A few weeks ago, some girlfriends and I were talking about how we were the last group to have grown up for a period of time without the Internet. My son starts middle school later this year and when we were touring it, we learned that public schools in our county don’t use lockers anymore. Part of it is a safety thing (don’t get me started) but a big reason is that students apparently really don’t use textbooks anymore. Everything is done through their school-issued computer. My son was actually in kindergarten when the lockdowns happened and all students were issued laptops. Those kids are probably the last group to ever started a school year without laptops being the norm. Sometimes, I think about how much things change like that.
I bring all of this up because while the majority of people adapt and learn how to navigate new technology, there are always going to be holdouts. Try to contain your shock, but Christopher Walken is one of these types of people. While promoting season 2 of Severance, Christopher, who is 81, told The Wall Street Journal that he’s so old school that not only does he still just watch satellite TV, he’s also never used email or Twitter and doesn’t even have a cell phone.
“I don’t have technology. I only have a satellite dish on my house. So I’ve seen Severance on DVDs that they’re good enough to send me,” Walken told the outlet. “I don’t have a cell phone. I’ve never emailed or, what do you call it, Twittered.”
His lack of technology helps him fall in line with Severance co-executive producer and director Ben Stiller’s “no phones” rule on set. The actor and comedian, 59, shared on Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out podcast that he enacted the rule to help “protect that environment for the actors,” per Variety.
“Crew have to use phones sometimes to communicate, but, for me, I like no phones anywhere near the eyeshot of the actors,” Stiller said, per the outlet. “My least favorite thing is to see a dolly grip guy hunched down while an actor is acting their brains out, and he’s scrolling or whatever. It drives me crazy.”
“You also have to be respectful of the crew,” he added. “… These people are actually working really hard, and you have to figure out how to motivate them to want to be on the team. They haven’t been with the script that you’ve been writing for five years. They just came on last week. So, it’s on you as a director to figure out a way to get everybody on board.”
Walken previously shared his lack of modern technology to watch the popular Apple TV+ series during an appearance on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live on Jan. 17, alongside Stiller and castmates including Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette.
When asked if he has watched the episodes he’s in, he responded, “Not all of them. I can’t. I don’t have the equipment. So, they’re good enough to send me DVDs.”
Host Andy Cohen followed up with, “Oh, they do? Okay. Do you have an Apple TV+ subscription?” — to which Walken replied, “I don’t have anything.” Cohen then noted, “Right. You don’t. Okay. I love you for that.”
This doesn’t surprise me at all. In fact, if this were a trivia question, Walken would be on my short list of actors who have nothing to do with technology. Still, some of his claims are wild. I totally get someone not having any of the streaming channels and I am envious of anyone who has never been on Twitter, but he doesn’t even have a cell phone? They’ve been big for over 25 years now. Walken was still in his 50s and asking for more cowbell on SNL when cell phones became widespread. That is unbelievable.
Also, if you need a chuckle today, reread Christopher’s quote about not having technology again: “I don’t have a cell phone. I’ve never emailed or, what do you call it, Twittered.” You couldn’t not read it in his voice, right? All I can hear is him saying, “Twittered” in my head and it’s making me giggle.
Photos credit: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com, Dave Allocca/Starpix/INSTARimages, Getty
Bengali (Bangladesh) · 
English (United States) ·