Sure, he has the plumb lead “villain” role in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”—available on Netflix now— but where has Edward Norton been in the ensuing years? That’s the central question that Dax Shepard has on the new Armchair Expert podcast interview with his old buddy Norton.
READ MORE: Edward Norton: The Essential Performances
Shepard has a point. Norton’s last major live-action roles before ‘Glass Onion’ were “Birdman” (2014), a supporting role in “Collateral Beauty” (2016), and “Motherless Brooklyn” in 2019, which he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in (in between there is a small cameo on “The French Dispatch,” and “Alita: Battle Angel” and a lot of voice work in things like “Isle Of Dogs” and “Sausage Party”).
“Motherless Brooklyn” is a big part of that absence to some extent, Norton reminding Shepard that writing, directing, producing, and scrounging up the financing for the movie took years before it was made. And that’s fair; that’s a passion project that’s been on his docket for a good decade.
READ MORE: Edward Norton Talks ‘Motherless Brooklyn’ & His Love Of Film Noir [The Fourth Wall]
On top of that, Norton also reminded Shepard that while he may not be on screen 24/7, he’s constantly thinking of projects he wants to make or has already written and revealed a few. One of those is a prison film drama he wants Denzel Washington to star in the other is a Lewis & Clark miniseries for TV he says he’s already written.
“It’s much more related to your first question, which is, what would you tell your younger self? ‘If I knew the time that things take,'” Norton said, teeing up to explain where he’s been and why we’ve seen him less in the last twenty years. “I’ve got a lot of stories in my head that I want to make into films. I’ve got a really good prison escape drama that I’ve literally written in my head. I know it, I want to get to it, I want to write it, direct it, I want Denzel to play one of the main parts in it.”
“I’ve got stuff that is shaped,” he continued. “I’ve got a miniseries about the Lewis & Clark expedition I wrote. I want to direct it. It’s not like my brain isn’t occupied constantly, almost compulsively, by stories. And I’m not even talking about the really great filmmaker that just sent me an adaptation of a Pulitzer-Prize-winning autobiography that I thought was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever read that he wants to make. I’m like, ‘If you can make that, I’m in.’”
In short, back off, world. Edward Norton has a ton of offers, several projects he wants to make himself, and many irons in the fire. And more work is on the way that hasn’t been announced.
“There’s the stuff I’m passively receiving, but there are at least two things right now that I’m signed up for; I’m ready to go if they can get it together,” Norton said of other projects that are in the works. “That’s not even coming out of my head, I’ve got four or five written on the page, written in my head [projects] that I would love to get done.”
However, the biggest encumbrance Norton said is all the other brickwork he’s laid in other avenues of life, many of which are environmental, humanitarian activism, and political projects he says he “can’t just walk away from, and I don’t want to.” Norton’s father was an environmental lawyer, and conservationist and Norton has walked a similar path, he is a trustee of Enterprise Community Partners, a non-profit organization that advocates for affordable housing, he serves as president of the American branch of the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, and he is also the UN Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity among other projects.
Honestly, good for him, to use that platform for good causes. He also reminded us that he’s merging these two passions, art and environmentalism, in Scott Z. Burns‘ upcoming Apple TV+ series “Extrapolations“ (on our list of the Most Anticipated TV Shows of 2023), which tells anthology stories about ecological disaster in the near future.
On another recent podcast, the Smartless pod with Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Shawn Hayes, Norton told a pretty famous and funny story about working with Marlon Brandon and Robert De Niro on Frank Oz‘s “The Score,” a kind of legendary disaster of a film. The short version, cause you should dive into the amusing details below, it was a paycheck gig for his bigger stars and the absurdity of it all— though Norton had high praise for Brando’s wild ideas and willingness to take risks— was a scene where Brandon accidentally poured water on himself while De Niro fell asleep standing up. Take a listen to all the conversations below.
