BETWEEN TAKES

THE AMERICAN FICTION STAR ON SPECTACLES, SAGE AND SPURS…

What do you do when you first get to set?

It’s not the first thing but among the first things we do as actors is put on another set of clothes. I’ve always recognised that it’s a peculiar little ritual that we go through. For [American Fiction character] Monk, I found his glasses myself in a store the morning before we shot. They’d given me dozens of choices, and I just did not find the one that I wanted. I wanted them to be owlish. We were filming in Boston. I was riding my bicycle around and I went to a couple of different places to see if I could find them. And once I had them, that was OK. I found his face.

How was filming in Boston?

Well, I went to school in Massachusetts and I’d done a play early in my career in Boston. I had not been a fan of that town at all. In fact, the opposite. But working on this film actually made me love Boston. It is a town that’s very well-suited for our story, because it’s a smart town in spite of some of the silliness that I’ve experienced there.

Are you a hot- or a cold-lunch guy?

On this, I was a cold-lunch guy. I found this salad niçoise that was so good, I pretty much had that every day.

Do you ever sleep on set?

If I need to, I’ll try to get a quick nap in. When I was filming Westworld we would shoot on average 16- or 17-hour days. We shot 21 hours once. So, I would catch a little snooze here and there.

Have you learned any skills on a set that you’ve taken with you?

When I was working on Ride with the Devil with Ang Lee many years ago, we rode every day, and we trained prior. And I absolutely loved it. And I’m still reasonably handy. I still have a bit of cow in me, as the wranglers would say.

What do you take on set? A scented candle? Cleansing sage to burn?

I’ve been on some sets when sage would have been necessary to burn. In fact, it might have even been better to burn the entire thing down. I’ve thankfully had the good fortune to avoid them of late.

‘I’VE BEEN ON SOME SETS W HEN… IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN BETTER TO BURN THE ENTIRE THING DOWN’

What’s been your worst on-set experience?

There have been a few. The worst set to be on is when the leaders of that set, who are reasonably intelligent people, conspire to be dumb. I’ve always been able to identify good words on a page. But I have gotten better at choosing collaborators. I’ve also come to understand that it’s who you’re working with that determines the quality of the experience. There are a few experiences that I’ve buried in someone else’s yard, not my own, because I don’t want it to exist in my realm any more.

And your best?

American Fiction is on that top shelf. Ride with the Devil, Westworld… Working with Wes Anderson is up there. Working with George Wolfe on Rustin. The Bond sets are on the top shelf – good fun. Working on No Time to Die with Felix’s last scene – oh my god, I had a ball. We were filming out in Pinewood, in the huge tank there, with millions of gallons of water in this rig that we would sink in. It was like an amusement park ride every day.

Have you ever stolen anything from a set?

Legend has it that Harrison Ford had a clause in his contract that said ‘Whatever I touch on set, I can have’ [laughs]. For me, it depends on who the character is, and what the experience was. I borrowed a book or two from the American Fiction set. I’ve got some cue cards for Anthony Hopkins from Westworld that he wrote a little note on.

When we filmed The Batman I won a bet with our first AD – he supported Spurs and I support Arsenal. I’m a proper Gooner. He lost. I now have, in my possession, Gordon’s Gotham Police Department badge.

AMERICAN FICTION OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 2 FEBRUARY.