- No. I'm good
Yeah how has it, how's the last few months been
I think I last saw you,
I interviewed you for The Kelly Gang. And I think
That, was that this year?
- Yeah, yeah yeah . That's the thing
It feels like, it feels like another time ago.
- Its mad isn't it?
- Yeah. Yeah.
Then obviously there was lockdown and I'm just finished
another job.
Just sort of that we did at the very end of July and,
and then finished that like a couple of weeks ago.
And then now just in Berlin,
working on something else at the minute.
- Oh, so
you're speaking out from Berlin right now?
- Yes,
- I miss Berlin.
That was the last time I felt normal at the Berlin Film
Festival this year.
- Oh really, Well I'm staying
literally opposite the Sony Center.
- Oh, nice.
- Yeah next to the Cinemax
I'm right in the heart of it.
I think there's all the bears everywhere.
(laughter)
- I saw Nuclear just before the week on Friday afternoon.
I thought it was really, really good......
cinema, I thought it was a really effecting drama,
just wonder what it was that initially attracted you to
getting involved in that project.
- It was the script. It was,
it was Catherine and David script. Like I,
it just came through, you know,
the opportunity to do a tape for it. And,
and I just thought it was beautifully kind of
beautifully sparse,
but, but also kind of really deep because obviously,
you know, as, as the story goes, as it goes,
but it reads so beautifully and so kind of poetically,
but in a very kind of, as I say, sparse way, and then when,
you know,
the way that the story kind of unfolds and folds over again,
it kind of makes you re-evaluate
all of that kind of sparseness
and you can fill it with all of the possible ability of this
sort of,
of what this place and what this narrative actually means.
So it was that kind of,
it was the whole double level to the,
to the piece that I loved most.
And, and yeah, I thought, I thought it was really beautiful.
- Yeah. I mean,
it's really quite fascinating and quite unique dynamic isn't
it to their relationship.
But I just wonder if it took you a while to understand cause
as an audience member took me a while,
it's kind of understand that dynamic.
I just wondered when you were reading it,
if you had to kind of think about it for a few days to try
and get your head around kind of the role they play in each
other's lives.
- Yeah. I,
I think it came sort of after I'd kind of got through the
script, you know, once all the way through first,
Because I felt there's this sort of beautiful kind of like
dynamism and reality to their relationship as it is,
but without kind of giving too much away for people who
haven't seen it. I kind of thought that, you know,
this place is this sort of in-between place
in many senses
in a kind of more metaphorical sense as well.
And I felt like he was kind of maybe an angel of that place.
Like not in a sort of typical kind of like,
you know,
wings kind of way,
but like, as this,
as this person who was lost and stuck
sort of in between these two places,
and I don't necessarily know how much knowledge,
even awareness of his own position he, he had,
but I think he was there to facilitate her eventual
understanding of where she was and in a way,
therefore it then came about, okay,
how much do I know how much of the sorts of birds eye view
do I have on this situation.
And when I'm asking all these questions and provoking her
and antagonizing her,
is that obviously I'm doing it for me as this sort of
playful character,
but then also am I trying to get her to understand something
that I know
or do I'm i trying to get her to understand
something that I don't even know,
but I just happened to be facilitating her with that.
And it was all of those nuances that I found kind of that
were a joy to figure out. Hmm.
- I mean, it was so often, you know, across your career,
you've been the young lead in a movie.
Was it quite a nice role reversal
where you're on set here of
Amelia, you were the kind of older, more experienced head.
was that
did you quite enjoy that change of dynamic in some ways.
- To be honest, it didn't really kind of, it didn't,
it didn't sort of feel that way
so I think it's Amelia so like brilliant
and is so kind of
like mature and strong and just wonderful and just
excellent at her job as well.
Like it was just, it felt very,
it felt very mutual, you know,
like I didn't feel like I sort of older,
you sort of I'm noticing
it that the one time I sort of noticed my age now
is that,
that thing of having done a few projects when I was younger,
but now like Wolf; Bessie who produced Wolf, this film,
I've just finished the producer's younger than I am.
And you know,
she's put together this entire production and suddenly,
you know, you usually don't get producer as you, you know,
your boss and there's like the eldest one and the,
but it's so, so, so yeah, but, but with the media, I didn't,
I didn't really feel that we just kind of,
it was lovely because I think because of the,
there's nothing around them to kind of balance there.
