How has life changed since your Oscar nomination?

Not at all. I think those things affect you as much as you allow them to, it doesn’t really change your life. I think we have these ideas and I had them myself I always imagined that people went to the Golden Globes and the Oscars and people kind of party for four days and they held that thing and touched it! (laughs) And the truth is you go home and you take off your suit and everything is exactly the same.

What music are you into?

I listened to Johnny Cash and nothing else for a year, I need a break. I’m not listening to much at the moment, just the same things since I was a kid, the Beatles and David Bowie.

Do you have a shared approach with James Gray?

In regards to film I think that we both value the spaces in between words, we value a gesture between people, and we value the things that aren’t typically valued in film because you develop such shorthand with film.

I guess because we’ve seen so many movies, right, it’s just goes like ‘oh alright that’s that scene, they argue, second act, let’s go’ and for James it’s about finding something else, finding something that’s less obvious and I really like that and I value that so when you read a scene and interpret a scene your first reaction, your instinct might be the obvious choice and then you can stop and go ‘ok, how else might we be able to convey this in a way that might be true to the character that feels new to us in some way?’

And is exciting and isn’t just ‘oh I’m doing the scene.’ because it’s easy to just do the ‘angry scene’ like just yell.

He’s always looking for things and I hope I am, too. It’s kind of what I know and what I value and enjoy are moments with people like James Gray sitting on set when I feel we are truly exploring something and that’s what gets me off.

They are few and far between but when you get that feeling it’s so powerful and so good that you will go back and risk doing two movies when you don’t get that feeling just for that brief moment. ends.

We Own the Night is released 28th April

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