Jacob Elverdi thought he was having a mental breakdown until he saw John Cassavetes: "It made me feel a lot less crazy and alone."

The Oscar-nominated actress and Cartier ambassador joined Oscar-winning filmmaker Sean Baker for the Cartier Cinema Club's first US event at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica on Friday.

Jacob Alvordi thought he was going crazy until he saw John Cassavetes' classic.

"I probably did three movies that I thought were really bad when I was younger, and I had hopes and dreams of being a wonderful, wild stage actor. So I didn't like myself at all at the time," the Australian actor explained during an event hosted by the Cartier Cinema Club at Santa Monica's Aero Theater on Friday. "And I watched this movie, and it was one of the first times I saw an actor's creative process in such detail. It made me feel less crazy and less alone."

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It was confirmed that Elverdi chose that film — 1977's Opening Night , starring Gena Rowlands as a famous actress on the brink of bankruptcy — for Friday's screening, which debuted last month at Venezuela's Cartice Film Festival. This luxury house created an initiative to honor the spirit of cinema while paying tribute to the artists who create works on the big screen. Not only did Cartier's ambassador Elvardi choose the film, but he sat down with Oscar-winning filmmaker Sean Baker and host Kim Gordon for a 30-minute discussion about it.

Like Rowlands' character, Myrtle Gordon, Alverdi thought she was "having some kind of mental breakdown." But when he saw how the storyline was going, he was able to catch his breath. Rowlands stars alongside Cassavetes, Ben Gazzara, Joan Blondell, Paul Stewart, Zahra Lampert and others.

The Oscar-nominated Frankenstein star explained, "It showed me that what's really going on, I hope, is the artistic process, the process of creating a character. You can't just learn the lines and say the lines. It showed me everything that was going on inside me that I thought was kind of breaking my body and my mind [but] it was actually part of the acting process."

Alvordi revealed that he watched opening night last week in preparation for today's event and had similar thoughts as he watched the first hour, especially since he's starting another new movie soon that has him thinking. (Although she didn't name the project, she is set to begin filming Ari Aster's Scapegoat alongside Scarlett Johansson, Jude Law, Ella Purnell and Caleb Landry Jones.)

"Now I'm getting ready to make a movie and I kind of throw myself on the floor and think, 'Should I drink a lot of vodka? Or should I break a window? What do I have to do to get to this point?' he wondered aloud. And I watched the movie again now after making more than 10 movies or something like that, it invited me back to the creative process and what it means. You can be looking for a character and not know you're looking for it. It starts in your toes, knees and chest. And that's why I chose this film because it always makes me feel less crazy and more like I'm part of a filmmaking process that's been going on for a long time."

Gordon, a screenwriter best known for his work on Nightmare Alley, directed by partner Guillermo del Toro, then asked Elverdi if it was because he was so drawn to Rowlands' performance. He is and was. “Yeah. I mean how many times have I just wanted to throw myself on the floor and cry and scream and tell the director to go screw themselves and just drink and drink and drink. It makes me feel a lot less alone as an actor."

That said, Alverdi drew a laugh when he said he had no idea how Rowlands would pull off any of his scenes on the big screen, especially the ones where he was actually throwing himself around and acting under the influence. I don't know how you do that and not look like a ham, because everything he does is so big and telling, but it's all completely inside him. I watched that scene many times. You can go around in circles until you're dizzy, you can get drunk, you can do all kinds of things, but I don't know how he does it. I don't know how he does anything. He is a genius."

Baker then discusses Cassavetes' filmography and how much he has been inspired by the entirety of his work

"As an independent filmmaker you're often asked, 'What's your favorite Cassavetes?' and it really depends on the day because, first of all, they're all masterpieces. They deal with very personal and universal issues and struggles that we all go through. So it really depends on where you are in your life," he explained. "It's where I'm at in my life and so I gravitate towards a certain title. At the time I said Husbands because I think that was my boy movie. Then when I started exploring genre cinema, I was more drawn to 'To Kill a Chinese Bookseller.'

Later, she said, as she began working more with actors and honing her craft as a filmmaker, she gravitated more toward Woman Under the Influence and Opening Night. I could go on forever about him. "He's basically the godfather of US independent cinema and I think he's really shown us how to do it in a lot of ways."

Morgan ended the conversation by asking Alverdi and Baker if they were inspired by the many risks Cassavetes took during his career.

Author Anura first responded, "I think all artists should take risks." "Obviously, he's done it his whole career, that he can get hurt at any moment. He was always ahead of his time, but this also proves one very important thing - that the cream rises. Here we are talking about and celebrating this movie 50 years later? "It proves that taking risks, staying true to yourself, not compromising, and making art that is art. A little insecure is worth it."

Baker's remarks drew enthusiastic applause.

[Cassavetes] said something like, “I'd love to be part of the studio system and have my rent paid and my family good, but I can't do that. "I would love to, but I can't do it." And that's what I love about these movies. He could tell no other story. It made him too wild and angry or upset. In the end, Alvardi added: "In current movies, we need it. What you can't deny, what you have to do, no matter if it makes you broke, hungry, tired, unemployed, you have to make the movie you have to make. And that's exactly what we're doing."

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