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Whether playing fevered preacher Eli Sunday in There Will Be Blood or the restrained leader of an animal rights group in Okja, Paul Dano's on-screen energy always bring something new to the films he is involved with.
In November he turns his hand to directing with the release of Wildlife, a slow-burning family drama based on Richard Ford's 1990 novel of the same name.
Speaking at Esquire Townhouse on Friday evening, Dano discussed growing up in Manhattan where he "remembers going to the theatre and feeling scared when the lights go down" because you "give yourself over so much more easily as a child".
He also discussed his career thus far including working with big Hollywood names such as actor Daniel Day-Lewis ("The way he works only makes you better") and Tom Cruise ("He is f**king on fire").
He also touched on the difficulties of researching his more challenging roles and embodying characters which include a psychopathic racist in 12 Years A Slave and an abused child in Prisoners.
"It's a story you want to be a part of," he said of the former, directed by Steve McQueen, "but I don't even know if it's enjoyable."
Dano wrote the first draft of Wildlife while he was doing Prisoners as he admitted he "needed it". Wildlife is the story of a husband and father Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal) who leaves his wife Jeanette (Carey Mulligan) and child to go fight forest fires in rural Montana.
Though the film asks difficult questions about masculine fragility and pride, Dano sees it primarily as a story about a family and the "moment you realise your parents are people".
Paul Dano was in conversation at Esquire Townhouse with Breitling. Check out the full event here.
