George MacKay on Callum Turner, Bond Villain

British mainstays like George MacKay are quickly getting used to fielding questions about James Bond casting rumors, with everyone from the likes of Tom Francis to MacKay’s own “Rose of Nevada” co-star Callum Turner reportedly being considered. But for the “1917” and “Pride” actor who’s in love with the “process” of filmmaking — and used to transforming — there’s an entirely different 007 role he’d love to play.

“I quite like the idea of a villain — maybe a one and done, chew the scenery a bit, come be part of it, get the best scenes and then get killed!” MacKay tells Variety with a laugh.

MacKay hasn’t taken on a villainous role in a blockbuster yet, but it’s that willingness to constantly challenge himself that makes him one of the U.K.’s most formidable and consistent performers. His foreboding performance in Mark Jenkin’s new film “Rose of Nevada,” releasing in theaters this weekend from 1-2 Special, takes him to darker places than ever before; his character, Nick, is desperate to support his family, while Liam (Turner) is desperate to escape the past. After going out to sea to fish, they accidentally time travel back to 30 years ago. Upon returning to land, everyone in their local Cornish village assumes they are a pair of fishermen that actually went missing.

Watching Jenkin’s last two films, 2019’s “Bait” and 2022’s “Enys Men,” drew MacKay to his distinctive style. “I want to try as many different ways of working as I can to learn and get better,” he says. “To know Mark’s got, firstly, a very specific filmmaking process, and that the film itself is so deeply entwined with that process and fused to it — that was why I wanted to be part of it.”

The filmmaking process was unique as Jenkin shot on 16mm film with a Bolex camera, giving the actors only 27 seconds to shoot scenes at a time — certainly a change of pace from the “1917” long takes. To add onto that, all the sound was recorded in post. MacKay says these conditions forced him to be “accurate” as a performer.

“Sometimes, you work with a director that encourages or has a process that allows you to offer every interpretation, so you kind of go home at the end of the day feeling like, ‘I don’t know which one they’ll pick.’ But I felt like I did everything [here],” MacKay says. “You have a real sense of ownership because you’ve had one go at it … I’m being trusted with this version, so this is my choice. There you go. I’m not ashamed to hide my choice within nine other versions.”

Although MacKay had only briefly met Turner before “Rose of Nevada,” both actors were born in London, can proudly call themselves BAFTA nominees, and often find themselves in the same circle of friends and colleagues. So perhaps being co-stars was always fate.

“I admire his ambition, his choices and the work that he’s doing and wants to be part of,” MacKay says. “Second only to Mark, he’s probably the biggest cinephile I’ve ever met. There is not a film he hasn’t seen and that was also a lesson just in terms of knowing your subject. I always respect people who are an expert in what they do.”

When it came to playing their characters and getting into a flow, MacKay says they didn’t talk much about it: “It was all quite guttural and natural.” Learning how to fish, however, was a different story.

“Thankfully, my character was inept as a fisherman, so I could embrace my ineptitude and be a rookie,” MacKay says with a laugh. The same couldn’t be said for Turner.

To capture the intense fishing scenes out in the ocean, there was some “simple movie magic” done to make the boat look like it was moving. “But so much of the fishing sequences we were doing, we were hauling those nets,” MacKay adds. “Those winches were going, we were gutting the fish. In a way, it takes any having to imagine or intellectualize out of it. You just have to do the task in front of you.”

MacKay typically finds himself drawn to complex characters. Nick, on the other hand, is very direct: “He’s a simple bloke. I remember writing on my script in Cornish, it got translated, ‘It is what it is.’ He has a family, he will try and find work to feed his family; he’s not particularly good at that, but he will try his best. It was a very simple goal all the time in just an extraordinary situation.”

Liam comes to accept this new reality, taking in a family that isn’t his own, leaving Nick to experience this accidental time travel in complete isolation: “It’s only horrific because you experience the film with Nick, and then it’s not so horrific because Liam is actually looking for that. He’s gifted this thing that, you don’t know why, but he hasn’t found it in his life. Is it a loving thing that the people he falls in with accept him with a sort of quiet knowing that maybe he isn’t who he says he is? Or is that a horrific and dangerous thing?”

“I just don’t have any answers, but I think Mark’s sparse writing reflects that,” he adds. “Ironically, it’s the sparsity and the kind of strictness and rawness of the writing that allows many more ephemeral and fluid interpretations.”

Starring in “Rose of Nevada” continues MacKay’s trajectory of working on more independent, arthouse projects. After his breakthrough role in 2019’s “1917,” which was nominated for 10 Oscars and grossed $384 million worldwide, MacKay found his groove in films like the queer neo-noir “Femme,” trippy cerebral sci-fi “The Beast” and end-of-the-world musical “The End.”

Although, like “Rose of Nevada,” those films defy categorization. MacKay explains his rationale for the roles he chooses: “At the end of the day, the making of the film, whether it gets seen or not by how many people — it’s a very personal pursuit. So it’s just following my gut in terms of what I find exciting, important or unknown. That’s been the litmus test, really. And then it’s a bit of a lottery as to what hits home, or doesn’t, in terms of a commercial success.”

Next up, MacKay will star as Edward Ferrars in the latest adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility,” alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones, Caitriona Balfe and Fiona Shaw. Beyond the story, what excited MacKay most about joining that film was getting to work with director Georgia Oakley, who made her directorial debut with the acclaimed indie “Blue Jean.”

“It’s fucking amazing, a gorgeous film. In a way, when I saw ‘Blue Jean,’ I knew that when I got the opportunity to read the ‘Sense and Sensibility’ script’ and that Georgia would be directing it — no pun intended — her sensibility as a filmmaker felt so correct for this,” MacKay says. “And in a way, the themes of the film with the rules that people have, or society has, about who and how you love and the things that are attached to a pure feeling. It felt very right that Georgia would be helming it … I’ve seen a cut of it, and I’m really thrilled.”

“Rose of Nevada” is currently playing in limited theaters.