had him pegged at 22-23. Anyway… I think the “shots fired” moment came with the John Cusack section. DUDE. You would be lucky to be considered the next John Cusack. We are sorely lacking “The Next John Cusack.” Cusack did some really interesting, wonderful work back in the day.

Some photos of Miles at the Whiplash premiere two nights ago in LA:

Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News & Getty.