Few actors have been quite as busy as Josh O’Connor recently. “It’s luck of the draw,” says the 35-year-old British actor of his myriad major roles—including headlining performances in four films this year alone.
Those releases include: Oliver Hermanus’s heartbreaking period piece, The History of Sound; Kelly Reichardt’s jazzy ’70s-set caper The Mastermind; Max Walker-Silverman’s cowboy drama Rebuilding, and Rian Johnson’s third installment of his star-studded whodunit, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.
For O’Connor, who first broke out in 2019 with his performance as a sullen young Prince Charles in The Crown (the role earned him a Golden Globe award and a BAFTA Rising Star nomination), and wooed audiences as the underachieving charmer Patrick last year in Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, variety is the point. “I want to do the tragedy, do the murder mystery, do the tennis movie,” he tells W. “I want to challenge myself.”
This year, he’s had a chance to do just that. In The History of Sound, O’Connor and Paul Mescal play musicologists and lovers in early twentieth-century New England, touring the country to collect folk songs. For The Mastermind, he’s an aspiring yet clumsily down-on-his-luck art thief who can’t pull off a heist if his life depended on it. Rebuilding sees him play Colorado rancher Mooney, trying to get back on his feet after a series of devastating wildfires. And in the flashiest title of the four, Johnson’s Knives Out 3, he’s Jud Duplenticy, an ex-boxer and young priest who gets mixed up in a murder case at his new parish in Upstate New York.
Josh O'Connor and Daniel Craig in Wake Up Dead Man: Knives Out 3
As he prepares for the final film of the bunch to make it to streaming (Knives Out 3 lands on Netflix December 12), O’Connor is taking a well-deserved break. “It’s been a knock on the head,” he says of his prolific year. “At least for a little while, I’m maybe going to take a step back and reignite the creative side of my brain.”
Until then, he’s enjoying the rollout. “Each film has its own unique story behind it, and I’m proud of them in different ways,” O’Connor says. “They’re all my babies, and I’m delighted people are getting to see them.”
The characters you play typically aren’t men of many words.
I’m most interested in a character’s internal struggle. I started out in theater, which relies on physicality, language, and poetry. With film, you can look into someone’s eyes. So I’m drawn to seeing a character feel and think something without having to tell us.
What was it like bringing Rebuilding to life, when the topic of wildfires urgently speaks to the realities in America and around the world?
The timing of sharing it at Sundance [in January], off the back of the terrible L.A. wildfires, was extraordinary. But I also think there’s another aspect: how we treat people who have lost everything. It’s not the central point, which has to do with community and family. But there is an underpinning—these people are disregarded.
As for The Mastermind, it makes all the sense in the world that you’re in a Kelly Reichardt movie. You seem to have similar artistic sensibilities.
She was someone I always wanted to work with. I liked [my character] Mooney, because I’ve always been attracted to someone whom you don’t like or you mistrust at first. I was like, this guy’s not a good father or a good husband. And he’s got this slight ego problem; maybe narcissistic tendencies. I think he’s an idiot, but I love him.
Josh O’Connor and Paul Mescal in The History of Sound
The History of Sound, meanwhile, has this throwback quality, like the sweeping ’90s epics that studios don’t seem to make anymore.
Oliver, Paul [Mescal], and I were all taken by that aspect. Also, this sense of, “What if your first love was your great love?” That’s something we can all understand. Cinema is the perfect format to explore memory and regret and that sense of nostalgia. Those are the things that drew me to The History of Sound. And it was also Paul, a great friend of mine. We wanted to do something together.
Rian Johnson has really mastered the art of locked-room mysteries. What was it like to be part of the Wake Up Dead Man ensemble?
This is a very different community compared to [other ensemble] films like La Chimera or Rebuilding. But you know, it still had a similar thing. One day you’re with Glenn Close, and the next day you’re with Jeremy Renner, and then Andrew Scott rocks up and Cailee Spaeny, Kerry Washington…all these incredible actors. I had a great time making it.
What was it like working with Glenn?
She is the life and soul of that film and experience. Watching Glenn do her thing is a great lesson and a reminder that the best acting is selfless. It’s about letting go of your intention and just listening.
O’Connor and Glenn Close in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
I love that Wake Up Dead Man is such a different film from the other three.
It’s always been a dream of mine to have a diverse collection of projects like the actors that I looked up to. The Pete Postlethwaites and the Gene Wilders [of the world], who could make a dramatic turn and then be comedic. I want to be able to look back on my career and go, “No stone was left unturned.”
Onto the Culture Diet questions. Here’s one relevant to The Mastermind. What’s your first major art purchase?
It would be a painting by Max Wade of a dish rack. But it’s just extraordinary, it brings me a lot of joy. I have a couple of his paintings now.
Josh O'Connor in The Mastermind
What is a song or album that you played on repeat recently?
I’ve been listening to Lux, the new Rosalía album, and thoroughly enjoying that.
Which books are on your bedside table right now?
I just finished There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak. It’s one of the most beautiful books that I’ve ever read, blew my socks off. It’s just magic.
What is the last movie you saw in the theater?
Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value. I dig it so much.
How do you get your news these days?
YouTube, I suppose—like, I check out BBC News on YouTube. But I listen to it like a podcast. I don’t love watching the video portion, so I’ll flick on a video, and then I’ll lock my phone and just listen to it in the morning.
What is the first thing you do when you wake up?
Make a cup of tea, without fail. That’s the first thing—a cup of tea with a little bit of milk. Proper Yorkshire tea. That’s how I do it.
