Monologue:
Harry Melling

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Actor • The Devil All The Time • The Old Guard • The Ballad of Buster Scruggs • the Harry Potter films • @mrharrymelling

I've always wanted to play different roles. I wanted to be the kind of artist you go, 'where do I know him from?" Maybe that instinct comes from being thrust early into the industry as something quite identifiable. But I like to ignore that voice and think of it as the need to challenge, create, to exercise or exorcise (see what I did there, devil reference) different parts of yourself... because more often than not it seems to me there's more to people than meets the eye.

Antonio Campos', "THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME" is the kind of film I grew up watching (way before I was supposed to and I'm sure way before I had the understanding to take them on). Why was I so drawn to these films? I think it's a combination between the epic and intimate. Stories that hold you in their rich narrative landscape whilst at the same time feel close to you, almost like they're whispering you a secret. That feels true to me (not the whispering part) but I guess life lives in the details. Or should I say the devil is in the detail? (wink.)

I think good acting is possibly all about detail. Sometimes that's difficult to do. Sometimes you make a character choice and it doesn't quite fit, but as a wise friend once said, "you have every right to fail!" I agree. Nothing exciting ever happened without risk; a jump and then a moment of will they/ won't they? Another person said, "I know I got to be right now cause I can't get much wronger," also a good acting note, thank you Kanye (did he really run for president?)

What a strange year. A shout out to the NHS otherwise known as 'super-heroes' who have hopefully by now cemented what all sane people in the UK already knew... it is something to be looked after and treasured! I'm still getting my head around this invisible 'thing' bringing the entire world to a stop. It's quite an incredible mind-bending thought. A reminder of how fragile we are, how dependent/ connected we are, we need each other to make sense of this.

That's why (getting back on subject) we bother to make/ participate in art, theatre, film. We perhaps might find comfort in hearing a story about the little town of Knockemstiff, "THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME," following its characters as they grapple with innate human nature and their desire to be closer to God. We may also find comfort in Beth; a chess genius navigating her way through tournaments and boys on her way to adulthood in writer/ director Scott Frank's, "THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT."

I'm very lucky to have these two projects on the horizon. I'm very lucky to have worked with these two incredible directors; Antonio and Scott.

I'm not a fan of 'game-plans'. Game plans make it sound like there's a magic formula: 'a plus b equals huge success equals Oscars times 3.' If people are saying, 'where do I know that guy from?" I'm winning.