I remember seeing Adam Driver for the first time in the pilot episode of HBO’s Girls when it premiered on April 15, 2012. He’s shirtless as he is for many of his scenes throughout the series. His pale skin like moonlight juxtaposed against his jet-black hair. He’s making out with Hannah (Lena Dunham) on a vintage couch in a Brooklyn apartment. “You should never be anyone’s fucking slave … except mine,” he tells her. They giggle and kiss.
It was the moment Driver arrived, playing Adam Sackler — friend, lover, and flawed young man finding his way and full of conflicting emotions in Dunham’s masterpiece series shot mostly in New York City.
He did have some bit parts on TV and many on Broadway, but it was Girls that catapulted his career in film.
‘Girls’ • HBO.
The Boy on Girls
In Girls, Adam and Hannah’s relationship waxes and wanes throughout the series. We root for them. We hope they stay apart. Then we desperately want them back together. They are quirky and lovable, much like the stars themselves.
Our relationship with their relationship is intricately tangled. They are just learning about each other as the series begins — full of newness and exploration and awkward moments during intimacy. In that first episode, Adam leaves Hannah on the couch for a moment to get some lube. She’s not sure why since she’s yet to learn about Adam’s penchant for kink.
Dunham cast Driver as Adam, saying in Newsweek that it was his talent that allowed the character Adam to be vital to the series. She called him a “kind and generous scene partner.” He was 27 when filming began.
“Girls was the first sex scene I’d ever done, and I thought, this is weird! People are filming this, and usually I do this privately,” Driver said.
‘Girls’ • HBO.
“He’s very sexy,” Greta Gerwig said of Driver. Gerwig starred with Driver in the 2013 indie film Frances Ha, directed by Noah Baumbach. “I think every girl who’s worked with him has this feeling after you meet him that the wind’s gotten knocked out of you. It’s the way he carries himself. He’s very brooding in this way that anyone who saw My So-Called Life never got over; he’s got some Jordan Catalano in him,” Gerwig told Newsweek.
Baumbach concurred. “Adam has a way of doing everything that’s totally unexpected, but once he does it, you think, Oh, of course the scene should be played that way. He’s always doing something fresh,” he shared.
Fresh, in a different sense, was seen in the December 2016 issue of Interview which featured our leading man on the cover with a gritty gorgeous black and white inside spread shot by Steven Klein.
Driver is wet. He’s in a bathroom. He’s slumped over a sink. In another pic, he’s brushing his hair, also squeezing out toothpaste. And there’s one where he’s on the toilet. Every image is compelling, odd, sexy. It’s perfect.
Burberry Hero campaign Photo: Mario Sorrenti.
The Road to Stardom
Perfection, of the Driver variety, wasn’t easy to achieve. Driver was born in San Diego, and lived there until he was 7, when his parents divorced. He and his mom moved to Mishawaka, Indiana, where his mom met and married a Baptist minister. Religion was a vital part of his life. He even sang in the church choir when he wasn’t being mischievous, sneaking sips of red wine and lighting things on fire.
Driver — now 6 foot 3 inches tall — played basketball in junior high, but it wasn’t his thing. In high school, he scored a bit part in the school play Oklahoma! and he practiced his one line of “Check his heart” in every way possible. He had found his passion.
Upon graduating, he auditioned for Juilliard, but was rejected. From there, he sold Kirby vacuums back when door-to-door sales was a thing and did telemarketing. The life force was quickly being sucked out of him. So, he did what many aspiring actors do and packed up his 1990 Lincoln Town Car and headed to California.
His money ran out before even settling in, so he went home.
His stepfather presented him with the idea of joining the Marines. At first, Driver was adamantly against it, but then September 11 happened, and he wanted to do something. By the next year, he was stationed at Camp Pendleton, California, at 18 years old.
Just before being deployed to Iraq, Driver broke his sternum on a mountain bike during basic training. He tried to overcome the injury, but couldn’t and was medically discharged in 2004.
Depression and guilt followed, but while enrolled at the University of Indianapolis, he began acting in plays. He gave Juilliard another try and got in.
That’s what brought him to New York. It’s also where he met his wife, actress Joanne Tucker. And it’s how he ended up auditioning for Girls. It was all life changing in the best way possible.
“You get out of the military, and you feel like you can take on anything that comes at you. So, I wasn’t coming to New York to be defeated,” he told Newsweek.
‘House of Gucci’ • Photo: United Artists.
Driver Has Arrived
Many roles followed his breakthrough in Girls, including playing Kylo Ren in the Star Wars franchise, a husband going through divorce in the emotional and raw Marriage Story opposite Scarlett Johansson, and as Maurizio Gucci in House of Gucci.
He also was successful in keeping his private life extraordinarily private. He married Tucker in 2013 and the couple have two kids.
No One Like You
Driver is sexy — magnetic and brooding. This shouldn’t be up for debate, but it is. This was seen when Driver was asked by Chris Wallace in an interview if his looks were a “help or a hindrance.” Driver was making the rounds promoting the film Ferrari in 2023 and was a guest on Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?
He handled the uncomfortable question with grace. “I look how I look. I can’t change that,” he responded.
Social media lit up with outrage over Wallace’s depth-lacking conversation. Does he ask all men this question? It’s a reminder, too, that women in Hollywood have been dealing with inappropriate comments about their looks on a daily basis.
Sexiness, while subjective, should go deeper than just stereotypical “Hottest Man of the Year” merits. Sexiness is a whole energy. And Driver’s full of it.
There are folks who look at him and think it’s so unlikely that he became a star. Then there are others who see exactly why.
We see.
There is no one like him, and that’s his charm … and should be what we see in each and every person. We are all unique in our own ways. Driver — his stature, resonant voice, and immensely vast talent on-screen — simply demands we notice his inimitable charm. And yet, he’s gentle, kind, humble. He is both the lion and the lamb. He is a true artist, but he is also art.
