Jack Reynor Interview: Jack's No Lad

Walking into the Merrion Hotel, I spot Jack Reynor lounging in an armchair, cool in a pair of expensive sunglasses. Has the famously good-natured star of What Richard Did transformed (pardon the pun) into a too-cool-for-school celebrity?

Reynor spots me, whips off the glasses to reveal a cut above his eye, and offers a bear hug. “I was so happy to be home I literally fell to my knees to kiss the ground – but my bag was pretty heavy and whacked the back of my head so I essentially curbed myself!”
That’s our boy.
The past year has been a whirlwind that could have easily turned a less mature man’s head – but the Dublin actor is still the grounded lad who starred in Kirsten Sheridan’s Dollhouse and Lenny Abrahamson’s What Richard Did. Clearly, Reynor is under no illusion about just how fortunate he is. After doing the festival circuit with What Richard Did in 2012, he took a chance and stayed in LA. With no money, and an endless stream of meetings that weren’t yielding results, he was down to his last $60 when offers finally started rolling in. Having landed a part in the Vince Vaughan comedy The Delivery Man and garnered stellar reviews for What Richard Did, Reynor admits that, he felt pretty confident when he was approached to audition for Michael Bay’s Transformers: Age of Extinction alongside Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci and Kelsey Grammer.
“I had a bit a of traction after Richard... and Delivery Man, and people were kind of curious as to who this kid was who had just come over and landed a part in a Dreamworks film out of the blue. So I was confident that would help me in the Transformers race. I had a couple of meetings with Michael Bay which went well, did a couple of auditions and then he rang me – to tell me I hadn’t got the part. Then he left me to sweat it for 10 seconds before going ‘No, just fucking with you, you’ve got it!’”
It’s a telling anecdote about the director, who is known for whiplashing between jokey playfulness, aggressive intensity and debilitating anxiety. In January, a clip of Bay went viral after his teleprompter malfunctioned at a Samsung event. Bay, who was promoting a new high-definition television, froze, stammered and walked off-stage, apparently unable to cope with this rare loss of control.
Reynor acknowledges that Bay is “intense” to work with: the director's energy carries everyone through his giant productions.
“As a filmmaker, he’s not in any way jaded. Far from it. He loves it, lives for it. He’s responsible for a budget of $165 million, 200 people’s jobs on set, another 4,000 people who actually make the film – I’d be pretty crazy too if I was in that position.”
Bay clearly recognised Reynor’s talent early on, even rewriting his character, Shane, so that Reynor could bring some of his Irish charm to the flick.
“Yeah, Shane was meant to be an American character, but through my conversations with Michael we decided that it would diversify the film a little bit. And,” he continues with a grin, “it made it so that when there’s a back-and-forth between Mark Wahlberg and me, and he’s slamming me and I’m being a bit of a cheeky bollocks back to him, I can get away with it, more than if I had been American – then I'd just have been a punk! But over there, being Irish, you get away with anything!”
Playing the drag-racing boyfriend of Mark Wahlberg’s daughter, Reynor and Wahlberg do indeed go head-to-head in many scenes, with Wahlberg bringing his usual combination of amiably gruff machismo – a persona not that far away from his real personality – to the screen. Still, Wahlberg wasn’t doling out any life wisdom on set.
“He’s not the kind of guy who will sit down and have deep and meaningful chats with you," Reynor laughs. "He just does his thing. He doesn’t need to philosophise. To be fair, it’s five and a half months of a shoot, 14 hour days on set – I’m hardly going to go back to his hotel room all the time!”
Wahlberg and himself did share some manly bonding time in the gym – and some convalescing time after a few on-set accidents.
“We did about eighty to ninety percent of our own stunts, trained for about three months and I did some drift training for the driving scenes. There were accidents – I dislocated two ribs and wrecked my back. I was in the middle of a shot where a mortar was about to go off beside me and I had to jump and land on a wall. When I jumped I twisted my back a weird way and hit my ribs against the wall and they dislocated so I couldn’t breathe. So a chiropractor came along, twisted my body one way and my neck another, cracked me in half, manually transformed me into a fully functional actor again and it was back to work! Then Mark took a full mortar to the face: that was bad. They put cork and manure in them – it always smells like shit after the explosions go off! They set off two mortars a beat too early, so it all hit Mark right in the face. You’re definitely kept on your toes!”