They obviously have a bit more experience of the world,
but if they were meeting in a pub,
I think you'd feel the age or the more,
but because they're meeting in this open place full of
possibility, they kind of in a way feel quite equal.
- I remember when I first start my age and
I realized that I'd
go to the football and I'd be like adoring and cheering on
people that were like seven or eight years younger than me.
- That's the thing I watched Match of the Day
the other day haven't seen it in ages so I was
like I'm five years older than that player.
And he's not even young anymore,
(laughter)
I'm now 10 years older than the young ones, you know.
- Well Diego Costa the Chelsea player I mean,
I'm older than him and he looked like a bloke and I always
thought I'm not
I don't, anyway.
(laughter)
- It's funny.
Cause I was with a friend last night and we were talking
about, you know, like working when we were younger.
And,
and it's also that thing of now being the age of all the
people that you looked up to and being like, Oh my God,
they seem so much more adult than I feel.
- Yeah.
Well I interviewed Thomas Brodie Sangster the other day.
Of course he came into the industry very young cause he was
in Love Actually when he was only what like 10 years old.
And we were having a really fascinating chat about how much
you just learn being on film sets from such a young age,
is that was that the case for you
do you feel that you kind of go onto a film set now,
do you feel so in tune with everything around you,
all of the kind of roles people are playing and stuff,
you must feel like it's a homely,
a film set for you now having been sort of grown up in many
ways in that sort of environment.
- Yeah. Yeah.
I think he starts to kind of, yeah.
Have like a, kind of a,
just an understanding of everyone's different roles,
and I think you kind of learn by osmosis,
just kind of watching it happen around you and sort of
partaking in it from a young age,
but then also I've been lucky I've learned.
I think I've sort of caught up to that,
learning a wee bit more in the last few roles because of
being around the project from an earlier stage.
And so you sort of understand, Oh wow, okay
the production design is talking to the director of
photography and,
and also the costume department and they're all uniting on
the color scheme of the piece, Okay, Right, Okay
That's interesting. And,
and then feeling a bit more confident as an actor to kind of
have a hand in the way that your character looks and,
and therefore having a dialogue with the makeup team for
longer beforehand as well. Like it's yeah.
That, I dunno. Yeah.
I'm starting to kind of apply that unconscious learning a
wee bit more. And, and because of that,
you learn it all the more, if you know what I mean?
- So I saw someone tweet the other day,
want to feel old in 1917 was released this year and I
couldn't, I had to double check that was the case
cause it feels like a different life, I mean the whole one,
I just wonder if that's the same for you remembering the
press for the movie, the BAFTAs the Oscars does that,
that that all happened within the last year that does that
feel, does that feel like a distant memory
to you now?
cause for me that whole Oscars run feels like it was like a
whole different world, I guess, in some ways it was.
- Yeah. Yeah.
No, it does.
It really does. I think the, yeah,
the beginning of the year feels so different.
I think because especially that sort of the newness of that
experience kind of the promotion of the film to that level
was also involved so much if currently what we're trying to
reconfigure, you know, of just physical closeness of travel,
all of, all of that.
So, so yeah, no, it does feel, it does.
It does feel like a completely
can't believe that was this year.
- Yeah. Now obviously you've got this kind of,
sort of distance from that time.
It must've been an incredible experience for you to be,
to have been involved in a film that did the awards kind of
circuit and the way that it did. I mean that whole,
was it almost quite surreal,
the whole kind of experience of the 1917 kind of run
in some ways?
- Yeah. Yeah.
It was, it was, yeah,
it was unlike anything I've done before and in a way that it
was kind of what was, I guess, what was really lovely as,
as an experience because of the nature of how we made it and
the amount of rehearsal that had to go into it.
And therefore, because the amount of rehearsal, how quick,
relatively quickly, the film came out,
given the Lake to the shoe,
it was sort of a year and a half of just 1917.
Like it was November from two years ago into the beginning,
all of last year filming sort of rehearsing from January to
April, then filming from April to July,
then from promoting it from October till Christmas and then
all the stuff at the beginning of this year.
So it was kind of only 1917
for an entire year and three months,
which was kind of made it a very particular window.
But yeah, but all that sort of promotional side of it,
which was mad
for a while.
- Yeah. Well, as far as I could say,
it's not the first film you've made that should have been
up for loads of Oscars
I still think about pride all the time.
I had to do it.
