Luther Ford doesn’t know why his The Man I Love character makes some of the choices he does. That style of filmmaking might have been frustrating for a different actor. But Ford, excited to be on a real film set after several years doing television, found Sachs’ atypical methods invigorating.
It was certainly a far cry from his first screen role as a teenage Prince Harry in the final season of Netflix’s The Crown. From there, the young actor went on to appear in several other shows, mostly British, including BBC One’s King & Conqueror, Apple TV+’s Criminal Record, and Netflix’s criminally underrated Black Doves. Though he enjoyed each of those experiences, he admits: “I was pretty cynical about acting.” Not so after The Man I Love.
Under Sachs’ documentary-style approach, Ford discovered a new appreciation for the form. It wasn’t just that his character, Vincent, a young Londoner fresh to New York, mirrored his own experience during production. But as filming carried on—with Ford playing the lustful chaos agent that comes between Jimmy (Rami Malek), a renowned theater actor dying of AIDS, and Dennis (Tom Sturridge), Jimmy’s longtime partner and caretaker—Ford found himself newly convinced of acting as a genuinely artistic enterprise.
Now, I feel like actors do actually have quite a lot of control if they know how to involve themselves.” Over green juices at Nine Orchard, Luther Ford sat down with GQ to talk about making the jump from TV to film, the unique experience of filming in New York, making an AIDS film that was about life rather than death, and why he prefers to act with people he doesn’t really know. GQ: In just a few hours, you’ll be attending the New York premiere of this very New York film. How are you feeling about that?
Luther Ford: It’s very exciting. We were filming it this time last year, so it’s nice to be back. I find that it’s a strange thing coming back together as a group of people, because you do something so intensely for a very short period of time—especially with Ira, where it’s a pretty intimate relationship—and then you disperse and sort of move on.
So I’m looking forward to it, but I guess I’m a bit nervous. How does a young British actor find his way into this New York story? You’ve only been working for a few years, and most of your work has been in British TV productions.
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