While Luca Guadagnino's sexy tennis movie is queering up the box office, Alice Rohrwacher's La Chimera is finally out On Digital. In other words, if you're soft for Ratatouille's #1 fan Josh O'Connor, it must feel like everything's coming up roses. And isn't that how it should be? Between the two projects, the up-and-coming British actor shows off his range and then some. In Challengers, he's all dirtbag sleaze, playful in that way naughty kids can be when they know they've gotten away with something. Yet, between provocations, there's vulnerability peeking through, hunger of the stomach and the heart. Contrast with La Chimera, performed primarily in Italian and suffused with quiet heartbreak from start to finish. From burning ardor to morose romanticism, Josh O'Connor excels…
When trying to remember my first brush with O'Connor, I guess it must have been in Disney's live-action Cinderella. Still, since one can't find any pictures of him in the damn thing, and he's credited as "Ballroom Palace Guard," it's likely he went unnoticed. Next came The Program, about Lance Armstrong's doping scandal, where he got a proper supporting role, so there's no excuse for overlooking the man. And yet, pouring over the mess of my memories, it's his bit part in Florence Foster Jenkins that did the trick. Sure, it's not like he landed on any best-of-the-year lists, but there was something oddly appealing about his outraged pianist. Hunched and prissy with annoyance, throwing aspersions at Simon Helberg, he was a morsel of comedic delight.
But then, there was God's Own Country. Francis Lee's 2017 feature debut was like a thunder strike, electrifying the audience with desire, with loneliness redeemed through tender touch. As an inarticulate Yorkshire farmer, O'Connor is a closed-off wonder, spending much of the film in constant tension. At times, it feels as if he's defying the audience to sympathize with him, yearning for connection in the same breath he rebukes it. Seeing him open up to the possibility of queer love is its own kind of miracle, especially when the actor playing the emotions surrenders himself to them, body and soul. It's a lustful turn, attuned to Alec Secăreanu's easy affection and demonstrative passion. Oh yes, once upon a time, O'Connor was the ice to someone else's fire.
After witnessing that spectacle, it felt like a matter of time before the rest of the world discovered the young thespian. O'Connor won the BIFA Award for Best Actor with God's Own Country and repeated the feat two years later with Only You, a lesser relationship drama that's most exciting when the camera's focused on O'Connor's face, the ambivalence he brings forth. In the meantime, he was pathetic perfection in The Durrells, a lovelorn Marius in BBC's Les Misérables, and somehow managed to steal Hope Gap from Annette Bening and Bill Nighy. And after all that, at long last came his mainstream breakthrough in a little show called The Crown.
Though O'Connor isn't traditionally attractive – many have compared his strong nose and prominent ears to rodents – nobody can argue that casting him as young Prince (now king) Charles was a great compliment to the royal. But good looks weren't the only quality O'Connor brought to the Netflix show, managing to charm the audiences of the third season, only to twist the knife with the crueler years depicted in series four. It's an impressive accomplishment, grounded in a characterization that's gentle enough to elicit empathy yet so flexible as to embody an unwanted marriage that's like a curse, curdling the souls of all involved.
For his troubles, the young star won an Emmy, a Golden and Globe, and two SAGS, while, on the big screen and stage, his career flourished further. Who can forget the humor he brings to Emma. as a self-satisfied vicar whose every line is a rollercoaster of improbable inflection? Or the naked capriciousness of Mothering Sunday? The visceral Shakespeare he delivered as Romeo to Jessie Buckley's Juliet? While still young, O'Connor has picked good projects, setting himself up for a stratospheric rise that seems to be reaching its zenith right about now. La Chimera might be his best performance yet, while Challengers consolidates his hold on audiences, infuriating and seducing with equal ease.
In the future, O'Connor has another queer role in Oliver Hermanus' The History of Sound, where he'll be sharing the screen with Irish heartthrob Paul Mescal. It's the tale of two young men who, during World War I, try to record the sounds of Maine across a personal odyssey that, in Ben Shattuck's book, echoes through other stories across time. After that, we find a curious collaboration between director Karim Aïnouz and screenwriter Efthimis Filippou, with Kristen Stewart and Elle Fanning completing the main cast. Rosebusgpruning is in pre-production, as is Camere separate, one of a thousand projects Guadagnino has announced, where O'Connor will share the screen with Léa Seydoux.
If you admire Josh O'Connor, what performance made you a convert? And which of his upcoming projects most entices you?