Josh O’Connor says idea people talk about his ‘image’ makes him uncomfortable

Actor Josh O’Connor has said it “is weird” to him that some people may see him as an object of desire on the internet, and that anyone talking about his image, whether it is “good or bad” makes him feel “uncomfortable”.

The film star, who reached a new level of fame after his appearance in steamy tennis drama Challengers (2024), said director Luca Guadagnino had to coach him to be like his character Patrick Zweig, who is wrapped up in a love triangle with characters played by Zendaya and Mike Faist.

O’Connor, 35, told British GQ: “He (Guadagnino) kept (saying) ‘Confident!’. He was like ‘Get your shoulders back. You’re a sexy, confident guy’.”

On the idea that people fancy him online, he added: “I think it is weird to me, I don’t feel comfortable with the idea of that, but that’s more just about me and more about the idea of anyone talking about my image, good or bad.

“That’s kind of uncomfortable.”

O’Connor said the media attention around Challengers “felt more hectic” than his experience with Netflix drama The Crown, in which he played a young King Charles, then the Prince of Wales.

Recalling the moment he felt burnt out after a film premiere, he said: “I felt so little control over my life in a weird way.

“There was something about these two worlds of my persona, being in front of these photographers and my career, and then my sweet family who are just the sweetest, like, ‘What are you doing here?’ Do you know what I mean?”

“I think I just felt incredibly overwhelmed.”

O’Connor, who won an Emmy for his role in The Crown, said it was “so refreshing” to watch A Complete Unknown actor Timothee Chalamet admit that he was “in pursuit of greatness” while picking up the leading actor gong at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards earlier this year.

“I found it so refreshing, someone being like ‘No, I want to be f****** great’,” O’Connor said.

“But my first thoughts were like, OK, one, you already are. You did it, mate. But then the other thing was like, great that you want that, but I hope you want that in your real life too, and I hope it doesn’t only become greatness in acting.

“I hope it’s greatness in, I don’t know, friendship or in being a great son, which I’m sure he is, I’m sure he’s all those things too, but I hope that that doesn’t become your sole focus.”

O’Connor, who has also starred in Emma (2020), La Chimera (2023) and Lee (2023), spokes about his own career goals and said: “The truth is I’ve already had my dream career, like, beyond my dreams”.

“So I’ve done it, as far as I’m concerned. Originally I just wanted to make theatre. And then I fell in love with film and I’ve been able to work with my favourite filmmakers.

“But I guess I’ve just got to the stage where I’m like, OK, what can I do that’s going to feed me as a person in my normal life?”

Read the full feature in the November issue of British GQ, available via digital download and on newsstands from October 28.