Adam Driver #152 (Cannes 2026)
Adam Driver, dapper in his tux and bow-tie, neatly arranged waves of hair short enough to reveal all but the very tip of his ear, head tilted to his left, chin lifted a little, forehead and brow unfurrowed above eyes set softly in a fond gaze, the tiniest of smiles curling the corners of his bearded mouth.
The standing ovation for PAPER TIGER's premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival had just ended, the cameras had gotten their closeup shots of Adam and Miles Teller smiling and waving at the clapping crowd, and the director, James Gray, was giving a short, but very sincere speech. It was clear that he generally prefers to shy away from the spotlight, but he wanted to tell the audience in the hall that night that "… without you, there is no cinema. Cinema needs you. And cinema needs you guys more than ever."
Adam stood nearby, watching Gray speak, the very picture of affectionate pride; his sternum is lifted, tipping his torso and his chin upward, crowned by that gentle tilt to his head and this soft expression on his face. I don't know that I've ever seen him gaze this fondly at anyone in public other than his wife, Joanne. These are almost literally heart eyes.
There's several reasons that come to mind that might explain why Adam would have been making this face; it could have been that he agreed with the message Gray was trying to convey, that he was proud of this soft-spoken man for being brave enough to address such a large audience, or that he was riding the endorphin high of what seemed to be a very sincerely enthusiastic reception to the movie. It could very well have been all three, or something else entirely. We'll never know for sure, but it's fun to wonder.
I'm still trying to put my finger on what it is about the shape of his eyes that makes his gaze so tender; it might be the relaxed slant of his upper lids combined with the minute pursing of his lower eyelids. The tiny smile playing on his lips isn't enough to rumple his dimples, but it's still characteristically wry, pulling a bit harder to the right, narrowing his right eye a little more than the left and pulling up the lower lids a little without fully crinkling his crow's feet.
Photo used for reference was a screenshot of a video clip recorded by cinemabylaura on 16 May 2026 at the premiere of PAPER TIGER at the Cannes Film Festival.
About 19 hours of painting time. I somehow managed to capture that fond look in my first rough pass and then spent the next 18 hours worried I'd somehow lose it when I smoothed things out. I chose to not paint the people around him for Artistic Reasons. The blur in the reference, due to both distance and the fact that this is a screenshot of a video, means that most of his smaller moles and freckles aren't visible, and even the larger ones are more like suggestions than anything else. It was interesting to see where the textures were most visible; aside from his hair, I found the most interesting details along the right edge of his forehead, the bridge and tip of his nose, and just above the collar of his shirt.
