Inside Adam Driver's Time In The Marines

April 2024 · 2 minute read

After his two-year stint as a Marine, Adam Driver returned to Indiana and to his initial plan of attending The Juilliard School. But his introduction back to civilian life was a rude awakening. "When you get out of the Marine Corps, you feel like you can do anything," he told WWD. "You feel like all civilian problems are meaningless and small, which is a complete illusion, but you have this confidence. You've been torn down so much—physically, emotionally, verbally—you feel like you're indestructible. But then you don't know where to put all of your energy, because all of that—code, honor, dying for another person."

He dealt with the transition by treating his civilian life as a high-stakes mission. According to Esquire, while attending Juilliard, he would "wake up before dawn in Astoria, Queens, cook and eat six eggs, and then run five miles to college, where he was both student and part-time janitor. After a full day of classes, evening rehearsals, and more janitor work, he'd run home again, to binge-watch Fellini and Cassavetes [films]." 

According to The Guardian, Driver sees the commonality between being a Marine and being an actor in "the small group of people trying to accomplish a mission greater than themselves." Today, he has found a new mission in his nonprofit, Arts in the Armed Forces, which brings theater performances to military troops. "It's like continuing your service," he told Esquire, reinforcing the Marine Corps motto, semper fidelis — "always faithful."

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