You didn’t forget about Joe Alwyn, did you? Yeah, we’re pretty sure you did. Well, get ready for a surprise as the 27-year-old Brit is set to appear in three highly anticipated releases over the next two months with roles in Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite,” Joel Edgerton’s “Boy Erased” and Josie Rourke’s “Mary Queen of Scots.” And if you’re so inclined you may be aware he’s currently dating none other than Taylor Swift which, well…sure. What’s most remarkable about Alwyn’s year is what a comeback it’s turning into after the disappointing response to his big screen debut, 2016’s “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.”
READ MORE: Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite” is deeply hilarious and fabulously entertaining [Review]
Frankly, Ang Lee’s 4K HD experiment did no one any favors, but Alwyn’s upcoming slate (he also appeared in August’s “Operation Finale”) demonstrates what an unexpected chameleon he is an actor. In fact, you might not recognize Alwyn as the same actor in all three roles.
“I take that as a compliment, definitely,” Alwyn says during an interview last weekend. “I mean, you wanna try and sign different kinda parts and different kinda projects and be different people. It’s a good thing, I think.”
The only intriguing connective string in Alwyn’s upcoming work is that he’s playing two notable figures in the history of the Royal Court in two of the features. In “The Favourite” he portrays Samuel Masham and in “Mary Queen of Scots” he’s playing Robert Dudley. The North London native prefaces that it wasn’t a conscious decision to seek these type of period roles out.
“‘Mary Queen of Scots’ [can’t be] more different from ‘The Favourite’ in some respects,” Alwyn says. “Both from the kind of the rehearsal period to shooting it. Yorgos and Josie are completely different directors in terms of attacking that kind of material and Yorgos is obviously, well, I mean as was evident from the script, it was incredibly refreshing and unconventional in terms of period film. Whereas ‘Mary’ is more straitlaced in a way, I suppose.”
For Lanthimos’ critically acclaimed dramatic comedy, Alwyn describes Masham as an equerry who has a fair degree of rank (an equeery is an officer who assists the Royal Household). He elaborates, “He spots Emma’s character pretty early on and falls head over heels for her. And throughout the film we have this cat and mouse game between the two of them where he is wanting to catch her and she similarly wants to use him to climb rank.”
The Emma in question is Emma Stone who portrays Abigail Hill, a young woman of noble blood whose family has lost their fortune. While Alwyn’s Masham has fallen for her, Abigail is using her charms to work her way into the favor of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman). This starts a devilishly petty (and quite funny) game of favor between Abigail and Queen Anne’s current favorite, Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz). Masham, meanwhile, is naively unaware of how he’s become a pawn in the proceedings as he continues to take advice from the politically savvy Robert Harley (Nicholas Hoult).