When Arthur Conti sent out a self tape for Mike Flanagan’s new adaptation of Carrie, he was met with radio silence. As the months went by, he recalls thinking, “Oh, that’s a shame, never mind.” The British actor was coming off the premiere of his breakout project, Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and didn’t have any future projects lined up. Then, his agent called.
The idea that one phone call can “change your life forever” has become somewhat of a Hollywood cliché. But, for Conti, that conversation announced he had not only landed a spot in Jane Schoenbrun’s meta-slasher Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, but also booked the role of Billy Nolan in Prime Video’s Carrie series, all from that single self-tape (“Which has never happened before,” he makes sure to preface). Suddenly, in almost instant succession, Conti was set to star in two of the year’s biggest horror projects. “It was one of the best days,” the now 22-year-old beams.
A longtime fan of Schoenbrun, Conti found his Camp Miasma role—as a love interest in the film within a film—by cold emailing the director to express his love for their work. Conti’s character, Alex, is a haunting figure of both sexual discovery and violence, a thread that continues into Carrie. Released earlier this month (and renewed for a second season late last week), Flanagan’s adaptation of Stephen King’s debut novel about a bullied girl with telekinetic powers is refreshed for the social media age—expect anonymous meme accounts, momfluencers, and exploding iPhones. Conti revives John Travolta’s breakout role as the drug-dealing, pig-slaying, neighborhood delinquent who helps douse Carrie in a blood at the prom (spoiler alert).
Conti has a knack for portraying characters that are, as he describes them, “odious, but in a charismatic way.” He frequently draws from Philip Seymour Hoffman’s performance in The Talented Mr. Ripley: boyish yet brooding, charming yet unnerving. He’s got a bit of a bad boy streak himself, but also has a stark reminder for fans: “I’m not my character.”
Stage presence runs in the family: His grandfather is Scottish actor Tom Conti (most recently recognizable as Albert Einstein in Oppenheimer), and his mother is ventriloquist comic Nina Conti. After a stint as an anxious groomsman in his grade school’s production of The Drowsy Chaperone—the musical was only for kids in year 10 or above, and although he was in year nine, he was allowed to join the cast—he fell in love with performing. Two rejections by acting academies didn’t quell his passions, “I didn’t take it too seriously,” he says, shrugging. He believes his path to be kismet, and sure enough, he was cast in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice shortly thereafter; it’s not everyday a director like Burton takes a chance on a young actor with “next to no experience.”
Up next for the young star is one of his most ambitious roles yet, from another prominent voice in horror, Ti West, in his Dickens adaptation, Ebenezer. Conti steps in as the young, rosy version of Johnny Depp’s Scrooge. When I suggest that Conti might be vying for our generation’s next scream king crowning, his face flushes briefly. “I’m flattered to be called by that name,” he says, with a bashful smile. He’s excited about the current state of horror—the genre he consumes the most—and would love to stick with it as long as it’ll have him. “Horror can be so personal in a really beautiful way,” he muses.
Also on the way? His first rom-com: Egg Baby, opposite Ariana Greenblatt, Kingston Rumi Southwick, and Jean Smart. Although all he can say is that he is at one vertex of a love triangle, it is “some of the most fun I’ve ever had.” On his day off from set, he sat down with CULTURED to gush about the best advice he’s gotten from Michael Keaton, which Succession character inspired his performance as Billy Nolan, and how he’s quietly angling to be the world’s first nepo ventriloquist.
How are you feeling now that Carrie is released?
I’m feeling wonderful. It’s so great to see people enjoying the show and watching it like they are. I’m very proud to be a part of it. It’s been crazy seeing the reaction the show has had. I suppose I had a feeling that it would resonate with people, but the scale of it has really taken me aback.
Coming off of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, and now Carrie, you’ve hopped between a few very different worlds within horror. How is it staying in the same genre but switching between these vastly different universes?
First of all, I can’t believe the opportunities I’ve had in the last couple of years. It’s totally unthinkable to go from Tim Burton to Jane Schoenbrun to Mike Flanagan. It’s a Mount Rushmore of some of my favorite horror directors. Each and every one of them has such a distinct style. They’re all true auteurs, and just getting to be on those different sets and see how they work, it’s such an education and so exciting. To work with your heroes is just unbelievable.
The “never meet your heroes” maxim does not apply here.
It does not apply here at all.
Speaking of Mount Rushmore, do you have a Mount Rushmore of horror?
I’ll go as though we’re doing a Letterboxd-style top four of horror films. The Shining: gun to my head, that’s probably my favorite film. If I could only watch one film for the rest of my life, I think it would be that. Beau Is Afraid: it’s polarizing, but I think it’s such a staggering work of imagination that is completely unfettered from somebody’s mind. That’s right up my street. Eraserhead, as well. It’s probably my favorite David Lynch. And then I’ll go with We’re All Going to the World’s Fair.
I’m really drawn to horror because it emboldens filmmakers to go outside the box a little bit and take risks and be experimental. It’s so ripe for metaphor. The best way to get under an audience’s skin is to tap into that dream-nightmare logic. That’s what I look for in a film a lot of the time: risk-taking. Being a bit out there and a bit weird.
Do you remember the first time you were ever frightened by a film?
Yes, it was The Polar Express. [Laughs] Scary as hell! He goes through that carriage with all the puppets and the marionettes and the Scrooge puppet starts shouting at him—that scared the living daylights out of me. I could not sleep for weeks.
But you saw that and were like, You know what, give me more.
I was intrigued by it. I wanted to go back in.
