Oscar-Nominated Actor Adam Driver Served in the United States Marine Corps: What He's Said About It (2024)

Oscar nominee Adam Driver might be a silver screen star now, but that wasn’t always the case. Before he began taking over galaxies as Kylo Ren in Star Wars and driving Ferraris as Enzo, the actor was in the United States Marine Corps, and continues to talk about his service to this day. To learn exactly what he has to say, keep scrolling.

Adam Driver’s quotes on being in the Marines

Driver joined the Marines after the 9/11 terrorist attacks left him wanting to do more for his country. He officially enlisted in 2002, and would go on to serve for two years and eight months and claims, “[The Marines] was one of the things I’m most proud of having done in my life.”

While enlisted, Driver made it all the way up to Lance Corporal (LCpl), which is two steps up from where all beginners rank.

Getting there wasn’t easy, though, with the actor remembering that he was skeptical about the people around him at first. “[It was] a weird motley crew of characters from a cross-section of the United States that on the surface I had nothing in common with.”

“[But] over time, all the political and personal bravado that led me to the military dissolved. And for me, the Marine Corps became synonymous with my friends,” Driver said fondly of his comrades.”

Adam Driver’s quotes on getting injured in the Marines

Right before Driver was supposed to deploy to Iraq with the rest of his unit, the actor ended up fracturing his sternum after a mountain biking incident. He was medically discharged from the Marines as a result.

“It was pretty devastating. It took me a long time to get over it,” Driver said back in 2015. “It’s really about the people, this small, intimate group of people that you are lucky enough to get to serve with. And it’s about them. Then, not going because you hurt yourself was pretty embarrassing and terrible.”

“I wanted to go so much. I mean, you were training to do this job for two years with these people. The idea of not going, someone else going in your place or not being there, is not really an easy thing to sit with.”

Adam Driver’s quotes on life after the Marines

After leaving the Marines, Driver graduated from the Juilliard School for Drama in 2009, and began acting on Broadway right away before deciding to trade the stage for the screen.

“I made up my mind then that I wanted to smoke cigarettes and pursue acting,” Driver said in 2011. “When you get out of the Marine Corps, you think you can do anything.”

He also said that acting and life in the Marines aren’t that different because, “You have people trying to accomplish a mission greater than themselves.”

Driver’s notable titles include Girls (2012), Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens (2015), Marriage Story (2019), House of Gucci (2021) and Ferrari (2024). But, despite his success, the actor has expressed remorse over how he left the military.

“I felt like all the people that I had really grown to love over the past few years were now in harm’s way, and I’m in this cushy art school talking about feelings,” Driver said in 2011. “That’s fine, but you can’t help but feel guilty.”

Driver is married with two kids and is not on any social media.

Adam Driver’s quotes on how he still helps the Marines

Even though Driver has been widely successful, he still remembers where he came from and what he had to go through to get there.

He founded a nonprofit organization called Arts in the Armed Forces (AITAF) in the hopes that veterans nationwide would find joy after leaving the military through artistic and creative expression.

Explained Driver in his widely watched 2015 TED Talk: “I thought, how great would it be to create a space that combines these two seemingly dissimilar communities that brought entertainment to a group of people that, considering their occupation, could handle something a bit more thought-provoking than the typical, mandatory fun events that I remember being ‘voluntold’ to in the military.”

Sadly, the company was dissolved in 2023.

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