The Crown’s Josh O’Connor: ‘My advice to my 21-year-old self? Find a therapist’
If you weren’t an actor and you had to work in the film industry, what would you like to do? avishagfink
I would like to be a ceramicist. I still want to be a ceramicist while also being an actor. A functional ceramicist. My grandmother was a sculptural ceramicist and she was very brilliant, but I’d like to make plates and pots and mugs. I’m a big fan of Ian Godfrey and I’m very fortunate to have a couple of his pieces. Lucie Rie and Hans Coper I really like; Richard Batterham, very much.
I’m really into the work of Sara Flynn and also of Akiko Hirai, who’s a really amazing Japanese ceramicist who makes moon jars: half-ceramic, half-porcelain, with sort of trunks coming out with them. They’re extraordinary.
Mothering Sunday is about survivor’s guilt. Is that a remote concept for lots of people these days? How did you tap into it? bumble1
I don’t know if it’s a remote concept; I imagine it’s very real for many people in countries that are still suffering from war and famine. In terms of tapping into it, I suppose in the same way as anything else: you do a lot of reading.
I don’t know that the film necessarily is about survivor guilt. But in the time between the first and second world wars, I think, for young men who were left behind, there must have been a sense of this generation who were wiped out [in the first world war]. What that did to the male psyche – and the national psyche …
Did you find returning to intimate work such as Romeo & Juliet difficult after the pandemic?Alexxe
Everyone is wearing masks and you take them off just before you do your scene and you’re tested all the time and keep apart from each other. For a lot of the crew, who have to carry extremely heavy equipment and do extremely hard work, doing that with a mask on is probably quite frustrating and difficult.
But apart from that it’s pretty much just the same as filming normally: very fun and there’s lots of nice people. We all just felt so lucky to have been working at that point. There wasn’t an awful lot going on. Everyone was just very happy to be there and getting paid and doing their job.
You feature in Mothering Sunday alongside Olivia Colman [with whom he co-starred in The Crown]. What have you learned from her? And from Bill Nighy [with whom O’Connor worked on Hope Gap and Emma]? bumble1
Loads. I feel like I’ve learned more about Olivia as a kind-hearted friend than anything else. She’s an extraordinary actor and whenever I get to do anything with her I’m just like a sponge. I still don’t really understand how she does it. But how she is as a person is even more spectacular. And I learned most from that, I think.
I would say the same thing about Bill. He’s one of the greatest people I know and he is a very loyal friend and has a great mind. He’s obviously a terrific actor and I learned lots from him, but he’s similar to Olivia in the sense that some of the most brilliant lessons I’ve learned in life have been from seeing how he goes about in the business.
What advice would you give to your 21-year-old self?RubyMatthews32
My advice would probably be: find a therapist. I’m a great believer that therapy is the best thing you can do as an act of kindness to yourself. It’s just such a brilliant investigation into your psyche and your health. Therapy is just great work, a great way of accessing an understanding of brains and all personalities and all history. I just feel like it’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever done.
Who are your dream collaborators? Sanktiasha
There are so many. I’d love to work with my very great friend Francis Lee [the director of God’s Own Country] again. Alice Rohrwacher. Luca Guadagnino. Christopher Nolan. Noah Baumbach. Jane Campion.
Do you watch your own films or TV shows?Angymorton
I never used to, only because I would see myself and be horrified and I wouldn’t be able to judge the work in a reasonable manner at all. All I’d see were the problems and the insecurities. But I’ve got better at it and I think it’s really important to be able to celebrate your friends and your colleagues. So I do watch stuff now, but I will never really watch it more than once. And I will kind of squint when I’m on screen.
I noticed that you’re a bit of a dandy at premieres and events. Do you have any style heroes? MartGray
Tilda Swinton is very stylish. So maybe her. When I was younger, I would basically search for people like Bob Dylan or Pete Doherty and see what they were wearing. I was so mainstream; I would open up a music magazine and just copy what everyone else was wearing.
Now, I just think it’s quite fun dressing up. Normally, I’m quite relaxed and chilled, but there is something kind of theatrical about red carpets. There’s an aspect of having to play a role. You don’t really want to give too much of yourself, but you are on show and it is part of your job. So putting on a mask or a costume is quite helpful to slightly remove yourself from things.
What’s something odd, interesting or unexpected you can tell us about Cheltenham and growing up there? EditorialJoe
There’s a cheese-rolling competition held every year on Cooper’s Hill, which is in Cheltenham, though people from Gloucester will argue it’s in Gloucestershire. A big wheel of cheese is rolled down this steep hill – and when I say steep, it’s so steep that people get very badly injured. People launch themselves off the hill after it and whoever gets down first wins the cheese.
It’s so quirky and ridiculous and English. I know there was a time when it was illegal and I think people still did it anyway. When I was a kid, I thought: I’d love to do that, because it must just feel like rolling down a hill. But then I went to it once and there’s no chance. It is so terrifying. People who take it seriously end up with broken arms, ribs, shoulders. The less hardcore people will go down on their bums and even they get into trouble. It’s so dangerous, but I absolutely love it and it’s something I’m very proud of.
What film have you seen recently that moved you or affected you in some way? If not a film, then anything at all.Sanktiasha
I was very lucky to see a film that’s not come out yet called Lamb, which has Noomi Rapace in it. I found it hilarious, tragic and scary, all in one film, which is pretty miraculous.
I read a lot of gardening books. I was reading something recently about growing things that are specifically localised, about planting things that are relevant to and will grow in your area, as opposed to going into the garden centre, buying some plants and sticking them in your soil. It’s more about the origins of seeds and stuff like that.
Do plants move me? Yeah. A hundred per cent. I find trees incredibly moving. This time of year is the best time to go to the Westonbirt arboretum, quite near Cheltenham. The colours are just extraordinary; I find that an extremely emotional place. There’s also a tree in Cheltenham that is my favourite. I would say to my mum and dad: “That’s my tree. It’s the most important tree to me and only me. I’m the only one that finds it important.”
And then, about three years ago, I went back to visit my family and we went on the same walk to the top of this hill, where the tree is very windswept and bent over – it looks like its hair is blowing out. It’s kind of sculptural. And they’d built a bench around it with about 500 plaques for people who have their ashes spread beneath. So it turns out it was everyone’s tree.
My favourite trees are rowans, because of the beautiful, bright-red berries, and monkey puzzles. I actually don’t like them to look at very much, but they seem sort of sturdy and grounded, but also quite scraggly. I identify with that. I think sometimes I feel quite grounded, but inside the wind is blowing me and I’m sort of wobbling.
• Mothering Sunday is released on 12 November