'Girls' No More: Christopher Abbott Gets Into 'Criminal Activities' With Michael Pitt and John Travolta

In which we try to find out the worst crime the actor has committed in real life.

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Complex Original

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Christopher Abbott may still be best known as Charlie from Girls but with every new project he tackles, the 29-year-old actor is shaking off his association as Marnie Michaels' boyfriend on the HBO series. This year, he's been featured in two films being released just a weekend apart, first in the indie drama James White—giving not only his personal best performance to date, but also one of the best male performances of the year—and then, for a drastic change of course, Criminal Activities (out Nov. 20), a darkly comedic crime thriller in which Abbott and his gang of friends (played by Michael Pitt, Dan Stevens, and Rob Brown) accidentally get themselves involved with a mobster's shady business after borrowing money. John Travolta plays the crime kingpin they're indebted to, and these amateur criminals find themselves in a sweaty, panicked mission to kidnap a rival boss to settle the score. Complex caught up with Abbott to find out what the cast of Criminal Activities likes to get into off-set and what's the worst crime he's committed in real life.

The film opens today. In the meantime, check out this exclusive clip from the movie:

So, I gotta to say congratulations. I saw James White earlier and you blew me away.
Oh thanks, that’s really nice. Yeah, it seems strange doing this. I’ve been in James White world for the last couple of months. I’ve just been reminding myself that Criminal Activities is a different movie.

It's such a different movie. It's a mob movie that's also a bit funny. There’s a lot of amateur crime going on.
​I wanna preempt it by saying I haven’t seen the movie yet.

Oh, you haven’t?
No. Just to be honest, I was gonna wait and maybe see it in a theater somewhere, but yeah.

Does a movie end up being a lot different when you watch it versus when you are filming it?
I mean I'm gonna have to wait and see. With James White, I’m really really good friends with director/writer Josh [Mond] and the other guys, so I was there for the editing process. There are some jobs where you’re just the actor in it, which is totally fine. And Criminal Activities is that, hence why I haven’t seen it yet.

And your director for this movie, Jackie Earle Haley, was of course in Watchmen and he also played Freddy Krueger. How did you end up being in a movie directed by him?
I think the way he kind of went about it is that he approached actors that he wanted to work with. So, I just had a Skype meeting with him, a couple months or so prior and had a really nice chat about it. I liked his ideas. I liked the other people that he’d cast in it and he cast the other three guys first, so I was excited to work with them too.

gotta ask what John Travolta was like. He has that same manic quality that he has in Face/Off, which is weirdly one of my favorite movies.
Yeah. I mean he seemed great. I thought he was really warm, really nice. I don’t have that much to do with him in the movie, you know?

Right.
But the little I did, I enjoyed very much. He’s very committed, but also on the side, very funny and fun to be around.

Does he sort of like, turn off and on between takes?
I think so. I don’t wanna say that I know how he goes about his process, but you know, I admire that. I feel like he takes it seriously enough, but isn't pretentious about it.

So, you end up getting into some deep shit with Michael Pitt, Dan Stevens, and Rob Brown. How was working with them?
Oh, they’re great. I mean, we’ve all stayed in touch. We all hang out once in a while and everyone’s pretty busy, but we try. It was a great vibe. I always like going on location. You know, we shot in Cleveland.

Oh yes.
I always love going and doing a movie somewhere else. It kind of forces people to stay focused and you know, you go get meals together all the time and chat about it and I love that. I live in New York and shooting movies in New York is fun too, but it does something to you when you have to stay in the hotel and all there is to do is work on the movie.

When you say that you and the guys hang out, what does that look like?
I mean Dan [Stevens] is always popping in. He has a place in New York and whenever we’re both in town, we just get together. Dan came to the James White premiere last week and we hung out then. Me and Rob get together every once in a while for basketball. Mike [Michael Pitt] is a boxer too and I box, so we’ve gone to Mendez Gym together.

Wait, you and Michael Pitt box together?
Yeah. His schedule is crazy, but we got together like three weeks ago.

Oh wow. Who’s the better boxer?
Uh, he’s been doing it longer. I did it when I was younger, then stopped. He’s, uh… I’ll say he’s the better boxer.

There were some moments that just get very intense and everyone is just screaming. Do those moments end up being kind of funny when you’re shooting? I feel like it’s so intense you have to laugh.
Yeah. at least from what I remember about filming it. Again, I haven’t seen the movie, but I feel like the movie always kind of borders on comedy. It’s just a bunch of amateurs that don’t know what they’re doing, so you can kinda tell who gets set up for a joke.

And what’s the worst crime that you’ve committed in real life?
Me?

Yeah. 
Um… yeah, I’m not gonna say that [Laughs].

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