I had heard that in prepping for the role of Billy in Carrie, you didn’t watch the Brian De Palma adaptation until after the series filmed, because you didn’t want to subconsciously copy John Travolta’s Billy. Had you seen the 2013 version, or read the book, or nothing?
I had read the book when I was a teenager, and I remember reading it all in one sitting in a single afternoon. But I didn’t revisit it. I hadn’t seen the 2013 version, and I hadn’t seen the De Palma one. I wanted to take this version at face value and not have any input. I think this characterization of Billy is so different from Travolta’s, just in the way that it’s written, that I couldn’t have copied him.
If not the previous Billy Nolans, who did inspire your performance?
There are a couple of inspirations. Kieran Culkin as Roman Roy in Succession, weirdly, was a huge one for me. I saw them as similar people: these bullied kids who have grown up having to detach themselves from the rest of the world and from other people. They try to appear as though they find everything funny and they’re unbothered by everything, this sort of nihilistic attitude. I also looked to Fargo a lot, at both Steve Buscemi and William H. Macy in that film. Character-wise, I think that film is the pinnacle of the most sociopathic, pathetic, weak men trying to puff themselves up, which at the end of the day is what Billy is.
You were brought up in a very performance-based family. Your grandfather is an actor, and your mother is a comedian and ventriloquist. Have you ever dabbled in any ventriloquism?
Not in any serious way. It’s not something I would follow in the footsteps of. However, this is my pitch to the world: I did see that they are remaking Anthony Hopkins’s Magic. I would love to be in the room where that conversation is happening, casting-wise. I could put what little ventriloquial knowledge I have toward that, and maybe it’ll find its way into a character of mine one day.
Hint, hint, nudge, nudge. Arthur wants this.
I do. Badly. I think it would be amazing. You don’t get to use ventriloquial nepotism very often.
I don’t think we’ve ever had one before: a nepo ventriloquist.
I’m the first one. I’m coming for Jeff Dunham.
Is there a piece of advice that you’ve received from any of your co-stars or directors where you thought, I know this is going to stick with me for the rest of my career?
At the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice premiere, I was talking to Michael Keaton. He was just asking me questions like, “You got anything else coming up? What’s going on?” I said, “No, I don’t have anything else lined up. I’m still kind of waiting for my next thing.” He just said, “Well, don’t panic, ’cause that’s when you’re gonna make the wrong decisions about what you do next. Be patient. Pick the right stuff, pick what speaks to you.”
The “don’t panic” really stayed with me. I will always remember him saying that. I’m proud of the projects that I’m doing. I think if he hadn’t said that, I might not have been able to curate the things that I’ve done in quite the same way. I could have gotten so carried away and panicked because it was all so new and so exciting and so weird.
Do you remember the first time you were recognized in public?
It really honestly doesn’t happen to me that often. I think the first time was—God, this is weird—there was a guy who turned up as I was walking along, and he had a Beetlejuice poster for me to sign. I was like, How do you have… where did you… how did you know…? That was weird. Where did you get that? Do you just carry a Beetlejuice poster around with you at all times just in case you run into anyone in the film?
Were you just on the street randomly?
Yes! Which was strange. That was the first time that happened. So it was a baptism of fire. I still don’t know what was going on there. If anybody wants a picture or wants anything signed, I want to be nice. I want to feel like you can approach me. I will be nice to you.
You seem very approachable despite playing a drug dealer who kills pigs.
I think a lot of people who play villains get branded or hated because of the characters they play. I’ve seen some of that based on this character. I’m not really. I’m acting!
He’s not even American, guys.
I’m not even American, guys!
You’re starring in the adaptation of A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer. You play a young version of Johnny Depp’s Scrooge. How do you feel about reinvigorating such a familiar character?
I did watch Alastair Sim’s Scrooge to prepare for that. Because I’m playing him before he became who he was, I could go in my own direction with it as well. To play a character like that, and to work with Ti West, another person I really, really look up to—the X movies are fantastic, and he’s such a brilliant director—was very exciting for me.
What’s the most interesting part of the character to explore for you? You’re playing an idyllic version of someone who’s known as the most cynical character in literature.
I think the more wide-eyed and optimistic you make him at the start, the more effective it’ll be when he goes the other way. That was my approach to it.
Do you have a dream role that you’re hoping to land in the future? Any dream collaborators?
Recently, after watching Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie, Matt Johnson is somebody I would just love to collaborate with. I love his brain, I love the way he talks about movies and the way he makes movies. I love the performances that he gets out of people.
Since you started out in theater, do you have any stage dreams?
My love really was musicals. I’m a big [Stephen] Sondheim fan. Anthony in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, who sings “Johanna,” that’s a big dream role. Company as well. I’m a bit young for that now, but a Sondheim show would be a dream. Edward Albee’s probably one of my favorite playwrights. The Zoo Story: I think that would be a really good one. Kenneth Lonergan, This Is Our Youth. It’d be great. Love that play. I’d love to get more into theater, actually.
Since you’re young and you’re breaking into everything, do you have any hidden talents that you want to make public—other than nepo-ventriloquism—that you’d love to utilize in a role?
I do like singing. I don’t wanna spoil too much of Egg Baby, but you can expect to see me singing.
Do you have a karaoke song that you go to?
I have several, I would say. “Wicked Game” [by Chris Isaak] is precisely my go-to. “Call the Police” [by LCD Soundsystem] as well. I love karaoke.
How often do you go?
Not nearly enough.
Are you in a private box, or are you like, I’m going to the bar, and everyone in the bar is gonna hear me sing?
It has to be a private box. I’m not brave enough for that.
But you’ll sing on screen?
I’ll sing on screen—who knows how that’s gonna go. It’ll follow me forever, but… get excited about that!
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