He talks about working with his castmates.

And this is true of any project.

But I think when you're around people like Emily and Colin and Coleman and Eve, you know, these are all incredible actors.

And there's a certain amount you can do before you start a job.

And then when you, you know, really the work is just responding to other great performers.

And they're so terrific at what they do.

So it's just... of straightforward really just listen and respond and they're a great team we're all very close and that's not always the case yeah it was great

and his take on that pivotal train sequence

From a breakout role as a vulnerable Prince Charles in The Crown to a magnetic bad boy in Challengers ...

But imagine if you could turn Patrick's vibe, you know, the guy who wins the slam.

You still have a season

... to an every-man hero in Disclosure Day.

I was a part of all that until I saw what you just saw.

This all stops, now.

Josh, w- what in... what is the first time you sort of were interested in this question of extraterrestrial life? Do you remember, like, the first time? Was it a movie? Maybe one of Steven Spielberg's? [laughs]

Well, yeah.

One of the many great things about Steven is that, uh, he's so sort of in touch with this childlike curiosity which we all have and then somehow it gets drilled out of us, it's, you know, in the education system.

[laughs] But I think as a kid, you look up at the stars.

We used to go every year, we'd camp in this place called Keyhaven in the south of England, and it was a kind of little orchard.

And we'd look up, and the stars were always...

You know, there was no light pollution, so you could see the depth of the universe.

[laughs]

Did you make one for this particular character, Daniel?

Yeah, I did.

I mean, um, it took a slightly different form.

I mean, the, the, the scrapbook thing comes right back from, um, when I made God's Own Country, so it was a good like 12, maybe 12 years ago now.

Um, and I, the director of that film, Francis Lee, um, was really kind of, uh, um, formative for me in terms of wh- what my, um, method was, how I wanted to work.

I think I was still figuring that out.

And one of the things that we did together was to create this sort of, you could call it a scrapbook or a kind of character bible, a, a kind of, um, a manual for how to access th- this character's memory.

Yes.

[laughs]

... and living every line.

And, and, and, uh, like, one of my core memories from making this movie was, and this happened a couple times, once with Emily, once with Eve, but Steven would have an idea of what he wanted, you know, and had this conversation with Eve and I, and then just before we're about to go, Steven would say, "Can, just go and give Eve a hug."

[laughs]

Well, I love them both, but I, interestingly, I don't know if Steven knows this, I got on a phone call recently with, uh, a friend of mine.

I have, like, a film club.

And, um, a friend...

I got on the phone to a, a f- friend of mine who's a big film buff, and somehow talking about doing this promotional tour, we just found ourselves in a conversation about our favorite and ranking and doing-

... on, on set he'd be like, "Uh, Josh, let's talk about the scene before we film."

Yeah.

So we, yeah, it would often be, like, weeks in advance.

Like for example, there was a, we w- I was sort of struggling with a scene that was coming up, and it was like, my character, Daniel, is very emotional.

But I was confused whether he should really let that emotion come out.

And, um, and I texted him just before I was going to bed, kind of consumed with this scene, and he just sent me this incredible text-

Mm.

And then the inequity of information about, uh, life outside of our world.

I mean, I think that's kind of probably on every actor's bucket list.

For sure.

I mean, it's like it's sort of it's on the bucket list that you can't imagine you'd ever actually get to achieve.

It's sort of the unrealistic bucket list.

So to do it is wild.

And then the biggest, greatest honor is you you learn working with him that not only is he this genius, but he's the kindest, most warm, generous man.

So it's the whole thing is surreal.

about a scene and then you had kind of like a text mix up?

In the movie, Blunt and O'Connor's characters share a mysterious connection.

There's a sort of kinetic bond that's pulling these two people together, and it's sort of unexplained.

There's a sort of sense that they need to find each other, but they, they're unable to articulate that or-understand it

Yes, there we go.

And a- actually, Emily did this.

Both these characters are us.

You know? They're, they're just experiencing it, uh, you know, as a human would.

What conversations, Josh, did you have with Kelly about his life leading up until that moment?

Um, well, you know, you know, we, w- Kelly and I, um, we chatted around this, the, the script a lot, but, you know, those, those sorts of things are really kind of like a personal choice, I think, more often than not.

It's sort of like, uh, partly because, you know, Kelly obviously wrote the movie, and I often find, (laughs) you know, in, in pre- on previous jobs, I really go into depth into, like, where they come from, what their background is, w- their kind of early experiences.

But it's really sort of like for me, and I'm, I've become wary of sharing that with a dir- with a director, because often it's sort of like not what they'd imagined (laughs) at all.

And it might not be helpful to the story, but it's kind of helpful to me.

So, um, Kelly and I talked a lot around the, the time and, uh, shared lots of, uh, documentaries and images, but that, that part was a more personal thing.

(laughs).

So if he didn't do any research, then, then I'm certainly not.

Mm-hmm.

And it's just about the acting, really.

And, um, I loved that.

So when he reached out and ...

I think it's also, like, it's a testament to who he is.

And I think we share this feeling where it's, like, it's an industry that can be typically quite competitive.

But I've always felt that, like, I'm highly competitive, but it's always felt redundant to me in this industry, and it, because it's a- it's impo- it's- it's totally subjective.

A process.