Beau Knapp
AGE: 27. HOMETOWN: Los Angeles. UP NEXT: Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk; Sandcastle.
HAYLEY PHELAN: You’ve got two young kids and have six projects (including The Nice Guys and The Finest Hours) coming out in 2016. How are you awake right now?
BEAU KNAPP: I don’t know! I have a great support system thanks to my girl and my kids. The hardest part of the job is being away from them.
PHELAN: You seem pretty grown-up for 27.
KNAPP: I always thought I would be a young dad because my mom had me at 22, and I liked growing up like that. I had my first daughter when I was 22. I had already been acting for a year, but that was the point where I was like, “Okay, I have to get a move on, start hustling, and work, work, work.” When you have kids, you don’t have the luxury to turn down work, so I’ve done a lot of things.
PHELAN: How many projects have you worked on exactly?
KNAPP: Twenty-five. It’s funny, I feel like no one ever recognizes me in the films I’m in. Even when I’m at the premiere, they’re like, “Who are you?”
PHELAN: How did you get into acting?
KNAPP: Before I graduated high school [at 16], I went to visit my dad [producer Harry Knapp] on the project he was working on in Thailand. That wound up being Rescue Dawn [2007], which was directed by Werner Herzog with Christian Bale, Steve Zahn, and Jeremy Davies. Seeing these people be creative and do these crazy things, that opened my eyes. This might sound cheesy, but I always felt like I was deeper than most people. Acting was a natural outlet for that I guess.
PHELAN: What were you in a past life?
KNAPP: Probably a cowboy.
PHELAN: Which superpower would you choose: Flying or invisibility?
KNAPP: Flying. I don’t know what’s fun about being invisible. You could rob stuff, I guess. But you can do that in New York without having to be invisible. No one notices you here.
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