You may know him as Supervisor Lonni Jung in Disney+ hit series Andor. Or you have seen him Leonid Toptunov in Chernobyl or Daryl Garrs in Happy Valley. Now, you can catch rising British actor Robert Emms on the big screen in The Choral, which hits U.K. cinemas on Friday, and in which he plays opposite Ralph Fiennes.
The movie, set during World War I, is about the members of the local choral society, which recruits teenage boys and girls for a performance. Directed by Nicholas Hytner and distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, it recently screened at the BFI London Film Festival. That meant that Emms pulled double duty of sorts at the London fest, also appearing in Jonatan Etzler’s black comedy Bad Apples, which stars Saoirse Ronan as a teacher finding her class of 10-year-olds disrupted by one unruly pupil.
Since Emms was cast by Steven Spielberg in War Horse, he has taken on various acting challenges. And in between his various projects, Emms took time to talk to THR about The Choral, being part of the Star Wars universe, courtesy of Andor, and what is next for him.
Emms has long been a fan of Hytner’s work for stage and film, so he jumped at the opportunity to join the team of The Choral. “It was really exciting, because I’ve always wanted to work with Nick. I absolutely loved everything he did at the National Theater when he was there as the artistic director,” Emms tells THR. “That was really my time when I came out of drama school and started acting, and I was obsessed with going to the National Theater to watch everything that was done there.” The fact that The Choral was written by Alan Bennett (The History Boys) was “an added element, of course,” the actor highlights.
The movie also meant a chance to work with Fiennes. “He is very disciplined and really hard-working,” Emms says about the star. “And there’s such a quiet elegance to Ralph, which I really fed off.”
Emms plays Robert Horner, the right-hand man of Fiennes’ demanding chorus master Dr. Guthrie. “The thing about my character that I loved was that he has a real independence to him, which also is a little bit of solitariness,” Emms shares. “He’s quite solitary, but strong-willed, and he has his defiant, valiant anti-war beliefs and is determined to be a conscientious objector.”
Adds Emms: “What I found quite touching about him was that even though he kind of exists in his own world, he’s such a huge part of that community.”
[SPOILER WARNING: something key about Emms’ character in The Choral is revealed in this paragraph!]
And the community of music lovers also provides a support system for Horner. “Actually finding that community for him, as a gay man in that time, was almost a safe haven,” explains Emms. “It was a community to share his love for music and where he felt safe. With Guthrie, he shares a level of intellect and love for music, specifically, that created a bond and friendship between them that transcends any feelings of shame or fear he may have about his own person and sexuality.”
That relationship between the characters mirrored the relationship between the actors. “There was an element to our relationship as actors where there was a slight distance between the two of us in status, which we could use in the film as well,” Emms shares.
Bad Apples, in which Emms plays the father of a kidnapped kid, was “quite a different experience, because my character was very much isolated in his own world,” the actor says. “A lot of my stuff was just really being on my own. He’s the sort of dad where everyone thinks, ‘God, he’s really not doing very well.’ He’s a single dad who can’t keep up with his work.”
But the experience was “great,” the actor says. “It was a hard role to play because it’s the straight role in quite a comedic film. It’s a black comedy that stretches our perceptions of reality and what we believe. But, as a character, I’m looking for my son, and I’m distraught. So, I had to really play that in a quite committed way.”
What was it like for Emms to be part of the Star Wars universe, thanks to his role in Andor? “All of that stuff, it being Star Wars, it having a lot of secrecy, and it being quite intimidating at times, really played into the actual scenes that I was playing,” he tells THR. “Because the character I play is across the rebels and the Empire, the ISB. So, in a weird way, that tension helped. It was an amazing thing to be a part of.”
[SPOILER WARNING: something key about Emms’ Andor character is revealed in this paragraph!]
He also lauds Andor for its willingness to get political. “It is quite heightened, quite theatrical, but doesn’t shy away from saying some political things,” Emms highlights. “And I think that’s amazing. I’ve also loved meeting the fans over the last couple of years. They are the most dedicated group of fans I’ve ever met. And they just absolutely went for my character. That was lovely. I mean, the other day, someone stopped me in the street and said to me: ‘I’ve been to the bench in Valencia where you had your last scene.’ I hope I am not spoiling this for anyone. I die on that bench in Valencia. And he’s been there and made a vigil, a little shrine, and paid respects to my character. People are really, really lovely about it.”
So, Andor and the broader Star Wars franchise can remind people about the passion and power that film and TV can bring to bear, according to the actor. “Of course, it’s also a money-making machine, but one thing we sometimes forget,” Emms says. “That is how important art is and how important stories are, and how important sharing stories is. People go to watch films to change their lives. Maybe that film hasn’t made the box office a load of money, but it may have changed one person’s life in a very powerful way.”
Emms just wrapped shooting his next film, Blood on Snow, from director Cary Fukunaga and writers
Jo Nesbø and Ben Power, based on a Nesbø novel. Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Eva Green, it is about a hitman who falls for his client’s wife, who happens to be the target of the assassin’s latest assignment.
“We shot it in Latvia, and a few days in London,” Emms tells THR. “It’s sort of a ’70s hitman film with a bit of an edge to it. I’ve seen bits of it, and it looks fantastic. And it has some great, great actors in there that I loved meeting. “Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, who’s in Severance. And Pilou Asbæk from Game of Thrones, who is also really good. We had a really great time.”
Emms is even looking at creating some of his own ideas, telling THR: “I’ve got some things which I’m developing that is my own stuff. It’s quite early days. I’ve been developing a film with a director and also a short play with one of my best mates – she’s a writer.” But he needs to find the time and focus in between all his acting opportunities. “That’s also going on in the background, because when I get an acting job, that takes priority. And you pick up your own ideas again when you finish an acting job, but you need to switch your brain a bit.”
