There is some controversy regarding straight actors playing gay characters. You played gay characters in two films, God’s country and the future The history of sound. What is your philosophy? Do you have any reservations about this?

It’s a really difficult subject. The truth is, eventually I’ll read a script and what affects me, affects me. The history of sound it is a film about many things. For example, it is about pain. It’s about the company. It’s also about the music. It’s about what happens in life when you fall in love with someone and maybe that connection is broken, you know? The other character from God’s country he was someone who could not love and be loved and receive love. A character’s sexuality, a character’s past, where they grew up, their dynamic with their family – these are all aspects of any character, and so I take them as seriously as any other aspect. But to be completely honest, I’m not 100% sure how I feel about it. I guess I have mixed feelings.

Your co-star Paul Mescal said that he finds it easier to play gay sex scenes than to play after-sex tenderness. Relationship chemistry is more difficult, more complicated.

A sex scene is a very strange thing. It’s the least sexy thing in the world. You can ask Mike Faist and Zendaya about this. It might look sexy on screen, but in reality it’s just like a fight sequence, a bit of action or a stunt or a dance. It’s a very choreographed, rehearsed thing, and you’re surrounded in a room full of people—someone’s holding a microphone and a camera and lights. I see what (Paul) means. On the other hand, being vulnerable and intimate with another actor is more revealing and scary, because you often have to tap into something inside you that is sometimes blocked or hidden, whatever, and that can be intimidating.

I’m always impressed by how empathetic you can be on screen. And if it looks and feels real, then you’ve honored the emotion, right?

It’s actually a funny thing, even the idea of ​​capturing reality is a complicated concept for me, because sometimes – and this is tipping my hat to the audience – sometimes you don’t necessarily want “real”. We’ve been telling stories as a civilization since we were a year old, and the act of storytelling can take many forms. You just have to look at the way Luca Guadagnino tells a story, or Alice Rohrwacher, or Kelly (Reichardt), or Martin Scorsese, or (Luc) Dardenne.