Oscar and BAFTA nominee Kodi-Smit McPhee reveals what he's learned from co-stars Benedict Cumberbatc

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(14 Feb 2022) OSCAR AND BAFTA NOMINEE KODI-SMIT MCPHEE REVEALS WHAT HE'S LEARNED FROM CO-STARS BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, ERIC BANA AND VIGGO MORTENSEN

Kodi Smit-McPhee is having a great 2022 so far with Oscar and BAFTA nominations for his standout role in Jane Campion's "The Power of the Dog."

The performance also earned the 25-year-old a Golden Globe Award, and nominations from the Screen Actors Guild and the New York Film Critics for best supporting actor.

Smit-McPhee has also just been nominated for a EE BAFTA Rising Star award.  Previous winners include Tom Holland, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright and John Boyega.

Smit-McPhee first started acting at the age of nine, making his feature film debut in "Romulus, My Father" opposite Eric Bana in 2007. He followed that up with a starring role in post-apocalyptic drama "The Road" (2009), in which he played Viggo Mortensen's son.

The actor from Adelaide, South Australia, learned a great deal from both Mortensen and Bana at a very young age.

"Those two were kind of pillars that I walk between as my entrance into the industry and what is now my passion.  And for that, they really served as a blueprint for how I carry myself in my commitment onscreen and to how I hold myself offscreen, and also how I navigate, you know, my ambitions in terms of how famous I might want to be or how big I might want to be, which ultimately, under the wing of Viggo and Eric Bana, is much smaller than maybe a lot of other people fantasize about," Smit-McPhee told The Associated Press in a recent video interview.

"I'm so happy just doing what I love, but at the same time, I love just being me and being grounded and coming back home to Australia and just kind of being under the radar like Viggo.  So I've taken a lot of those attributes and tried to apply them wisely."

He has since gone on to star in a plethora of high-profile films, including horror movie "Let Me In" alongside Chloe Moretz, 2014's "Dawn of The Planet of The Apes" with Gary Oldman, and Western film "Slow West" with Michael Fassbender.  He is also known for his portrayal of Nightcrawler in Marvel's "X-Men: Apocalypse" and "X-Men: Dark Phoenix," with a cameo of the role in "Deadpool 2."

But it is "The Power of the Dog" that has gained the actor the most attention and critical acclaim for his role as troubled teen Peter, alongside brutal rancher Phil, played by Benedict Cumberbatch.  The British actor, who stayed in character throughout the shoot, also taught Smit-McPhee a great deal during the filmmaking process.

"With Peter and Phil (Smit McPhee and Cumberbatch's characters), they do have this kind of on-and-off relationship where, yes, they're trying to peel away layers of each other's vulnerability and there's this sense of impending doom with them both.  But at the same time, there's almost kind of like a romance and a love brewing between them.  So because we kind of subconsciously had that arc within our head, we had a lot more elasticity in terms of how we carried ourselves around each other.  So I'm very grateful for that - like, we had a good laugh, we had a good giggle in the times that it was responsible to.  But yeah, other than that, it was called cold Phil on set," he said.  

Smit-McPhee has worked with eminent directors including Jane Campion, John Hillcoat, Matt Reeves and Baz Luhrmann (for the upcoming Elvis biopic), though he doesn't have a wishlist of filmmakers with whom he would like to collaborate.

"I really just am a believer in the fact that, you know, the right things will come for you if you have your head screwed on."

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