You talked earlier about this character and doing a character when there were certain emotions without speaking but it’s also for the viewer in a sense to sympathize with this character also because it’s for those reasons that you can sympathize with some of the other characters we brought up [such as] Frankenstein, Quasimodo, or the one in The Stranger. That would also be a challenge as well and also a challenge for myself as the viewer.

Yeah, exactly. It’s sort of a tricky area this issue of sympathy for a character because sometimes if you try and make a character very sympathetic, you achieve the opposite. If you try too hard to ingratiate a character to an audience, it can be off-putting. So although it was something we were always talking about, it sort of at the same time you just have to try and understand that person and why that person behaves in that way and then hope that people will feel some kind of …

You gave us a why at the beginning but then once you went through it kind of lost that why because first we do see the  first murder and then it moves on to what he is doing so I thought that was very interesting…kind of a trick almost.

Yeah, yeah.

It’s not very clear in the movie or the book but do you think he has any guilt or sorrow for killing those people beyond the first girl? You know he’s obviously obsessed with getting the first perfume but does he have any guilt for what he’s doing?

I don’t think it is clear in the book either or it’s not really something that Patrick Suskind discusses. But I think the fact that the character at the end decides to essentially commit suicide by pouring the perfume over him, I think you could read that as some kind of acknowledgement of the fact that what he’s done has transgressed some kind of human boundary that you don’t overstep. I think he’s essentially a character without very much moral thinking, you know.  I don’t think that part of him has evolved very far.

He doesn’t really have the capacity. It’s interesting the contrast between the sensitivity to smell and beauty of things and this total dark side.

I think that’s absolutely one of the things I really like is that on one level he’s very, very sensitive and on another completely…he’s just a void, you know, he’s a complete abyss. There’s nothing going on at all. I think it really speaks to the world that we live in somehow. We’ve often talked about him as being a bit like a terrorist, you know. He has this kind of…he has this obsessive compulsiveness going on and this acute sensitivity and the same kind of isolation and sort of disenfranchised thing happening as well. And that tunnel vision and that kind of inability to see what it is you’re actually doing.

That’s why it was very difficult for him to make that transition from becoming this beautiful creature to this kind of like void killer which was interesting.

Uh huh.

Why did you decide to become an actor?

I don’t remember really when I made that decision but I’ve been acting since I was 14.

But how did this start for you? The whole thing I mean.

I don’t know really. I’d just always done it. Since I was very young, I’d always done plays at school and with local theater groups in the village I grew up in. Yeah, for some reason it was just something I always wanted to do.

Were your parents involved in the arts in any way?

No, not in any way at all. I have no idea where it comes from really.

Are you someone who can watch yourself on screen?

No. (laughs)

What do you do when you see the movie?

I run out of the door and go smoke outside. (laughs)

You haven’t seen it?

No, I have watched it once but actually with this, I’d wanted to see it just because it had been so important to me but usually I find it kind of absolutely excruciating so I don’t put myself through it.

What are you more proud of: this movie or being the youngest Hamlet?

Well it’s hard to say but I think with a part like Hamlet you always… I mean with most parts actors feel like they’ve failed in some way but particularly that part, you never feel like you’ve got anywhere close to achieving it so I think when I look back on that, I feel frustrated because it was only a four month run and you could do it for the rest of your life. So in a way it’s an unsatisfying experience whereas this felt very fulfilling. I really got a lot out of it.

There were a lot of elements of Shakespeare in this character.

Yeah, yeah, there are. It’s true.

Another thing I thought was interesting was the language, that we were in Paris but everyone was speaking a different language. That was another device that he often used people from different nationalities.

Absolutely. That’s very true. He goes all over the world and they all speak English.

I liked that though. I thought that was a great choice.

Yeah.

Was Kevin Spacey a master to you also? Did you have that same kind of relationship that you had with [Dustin Hoffman]?

I didn’t… I only met him because we did the play about six months before he took over. He was in the building and I bumped into him and he was very kind and very supportive but he didn’t have anything to do with the production himself. It was just before his regime started.

Would you play a part without using an accent or using an American accent? Would that be something you’d find challenging?

Yeah, I mean I just did this film… I did a part in this film with Todd Haynes, that Todd Haynes has directed -- they finished it now – which is about Bob Dylan and I did a sort of some kind of American accent in that. So yeah, I would be. I mean think I’d like to explore that more.

In the Todd Haynes movie, which storyline are you in? Which other actors are you working with?

I’m entirely by myself again. I play a version of Bob Dylan but it’s a kind of cross between Bob Dylan and Arthur Rimbaud, this French 19th century poet that was such an influence on him. So I’m being interrogated by someone off screen and it’s intercut throughout the film.

And talking about interrogation, how was it doing that scene with Alan Rickman? There’s another master that you’re working with.

Yeah, he’s wonderful. Really that scene was all about surviving the dunking in the water really and there was not much else I could think about.

Did they really hang you up?

Yeah, I was upside down for about 3 hours. I like work like that. That’s part of the fun of filming. But I love Alan. I think he’s absolutely a tremendous actor really. There’s always something kind of strange and dark going on behind his eyes and inside him which I find completely compelling. That was wonderful. We went to the same college so I sort of knew – not at the same time obviously – but I knew him because he’s still quite active at the college for fundraising and stuff. He’s a very nice man.

Did the crew do any gags with you like forgetting you were tied up or was it …?

(laughs) Uh no, it was all very… I mean I really could have suffered quite badly but everything is so health and safety crazy in the world now. There was somebody standing by to unleash me at any given moment.

Did you say how you got into acting? You said you started when you were 13 but when did you start getting into film?

I did some small British films when I was in my teens, late teens, and then I decided.... I’d always had this idea that I really wanted to do theater for some reason. That was what I felt that I was passionate about so I took three years off and went and trained at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) and so I graduated just over four years ago.

Did you have a chance to see Spain while you were filming there?

A bit, yeah. Where are you from?

I’m from Argentina but I’m familiar with Spain.

No, I absolutely loved it. We were in Barcelona, then we were in Girona, and then we were in Figueres. Yeah, I saw quite a lot of the place and it was a staggeringly beautiful experience. Really, really gorgeous.

I recognized Girona. That’s the scene with the girl where you almost catch her. Was that filmed there, when she’s trying to … Alan Rickman is coming after her?

Yes, you’re absolutely correct. It’s in Girona.

And in Juderia, right?

Yeah, you’re absolutely right.

Beautiful.

Yeah.

When you’re doing theater work which you do quite often, do you still have that nervousness when you’re getting on stage? Is that still there?

Yeah. I mean definitely. Again, that’s part of the thrill of it, isn’t it, that feeling of being alive? You feel like you can make yourself feel physically ill just before you go on but then you overcome it and it’s absolutely… It goes to your head. It’s like a drug and there is something strangely addictive about that kind of hit from being on stage. But yes, so the nerves never go away but I think it’s an essential part of the experience for me.

And what happens when you forget a line or something? What do you go through?

Well, again, that is quite a nice thrill, that moment of not knowing what the hell you’re going to say or what the hell you’re going to do because somehow you deal with it, somehow you move on and that’s what’s thrilling is that it’s live and you have a thousand people’s attention on you so it’s an incredibly powerful [experience]. It’s Grenouille on the scaffold. It’s quite an exciting place to be. I’ve never been freaked out by forgetting a line. It’s always quite exciting. There’s a little thrill about it (laughs) unless you fuck up ‘To be or not to be’ which is stuff you can’t repent … might as well just walk off stage. Yeah.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

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