Created by David Simon and Ed Burns and based on the novel of the same name by Philip Roth, the six-part HBO limited series The Plot Against America follows a working-class Jewish family in New Jersey through an alternate American history during World War II, when aviator hero and xenophobic populist Charles Lindbergh has won the presidency and is taking the nation ever closer to fascism. As opposing political views threaten to tear families apart, the eerie parallels of how an outsider can stoke the flames of anti-Semitism and xenophobia from the highest leadership position in the nation become frighteningly real. The limited series stars Zoe Kazan, Morgan Spector, Winona Ryder, John Turturro, Anthony Boyle, Azhy Robertson, and Caleb Malis.

In this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Irish actor Anthony Boyle (who plays Alvin Levin, an angry young man that journeys from a life of street crime to the battlefields of Europe) talked about what made this a dream project, the adjustment from being on the stage for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (in which he played Scorpius Malfoy) to the more intimate performance in this mini-series, what he did for research, how familiar he’d been with David Simon’s previous work, his constantly changing character, why he doesn’t like to watch his own performances, and how he ended up with a career as an actor.

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Image via HBO

Collider: When something like this comes your way, does it feel like a dream project, as an actor?

ANTHONY BOYLE: Yeah, 100%. I was just coming off of a play on Broadway in New York (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), and I really wanted to do something that felt quintessentially American. I was doing an English play, and I’d drank up so much of the culture here and really wanted to do something with it. I really wanted to stay in New York. I love that city, with all of my heart. And then, this came along, and David Simon had written it. I read the first two scenes of Alvin, and I felt like I knew him, immediately. I thought, “I feel like I could do this,” and luckily, they asked me to do it. I very much enjoyed it. There are no cons to working with David Simon and HBO and Ed Burns, who’s an incredible writer.

Was there an adjustment to go from being on stage doing a play like that to doing something like this?

BOYLE: Yeah, no one clapped at the end of my scenes, on set. I was a bit affronted. No, I’m joking. I was doing the play for a year and a half, so you get into a certain zone. You want the person in the front row and the guy in the back to have the same experience, so sometimes your performance could be a bit loud. Doing this, the audience being the camera, an inch away from your face, it allows for more breath, more silence, and more intimacy. It was a very interesting way of working.

As an actor, what’s it like to pace yourself, when you’re on stage, doing the same material for that long of an amount of time? Do you have to do something specific to make it feel new, every time?

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Image via HBO

BOYLE: To make it feel new, every day, is just having the skill to forget things and go, “Let’s just start off on the wrong foot and see where we end up.” It’s a cool way to look at any scene. If you start on the wrong foot, it can’t get worse.

Theater seems like a terrifying experience, walking on stage and knowing that there’s a room full of people, as opposed to acting in front of a camera.

BOYLE: On stage, it’s quite exhilarating because it’s happening live and you, as the actor, are the editor. It’s your medium. Whereas on film, you’re giving so much of yourself, and you have no idea how it’s gonna end up. They’re both equally as exciting, and equally as collaborative, and equally as scary.

With a project like this, because there are so many elements to it, it seems like you could really end up going down a research rabbit hole. How did you narrow it down and decide what you wanted to explore?

BOYLE: We were very lucky to have the book and just treated that as the bible. There’s two quotes in particular that I loved about Alvin. One was that he’s emotionally the rawest of the raw. The other one was that Roth described him as like a monkey coming down from the trees and landing in the middle of Newark. He was this emotionally raw beast of a boy, not really understanding social cues. He just feels everything so much. That was a real joy to play. But in terms of inspiration, I listened to the New York accent and had a great dialect coach. I mostly just used the test and the fantastic scripts. Living in Brooklyn and living in Manhattan for those two years, and everyone I met, there was a part of that in him. When I moved to New York, it just felt like I was on a movie set. When I first moved there, every day, I woke up with a smile on my face, like the cat who got the cream. I was just overjoyed to be there.

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Image via HBO

Had you been familiar with any of David Simon’s previous work?

BOYLE: When we went to drama school, we were told to watch The Wire, as this pinnacle of TV and that art form. That was on our reading list. So, three years after studying that, to be sitting in a read through with him was a pinch me moment. That was very cool.

Alvin is someone who everyone seems to have their own opinion of. Was that fun to explore?

BOYLE: Yeah. What I liked about it was the gray area. If I’m playing someone, I want to be able to perhaps understand them, but I don’t ever want to judge them and say that they’re good or bad. I just need to understand why he’s doing it. For that, it’s a good thing that some audience members will think a certain way about Alvin, and some audience members will think differently, particularly with some of his later actions and the things that he does, and why he’s doing them. It’s more interesting for the audience to make their minds up on that.

