Interview: Ruaridh Mollica on ‘Sebastian’
2024 was a great year for Ruaridh Mollica. From the Sundance premiere of Sebastian – which led to him attending both the BAFTAs and the Scottish BAFTAs, as well as the BIFAs as a nominee – to having three projects debut at the 2024 BFI London Film Festival (HBO series The Franchise, Disney+ series A Thousand Blows and Sebastian, which had its UK premiere at the festival) to landing a nomination for Best Actor at the Jussi Awards, the Finnish equivalent of the Oscars, it’s been one milestone after another for the actor, who was born in Italy to a Scottish mother and an Italian father before relocating to Scotland.
“Oh my gosh, this journey has been completely unbelievable,” says Mollica of his 2024. “I think if I had imagined where I would be this year versus where I had imagined I would be before we found out we were at Sundance, I couldn’t even come up with this. Sundance and this film really have changed my life completely. I had no idea that Sundance would bring so many opportunities and open up America [for me] in the way that it has and in such a short time. That was something I’d always think about; ‘When is that gonna happen? When are these things gonna happen?’ And then things slowly started rolling and rolling, and I guess there’s been a snowball effect as well. But it’s been quite incredible. I was even able to make acting my full time job after that.”
2025 already seems like it’ll be another banner year for the actor; he was recently cast in a top secret role in upcoming Marvel series Vision Quest (“I cannot comment! I cannot say anything!”), which began filming last month. Sebastian is also getting its highly-anticipated UK release via distributor Peccadillo Pictures, who release the film in UK and Irish cinemas today.
“It’s the release that I think is so important because it’s where the film is shot and based, and where I’m from,” says the actor. “It’s just really exciting. I’ve got a lot of friends coming to the special Q&A at the Rio in Dalston, which is also so special because we actually shot at the Rio in Dalston! So it’s been really, really nice and really exciting.”
Mollica is in virtually every single scene, almost every single frame of the film, which was written and directed by Finnish-British filmmaker Mikko Mäkelä, turning in a complex, incredibly layered portrayal of a lost young man attempting to find his place in the world, proving he has the range required to tackle such a complex character and delivering one of the best performances of the year so far in the process. It’s a well-crafted, highly nuanced showcase of his talents. The kind of debut that doesn’t just suggest potential, but announces it. It’s almost hard to believe that Sebastian is not only Mollica’s very first leading role, but also his very first role in a feature film, period.
The process of finding the character of Max, an aspiring novelist who turns to sex work under the name Sebastian in order to find inspiration for his debut novel, was “tricky and long,” according to Mollica. While Mollica technically only plays a single character in the film, he’s tasked with the tall order of capturing two, very distinctive aspects of his personality; the anxious, neurotic Max, and the more confident, charismatic Sebastian, a chameleon-like figure who adapts to his surroundings and situations seemingly effortlessly. Luckily, however, he had almost a year to prep for his performance in the film; due to COVID restrictions and logistical factors, the film’s start date kept getting pushed, allowing Mollica to work closely with Mäkelä to carefully develop his performance.
“It involved delving into all of the nuances with Mikko so it was really a collaborative process,” says Mollica of the prep work he did ahead of filming. “Mikko knew this character inside out and so I spent hours with him going through every line of the script over and over, just having an open table discussion. ‘What’s happening in this scene? What does Max want to get out of this? What does he feel in this moment?’ And really just fine-combing every single part of the script through the eyes of Max, which was really special. I never had such a hands-on experience with anything that I did before.”
Mollica also dove headfirst into books, films and music to prepare for the role, reading novels recommended by Mäkelä such as John Rechy‘s City of Night, which directly inspired the filmmaker as he was developing the project, and also many of the books that Max namedrops in the film, which he says helped him grow closer to the character. “Something I also did was read all the literature that Max was reading,” he explains. “It really helped me connect with him and get into his brain. It also made me see the world through these little parts of other authors’ eyes. Reading Bret Easton Ellis [whose heavily namedropped in the film as an inspiration for Max] also helped a lot in terms of understanding the feeling and concept of autofiction. And then I watched so many Bret Easton Ellis interviews that were in the film. That was extremely helpful. I guess music helped a lot, as well. I listened to a lot of Rufus Wainwright. A lot of sad music.”
