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him. Instead, he ends up damaging Christian even further. I thought that was an interesting theme, how he reconciles his past with the man he is now,” explains Affleck.

Prior to filming, O’Connor and Affleck also engaged in research to ensure that they got the character right. The pair consulted with several autism experts which include Dr Neelkamal Soares, Laurie Stephens, Cheryl Klaiman, Christine Hall and Shelley Carnes. They also visited several homes and schools.

“I was lucky. I had my director doing research with me, which gave us a shared vocabulary and made it a lot easier. There’s no task Gavin won’t undertake if he thinks it might make the movie better,” elaborates Affleck.

The director was equally impressed by Affleck. He adds: “I would make every movie with Ben if I could. He just poured himself into the role, and the more you give him, the more he just keeps attacking it.” SILAT SHOWCASE

O’Connor also believed that Christian should have an idiosyncratic fighting style, forged by his childhood training and personal penchant for order. After exploring various types of martial arts, he liked the Indonesian method which was less likely known in the West, Pencak Silat.

“I’d never even heard of silat but it’s incredibly efficient, so it served our purpose in a very cinematic way. We mainly focused on silat but because of how dynamic Ben needed to be in his fighting scenes, we also taught him judo, jiu-jitsu, everything from the ground up, but extremely stylised martial arts.”

“This technique hasn’t been seen in too many movies before, so it felt fresh and new. I loved the style, so I dove into training as hard as I could. I spent months ahead of filming learning elaborate fight choreography, which involved a lot of flips and throws,” explains Affleck who adds, “It was very intense, but when it all came together and was done right, it could be beautiful and elegant, even when it was brutal.”