Sam Nivola is ready for older actors to clear the way for the next generation.
“The old movie stars are getting plastic surgery, and they’re looking younger and they’re staying young,” the White Lotus actor told Variety in a story published Thursday, August 7. “You have these really old people playing young roles. And it’s not giving any space for the young’uns to move in and make a name for themselves.”
Nivola, 21, is the son of actors Alessandro Nivola and Emily Mortimer. Though he got his start on an episode of Mortimer’s British comedy series Doll & Em, his breakout role came in 2025 when he played Lochlan Ratliff, the shy teenage son of financier Timothy Ratliff (Jason Isaacs) and his wife, Victoria Ratliff (Parker Posey), on The White Lotus season 3.
“With all due respect to those people, one day they won’t be here anymore, literally, and they will have to create new stars,” Nivola added.
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That’s not to say Nivola is entirely against the old guard trying to stay young. He said he admires Tom Cruise, who has continued to take action roles into his 60s.
“He’s excelled in every kind of movie,” he said. “He gives one of the greatest comedic performances of all time in Tropic Thunder, and he’s not at all a comedian. Jerry Maguire, Risky Business, Magnolia — he’s an incredible dramatic actor. And then he has this whole latter half of his career of being an action star.”
He also mentioned Bradley Cooper, who directed and starred in the 2023 film Maestro, in which Nivola had a small role.
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Nivola played Alexander, son of Leonard Bernstein (Cooper) and had a major one-on-one scene with Cooper, 50, that was eventually cut from the film. Once his initial disappointment waned, Nivola admitted it was the right choice and called Cooper “an innovative filmmaker.” Nivola has even taken a lesson from him, which he called the “Bradley Cooper shot.”
“Just taking a camera around and following the actors around and letting them do whatever they want and rolling for 30 minutes straight,” Nivola explained.
And in terms of young actors who have been able to break through, Nivola pointed to Timothée Chalamet as an example to prove it is possible.
“He’s one of a very few examples I could come up with,” he said. “But it’s a different kind of movie star; he’s not huge and jacked.”
“He looks a little more like me,” Nivola said, before adding, “I wish!”
