George MacKay Continues to Nimbly Navigate His Career

It was almost two years ago that Awards Daily sat down with George MacKay while on a promotional tour for Sam Mendes’ 1917. The film, at that point in time, was just gaining critical and awards traction and MacKay, himself, was rightly being praised for his fully committed performance in Mendes’ masterpiece.

Post-1917, MacKay switched gears and masterfully took on the gritty persona of the outlaw Ned Kelly in Justin Kurzel’s True History of the Kelly Gang. He then donned his comedy cap as the Meryl Streep-loving Ryan in Rachel Hirons’ A Guide to Second Date Sex.

Now, in Nathalie Biancheri’s (Nocturnal) futuristic second feature, Wolf, MacKay plays Jacob, a young man who doesn’t believe he is human—he is certain he is a wolf. And his family, not knowing what to do with this, sends him to a clinic where others who suffer from species identity disorder or species dysphoria (a real thing) are cured.

MacKay, continuing to prove he is one of the most eclectic actors of his generation as well as one of the most committed, fully immerses himself into the role of Jacob, a young man who, to his mind and body, is a wolf. The actor allows us access into the mind and body of the enigmatic Jacob—just enough so we can feel his conflict, not that he’s overly conflicted about who/what he is. The real discord, for him, has to do with wanting to please his parents who just want him to be normal—and to try and adapt to the human world. Complicating his situation, Jacob finds himself attracted to Wildcat (Lily-Rose Depp).

The themes the film explores have to do with identity but also with conformity—two issues that seem at odds with one another today, so the film is uber timely.

Awards Daily had a Zoom chat with MacKay about the film which opens in theaters on December 3, 2021.