Cannes standout 'Paper Tiger' reveals a new side to Miles Teller

CANNES, France (AP) — James Gray has been to the Cannes Film Festival enough times to not entirely trust the response his films get here, for better or worse.

“You smile and say thank you and then you fly home and your wife says take out the garbage,” says Gray.

Nevertheless, Gray's “Paper Tiger” has been one of the standouts of this year's Cannes. And at the center of the warm reception for “Paper Tiger” — which premiered Saturday and is one of only two films by American filmmakers competing for the Palme d'Or — is Miles Teller.

The 39-year-old actor stars in the film as Irwin Pearl, an earnest family man in 1980s New York, living contentedly with his wife (Scarlett Johansson) and two sons. After Irwin's well-connected, former police officer brother (Adam Driver) gets them involved in a scheme related to cleaning up the Gowanus Canal, Russian mafia threats put their working-class life under siege.

Gray initially conceived of the film as a kind of sequel to 2022's “Armageddon Time,” with Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong. But when circumstances changed, he reworked the script, made it more operatic and focused on the brother relationship.

“I did not want to play into a schlemiel quality in that character. I wanted him to have some strength and fortitude in order to portray the vulnerability,” Gray says of Teller's character. “It’s a great performance, I’m just going to say it.”

The day after “Paper Tiger” debuted in Cannes, Teller and Gray met in a hotel down the Croisette to talk about the ideas and inspirations behind the movie, which Neon will release theatrically later this year. This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.

GRAY: It’s weird because I’m going to start it here. In 2004, I went to Harvard to give a talk. And one of the students came up to me and was like, “Can I talk to you?” That was Damien Chazelle. When he made “Whiplash,” he had still maintained contact with me. He had talked about this young actor he was working with that he loved named Miles Teller. So he was on my radar. Later, I saw the miniseries of “The Offer.” And that is not an easy thing to do, to convey warmth and tenderness in Albert Ruddy in the making of “The Godfather.” I remember telling my wife: This guy is really something and he has a tremendous reservoir.

TELLER: It’s interesting how I met James. We were renting a place in Santa Barbara because we had just lost our house in the fires. Everything was in such disarray. My life was very chaotic. My wife and I were just trying to figure out what tomorrow looked like. And I got a call saying James wanted to meet for this movie. Just lending my brain back to a conversation about film and this material was really satisfying because it was the last thing I was thinking about at the time. I said I’m in. I always had a lot of empathy for Irwin in this and for the Pearl family and what happened to them. But I honestly think a lot of that came from having lost my home and really looking for those feelings, of everyone being together as a family in this place that felt safe until it didn’t.

GRAY: Such a better answer than mine.

TELLER: Well, I had more trauma at the time.

GRAY: I always saw the physical pollution in the canal as, dare I use this word, a metaphor for the moral and ethical vanquishing of the market. When you have no ability to monetize integrity, good behavior becomes a meaningless factor in a transactional world. There’s real unrest and unhappiness, and I think a lot of it comes from: I’m trying to be a good person and the system is not rewarding me for that at all. My reaction is: It’s always been that way. Most of the time, your goodness will mean nothing in an increasingly transactional environment. I don’t want to get too political, but look at the person running our country. It’s all transactional. It’s: What can you do for me? So where does that lead us? If to be a moral person doesn’t mean anything, that is an empty, empty position. That gets spread among us and we feel soulless.

TELLER: I’ve had a newborn in a film before but I have not played a character that’s been a father and raised kids. It was something I was kind of struggling with. Everybody I know who’s a parent has told me: You really don’t know what that feeling of love is. For me, my father and my grandfather informed this the most. These were men that were very strong, worked hard but were also very sensitive. They were the man of the house but my dad would cry at birthday cards. I just remember James telling me: “We don’t want sentimentality.”

GRAY: Jesus, did I say that? Any time one of you guys conveys one of my directions, I’m humiliated. But I think there’s a big difference between sentimentality and emotion. Sentimentality is based on a kind of synthetic idea of emotion.

TELLER: See? He’s surprised he gave that note but you can see how he feels about it.

Director James Gray, left, and Miles Teller pose for portrait photographs for the film 'Paper Tiger' during the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Miles Teller, left, and Adam Driver pose for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Paper Tiger' during the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Miles Teller, left, and Keleigh Sperry pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Paper Tiger' at the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Adam Driver, left, director James Gray and Miles Teller pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'Paper Tiger' at the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Director James Gray, left, and Miles Teller pose for portrait photographs for the film 'Paper Tiger' during the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Commuters in New York City’s suburbs navigated a gauntlet of car, bus and subway routes to get to work Monday as a strike on the Long Island Rail Road that shut down the nation’s busiest commuter rail system entered its third day.

Unions representing rail workers and the Metropolitan Transportation Agency, which runs the railroad, negotiated for much of Sunday, wrapping their talks around 1 a.m. Monday.

But they failed to reach an agreement despite pressure from the National Mediation Board and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. The two sides returned to the bargaining table Monday.