I had to do a top 10 of the last decades because obviously
the, from 2010 to 2020,
a lot of publications are asking the top tens and Pride was
such an easy choice for that list. I love that film so much.
And I remember when I saw it, it felt like a classic,
almost like a The Full Monty type British cinema classic.
Do you look back quite fondly on that experience?
Did you remember when you were,
when you were working on that movie
do you remember thinking, yeah,
this is,
this is a good one because it has something quite special
about that project.
I think it might get a real revival in years to come.
- Yeah.
I think for me it personally taught me a huge amount of life
lessons as well as, as well as kind of creatively.
Like I think we had this three weeks rehearsal period,
what was it?
There's either two or three weeks rehearsal period where
Matthew, the director kind of was like, look,
there's loads of you in this.
And so we're kind of going to have to loosely block how we
can fit five people in every shot sort of thing.
And so know your lines,
know your stuff and let's kind of get to it.
And across that,
we also had Mike Jackson who was a member of LGSM sort of
give us context because you know,
like wonderfully we're in a sort of much more open-minded
world now.
And so to kind of just to kind of get the context of the,
the dangers and the pressures of,
of being gay of like in the eighties and the strength of
character, it takes to kind of have ownership over your,
of your sexuality and, and just your yourself in all senses.
Some of those things that Mike told us what was so kind of
profound and beautiful, but also just simply the message,
which is so universal of just any steps towards a change
that you want to make is better than no steps,
no matter how sorts of big or impossible the kind of vision
of it is,
it's far better to just go out
with a bucket and collect copper coins,
then not go out with a bucket and
collect copper coins and that
sort of witnessing,
planting a seed in something and where that seed can then
grow being, you know,
making the film of it and then seeing how it was received
was so inspiring and important.
So yeah, I, I do look back on it as a very,
very special time. And, and also there was,
it was such a lovely large group of friends and crew and
actors that there was also like this kind of whole bunch of
us young ones as well,
who are all kind of like just really young,
like in all senses, like in life, in like of, you know, in,
in acting and everything,
just kind of wanting to sort of get like this hunger for
life, coupled with this experience of all of the,
kind of the big guns that we're working with.
And it was just a really sort of beautiful learning
experience in so many ways.
- Yeah. Because of course we we've met her a few times.
I remember,
I think we had a coffee in Hammersmith Broadway years ago to do
an interview and I, I've always,
I've always been very fond of you have followed your work
really closely.
It's been so great to watch you go from kind of strength to
strength.
And obviously you're now such a sought after actor.
I just wondering if, if you,
if you remember that kind of moment,
when you realize that you don't when you, cause I mean now,
cause I guess you can kind of pick your roles were just such
a great luxury and a great position for an actor to be in.
Do you remember that moment when you went from not having to
think about exposure being any part of your selection
process? So now, so when wait,
cause I guess there's a point as a young actor where you
think I've got to get my face out there,
I need to show what I can do.
And now I guess in some ways you can just choose projects
purely off the back of the fact that that excites me,
that interests. I just wondered if you remember that moment,
when you realized, hang on,
I can kind of pick exactly what I want to do and not have to
worry about any outside stuff.
- Well, I think too, to be perfectly honest,
I've been really blessed with, with my agent Donna,
who I've been with since I was 14,
has always gone with the latter, you know, in terms of,
it's never been about the sort of gameplay of exposure or at
least any sense of that.
I've, I've been completely blissfully ignorant of and,
and therefore, it's kind of,
it kind of given me a confidence in the way of doing things,
but also like let's not like, you know, you,
you do a certain way of working to allow you to do a certain
way of work.
Its just always working the way that you want to work.
Like if it speaks to you, it speaks to you.
If it's in a big glitzy production,
fantastic people might see it.
If it's not fantastic I think it's that thing of like
worrying about perception can be really disorientating
because all you have is the experience of that.
And also there is no right or wrong sorts of thing for like,
you know,
some of the films which have kind of affected me most in
both life and the way I want to work that This Is England.
And that's like when they made that,
I don't think anyone was considering like,
this is going to launch such and such.
This is they're just like,
they just made it with complete integrity as the way they
wanted to make it and look what it did.
So I think it's kind of,
I just been blessed where there were sorts of Donna never
really made me think in sorts of two different ways that
you're working towards a thing.
It was just keep working and then if you're lucky enough,
then, then that will come sort of thing.
If it comes.
