This year saw the 10-year anniversary of Under the Skin, the 2014 sci-fi movie from The Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer. An independent film cast mostly with non-actors, the movie has achieved cult status and earned its place on several best-of lists over the past decade.
"10 years old, crikey, now I feel old. And we shot it in 2011 as well so, to me, it's even older than that," Adam Pearson, who made his acting debut in Under the Skin, tells 12DOVE when we ask him about the film during a conversation about his latest big-screen project, A Different Man.
"I will always be eternally grateful to Jonathan Glazer and Scarlett Johansson because they took a real chance on an untrained kid from Croydon, who was probably quite a liability at the time, and gave me a break," he continues. "I genuinely thought that it would be out for two weeks in cinemas and I could just crack on with life as it was, and then it became this cult phenomenon that I'm still going to screenings and still talking about. I still talk to Jonathan, I still see the composer, Mica Levy, out and about around London. Yeah, it's very much quite a big part of my adult life now. It's done me good."
Under the Skin sees Johansson play an extraterrestrial being in the guise of a beautiful human woman who prowls the streets of Glasgow to find men to feed to a mysterious alien void. Pearson plays one of her almost-victims – ultimately, she lets him go, which marks a pivotal turning point in the movie.
As for A Different Man, Pearson stars opposite Sebastian Stan in a film that's half dark comedy and half psychological thriller. Stan plays Edward, an aspiring actor with neurofibromatosis, who undergoes an experimental treatment to remove his facial tumors. However, when he discovers a play has been written based on his old life with charismatic Oswald (Pearson), who also has neurofibromatosis, playing him, he becomes increasingly obsessed with the production – and Oswald.
A Different Man arrives in theaters on October 4. For more, check out our guide to the rest of this year's best upcoming movies.