Was this a character that you felt you understood, right away, or did you play with him?

BOYLE: He’s constantly changing. I treated it as different acts because he’s ever-changing. A lot ends up happening. He has a very tragic tale. With each episode, I found a different shift in him, so I was constantly playing. has a physical problem, and he has to deal with that.

Were there things about Alvin that you grew to appreciate, the longer you played him?

BOYLE: I don’t know. I never look up or down at a character, when I’m playing them. I just try to possibly understand them, and sometimes don’t understand them. I certainly do things, where I have no idea why I did it. We’ve all been drunk. As human beings, we’re not so cookie cut that everything has an answer and everything is good or bad. Sometimes we just do shit.

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Image via WarnerMedia

Are you someone who watches your own performances, or do you refer not to?

BOYLE: No, I just don’t find it helpful. It’s just a bit weird. It’s probably just a human being thing. I don’t know. I’d done a few small TV shows and a film, and I watched that and liked it. I could look at myself subjectively and say, “That’s shit. That’s okay.” But with this, I wanted to let it go a bit. I think I’ll watch it all at once, or at least my bits all at once. I love the stuff with Morgan [Spector] and Zoe [Kazan], and the boys, and John [Turturro] and Winona [Ryder].

Does your creative fulfillment come from the experience you have making the project, rather than what the finished product is?

BOYLE: Oh, yeah, completely. The creative fulfillment is the doing of it. I’m at my happiest when I’m in a rehearsal room, or when I’m on set and doing the thing. That’s the joy of it. That’s the best bit. I love that so much. I love dipping into different human experiences. I love it so much.

Is there one thing that helps you find a character, or is it not that specific?

BOYLE: Costumes are always really important. I often end up like looking at poetry or a piece of art or a piece of music that invokes the essence of a character without being too literal. It could be an object or a quote, or something that you think of and wrap around your mind. It’s never literal.

Does it feel strange and surreal to be on sets for a show where you’re recreating parts of history and telling a story that includes some real-life figures?

BOYLE: Weirdly, no. It never feels as grandiose as that. It always just feels really personal. It’s about whatever the character is going through, at that moment, and just however they’re feeling that day. It never feels grand. It just feels really personal. All of that grandiose stuff, like the set, can only help and add to it, if the set is really good, and luckily ours was fantastic. The Levin household was built in these amazing studios where they filmed The Sopranos. When I would leave, I’d walk past a poster of Gandolfini and give it a little tip. We were standing on sacred ground.

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Image via HBO

This is a big story that’s told in a personal way, through this family, which really helps you relate to what they’re going through.

BOYLE: Yeah. What I really like about this is that there’s obviously a lot of high concept and loads of different things happening, but it’s in the background. We’re dealing with a family situation, and how they deal with this. They’re just a normal working class family in Newark, dealing with a national disaster.

What was it like to work with the directors that you had on this?

BOYLE: Phenomenal. Minkie Spiro, who cast me, was the director of the first block, and she had the key to my heart and soul. She was just unbelievable. I loved her. I think she set it up, in such a perfect way. And then, having Tommy Schlamme come in, he had such a different vibe and energy, which adds to the feeling in the last three episodes. Having those two different directors was great.

What was this production like? Did it feel like you had enough time to really live in and explore this character?

BOYLE: Yeah. It was unbelievable. They really just give us every opportunity to try to better the performances and the piece. Every avenue was explored and everyone was so kind.

What was it that set you on this path to acting?

BOYLE: I couldn’t really do anything else. It was the first place, in a rehearsal room, that I found myself being rewarded for behavior. Just things that I would do naturally, people said that it was right and good. I just took to it and couldn’t really see myself doing anything else, really. I had always wanted to do it, and my parents were always very encouraging of it. I got expelled from school and I was a certain age, and my mom was like, “You’ve gotta go and get a job.” I was like, “I wanna get an acting job.” And she was like, “Well, then go and get one.” So, I think it was out of necessity.

Did you have a moment where you realized that acting could be a career?

BOYLE: I just loved it and was drawn to it, and then it happened organically. I had done a play and a teacher from a drama school said, “You should come and train with us.” So, I went and trained with them, and then left and did another play. And then, I did some TV jobs and films, and did a play, and did this. I haven’t really thought about it, to be honest. I haven’t given it much thought. I’m taking it as it comes.

The Plot Against America airs on Monday nights on HBO.