While Jack signed on for a possible three Transformers films, he’s uncertain as yet whether the next two are going ahead – though given Age of Extinction’s huge box office, it seems likely. He's pleased with the prospect of becoming a franchise star, but the smaller, independent work he's done also means a lot to him.
“I'm proud of the fact that I have the ability – and have had the opportunity – to work on films that say things about society and are very close to my heart. And at the same time I’m very proud to be in a film like Transformers that allows people to transcend what they’re going through in their lives for two and a half hours, and just experience a spectacle. That’s something that enables people to relax, which everyone needs these days.”
In this, Reynor is following in the footsteps of some of the most influential young stars in the industry. Actors like Jennifer Lawrence and Shailene Woodley have fronted big money-making franchises, while also making interesting independent movies. Reynor, has just set up his own production company and is eager to promote both independent and Irish film.
“In order to be able to finance the smaller, more independent, genre-specific films, you need to show that you can carry, or at least support well, in a really big film. I think a franchise is a really important thing for a young actor to do; it’s basically where you cut your teeth in a lot of ways. Outside of that, you’re afforded the opportunity to make whatever kind of films you want.”
Reynor seems to be balancing his projects carefully. He’s currently working with Casey Affleck to portray Texas Ranger outfielder Josh Hamilton and his lifelong battle with addiction, while the upcoming Glassland sees Reynor return to home soil – a big bonus for a young man who’s spent the best part of two years away from his family.
“It's hard being away from home," he says, "so I’m doing my best both to come back as much as I can and to make Irish films. I’ve done Glassland with Gerard Barret [Pilgrim Hill] which is very much an Irish story and I’ve a few others in the pipeline. I’ve just started my own production company and I want to make a few films here before going abroad with that. It’s important to me, because it can be difficult to be away from home; you can feel quite isolated and disjointed – that’s the price you pay for all these amazing experiences.”
Despite his sudden propulsion to worldwide fame, Reynor seems admirably dismissive of celebrity culture, and is determined to keep his private life just so. He’s revealing nothing about his recent engagement to Irish model Madeline Mulqueen, and expresses a wariness about the sycophancy that can often seduce young stars.
“The fame and profile stuff doesn’t interest me," he states. "I don’t engage with it. I’m still the same person – I cook in my apartment and play video games, like I’ve always done.”
Though he does reveal that he has a pretty important fan.
“I met Stephen Spielberg on the red carpet of the New York premiere the other day, and it was such a weird experience to have that man come over to me and give me a hug and know exactly who I was and what I was doing. That’s a surreal, wonderful, crazy experience.”
He’s also good friends with Michael Fassbender, and has just finished working with the 12 Years a Slave actor on Justin Kurzels’ adaptation of Macbeth – not that he’s uttering the name of the Shakespearian tragedy.
“We called it ‘The Scottish Play’ at the top of our call sheets,” he laughs. "It’s just one of those things you have to be superstitious about! It was one of the best filmmaking experiences of my life. The cast is incredible. Michael Fassbender is the best dude. I met him when Frank had wrapped and he was full of advice before I went off to do Transformers. So I was grateful not only for the opportunity to work with him, but also to sit down with him and reflect on the experience of making Transformers.”
The young actor also acknowledges you can’t please everyone – the trick is to not let the haters get in his way.
 “There’s begrudgery everywhere. You’ll find people in the same field who just don’t like what you do. At the same time, there are plenty of people in Ireland who get a snot up their nose about the fact that I’m doing okay overseas. But I have an incredible amount of support from Ireland as well, and a great group of people who are happy that I’m flying the flag for our film industry. If I can continue to do that, then great.”

Transformers: Age of Extinction is in cinemas now.