Domhnall Gleeson isnt among Hollywoods go-to leading lads, and yet he has one of todays most enviable movie careers.

The world took notice of the Irish actor in Never Let Me Go and as Bill Weasley in the final two Harry Potter flicks. What has followed is a medley of genre-hopping roles you try going from About Time to Frank to Unbroken and a playful charm defined by his floppy red mane and bashful smile. Gleesons nice-guy image is part of what makes him effective as the screechy General Hux in the new Star Wars movies; were scared of him, and amused by him, because we dont quite know where all that rage comes from.

That same dynamic undergirds A Futile and Stupid Gesture , a comedic biopic about the satirical magazine National Lampoon that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this week ahead of its Netflix release on Friday. Gleeson plays Henry Beard, the gifted, witty, pipe-smoking misanthrope who co-founded the Lampoon after graduating from Harvard University. This is one of seven movies in the span of five months to feature Gleeson. In a couple of weeks, hell also star in a big-screen adaptation of Peter Rabbit. As usual, hes never done anything resembling either project.

At Sundance, I gabbed with Gleeson about the polarizing reactions to mother! and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which of his movies he knew hed like before seeing them, and how thrilled he is for his Goodbye Christopher Robin co-star Margot Robbies Oscar nomination.

You had a nice 2017. Between September and December, American Made, mother! (even if it didnt do bonanza business), Goodbye Christopher Robin, Crash Pad and Star Wars opened. Now that were seeing so much of you, looking back, is there a moment when you felt your career had broken through?

Yeah, but its all in retrospect. It never feels like it at the moment. These are stories we tell ourselves to make sense of our lives afterward, to put it in some context and actually its not the way things really were at the time. Its funny. Its why I think, unless theyre diaries, no autobiography can really sum anybody up.

Getting a job with the Coen brothers [in True Grit] was massive for me. Even though it was a small part and did not have a big effect on my career per se, working with them, I could have retired. I mean, I would have been stuck for money forever, but that was a high point. Working with Martin McDonagh [in Six Shooter] at the very beginning, huge. That was my first job. It was massive. And then doing Anna Karenina made me a better actor. Working with Joe Wright made me a better actor. And then, in 2015, I got to do an Alex Garland movie, Ex Machina, and there was The Revenant and a few things that came out around the same time that felt like, oh man, things came together, and I was in some stuff that mattered to people.

And you say mother! did not do bonanza business. I dont know whether they made their money back or anything like that, but more people saw mother! than have seen most films Ive been in, and I think thats amazing. I adore that film. To me, thats a total success, that movie, from top to bottom.