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If you're not familiar with the name Aneurin Barnard, that won't be the case for long. He's already appeared in Mary Queen of Scots and Dunkirk, but he just celebrated a huge run at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. Not only was he in The Personal History of David Copperfield alongside Dev Patel and the movie Radioactive with Rosamund Pike, but Barnard also had a key role in John Crowley's adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Goldfinch.

Barnard steps in as one of two actors playing Boris. Young Theo (Oakes Fegley) isn't thrilled about moving to Las Vegas to live with his estranged father (Luke Wilson), but thankfully he meets Boris (Finn Wolfhard) at school and the two become fast friends. Eventually it comes time for Theo to leave Vegas and he loses touch with Boris. Years later though, Theo and Boris two run into each other and there'a where Barnard steps in.

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Image via Warner Bros.

With The Goldfinch premiering at TIFF 2019 just ahead of its September 13 nationwide release, I got to sit down with Barnard in Toronto to talk about his experience making the movie. He spoke about working with director John Crowley, if he notices any shared traits among great directors, and more. You can catch it all in the video interview at the top of this article. And in case you missed it, click here for my conversation with Nicole Kidman and Ansel Elgort, and here for my extended interview with Fegley and Sarah Paulson.

Aneurin Barnard :

  • Barnard's favorite quality in Boris.
  • Barnard's worked with many incredible filmmakers. Does he notice any shared traits among the greats?
  • Barnard on getting into the habit of asking for "one for the road" while making The Goldfinch.
  • Does Barnard have a "goldfinch" of his own, something that means the world to him?

And here’s the official synopsis for The Goldfinch:

Theodore “Theo” Decker was 13 years old when his mother was killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The tragedy changes the course of his life, sending him on a stirring odyssey of grief and guilt, reinvention and redemption, and even love. Through it all, he holds on to one tangible piece of hope from that terrible day…a painting of a tiny bird chained to its perch. The Goldfinch.

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