‘The Crown’ and ‘God’s Country’ actor plays a grubby tomb raider in the Italian drama from director Alice Rohrwacher. “This is much more me than ‘The Crown'”
O’Connor renders great performance as Arthur, a tomb raider who leads gang of Etruscan grave robbers who dig up ancient relics and sell them to black market.
Unlike his troupe, whose Chimera — or unattainable dream — is the promise of striking it rich through buried treasure, Arthur’s quest is more spiritual.
His Chimera is Beniamina, the woman he loved and lost and who he hopes to find again, by discovering a “portal to the afterlife” in one of the ancient tombs.
O’Connor discusses why he bonded with Rohrwacher over love of “gardening and vegetables,” how he lived “the circus life” on the set of La Chimera and how he’s become Italian cinema’s favorite foreign actor.
Swapping the pomp of The Crown for the realism of La Chimera?
This is more me than The Crown. By far. This world that I was living in with Alice Rohrwacher while making this film felt like the real me. I was living in my camper van when we filmed by the side of a lake, I’d wash in the lake, it was real, and I loved it. Every night Alice and I and friends from the film we’d sit up around the fire, cook food and sing songs. It was a real circus life. I love The Crown, but that was a moment in time, an incredible moment, and I’m eternally grateful for it, but that was a character [Prince Charles] for which I really had no concept. I never have a full concept of any character, but I found Arthur in La Chimera easier to access in some ways because I sort of desired what he had. I was intrigued by him, by his interest in artifacts, even by his ability to see the unseen.
I think it changed for me from the time when I read the script. At the time, I wonder if it was influenced by having seen Rohrwacher’s 2018 film Happy as Lazzaro. In that film, Lazzaro is a saint in some ways, and I loved that, and I love the kind of iconography around that, but I think I thought, “Oh, maybe Arthur is a saint.” And then I thought, “Well, no, he’s not because he’s also interested in money.” And then I thought, “He is someone who is also interested in the unseen, he has an interest in history, and in people and in nature.” He’s sort of a floater, a bit of a ghost, sort of a shadow. But at his heart, he’s deeply human. I was trying to understand how this character, that is seemingly searching for the afterlife, exists in this world. Someone described him to me that he is empty. But I don’t think Arthur is empty. I think he’s full. Actually, this life wasn’t enough for him. He needs to be with Beniamina, that’s one part of it. But also he needs to be in this other space because this real world doesn’t work for him. I suppose I was still getting to the bottom of him when we finished the film. I feel like I’m still trying to get to the bottom of him.
In that sense, it’s all an accident. But I also believe, a bit like the red thread attached to Beniamina that gets pulled in the film, I was pulled to them. I’m a great believer in fate in real life and sometimes we are pulled to people, that there’s some source, some purpose to life, and we are pulled to people that we need to be with. Alice certainly is one of those. She’s changed my life. It’s no exaggeration.
I was a big fan of Italian cinema. Pasolini, Bellocchio, Fellini, Rossellini: These are filmmakers that I really admired. So I guess maybe I was seeking them out in some way. I don’t know.
Meeting Alice Rohrwacher?
I saw Happy as Lazzaro, and then I watched The Wonders and Corpo Celeste, and I wrote her a letter. And we had a Zoom call. I was in Mexico City at the time. We had an amazing call, and I loved her. And she said, “I have no movie for you. But maybe in the future, I will.” And then two months later, she said “OK, I was making this movie with an older actor, and now I will rewrite it so you can do it.” It was incredible.
What clicked between you?
We’re both hippies, in our hearts. We both love gardening and vegetables. But also I think she was a fan of a film I did called God’s Own Country. And I, of course, was a fan of all her work. I’m not an overly spiritual person, but I am a great believer in people finding each other.” And I think there was definitely this aspect. And as soon as I got to Italy, we spent every day and every night singing together on set. Often, they’d be ready to film and they’d be like: “Where’s Josh?” and you’d see me on top of a hill, looking at a leaf. And Alice is exactly the same. They’d be ready to do a take, and I’d be crouched down on the floor trying to check out the rings of a tree, and Alice would be fascinated by some insects flying by. And they’ll be like: “Guys, please, we’re trying to make a film here!” There are elements of Alice and I that just bind just together, I feel we were bound to make something together.
What is your Chimera?
My understanding of the translation La Chimera is something that you desire that you can never capture. I’m just asking because I told some Italian journalists that Alice and my friends were my Chimera, and they looked at me oddly, “But you have them?” It was like I was being really rude to them. But if the Chimera is something you’re reaching for you can’t quite achieve, I think belief in a god would be my Chimera. I’m constantly searching for an answer to life, and yet I feel a sense that it will be inevitably impossible to find the answer.