Katie Dolgow, who teaches first graders in Manhattan, said it had already taken her an hour just to travel from Long Island to Queens as more commuters turned to the region's already notoriously gridlocked roads. But her big concern was going home.

“I have to get my son at daycare by 5:30. It's going to take me longer getting home. I'm a teacher, I'm going to have to leave work at 1:30,” she said.

Unionized workers were out early picketing in front of major LIRR hubs, chanting slogans and holding up signs that read: “No contract. No work,” and “Equal work. Equal pay.”

“We're just asking for a reasonable cost of living adjustment on our wages,” Byron Lee, a locomotive engineer, said outside Penn Station in midtown Manhattan. “People think that we don't deserve it.”

The LIRR serves hundreds of thousands of commuters who live along a 118-mile-long (190-kilometer-long) land mass that includes Brooklyn and Queens in New York City and the Hamptons, a summertime playground for the rich and famous. Most of its riders live outside New York City in two Long Island counties populated by nearly three million people.

The strike started at 12:01 a.m. Saturday after five unions representing about half the rail system's workforce walked off the job for the first time since a two-day strike in 1994.

The unions, which represent locomotive engineers, machinists, signalmen and others, have said more substantial raises are warranted to help workers keep up with inflation and rising living costs. The MTA has said the unions’ initial demands to raise salaries would result in large fare increases and be disproportionate to other unionized workers’ pay.

“With the rate of inflation nationally, and especially in this New York area, everybody feels it,” said James Louis, vice president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, on Monday. “We’re just trying to keep their heads above water. We’re not asking for anything outrageous.”

The unions and the MTA have been negotiating a new contract since 2023, but talks have stalled over salaries and healthcare.

The Trump administration got involved in September after the unions asked for the appointment of a panel of experts. The move temporarily averted a strike, but months still passed without a deal.

Hochul said Sunday that workers would lose every dollar they would gain with a new contract by remaining on strike.

MTA Chairman Janno Lieber also urged a fast resolution, saying LIRR service could resume as soon as Tuesday if a deal is reached Monday.

“We are headed in a positive direction, but we have to get it finished,” Lieber told WABC-TV, even as union officials, suggested talks Monday were progressing slowly.

Roughly 250,000 riders normally use the train system each weekday. Officials had pleaded with them to work from home rather than commute into the city.

Ridership has been lighter than expected on the free but limited shuttle buses the MTA provided from a handful of locations on Long Island to New York City subway stations.

During the morning commute, more than 2,000 people took advantage of the service, the agency said. It had prepared for about 13,000 riders.

The buses are also being offered for the evening rush hour and are geared toward essential workers and those who can't telecommute.

Molloy University and Stony Brook University on Long Island are both set to hold commencements Monday.

Officials at Stony Brook urged graduates and guests to carpool where possible as the state university's ceremony was slated to start during the afternoon rush hour.

The first impacts of the walkout were felt over the weekend as baseball fans had to find other ways to get to Citi Field in Queens to see the New York Mets take on their crosstown rivals the New York Yankees.

If the strike stretches into Tuesday, basketball fans looking to catch the New York Knicks continue their playoff run could also run into problems. Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks play their home games, is located directly above the railroad’s Penn Station hub in Manhattan.

Hochul stopped by MTA headquarters in lower Manhattan on Monday morning as negotiations were underway, according to her office. The governor was briefed on the status of talks as well as the morning commute.

“She is pleased that the unions accepted her invitation to return to the table and encourages both parties to continue negotiating in good faith,” said Sean Butler, a Hochul spokesperson.

The Democrat, who is up for reelection this year, has blamed President Donald Trump’s administration for cutting mediation short in September and pushing the unions toward a strike.

But the Republican president, on his Truth Social platform, said he had nothing to do with it and blamed Hochul instead.

McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writers Ted Shaffrey and Joseph Frederick in New York contributed.

Signs for free Long Island Rail Road shuttle buses hang at the Howard Beach–JFK Airport station as Long Island Rail Road workers enter the third day of their strike, Monday, May 18, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Long Island Rail Road workers walk on the picket line outside of Penn Station on the third day of their strike, Monday, May 18, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

A pedestrian walks along an empty track at Mineola train station as Long Island Rail Road workers strike, Monday, May 18, 2026, in Mineola, N.Y. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Tracks are empty at Mineola train station as Long Island Rail Road workers enter the third day of their strike, Monday, May 18, 2026, in Mineola, N.Y. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

People exit and board buses at the Mineola train station as Long Island Rail Road workers enter the third day of their strike, Monday, May 18, 2026, in Mineola, N.Y. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Commuters sit on a shuttle bus as Long Island Rail Road workers strike, Monday, May 18, 2026, in Mineola, N.Y. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Visitors look out at the trains at the West Side Yard from the Vessel on the first day of a Long Island Rail Road workers' strike, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

Tracks are empty at Mineola train station as Long Island Rail Road workers enter the third day of their strike, Monday, May 18, 2026, in Mineola, N.Y. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)