- Yeah. Well, I think I'm too far for all your roles, right
from the start of reflected that approach anyway.
Cause they've always been so interesting,
but I was gonna say about that,
that day when we did meet outsides Hammersmith Station,
I remember seeing you there, you kind of stood outside.
I think it was like the Starbucks in the Hammersmith Broadway
and just people, you went,
people going about their day and no one really kind of
stopped you.
But I guess now over the past couple of years of a lot of
big roles standing outside Starbucks in Hammersmith
Broadway could lead to the occasional,
can I get a picture please or an autograph or
people just saying hello
How have you found that kind of side of things?
Because as you kind of rise through the industry,
a kind of by-product of that is fame in some ways,
isn't it? whether actors like it or not,
your face is kind of out there,
how have you kind of navigate your way around that kind of
side and people, you know,
stopping on the street and saying hello and stuff.
- Yeah. Like genuinely, it really doesn't happen very often.
Like it's sort of, yeah,
I'm not just saying like it didn't yeah,
it didn't really happen that often. And so if it does,
it's usually a really lovely thing, but you know, it's,
it's a novelty and thus far I've been lucky that everyone's
been really nice about what they've said.
Like if it's about a production that they've,
that's meant something to them that then those have been the
people who have come up and said something and it's kind of,
it's funny, probably Pride is one film that,
that people have sort of said Pride and 1917.
So it was like,
it's really, I don't know.
It's I feel, I feel very lucky, you know,
I feel very lucky and, and it hasn't been,
I can very much still, you know, say that no,
everyone walks past if I'm outside Hammersmith Broadway.
- Well,
if you could just tell me a little bit about Wolf you've
mentioned, obviously that you've shot it recently.
I know it's about a boy who believes he's a Wolf
and are you,
are you boy?
- Yes.
- So is it all made is it are you finished you've wrapped?
- Its all made yeah
We just,
we just finished a few weeks ago and it was a really,
really special kind of making,
like making of it the time was really lovely.
And we had one week's rehearsal the first week before
lockdown, and then obviously all of,
all of the lockdown happened. And so we kind of,
in a way it was great because we found a few things in this
first week about the Wolf and how to kind of embody the Wolf
and what Wolf means to this man. And, and, and in general,
like what 'wild' means and were like an interpretation of it
for us to kind of have that gestate over,
over the lockdown was really useful.
And there was a sort of,
bit of physical training that came with that. And it's,
yeah, it's,
it's a production that's written and directed by
Natalie Biancheri and it's a wonderful,
like kind of team, a team making it.
And I dunno, like it's,
it's difficult to talk about without kind of giving,
giving certain things away.
But it's what I love about it is,
is seemingly it's pretty kind of extreme in some ways,
but also it's, it's really,
it never falls heavy one side or the other.
It's kind of about this constant wrestle of,
because the character is wrestling with it of kind of what
is true, what is true to you
and what if that's not true to someone else
and who's kind of who's right or wrong in that.
And,
and what, and what do you, and what's, what's, you know,
what is, what is truth?
What is that? And everyone's truth is their own.
So,
so it's difficult to speak about it too much also without
trying to try not to give anything away. But it was,
I think I was really proud of,
to be a part of it because I think it was visually as well.
It's, it's quite, it's quite unique.
I think, you know?
- Can't wait to see it
just, my final thing just before I do go,
just wondering what's next and if you've got any kind of
projects lined up,
cause I know you're in Berlin at the moment,
but if you've got quite a busy kind of schedule looking like
they're looking across the year
- No to be honest,
I'm just in Berlin, the now and I sit in the production,
I've mentioned it the other day, but then the,
and then I went to set and I found out the production wanted to
kind of just keep under wraps until next week and
then they're going to release. So I'll hold off,
saying the title now, but it's a,
it's a lovely project here and then
that's me till Christmas basically
I'm still, I'm not,
I'm not entirely sure what's going to happen next year.
Sort of see where the world's at and what with everything's
going on. So, but, but, you know, but it feels, I feel very,
very lucky to be working now and it,
and it feels good because,
because with all of the press and everything, it was,
it was, it was kind of wee while from,
from actually being on set. So it,
it feels good to be back in doing it, you know?
- Yeah, Brilliant
Thanks so much It's been a real pleasure.
It's always a pleasure speaking to you
- And you and you.
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HeyUGuys
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Is that from the Goonies?
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