When it comes to films, however, Mollica had a long list of recommendations he received from Mäkelä to help him prepare for the role, including a number of films by Olivier Assayas and François Ozon. One of the films he found on his own, however, that particularly influenced his performance was Eliza Hittman‘s Beach Rats, a brutally honest, incredibly stark portrait of an aimless Brooklyn teenager who struggles to reconcile his competing sexual desires. “Incredible film,” he gushes. “I found it so inspiring. It follows this character that also had a secret and was keeping something hidden. I felt like it really accurately described how that could lead to alienation in the same way [that Sebastian does]. And then also Non-Fiction, the Olivier Assayas film. It’s about the literary writing world. And then Clouds of Sils Maria. Mikko really wanted me to watch it to understand the meta-ness of having a film where the character is also kind of living their story, but they’re also creating their art at the same time. And that was really valuable.”
Much like other queer films that came before it, such as the aforementioned Beach Rats and Francis Lee‘s God’s Own Country, which launched the careers of Harris Dickinson and Josh O’Connor respectively, Sebastian found an audience as soon as it premiered in Sundance, garnering instant praise for its “gripping”, “compelling” tone and critical acclaim for Mollica’s performance. The Washington Blade’s John Paul King lauded his “charismatic, layered, thoroughly authentic” turn in the film. The Guardian’s Phil Hoad praised his “strong performance.” NPR’s Bob Mondello wrote: “Ruaridh Mollica lets you see every chink in Max’s armor just before a piece of that armor falls away.” Did he anticipate such a response when they were making the film?
“I’d like to think that Mikko and James [Watson], our producer, knew that that would happen,” he remarks. “But I think when you’re making an indie like this, you’re very close with the team and kind of in this little world of the film for however many weeks it takes to shoot it. You kind of forget that it’s gonna grow legs and arms, and that people might relate to it. Obviously, that’s what you hope. But in the moment, you really aren’t thinking about the product afterwards as the actor. You’re in the moment. I’m very proud of it regardless but to have it impact people in a deeply meaningful way is really quite wonderful.”
As for what’s next (aside from that Marvel role, of course), Mollica just recently wrapped production on actor Tom Brittney‘s directorial debut, the short film Joe, which is based on the novel The Whale Tattoo by Jon Ransom. The short, which follows a troubled young man haunted by the premonitions of a dead whale and a ghost he can’t escape, was envisioned as a proof of concept that would hopefully lead to a feature down the line. Brittney and his producers just recently held a screening in London for potential investors and funding bodies in the hopes of gathering funding for a feature.
“The screening went very well, so fingers crossed it goes ahead,” says Mollica. “It was an incredible experience [being part of the film]. I already read the book at the start of 2024. I read it and I loved it. And then the next thing I knew, my agent was like, ‘Okay, we’ve got an audition for you for The Whale Tattoo.’ I was like, ‘Brilliant!’ My agent also loved the book and we were very much like, ‘Wow, this would be brilliant!’ When I got cast, I was absolutely over the moon. The character is very complicated in the way that Sebastian was, which is why I really liked it, but there’s also a lot more edge to it. I also really liked the depictions of this working class community, and also how it explores dealing with grief. So yeah, it was great! I also got to meet Jon, the author, at the screening. It was really nice to meet him for the first time, it was nice to chat.”
For now, though, Mollica is focused on the UK release of the film, with regional Q&As set to take part throughout the UK in the coming week. “I really grew and learned from this film,” he says. “It has been such a joy to travel with it and do the Q&As, have it connect and hear people’s responses and things.”
SEBASTIAN is now playing in cinemas across the UK.