The plan was to meet Joe Alwyn at an old-fashioned pub in the London area where he grew up. This is a nice pub, tiny, a selection of beers with crazy names on the tap, percentage evidence that will make your eyes water. But we both arrive shortly before noon, and the doors are locked, so we hang out awkwardly, peering out the window, looking around the world, as if we desperately need a late morning drink.
I’m not sure Aluin is so desperate to talk to me, although during a slow and steady mug he is very polite and easy company. The 31-year-old actor is on the verge of becoming a big star since leaving the drama school in 2015, but his path to fame is at a slightly different angle than his path to acting success. His partner is Taylor Swift, one of the most famous women on the planet, so there is that. He is tall, handsome, with crispy hair from the 90s of last century. He is fast, fun and confident, restrained with fleece and jeans.
For a while, we were the only people in the pub. He uses humor to avert embarrassment, and I suspect it suits him that no one can hear what we’re talking about. Alwin is about to take on the role of Nick, a married actor who has a relationship with student Francis in “Conversations with Friends.” The adaptation is the second of Sally Rooney’s novels to become a television series after the blockbuster hit “Normal People.” The director of both, Lenny Abrahamson, said he chose Alwin for Nick in part because he was “soulful.” “What does this mean?” Alvin sprayed. You tell me, Joe. “I’ll take it. I don’t know! So emotional,” he repeated with a hint of shame.
Rooney had the word who played her characters. “I was told he was doing this and that,” he says, waving his thumb up and down. “I mean, I’m not literally doing this as a gladiator or an emperor. She got involved in casting and watching tapes. “When he got the role, probably because of his soul, he contacted the author and they exchanged several emails. The photos would be in Dublin, where they planned to meet, but moved later in the day. in Belfast. “So we didn’t. But I only emailed her” Thank you. “Thanks for the thumbs, Sally.” Rooney’s books are full of highly articulated emails and texts. “She makes a good e-mail,” he nods. “So how did you react to the pressure to send her an e-mail?” to have her blessing. “
Alwin had already read Conversations with Friends and Normal People long before he joined the first. “Czech” Normal People “before I found out they were making a show out of it, and I remember when I saw it, I thought I’d like to be in something like that.” and Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) became such a topic of conversation that people began to crave Mescal’s silver chain, as if everything else around him was exhausted. In “Conversations with Friends”, Nick has a heated affair with Francis, and Alwin is quite regularly, though tastefully, naked in it. “We were led through this with an intimacy coordinator, Ita O’Brien, who is great,” he said. “They are essentially choreographed. So they are like battle scenes. They are quite mechanical. And obviously they’re weird, funny, weird things you do with your friends. But when Lenny is in the room joking and there are 10 crew members around and it’s icy cold or boiling hot, it just removes all the sexiness.
“I was really pleased to have Sally Rooney’s blessing.” Photo: Elliott Wilcox / Guardian Clothes: paulsmith.com
Besides, he says, the sex scenes are there for a reason. “They are something like a continuation of the talks, in their own way. We hope that everyone should feel a little different and mean something different to the people involved, and they are not just somehow unnecessary. But I mean, obviously, that’s a weird part of the job.
