Josh O’Connor is arguably best-known for playing a youngish Prince Charles in The Crown Season 3 & 4. I say this every time, but Charles should be grateful that Josh played him – Josh brought a real sadness and pathos to the role, plus Josh is inherently charismatic and even quite dashing. Anyway, I’ve been excited to support Josh in his other endeavors, so I’m all about his role, opposite Zendaya, in the tennis love-triangle/drama Challengers. I’m honestly more excited about Challengers than I am about most of the Oscar-bait films coming out this fall and winter. Josh was profiled in GQ Hype to promote Challengers and he comes across very well. There’s a lot of space given, in this piece, to the fact that Josh owns a van and he drives it all around Europe while he’s working and he’s all about that #VanLife. Some highlights:

He named his van Winnie: She’s a refurbished yellow DHL delivery van. Inside, fairy lights are strung above the dining table, near a neat stack of gardening manuals and cookbooks. In the tiny kitchen, a waxy plant tumbles down past a spice rack, containing the big three of oregano, chili, and cumin. Hung on the walls are two needlepoint canvases of a medieval woman and man, made by O’Connor’s mother. Winnie is both a getaway car and a home away from home for O’Connor; he takes her on camping trips to unplug or, as he did last year, to Italy to live in while filming. “I got the van to get out of London and be away from all of it.”

He studied angry, brash tennis players for Challengers: “It’s really nice to play someone who is just pure outward energy. I remember when I first read it thinking he’s this tough guy, like a Gallagher brother. But then I remember having a breakthrough where I was convinced he needed to smile. Anytime he’s angry, I’d just whack in a little smile.”

His training alongside Zendaya & Mike Faist: They would spend two to three hours playing tennis six days a week, followed by two hours in the gym. “Then extra gym and tennis, then rehearsals,” O’Connor says, still aghast. “If left to my own devices, I’d go to the gym for an hour, then think I could eat whatever I want. I wouldn’t have done anything.”

Living in a nice penthouse in Boston during filming: “I remember Luca saying to me: ‘Actors are like racehorses: You have to keep them in condition if you want them to run as fast as they can.’ I think what he means is nice hotels, nice food…but being in a hotel room isn’t the best condition for me. It was so luxurious and I just felt depressed.”

He’s dyslexic: “It’s frustrating, because everything takes longer and you have to focus on something really hard… [but] You see things in a different way that aren’t necessarily generic.”

He went to school with FKA Twigs. O’Connor tried to use music as a way to impress her. “I really shouldn’t be saying this, but it’s hilarious. I was in a band called Orange Output basically to try and get Twigs to go out with me. I was the lead singer, and one of the lyrics I wrote was ‘I’m addicted to crack, motherf–ker.’ The closest thing I’d had to crack was Coco Pops.” Did she ever respond? “No,” he says. “I don’t think she knows who I am.” (Fact-check: She does. “I’m very flattered that he tried to do that because I was definitely not cool and not particularly popular,” Twigs told GQ, via email.)

He doesn’t support the British royal family or the concept of monarchy. When the real Charles had his coronation in May of this year, O’Connor didn’t tune in. Still, he was asked by the press if he wanted to comment, which made him laugh. “I felt really happy for [Charles] because it must feel like his whole life has led to that moment. I’m sure it’s the icing on the cake to put a really expensive hat on in a nice cathedral.”

Fragile masculinity: “There seems to have been a theme in my work of men that have struggled with masculinity… I think, generally, we’re all still trying to figure out what the f–k is wrong with men.”

[From GQ]

Josh has spoken before, in pretty plain terms, about how he’s a small-r republican and he thinks the whole monarchy thing is ghastly. Which is funny, because again – he was so good as Prince Charles, I’m sure people were more sympathetic towards Charles because of Josh’s portrayal. Anyway, it sounds like he was raised by two hippies in the English country and that’s still part of his identity – the guy who is very happy sleeping in a van and doing his pottery. I’m in love with him, truly.

Cover courtesy of GQ Hype, additional pic courtesy of Backgrid.