MARK RYLANCE

The versatile actor, an Oscar winner for Bridge of Spies and recently part of the ensemble of the Netflix movie Don’t Look Up, now heads the gripping thriller The Outfit (in theaters March 18). Rylance, 62, plays Leonard, a British tailor transplanted to Chicago, where he operates a shop in a rough part of town and runs afoul of a dangerous group of mobsters.

What was the appeal of The Outfit? It has an old-fashioned 1950s style to it that is dependent on the storytelling and the ensemble of actors. It has twists and turns you don’t expect. It all takes place within three rooms. If I hadn’t been offered the part, I would have wanted to go see it. Describe your character, Leonard. He’s a Londoner who worked on Savile Row. At some point he moved to Chicago and set up his own men’s haberdashery shop and built up a clientele. Tailoring is a particular artistry that takes quite a while to learn and apprentice, and that’s Leonard.

You also have Don’t Look Up on Netflix, a satire addressing environmental issues. Do you think movies can move people to action? I do think that violent films that don’t show any of the consequences of violence have a particular brutalizing effect, and I think films that show compassion and mercy, and the effect of love in people’s lives, have a very positive effect. I am not sure we as storytellers can control the effect our stories have, but I do think they have an effect.

How did your fondness for hats start?

When I was in Milwaukee in the ’70s [after emigrating from England to the U.S. with his family], we used to love going to all the secondhand clothing shops there and in Chicago. There were these fantastic hats. And then there were the Blues Brothers; but I got into it at that time because there were such beautiful hats available. I’ve always worn them.