SHY GUY
A Reluctant Interview Between Mike Faist and Jonathan Anderson
ByJonathan Anderson
Photographed byEmma Beiles Howie
October 6, 2026
Clothing byDIOR.
Mike Faist moved to New York chasing the greats: James Dean, Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Robert De Niro. Roles on Broadway, in Steven Spielberg’sWest Side Story, and as a corner of theChallengerslove triangle opposite Zendaya and Josh O’Connor got him closer to those lofty heights, but it’s his turn inEast of Edenthat puts him closest to the performers he lionizes. In Zoe Kazan’s stunning Netflix adaptation, Faist plays Charles Trask, the farmer who spends his life trying to win his brother’s love, until the arrival of the mysterious Cathy (Florence Pugh) complicates everything. While in Paris, Faist met up with Jonathan Anderson on his birthday to talk about the discomfort of being recognized, turning themselves on and off, and the strange gift of doing the only thing you ever wanted to do.
THURSDAY 2:30 PM SEPTEMBER 17, 2026 PARIS
JONATHAN ANDERSON:Hi Mike. Nice to see you now that you’re moving to Paris
MIKE FAIST:Hi, Jonathan. Happy birthday to you.
ANDERSON:Thank you very much. It’s good to get older. What have you been up to?
FAIST:Oh, you know, this and that. What have you been up to?
ANDERSON:Just working, making clothing. And I’m here to interview you.
FAIST:It’s much more interesting to hear things about you. I’m glad that we’re actually talking about this in particular because I know that once upon a time you wanted to be an actor.
ANDERSON:I wanted to be an actor, and then I realized I was never going to be as good as you or as good as James Dean.
FAIST:What was the first James Dean film that you were obsessed with? Was it photos?
ANDERSON:No, it was the biography. I became completely obsessed with him to the point where I was going to thrift stores to buy ’50s Converse and a red nylon jacket.
FAIST:Have you seen his photography?
ANDERSON:Yeah.
FAIST:It’s pretty amazing.
ANDERSON:When I was at drama school, there was something about the ambiguity of his sexual life, the ambiguity of how he played roles. Then I watched the films that he was in. I first obviously watchedRebel Without a Cause.
FAIST:Sure.
ANDERSON:And then I remember he was in a play, and I remember finding the script in the D.C. Library, which was the first edition of that script,See the Jaguar.
FAIST:This is sounding very familiar.
ANDERSON:And then he obviously very famously was inEast of Eden.
FAIST:Very famously.
ANDERSON:I think when he was shooting that, it’s when Elizabeth Taylor gave him a Siamese cat.
FAIST:I think you’re right about that. They had a very close friendship. Well I, like you, also wanted to be an actor.
ANDERSON:And then became one.
FAIST:Questionably.
ANDERSON:Just to preface this all, we both worked together with a very dear friend of ours, [Luca] Guadagnino, onChallengers. It was the first time I ever met Mike, and he was such a friendly person.
FAIST:This was the first film you were working on, and you came to me in a panic saying, “I have no idea what I’m doing. This isn’t what I do. I have a job.”
ANDERSON:[Laughs]Yeah, I have arealjob.
FAIST:I said, “Well, what is that?” And you said, “I’m a fashion designer.” To which I said, “That’s nice. What does that mean?”
ANDERSON:We ended up being friends ever since. And here we are now because Mike is finally getting out there and being productive to talk about his work.
FAIST:Always giving me crap for it.
ANDERSON:No, because, as probably most readers, I think you are one of the most talented actors that I know. So stop avoiding it and tell us about the project.
FAIST:I wanted to move to New York specifically because I wanted to follow in the lineage of James Dean, Brando, Newman, and De Niro. All of these people came out of The Actors Studio, which was created in part by Elia Kazan, Zoe [Kazan]’s grandfather, who went on to directEast of Eden[the movie adaptation]. And I too became obsessed with James Dean. My favorite film of his isGiant, because that’s hisCitizen Kaneperformance. So many movies were inspired by it, likeThere Will Be Bloodwith Daniel Day Lewis.
ANDERSON:I think it’s probably one of my favorites, too. When you look at that period and then you catapult to now, the same principle stands today. There are people who have the ability to grab you from the outset. You look at the screen and they don’t have to do much because it’s in them. That is why Dean, Brando, and Marilyn are the template of where we are today because they’re just after silent films. But there is a purism there, because a lot of them come from theater, like you did.
