If they were ever to award an Oscar based on an actor’s body of work over 12 months, Josh O’Connor might be a lock to take the trophy for this calendar year. The 35-year-old Brit was heartbreaking in Oliver Hermanus’ “The History of Sound” and unexpectedly devious as a suburban dad who turns art thief in Kelly Reichardt’s “The Mastermind,” both of which debuted at Cannes. He arrives in theaters this weekend as a priest caught in the middle of a murder mystery in Rian Johnson’s “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.” But the year began at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, with Max Walker-Silverman’s “Rebuilding,” one of his most nuanced and powerful turns to date.
READ MORE: Meghann Fahy “Vividly” Remembers Her Heartbreaking Scene With Josh O’Connor In “Rebuilding”
Set in San Louis Valley in Colorado, Walker-Silverman’s contemporary drama centers on Dusty (O’Connor), a rancher whose farm has burned to the ground after a powerful wildfire ripped through the area. He attempts to pick up the pieces while forging a stronger relationship with his young daughter Rose (Lily LaTorre) and bonding with the other residents of a temporary FEMA trailer camp, including another single parent, Mali (Kali Reiss). All the while, his ex-wife, Ruby (Meghann Fahy), and mother-in-law, Bess (Amy Madigan), try to spark him out of a depression he seems oblivious of.
An Emmy winner for “The Crown,” O’Connor is one of the most in-demand actors in global cinema (he stars in Steven Spielberg‘s untitled event movie next summer). We asked him why this small drama, that somehow got through the filter provided by his agent and managers, made him commit to spending a chunk of his life in small town, middle America.
“It’s a great question. It’s a question that I very often struggle to answer without sounding stupid,” O’Connor says. “Basically, I think there is a sort of spiritual thing that happens sometimes when you read a script. And this one was definitely one of those. I mean, I knew I’d seen Max’s previous film, [‘A Love Song’], and that had really moved me, and I felt that this was a filmmaker who had a particular voice that I was excited about. But I suppose I found Dusty heartbreaking, and I think I really felt for him. And I felt like his back’s against the wall from the beginning of this film. And he’s trying to figure out how to find a way through to find that hope that the irony and the beauty about this film is that he doesn’t realize that it’s already there and that he’s just not looked up and looked around.”
And while “Rebuilding” may never earn the massive audience that “Challengers” clocked or “Wake Up Dead Man” will discover (we’re still holding out hope), the project is clearly one that will stick with O’Connor. He admits it “had a particular impact on” his life.
“Very often when you play a character, there is this thing where you are changed as an actor,” O’Connor reveals. “You are changed by certain characters to a lesser and greater extent, but you kind of go through your career collecting these souls, and they do have an impact on how you live your life. And so it’s weird, but when you read a script, it’s almost like you’re not saying, ‘Yes, this is what I needed.’ It just sort of happens, and then it’s only reflecting afterwards with the power of hindsight. Are you able to go, ‘Oh, yeah, I guess that answered that question in my life at that moment.’ For me, in this, there was the question of community and isolation, and how easily we can find ourselves isolating in a modern world, and how much we are starved of community. So those are the sorts of things that maybe needed answering in some ways in my own life.”
READ MORE: “Rebuilding” Review: Josh O’Connor Stars In A Tender Tale Of Wildfire Heartbreak [Sundance]
The Brit also says the quiet part out loud, admitting some films resonate with him more than others. Just like any job, any trip, or any relationship would in our everyday lives.
“I mean, there are a few films I’ve been very fortunate to be a part of in my career, probably four,” O’Connor says. ‘And this is one of them where the community, the circus that Max curated with our crew, with Lily, Megan, Kali, Amy, and then the local community, who were non-professional actors who were part of it. And that landscape was imprinted on all of us, I think in different ways. Again, you kind of float around in this career, and you have these extraordinarily, narrowly close experiences with people, and then you don’t see them for a very long time, or you don’t stay in touch. I mean, I’ve stayed in touch with everyone, a lot of people certainly from this project. And I think that’s a testament to Max and the environment he creates on set. It’s like that one summer camp that never leaves you, but you also never really can go back. Although I’d love to go back.”
“Rebuilding” may have been super-timely for the Los Angeles residents who had just endured the massive Pacific Palisades and Altadena wildfires before Sundance, but this story came to Walker-Silverman when he returned to Colorado a number of years ago. He says he was happy to be back home but also wondered what this part of the country was going to look like in the years ahead as the world continues to dry up. It was a paradox he was not expecting.
“I could distill that mindset into looking out my window every morning and finding it so beautiful,” Walker-Silverman says. “And also, all the spruce trees are dead. Pretty weird. Both those things can be true. And then there was a wildfire that burned down my grandma’s house, and there was the tragedy of it, but there were other things too. And seeing the way that the people took care of each other afterwards, and seeing the way that nature kind of recovered afterwards, differently, but still very beautifully, there was a hope to it. Of the saddest kind perhaps, but I think sometimes it’s radical to remember that, despite ourselves, the world doesn’t end and that there will be a future whether we like it or not. And so let’s try to make it as good of one as we can.”
“Rebuilding” is now in limited release
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