Finn Bennett’s breakout performance as Officer Peter Prior, the young father who battles against his own hostile father in True Detective: Night Country, saw the Irish-British actor not only thrust into a main role in a major HBO series but, suddenly, found himself having to hold his own opposite Jodie Foster. Now, he’s just finished filming his next major project: Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland’s upcoming epic, Warfare, dramatising Mendoza’s sixteen-year career as a Navy Seal. Acting alongside Charles Melton, Kit Connor, Cosmo Jarvis and Will Poulter, it’s a role that guarantees Bennett a spot in this new generation of in-demand actors.

Barry Pierce: You were born and raised in Hackney but you describe yourself as an Irish-British actor, tell me about that.
Finn Bennett: My father’s from Belfast and, obviously, a lot of people leave Ireland but he always said that it starts and ends for him in Ireland. It’s always been important to me that I feel very Irish. I did an interview for a magazine back in January where they described me as a British actor. My dad called me up and he was so furious. [laughs]

BP: When did you first get into acting?
FB: When I was around ten some friends of my parents suggested sending my sister to a stage school. You went on a Saturday and you did an hour of singing, an hour of dance, and an hour of drama. They sent Molly [Finn’s sister] and then they decided to send me as well. I loved it. I was happy in school but I didn’t have something that I particularly cared about. But that hour of drama was the most fun I’d have all week. Every year, each branch of the school would pick a handful of kids to go and represent them at His Majesty’s Theatre in the West End. I got selected and after, my dad picked me up and I said, “I want to be an actor.” I loved being on stage, I loved the whole circus of it. A couple of auditions later I got a part in a television version of Cider with Rosie, the Laurie Lee book, and then just started working from that.

“It was very scary, it felt like this was my fucking shot.”

BP: Tell us about when True Detective: NightCountry happened.
FB: I’m not even sure I can put into words how that call made me feel. I had worked, but I’d worked on smaller shows with smaller names. Suddenly, I was working with Jodie Foster, Issa López, Fiona Shaw, John Hawkes, Kali Reis and it was paralysing. It was very scary, it felt like this was my fucking shot. If I fuck it up then I might really need to start thinking about doing something else.

BP: How did it all come about?
FB: I auditioned for Issa López [director and writer, True Detective: Night Country] for a part I didn’t get, but we kept in touch. If she was shooting in London we’d go for a coffee and stuff. I was working in a kitchen at the time, I was pretty checked out, and I hadn’t worked in almost three years. She calls me one day and tells me “I’ve written a part for you.” And I was like, “Fantastic! Are you working in the UK again? Something for Sky, something for the BBC?” And she was like, “No, no, no, it’s True Detective, it’s for HBO.” I was like “Holy fuck, but I’m never going to get it.” I did a meeting, we read through some stuff, she talked me through the character and then I did a couple of tapes. I was working in the restaurant when I got the call. Of course, I’d been nattering about the role for weeks to everyone in the restaurant so they were like “Go, go, go,” when the call came and I went to the smoking area out the back and was told I got the part. It was a super busy shift but everyone was hugging me, it was very special.

BP: Did you quit on the spot? [both laugh]
FB: No, I stayed for a month-and-a-half after that. A holiday’s great but I like to be busy.

“Alex Garland is one of the most brilliant and intense men I’ve ever met. Very authoritative but very gentle.”

BP: So True Detective happened, a big HBO show. How do you suddenly face the press and publicity and that level of visibility?
FB: You do it and you suck at it. The thing is, you’ve really got to trust the people around you. I’ve always had the privilege to work with the best people, some of those names I mentioned, but particularly Issa, I owe that woman everything. She gave me this career, this streak that I’m on. She’s been tough with me, but I trusted her and I hope I did her proud. That’s how you deal with the pressure, you listen to the people around you. I remember working with Jodie [Foster] on day one and I turned to her and asked, “What should I be doing? What do you do when you go home?” And she said, “Just go dancing! Go enjoy yourself. Show up, do the work, and be serious about it, but don’t take yourself too seriously. Remember, we can always go again.”

BP: Your forthcoming projects are big. You’re in the new Alex Garland film, Warfare, along with basically every other in-demand young male actor at the moment. The project looks insane. What can you tell me about it?
FB: The thirteen of us [actors in the cast] stayed at Pendley Manor, a hotel in Tring. We were shooting in Bovingdon Airfield Studios. I was really nervous, I tend to mainly work with women, I’d just come off the back of a show with Keira Knightley, and I’d been working with Jodie and Kali [Reis] and Fiona [Shaw] before that, and that’s where I feel most comfortable. I thought it was going to be so alpha, thirteen dudes, and Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza, the co-director. But within – I kid you not – hours, we were suddenly like little boys running around, in the gym, we ate every meal together, we spent every second together. It was really beautiful. We were really like thirteen brothers. The filming itself was amazing, Alex Garland is one of the most brilliant and intense men I’ve ever met. Very authoritative but very gentle. He got the best out of us.

BP: And your next project, which I feel you’re somehow going to have to be even more abstract about, is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the new Game of Thrones spin-off series. Are you able to say anything about this?
FB: All I can tell you is that I’m having a really good time and I think it’s going to be really cool. We’re shooting in Belfast and we’ve got a wonderful cast, a wonderful director, Owen Harris, and I’m just really happy.

BP: You’re back in Belfast, that must be amazing.
FB: Yeah, on a personal level it’s really nice, my dad has been putting me in touch with old friends and family.

BP: It’s a homecoming.
FB: Definitely.

Interview originally published in Heroine 21.