Actor Josh O’Connor Talks ‘Rebuilding’ And His Film Choices Lately

Josh O’Connor at The 16th Governors Awards held at The Ray Dolby Ballroom at Ovation Hollywood on November 16, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.

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Josh O’Connor is indisputably one of the brightest young actors on the Hollywood scene today. From his Emmy-winning performance as Prince Charles of Wales on The Crown to being a valuable part of a captivating love triangle in Challengers, the Southampton-born actor continues to make memorable waves with his wide range of character and genre choices.

His versatility as an actor becomes even more evident with his handful of new films in 2025, which include The History of Sound, The Mastermind, Wake Up Dead Man and Rebuilding.

With Bleecker Street’s Rebuilding film, which is now playing in New York theaters – starting Friday in Los Angeles, O’Connor, 35, plays Dusty, a rancher that finds himself at a crossroads in life when his land is completely destroyed by wildfires, while he also tries to navigate around his somewhat strained relationship with his young daughter. Set in the San Luis Valley, Colorado region, what ultimately comes of this Rebuilding story is an incredibly heartwarming and beautifully calm tale about the resilience of the American people, even when all sense of home is stripped from their lives.

Sitting down with O’Connor to discuss his latest film, I was curious with him being an English actor but having his feet on the ground in Colorado to film this Rebuilding narrative, what did he appreciate most or take away from the discussions and experiences he had there about the way of life in middle America?

“Oh, good question,” O’Connor said. “Well, I mean, in some ways, there’s really no difference in lots of aspects to some of the rural communities in my homeland. I went out a bit earlier [to Colorado] than when we were shooting, and I went and worked on a ranch for a little while. In my experience, the people there are such good people. Max [Walker-Silverman], our director, described it beautifully earlier as these are
kind, soulful people who, unfortunately, are sort of isolated by fences. And so, I found the experience of meeting the communities out there extremely moving.”

The Golden Globe-winning actor went on to say that the biggest difference in the landscape between his UK home and the U.S. countryside is “the landscape and how vast it feels. Alamosa specifically in the San Luis Valley is extremely agricultural. I mean, really almost solely agricultural. You’ve got this kind of very untouched landscape around it.”

With the various films that O’Connor has out right now in theaters and on video streaming, I wondered what are the types of characters, stories and genres that O’Connor finds himself gravitating towards most lately.

“One of the advantages of having these four very different films coming out at the same time is in some ways, there is a hope for me in my career that I cannot necessarily follow one particular path. I want to play roles and do genres that are different. Essentially, I never really want to feel settled, and that goes also for just with the art form, whether it’s going off and doing some theatre, or I used to make pots or I’m into embroidery at the moment. I think finding different outlets – and in the world of film, finding different ways of telling stories is the great gift. I feel very fortunate that I can go and sort of do a comic turn and then come and try and tell something as truthfully as possible, and with these great filmmakers.”

Looking ahead within O’Connor’s blossoming and already celebrated acting career, might writing, producing or directing also be in his future?

O’Connor said, “Not at the moment, but I think for me and a lot of my generation of
actors – my pals, my contemporaries – Harris Dickinson making Urchin and going out and making his first feature has really inspired a lot of us. I can only speak for myself, but I think it has in the past been something I was interested in and scared of, and maybe there is a part of me, but it’s a long way off. Right now? Absolutely not, but maybe one day.”

When I asked O’Connor my signature interview question, wondering what he would say to his Rebuilding main character of Dusty, if only he could, it sparked an even more thoughtful confession from this new Hollywood leading man, which felt rather personal for him to so comfortably share with me.

“I do have a tradition when I finish a role,” O’Connor said. “I’ve been doing it for years, where there is a very particular place near where I live in the UK, where I grew up. It’s a a collection of two trees. They’re very kind of gangly trees – they are very sculptural – and it looks as though one of the trees is holding another tree in its arms. I’ve been obsessed with these trees since I was a wee boy and I could see it from my bedroom window in the distance. At the end of each film, I take my journal for a character and I go and I sit on a bench underneath these trees. It’s very isolated on the hillside and I do say thank you out loud to the character and thank you for the lessons they’ve taught me. It’s my way of sending them on their way.”