FAIST:What I love so much about Dean specifically in that performance is that he transforms quite dramatically throughout that film. But there’s one moment that I remember, it’s a scene where Elizabeth Taylor goes to visit James Dean in the little house that he built on the land that he inherited. She’s poking him into getting into what he feels for her. I think he’s cooking bacon and he doesn’t look at anyone or anything, he just looks up and you see him wanting to tell her the truth and thinking he can’t. In one look, you can understand every little thing. That was the moment where I thought, “I love movies. I love actors.” Because it’s always what happens in between the lines.
ANDERSON:I always find it quite fascinating, being in theater and then working in cinema. You will be sitting with someone you know very well, you’re working on a movie, you’re prepping to do whatever it’s going to be for that day, and then you hear “Action!” And suddenly, you’re watching someone transform. It’s magical.
FAIST:I remember you saying this about Daniel Craig when you guys were doingQueer.
ANDERSON:I thought he was the most mesmerizing moment for me because he would be taking the piss and being tremendously funny, and suddenly he would waltz over or he would listen to music. Then he would just take the headphones off and it would be a light switch. It goes from black to red.
FAIST:It is magic.
ANDERSON:I’m very lucky in the job that I do that I meet a lot of amazingly talented actors.
FAIST:Yeah, you have.
ANDERSON:What has been great is that when you meet these people, you realize it is such a complex skill to have. Now, are there a lot of great actors? No. It is something that you can learn, but I think in life it’s good that when you quickly find out you’re not good at something, you should stop if you can find something that you can do better.
FAIST:Do you think that you did?
ANDERSON:Yeah, what happens is life will guide you.
FAIST:That is true.
ANDERSON:Because I think the key, which is what I love about you, Josh [O’Connor], Daniel and Zendaya, is that you are able to put your entire physicality and personality. You use yourself as a vessel and you remove yourself. Maybe I’m dreaming about it too much.
FAIST:No, the reality is that I don’t like doing interviews because—
FAIST:[Laughs]Well, that is true. If I could take you with every interview, I might enjoy them a little more.
ANDERSON:Then you’ll do loads.
FAIST:I don’t like doing it because I think anytime you talk about acting as an art form, it doesn’t come across well. I’m putting my foot in my mouth because I actually don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. Every time I ever go into a new project, the target’s always moving, and that to me is always the most interesting thing about a new role. There’s always a different set of skills that is required, and I never know until I start. What I do know is that I’ll read a script for a particular character and for this, it was Charles, and Zoe came to me and asked, “Do you want to do this?” After I read it, I felt extreme excitement, empathy, understanding to a degree, and dread. Those are the things that I ultimately know. But even then on the day, and I’ve talked about this with Josh briefly, and I wonder what Daniel would say, but it still remains magic.
ANDERSON:Yeah, it’s like switching lights on and off. It’s as magic as electricity.
FAIST:I know I’ve always wanted to be an actor, and somehow I’m here doing it.
ANDERSON:Which is great.
FAIST:But that’s all that I know. Let me ask you this. Being that it is your birthday, and from when you were in D.C. wanting to be an actor to where you are now, have you found at this point in your career a similarity in the two?
ANDERSON:Yeah, there’s two aspects that I use from what I learned when I was in school. One is that when I’m doing a collection, I’m building a character.
FAIST:Right.
ANDERSON:So I have to believe in the character, no matter how abstract it is. On the personal part, as fashion becomes more and more part of the public domain, it used to be that you could be a designer and stand behind the curtain. It’s now become influencing, celebrity, catwalks, Instagram, television. Fashion became fashionable somehow at one point and became part of pop culture in a different way, and I do feel there is me on and there’s me off.
FAIST:There’s a persona.
ANDERSON:Because you have to try to protect you, the person at home, which not everyone needs to see.
FAIST:Part of the reason I don’t like doing interviews is that I actually feel a lot more comfortable being a character than I do being myself in the public eye. I feel a lot braver, quite frankly, to be someone else.
ANDERSON:I have struggled with a part of that when I took the job at Dior, even though I was working for 11 years at Loewe. Suddenly I take this job and it’s everywhere. You do become insecure of the idea of yourself as yourself. It’s a strange feeling when before I was very controlled of what I was going to give out.
