Guy Pearce, the guest of this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, is one of the most gifted screen actors of his generation.

An England-born Aussie, he has given standout performances in films such as 1994’s The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, 1997’s L.A. Confidential and 2000’s Memento; 2009’s The Hurt Locker and 2010’s The King’s Speech, both of which went on to win the best picture Oscar; and in the 2011 limited series Mildred Pierce, for which he won an Emmy and was nominated for Golden Globe and SAG awards, and the 2021 limited series Mare of Easttown, both opposite Kate Winslet.

Most recently, though, Pearce has garnered rave reviews for his portrayal of Harrison Lee Van Buren, a millionaire Pennsylvania industrialist who becomes the patron of a Jewish architect who survived the Holocaust and came to America, in Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, a film that received 10 Oscar nominations — including the first of his career, in the category of best supporting actor.

Over the course of a conversation at Santa Barbara’s El Encanto, a Belmond hotel on the American Riviera, the 57-year-old reflected on how a childhood tragedy may have helped to set him on the path to becoming an actor; how early stardom via Australian TV shaped the sorts of projects that he did and did not wish to pursue after he established himself internationally via L.A. Confidential; the abusive behavior to which he subjected by Kevin Spacey on the set of L.A. Confidential, and how it has haunted him even years later; why he’s as proud of The Brutalist as any film he’s made in the 28 years since L.A. Confidential; plus much more.