With his trio of acclaimed releases showing at BFI London Film Festival this year, the new king of character acting is unmissable on and off the screen.
You may know him best as a young Prince Charles in Netflix’s The Crown, for which he won an Emmy. Or as one of Tashi Duncan’s dual objects of affection in Luca Guadagnino’s tennis saga Challengers. He needs no introduction, and it’s plain to see that Josh O’Connor has been ruling the roost over entertainment and pop culture – whether he likes it or not – for quite some time now.
Keeping a low profile in his day-to-day movements, the British actor’s mousy demeanour appears attractive on and off screen through soft-spoken and well-mannered media interactions. In a recent interview with GQ, O’Connor admitted that his larger than life character in Challengers is a far cry from reality. Patrick Zweig is a “beautiful roast chicken”, according to Guadagnino. In truth, the man behind the mask is “a bit of raw chicken breast.” But it’s hard to escape the allure of O’Connor, between getting caught up in viral clips at Jonathan Anderson’s Dior shows alongside Mia Goth and Robert Pattinson, and demonstrating his go-to red carpet poses in front of Paul Mescal in press junkets.
For the better part of a month now, O’Connor has engaged in back-to-back promotion for three new films for which he has top billing: Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, Oliver Hermanus’ The History of Sound, and Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Each title premiered in the span of a busy fortnight at this year’s BFI London Film Festival, where O’Connor told Screen International that, while proud of his many collaborative efforts, he “actually hasn’t been home in four years, or whatever it’s been,” and that this moment in time means “taking a step back and being in my life a little bit more, hopefully.”
He is also set to star in Max Walker-Silverman’s Rebuilding, out in US theaters from November 14. It tells the story of a cowboy named Dusty who winds up in a FEMA camp after wildfires take his ranch. His reign will continue with upcoming films from Steven Spielberg and Joel Coen, though current details are few and far between. Naturally, the prospect of a break shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone after reading up on this exhaustive slate of releases. It does go to show, however, O’Connor’s versatility is in demand – there is something in this list for everyone. As Man About Town dives into the triple threat of his LFF showcasing, this stretch of artfully risqué roles is a promising sign of even greater things to come.
The first of the three to be released in UK cinemas, last Friday (October 24), The Mastermind can be best summarised as an indie slow burn you’ll either love or hate. No relation to the robbery at the Louvre, it’s an aptly timed heist film with a wry sense of humour that oddly moves at a glacial place. Sporting an array of muted sweaters, warm and fuzzy like the film’s autumnal 70s setting, O’Connor plays James Blaine “J.B.” Mooney, a Massachusetts art thief with a penchant for nicking Arthur Dove paintings. To an uptempo jazz score, he sneaks around galleries and evades capture like Feathers McGraw before going on the lam away from his family.
For a film that depends little on dialogue and more so on channeling the discontent American individualism can bring, O’Connor hits the nail on the picture frame with his poker face. He is unmissable and understated as J.B., pondering his compulsions even when he’s caught in the middle of a hippie protest. Compared to the grave robbing Arthur in 2023’s La Chimera, a character motivated by his search for a foreign world, J.B. is much more matter of fact in his criminal approach.
Based on a pair of short stories from Ben Shattuck, The History of Sound – out in UK cinemas January 23 – is far more complex on the surface. O’Connor pauses the art action and returns to his queer romance roots – 2017’s God’s Own Country, many would argue, is what catapulted his career. His breakout as a Yorkshire farmer whose life is transformed by the arrival of a migrant worker from Romania serves, in many ways, as a parallel of sorts to his work with Hermanus.
Equally tender and tragic, this Brokeback Mountain-like WWI period drama about experiencing your first and great love sees O’Connor play New England Conservatory music student David White, who falls head over heels for Mescal’s Lionel Worthing over a mutual appreciation of countrymen folk ballads. “Josh is just, I think, one of the greatest actors in the world… And he’s incredibly instinctive,” Mescal told the BFI. “I just admire him so much… He’s a very easy person to love.”
Opting for a naturalistic command of his character’s relationship with Mescal’s, for which they initially “didn’t communicate a great deal” about, O’Connor slips shirtless into bed with his co-star like it’s second nature. New territory finds him navigating shellshock as a drafted soldier, in the second half of The History of Sound, O’Connor is troubled, temperamental. A rift between him and Mescal transpires, the latter of whom has spent a large portion waiting for his lover to return home from war. In one scene, they quietly embrace as both part ways. O’Connor’s hand trembles at the thought of goodbye.
It is overall deep and profound, a stirring performance that perfectly sets O’Connor up for meatier material when the forces of attraction don’t serve as a plot device. Case in point, the new Knives Out sequel. Slated for a December 12 release on Netflix, Wake Up Dead Man possesses one of O’Connor’s most daring acting gigs to date. Johnson continues this franchise follow up with the signature streak of whimsy that we’ve come to know and love. Riveting stuff as always, though this iteration doesn’t utilise all of its quirky characters as much as it should – Andrew Scott, and Cailee Spaeny, to name a few.
Where it succeeds most is with its surprise lead in O’Connor’s young priest with a dark secret, Rev. Jud Duplenticy. He narrates this detective drama, and even arguably outshines Daniel Craig’s iconic Benoit Blanc, enveloping him in his sacred shroud and walking a fine line between comedian and cleric. To reveal details of Duplenticy’s character would be to ruin the main mystery, but O’Connor’s magnetic presence ties the many knots of Johnson’s ensemble cast together, and makes his film shine all the more for it.
In a season defined by relentless reinvention, Josh O’Connor proves that true stardom lies not in spectacle, but in the quiet conviction of an artist who can steal every scene – and every red carpet – without ever seeming to try.
