As far as all but a few cinephiles have known, Joe Alwyn has owed his celebrity status up to this point mostly to dating Taylor Swift.
That’s all about to change, as Alwyn appears in four of Oscar season’s most-anticipated features. He’s already played the son of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Operation Finale, and will soon appear alongside Emma Stone in The Favourite, with Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie in Mary Queen of Scots, and next to Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman in Boy Erased.
Alwyn has already won plenty of high-level fans who suspect he’s a burgeoning movie star. “He can carry a movie on his shoulders—he has the height, the looks, obviously, the voice, the ability with accents; he is versatile,” said Ang Lee, who directed Alwyn in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, his biggest role to date.
Director Joel Edgerton, who chose Alwyn for a scene-stealing part in Boy Erased, had even more stark compliments for the British actor. “He reminds me a bit of Brad Pitt, in that he could easily play sweet romantic leads, but he actively seeks roles with a darker quality,” Edgerton said.
Alwyn, used to being the second-most famous person in the frame of a paparazzi camera lens, remains humble when taking praise and still finds himself looking up to older actors.
“In this business, if you stop asking questions, you’re cheating yourself,” Alwyn told W.
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