Jesse Plemons wants to talk, sure, but first he wants to order some food. He hasn't eaten all day, the 31-year-old actor tells me restlessly, and—interview or no interview—it's time for lunch. Work can wait.

We're sitting in the celebrity hotspot Nobu in midtown Manhattan, a place quite hilariously incongruous with the kind of character and style people associate with Plemons. Since coming to prominence in the revered network drama Friday Night Lights as Landry, a Texas high schooler with a heart of gold, he's carved out a respectable reputation as an icon in the "soft-spoken weirdo" character actor category.

Outside of Friday Night Lights, most will know Plemons as Todd, Jesse Pinkman's jailer and torturer in later seasons of Breaking Bad. The character returned as a surprise in El Camino last month, a Netflix film that follows Pinkman's immediate response to his trauma after escaping Todd, while flashing back to their time together that shines more light on the (possibly) sociopathic character.

Then there's the likes of the acclaimed "USS Callister" episode of Black Mirror, his Internet-favorite turn in 2018's surprise hit Game Night, and Season 2 of Fargo, during which he met his costar-turned-fiancée, Kirsten Dunst. Plemons's resume is impressive, despite the fact he's been working pretty much nonstop since his teen years.

As is the case with much of the characters who make up his body of work, Plemons is charming and speaks slowly and deliberately in real life, but there's an obvious undercurrent of something more working behind his eyes. It's what makes him, hero, villain, or anything in between, such an effective actor. GQ spoke with the man himself about revisiting Todd, fatherhood, and his upcoming turn in Charlie Kaufman's mind-bending new movie, I'm Thinking Of Ending Things.

GQ: So how long were you not allowed to talk about El Camino?

Jesse Plemons: My timeline is all messed, but I think it was almost a year. Yeah, a year.

I wasn't keeping close tabs but it seems like you guys did a good job of not being noticed, despite the fact you were back in Albuquerque shooting on location.

We were in the desert quite a lot, but there was one day where the scene was me driving Jesse to his apartment. It's in downtown Albuquerque and we were there all day; shooting, driving around in a hot car. Wardrobe, makeup, all of it. There were people all around, and this one guy noticed and took some pictures. I thought surely that was it, but somehow the secret stuck.

Maybe there's some kind of weird, underground Albuquerque cult that keeps everybody quiet about Breaking Bad now.

Well, I think Melissa [Bernstein], the producer, is the head of that cause. She really instills fear in you about not spoiling it.

Before Breaking Bad, Landry was probably how most people knew you. Todd is a much darker character, but with elements of that charm. What's your understanding of Todd—clinically, even?

I'm conflicted. He's so tough to break down. I like the fact people have their own theories. All I had in the beginning to work with was a small breakdown: That he's fresh-faced and eager to please... He seems harmless but there's something deep inside there.

So then, I got the part and no one would really tell me anything, since I was a recurring character and not a regular. You don't really learn much about him the first few episodes. The only directions I really got in those early days from Vince [Gilligan] was moments before I shoot that kid on the bike at the end of the train episode. He came up to me and said "OK, so if you're driving and a raccoon runs out in front of you, you have two choices: You can swerve to the right and drive into a ditch, or you can swerve left into oncoming traffic: What do you do?" And I stood there for a second, thinking there was more to it, but that was it. That's what I got.