Josh O’Connor on Speaking Like Royalty, 'Challengers' with Zendaya | The One with WSJ Magazine

That's true. It took me ages to unlock this jaw. Yeah, it was very, everyone speaks like that. I mean, I'm not a betting man, but I betted against myself for the Emmys, it's true. I put a bet on Billy Porter to win, because I loved Billy in that show. I think I was relieved that it was over, and scared about having to go up on stage. After I won the Emmy, I came down holding it, and I hugged my friend Zach, and I struck myself in the head with the Emmy. So in any picture of me at the Emmys, I am bleeding from the eye. But I mean, I'm sort of, I guess I am glad I lost that bet. As things go, it's probably a good thing. I think probably Series 3, Episode 6, which was my first ever episode. I know why people think I was cool for the role. And they're not wrong. It's because I have ears that protrude from my head. And Prince Charles, the real Prince Charles, who my character has a likeness to, has a likeness to my ears. And so I think maybe that was what that was about. I guess when you get stopped in the street by strangers. I did have an experience recently, and I'm conscious that I don't want to embarrass the poor person who's working at Starbucks. And they were staring at me, and then they said, I refuse any longer to be blamed for this grotesque misalliance, which is a line I say at the end of The Crown. And he just said it to me. Very strange, but very, I think, nice. Get really annoyed. Get really angry. It's probably my favourite scene to do in The Crown, because it was me and Emma, who's one of my great friends, and just shouting at each other. It was great. What's the one tip you have for speaking like a royal? Okay, so there's a good tip, which is, if you want to say yes, then you say ears. I learnt this from, I think, Claire Foy. The Queen says, I think, ears, ears, is her way of saying yes. So you just say ears, as in these, and it works. What's one new skill you've had to learn for a role? I learnt tennis for challenges. I learnt how to look reasonably good at tennis. How does one look reasonably good at tennis? Copy a really, actually good tennis player. I want you to be my coach. I feel like I could convincingly trick someone to think I could serve, but I rarely hit the ball. I rarely make contact with rackets and balls. I shot a tweener, which is a shot where you hit the ball through your legs. That was pure fluke, and it worked out really well. But that was total fluke. I'll never repeat that. Was it caught on camera? No. I think it was caught on someone's camera phone. Maybe Zendaya's, I don't know. Say the one word you still can't get right with an American accent. Oh, well, hamburger is quite hard. Hamburger, hamburger, hamburger. This is quite hard to say. What's the one American thing you've grown to love? IHOP. I really actually do love it. I've had some of the greatest culinary experiences have been at IHOP in my life. I didn't know, I thought it was a bank or an insurance company. Then I went in, discovered it was the International House of Pancakes, and ever since then I've loved it. I had eggs and potato hash and French toast with blueberries. I've never had anything else. I go for the same order every time. What's the one movie that is underrated in your opinion? Well, it's a movie that lots of people really like, but I think Superbad is one of the great movies of our time. Sometimes I think we consider it as a comedy and therefore by the by, but it's one of my favourite movies. What's the one scene you think about often? Michael Cera and Jonah Hill at the end of the film are having a sleepover and Jonah Hill goes doo-doo-doo-doo-doo on Michael Cera's nose and it's beautiful, it's masterful. Who's one character you've always wanted to play? I think probably I would love to play Willy Wonka. Like a dark Willy Wonka. I know they've just made a Wonka film with Timothee Chalamet, but I would really like to play a sort of darker version of him. I think Gene Wilder's version of him is very dark. It's not dark in a sinister necessarily way, it's just that I think he's a really angry man. These kids win a competition to go round a chocolate factory and they all seemingly disappear. I mean, it's sort of mad and dark. So I think I'd just play the truth of it. What's the one cast tradition you want to repeat? I made this film La Chimera. We would go to someone's house and then we'd sit in the garden and they would have cooked something and we'd just eat together. It's very Italian actually. For them it's really normal, it's just for me it's a really exciting thing. We're renting a movie theatre out here a lot where we are right now and we watch a movie of our choice. What did you choose the last time? I chose Paddington 2. I love marmalade, yeah. I'm a big fan of thick-cut marmalade, yes.