What attracted you to make Harvest? The attraction was Athina as a filmmaker, as someone who has her own voice as a filmmaker, and I think doesn’t take any shit from anybody. I don’t think she can be controlled or will ever be controlled. She makes cinema for herself in the sense that she believes in what she is making, and for her to make something, it’s going to be extremely important to her. That’s the same for me.

Where were you shooting in Scotland? How did you find it? We were staying in Oban, but everything took place a two-mile walk from where we were living. 

Had you been to Scotland before? No. I’ve been to Ireland, and I thought that was the most beautiful place I’d ever been. And then Scotland kind of went ‘hey, we’re a bit bigger. We got a little bit more land over here!’

How did you prepare? I bought a bunch of books from a Waterstones about bugs and trees. I don’t have a very good memory, so none of it really stuck, but I was trying desperately to figure out which birds were which, and which trees were which, because I needed to know these things for the film. I had different plants on flashcards so I could remember what this did and what this did and what this did. But I’m not so good at retaining information in that way. Luckily for me, Walter was a character that was more about sensing things and feeling things and so, for me, it was a similar approach. At some point, I just had to leave the books alone. It was more about just getting out there all the time and talking to people and hitching a ride from this person who would later be in the film, and trying to help shear sheep. Never actually shearing sheep, but rolling some wool with one of the families who are also in the film. It was just an incredible experience… it almost demanded you get your fingernails dirty. 

When you started out, how innocent were you when it came to Hollywood and the film business? I came out to LA wanting to work with people like Lindsay Anderson. And I was so stupid in that regard. When I got an agent, I gave him [Visconti’s drama] The Leopard and told him ‘this is the kind of stuff I want to make.’ And he still hasn’t watched the movie! So I was very delusional in the sense of what Hollywood was. I had no idea. Didn’t even know what Los Angeles looked like. I just heard it was cheaper than New York, so I went there!

How do you reflect on your career now? I’ve been so lucky. I’ve gotten to travel the world; I’ve gotten these great opportunities. But these are all choices you make yourself. I was going out to Los Angeles, not knowing anyone… with this delusion that I’m going to become an actor, and it will work, and I will be a part of films. Most of my friends are musicians and artists and they also have this in them. 

You’ve also released four albums. Do you have a yearning to do more? There’s a few albums out that nobody buys. So I guess it’s not that commercial.

A couple of years back, you won Best Actor in Cannes for Nitram. How gratifying was that? Extremely. That was an incredible moment for me. I mean, I didn’t do very well when I got up there and tried to remember people’s names. But no, that film was extremely important for me. 

You’ve reunited with director Luc Besson, with whom you made DogMan, on his new film Dracula: A Love Tale. What can you say? It’s a much bigger scale than DogMan, for sure. But Luc has a way; it’s very intimate. And I got the opportunity to do things I’d never thought I would. I was on horses and waving a sword around and wearing armour!

Harvest is in cinemas from Friday 18 July.