‘I was prowling around my flat:’ George MacKay on becoming a wolf

There is still a sense that we are blinking into the sunlight. Two years ago George MacKay, one of the UK’s busiest young actors, attended the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival that missed lockdown by days.

“Yes, I remember when we arrived there were these stories about Covid being in China,” he says. “And then, when we went back through the airport, there were all these signs about hygiene. We thought: that’s ramped up. Within a fortnight the UK and Ireland had shut down.”

Some sort of normality really has returned. MacKay and I are, in physical form, back at an upmarket hotel. There is actual milling in the corridors. Back in 2020, MacKay, star of 2017 and Captain Fantastic, was already preparing for his extraordinary performance in Nathalie Biancheri's Irish film Wolf. He plays a young man, a patient at a clinic for "species dysphoria" who believes himself to be that eponymous beast. It quickly becomes clear that the actor is not just playing someone playing a wolf, he is doing a very decent job of actually playing a wolf (if that distinction makes sense). Terry Notary, the motion capture specialist who stole Ruben Östlund's Palme d'Or winning The Square, assisted from an early stage.

“I was prowling around my flat,” says MacKay. “I live near Hampstead Heath in London. I was going out there early to beat the dog walkers. It was fascinating working with Terry. First, I loved the script. But also Natalie always said we would get to work with Terry. I remember, when I saw that scene in The Square, being so taken with him. It was an inspiration to see how affecting it can be when someone commits to a choice.”

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There is clearly an allegorical strain to the drama. The film seems to be about how people are forced to conform to norms – those relating to sexuality, gender, class – that may not tally with their felt identity. Have I got that right?

“I think we were aware of the parallels between many things – be it your gender, your sexuality, your, politics, your social standing,” he says. “The way that other people – and then you yourself – might define an element or the entirety of your identity. But I think, being aware of those parallels, the way to best serve those equivalencies is just to be true to the specifics of the story. That way it reverberates honestly.”

"Saoirse Ronan just makes brilliant choices. That's down to who she is. And I mean at work and in life. She's such a good person"

MacKay has most of what you need to get ahead. Finely featured with ruddy Celtic colouring, he is not exactly hard on the eye. He proves himself a physical as well as a vocal actor in Wolf. As you will have gathered from the answers above, he is also articulate and charming. Mind you, he has had practice. Raised in west London, with a lighting designer for a dad and a costume designer for a mum, he was spotted by an acting scout in school and, then just 10 years old, propelled into PJ Hogan's 2003 version of Peter Pan. The film was largely shot in Australia.

“To be honest, it was an absolute dream,” he says. “With it being Peter Pan and me playing one of the Lost Boys, it was the most ideal job for any 10-year-old. I think we were blissfully unaware of the scale of it and just accepted it all in the most positive senses. ‘Wow, this set is huge! You’ve built an entire pirate ship.’ ”

Child-star academy

MacKay didn’t go to drama school, but I get the sense that he learned all he needed to know working on big films such as Peter Pan, Ed Zwick’s Defiance and Scott Hicks’s The Boys Are Back.

“I’ve often thought recently actually – as I am blessed with a level of choice in work, and want to make good choices – the idea of coming out of drama school or leaving school and starting to make those decisions for yourself at 18 would have been a lot. I think I took in a lot of information very gradually. That allowed me to feel a bit more comfortable.”

"I'm very proud of any connection and association I can make with being Celtic. The more you learn about the English the more you think, Oh God!"

He must have had a few of these discussions with fellow graduate of child-star academy Saoirse Ronan. Kevin Macdonald's excellent How I Live Now, from 2013 – a contender for the most undervalued film in both their CVs – cast Ronan as a young American visiting the English countryside as a nuclear apocalypse is looming. MacKay played the young man she loves. Kevin Macdonald asserted that MacKay was "Saoirse's first proper boyfriend", but the two have always remained discreet about the relationship.

“I think she just makes brilliant choices,” he says. “That’s down to who she is. And I mean at work and in life. She’s such a good person. And she does such good work and is so good. She makes choices that speak to her. That’s all I could really say on it. But I think she’s so good as a person and an artist. If she stays true to that, then that will do it for her.”

MacKay has a fair amount of Irish blood running through his own veins. His father’s bloodline runs in a complex route back to the great county of Cork, and he values the connection.

“My dad’s Australian. And his mum’s dad was from Cork. So on that side of the family, there was the Irish connection,” he says. “Yeah, so I’ve always felt very close to the Celtic cultures – be it Irish or Scottish. That’s probably because they’re buried in there somewhere. I’m very proud of any connection and association I can make with being Celtic, because I think I feel sometimes there’s … um … Well, the more you learn about the English the more you think, Oh God!”

Tricky time

It may indeed be a tricky time to be English. Brexit has instilled divisions. The Boris Johnson premiership has not been an unalloyed joy. Is that the sort of thing he's putting at a distance? Clearly a bit of a diplomat, MacKay makes no such direct association.

“I don’t tie too much of myself to the political movements and happenings we’re speaking of,” he says. “In a sense they are inherently English, because the ruling powers there have caused that to happen. But I don’t necessarily associate that with being English. It’s a tricky one. I’m dancing around that a little bit. I guess I just don’t feel massively as if my home country plays massively into who I am. I am made up of so many elements beyond that. It’s Australian. It’s Scottish. It’s Irish. All of those countries share influences with each other. So I guess I embrace the mix of it all.”

MacKay has had few quiet patches. In 2014 he was at the heart of Pride, a feel-good study of co-operation between gay activists and striking miners during the Thatcher years. Two years later he played the son to Viggo Mortensen’s survivalist oddball in the Oscar-nominated Captain Fantastic. He hit a particularly strong seam in 2019 when he appeared as the leads in Justin Kurzel’s True History of the Kelly Gang and Sam Mendes’s 1917. There was never an obvious breakthrough moment. He arrived as a child actor. He built steadily. Now he is a star. If he doesn’t watch it people will soon be talking of him as the next James Bond. Oh, I’m told they already are.

Has there ever been pressure to make for Los Angeles?

“Oh no, no, no,” he says gently. “First and foremost it’s just wonderful to get the jobs you get. Making the choices that speak to you at a certain time. So no. My choices have just led me to go to where the work is. I’ve been to LA for meetings and things like that. But once you get the job you’re never in London or Los Angeles. You’re always away somewhere else.”

"I'm sure you can make a stab at planning a career. But that's not for me to do"

It seems like so much of this business happens by accident. A scout came to his school and he found himself in Peter Pan. One job led to another. Nearly 20 years later, still a young man, he finds himself crawling through the shrubs in Hampstead Heath in preparation for Wolf. Is there any way you can plan such a career? Does it make sense to have specific long-term ambitions?

“Not for me personally,” he says. “I’m sure you can make a stab at planning a career. But that’s not for me to do. I guess I have an ambition to do the best work I can and to be part of stories that speak to you. That has no fixed point. The way you work changes. The stories you feel drawn to change. So much of what happens is out of your hands. If it works out then grand.”

He shrugs in relaxed fashion. This guy has the right attitude.

Wolf is released on March 18th