Normal people and talking to friends are different stories and different series in many ways, but if the series follows Mescal’s trajectory, is he ready for the idea that it could become a pin-up? “Honestly, I just don’t have any thoughts about it,” he said. They finished filming only four months ago. “I didn’t allow myself to think, ‘Oh my God, people will actually see it,’ so I didn’t think about this side of things.” Which is a boring answer, I know. “
Anyway, this is a serious drama, not nonsense, and it deals with serious topics. Nick is married to Melissa (Jemima Kirke), a successful writer, and their marriage has not always been monogamous. But when Frances (the new Alison Oliver) and her best friend and ex-girlfriend Bobby (Sasha Lane) become entangled in their lives, the four are forced to ask adults questions about love, jealousy and honesty. Nick is certainly a complex character who works hot and cold and is difficult to define. “When you meet him, he is in a place of recovery – he has survived a storm and is slightly numb to the world. And it just works, and we come across this version of it, but we don’t really know why. ” Only later in the series do we begin to learn who he is. “It can be a real mystery and sometimes frustrating. He is quite removed, mysterious and illegible. “
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I’m not sure Aluin is on the sidelines, but he has something more than mysterious and illegible in him. He has been a consistently successful actor since 2016, when his first job was starring in Billy Lynn’s Ang Lee-directed film Long Halftime Walk with Kristen Stewart. He followed him with smaller roles in a series of award-winning films, including The Favorite, Mary Queen of Scots and Harriet. He has campaigned for Prada and won a Grammy after collaborating with Swift on her 2020 album Folklore. Despite all that, I say, I don’t know much about you. A few details of his life are public, which he seems to prefer, but that means we have to start over. So you grew up…
“I grew up in this pub,” he said, grinning. “I was born in this garden and I never left. I am very happy here, thank you. “
“Our relationship is simply not for other people”: with Taylor Swift in London, 2019. Photo: Blitz Pictures / Rex / Shutterstock
He actually grew up near where we are today, in Tufnell Park, a wealthy district in north London. His mother is a psychotherapist. “I’ve never felt like I’m lying on the couch and being analyzed every night, which is probably a good thing. I managed to escape from this. But she’s great with people and great for conversation. People always think it should be weird to have a mother who is a therapist. Well, it’s interesting. This is an amazing job. In fact, I think if I didn’t do it, I would be interested in doing something like that. “
His father is a documentary filmmaker who also teaches cinema. He instilled a love for young Aluin’s films by giving him piles of VHS tapes for his birthday and Christmas presents. “He makes observational human stories flying down the wall. When I was growing up, he was often absent, and I remember being in a lot of these distant places, bringing cool gifts for me and my brother. ” Have you ever been with him? “I’ve never been invited.” He leaves the rhythm. “Don’t worry, I talked to my mother about it,” he joked.
He has two brothers, one older, who works for an NGO, and one much younger, who was born when he was in high school and has just dropped out of school. Alwin went to a private school for boys, with a scholarship and a scholarship. He enjoyed it and made a group of friends with whom he still talks all the time, even today. He really didn’t act in school; he was mainly involved in sports. “I was good at football. Tennis. I just like athletics in general. ” He writhes. “Just in general.” Sounds so arrogant! “All of them.”
I am aware of people’s interest in my relationship and the more they feed it, the more you open the door to invade
Were people surprised that he wanted to become an actor? “I feel like I’ve given enough hints that it wasn’t a complete bomb when I wanted to do it, but I think I probably had a sense of why?” He studied English and drama at the University of Bristol, then went to drama school. in London. Shortly after his last performance, according to the fairytale version of the story, he signed with an agent and was asked to audition for Lee, the Oscar-winning director of Brokeback Mountain, Sense and Sensibility and The Ice Storm.
Was it really that simple? “It was so crazy,” Alwin said. He sent a recording and received a call that Lee wanted to meet with him this weekend. “So I was put on a plane. I haven’t been to America before. ” He landed in New York, in the snow, and immediately went out to find a slice of New York pizza. “Within five days I left school, had a visa and was in a training camp in Atlanta. As he continued, I managed to relax and enjoy him. But in the beginning, in the first week or two of the photos, I fucked myself. ” And then it was over. “Everyone else stayed in America. I had to go home and walk the dog the next day, it was raining and I went back to this garden, ”he smiles. “And life went on.”
After Billy Lynn, Alwin had a number of nasty characters, historical figures, and sometimes both. He was a slave owner in Harriet and the son of a Nazi in Operation Final. In “The Favorite”, he has a comic twist like Masham, who seduces Emma Stone’s Abigail, dances a silly dance with Rachel Wise as a lady …
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