BP: So True Detective happened, a big HBO show. How do you suddenly face the press and publicity and that level of visibility?
FB: You do it and you suck at it. The thing is, you’ve really got to trust the people around you. I’ve always had the privilege to work with the best people, some of those names I mentioned, but particularly Issa, I owe that woman everything. She gave me this career, this streak that I’m on. She’s been tough with me, but I trusted her and I hope I did her proud. That’s how you deal with the pressure, you listen to the people around you. I remember working with Jodie [Foster] on day one and I turned to her and asked, “What should I be doing? What do you do when you go home?” And she said, “Just go dancing! Go enjoy yourself. Show up, do the work, and be serious about it, but don’t take yourself too seriously. Remember, we can always go again.”
BP: Your forthcoming projects are big. You’re in the new Alex Garland film, Warfarealong with basically every other in-demand young male actor at the moment. The project looks insane. What can you tell me about it?
FB: The thirteen of us [actors in the cast] stayed at Pendley Manor, a hotel in Tring. We were shooting in Bovingdon Airfield Studios. I was really nervous, I tend to mainly work with women, I’d just come off the back of a show with Keira Knightley, and I’d been working with Jodie and Kali [Reis] and Fiona [Shaw] before that, and that’s where I feel most comfortable. I thought it was going to be so alpha, thirteen dudes, and Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza, the co-director. But within – I kid you not – hours, we were suddenly like little boys running around, in the gym, we ate every meal together, we spent every second together. It was really beautiful. We were really like thirteen brothers. The filming itself was amazing, Alex Garland is one of the most brilliant and intense men I’ve ever met. Very authoritative but very gentle. He got the best out of us.
BP: And your next project, which I feel you’re somehow going to have to be even more abstract about, is A Knight of the Seven Kingdomsthe new Game of Thrones spin-off series. Are you able to say anything about this?
FB: All I can tell you is that I’m having a really good time and I think it’s going to be really cool. We’re shooting in Belfast and we’ve got a wonderful cast, a wonderful director, Owen Harris, and I’m just really happy.
BP: You’re back in Belfast, that must be amazing.
FB: Yeah, on a personal level it’s really nice, my dad has been putting me in touch with old friends and family.
BP: It’s a homecoming.
FB: Definitely.
Interview originally published in Heroine 21.
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