Joe Alwyn's first appearance on an American talk show wasn't a total flop

Adrien Brody was in London yesterday for the premiere of The Brutalist along with director Brady Corbet, co-writer Mona Fastvold, and co-stars Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce. Meanwhile Joe Alwyn, who’s also a member of the cast, and is from London, was in New York and made an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

The Brutalist is expected to be nominated for a number of Oscars across the board and is one of the frontrunners for the big one, Best Picture. And for Joe, this wouldn’t be the first time. He was in The Favourite and Kinds of Kindness and also involved in other prestige productions that could have been contenders, like Mary Queen of Scots, Harriet, and of course Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk which, of course, is the film that kicked off his career. And, arguably, put him on Taylor Swift’s radar because during the promotional cycle for that film when he first started making the rounds and met her, presumably, at the Met Gala in 2016. Much to his chagrin, since then, that’s what Joe’s most known for: being Taylor’s ex-boyfriend with whom she was in her longest relationship. Like, yes, that must suck for him but let’s not pretend that he’d be as recognisable based solely on the work he’s done thus far in his career.

Speaking of the work though, as just mentioned, he’s had experience with some high profile and/or auteur directors – Yorgos Lanthimos, twice, Ang Lee, now Brady Corbet – and he works steadily in supporting roles. But he has yet to make a convincing jump to being a lead actor which, maybe he doesn’t want that, maybe he just wants to be a working actor, period, but I’m sure we can agree that’s not the usual trajectory.

I say all this because, well, Joe’s appearance on Seth Meyers was his first time on an American talk show. An opportunity to promote The Brutalist but also himself. And he was… fine? It wasn’t a charm offensive, as harsh as that might sound, but I wouldn’t say it was a total flop either. This, by the way, is how I would characterise his acting. When Joe Alwyn is in a movie or a series, he’s serviceable, but he doesn’t pop. His contemporaries are actors like Barry Keoghan, Austin Butler, Callum Turner, Leo Woodall, Jacob Elordi, Glen Powell, Liam Hemsworth.

With the exception of Liam Hemsworth, I would say that all of those names are making more progress in the business than both Liam and Joe….although Liam recently had a mild hit in Lonely Planet with Laura Dern. Ironically both of them, Liam and Joe, are best known for dating popstars, Miley and Taylor.

There’s an idea for a movie – and you can throw Orlando Bloom and Taylor Kinney in it too. Kinda like First Wives Club but for actor exes of popstars. I would watch it, wouldn’t you?