FAIST:Interesting.
ANDERSON:But then the problem is that the minute that you are known or recognized, you become part of the public domain.
FAIST:Exactly.
ANDERSON:Which is fine. I’m very grateful to people who are supportive of what I do, but it is very odd. It’s like CCTV.
FAIST:I know what you mean.
ANDERSON:On the days that you would want to just go to the grocery store and do your thing, you have to always know that you might have to switch on.
FAIST:You have your cape.
ANDERSON:But that’s part of my job and it’s part of your job. I think you get used to it to a point.
FAIST:You think you’ve gotten used to it to a point?
ANDERSON:I think so, because the great thing about headphones is they’re a great way of zoning out. But it will always be strange. I grew up with a father who was a rugby player, and I remember when I was a kid and people would ask him for his autograph at a rugby match, I would always be like, “Ugh.”
FAIST:What do you think of your father in those interactions?
ANDERSON:I just got embarrassed.
FAIST:I get embarrassed too. I’m embarrassed to do this interview. I said that to you when I walked in. I said, “I’m very embarrassed that we’re doing this. “
ANDERSON:You’re just a modest person, Mike.
FAIST:[Laughs]No, it’s just true.
ANDERSON:I’m quite lucky because I don’t have it at the scale that you guys have it.
FAIST:See, that’s funny. I feel lucky that I don’t have it at the scale that you have it.
ANDERSON:We’re both very lucky that we don’t have it at the scale that Zendaya has it. [Laughs] She is such a pro at it.
FAIST:Do you think if James Dean were—
ANDERSON:Alive today, he would probably not live for very long. I think he would struggle.
FAIST:Why do you think that is? He seemed to struggle then.
ANDERSON:He struggled then, and that wasn’t even that bad.
FAIST:Actually, I wonder if it was worse.
ANDERSON:Because it was new, I think you have two things happening there. You see it in the biography and it depends on what you believe. I do think he was struggling with sexuality, which is one. I think there was pressure of being part of the studio system where everything was controlled. Today, there is no control. But in those days, it would be, “You are going to wear this, you are going to appear here at this moment.” Everything was slower, but it was very methodical. You were property of the studio.
FAIST:Do you think that kind of structure still remains today just in different ways? Because I think that it does.
ANDERSON:It does. But it just means that you go in production mode, which is to promote the film. Actors have propelled into doing this thing which they all find incredibly difficult, which is, “Here’s a red carpet, and we’re going to need you to do these 20 TikToks, and you need to do all the press.”
FAIST:Sure.
ANDERSON:But you also need to think of awards season, so you’re going to have to be even nicer. I have seen this on my side of the job, when you come out of that, you’re promoting the character that you became, and while being in character as a promotional actor. No wonder when a lot of friends come out of that after three months, they’re like, ” I’m normal again.”
FAIST:It is funny because it’s very easy to read it as we’re being pessimistic about all of this.
ANDERSON:No, it’s being realistic.
FAIST:But I will say that, at least for me, and maybe you can relate to this, but I’m doing the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do.
ANDERSON:And that’s why all of it balances out, because you love it.
FAIST:I idolize those giants that came before me. I can discover them decades later in a piece of work that they created, and still be moved by it, and then use that not only in my work, but in my personal life. There’s something about a story likeEast of Eden, they sit with you in a very real way. When I was asked to be involved with this story, at the end of the day, it was because I wanted it to be a part of my evolution as a human being, my personal growth. I always feel very grateful for all of it, literally every moment of it, because I don’t know how I got so lucky.
ANDERSON:Yeah, I always have that.
FAIST:I don’t know how I got here. I don’t know if you feel the same way.
ANDERSON:It’s totally the same, because my whole thing is as long as I get up in the morning and discover something I never knew or did something I had never done, I always think, “I’m so lucky to be able to do what I do.” I think you do meet certain people in every job and you just go, “These are my people. These are the kind of people that I want to ask problems to.” And you are one of those people.
FAIST:And you’re one of those people for me, and so I’m equally very embarrassed to be interviewed.
ANDERSON:Because you thought you were interviewing me, but I’m actually interviewing you.
FAIST:Except I was able to actually pretty much interview you. I think I got away with it.
