■ The US actor, 34, talks weird Kylo Ren fans, martin scorsese and why he’d be rubbish undercover

In new film BlacKkKlansman you play Flip Zimmerman, a cop who infiltrates the Ku Klux Klan. Could you see yourself as an undercover cop?

Me? I don’t think so. It’s not my calling. I don’t know if acting is my calling either! But certainly not undercover cops… the biggest difference being, as actors you’re pretending the stakes are life and death, and with cops they actually are.

Did you get to meet the real-life guy?

He was not around. He has a different name [in real life] but he really wasn’t involved very much. You get little details of the person, which I think are fine for me. I feel like when you’re playing somebody real, you try to cherry-pick things that open your imagination.

The film deals with racism head-on. Can films change people?

I think that they do have the potential. I know from growing up in Indiana, being suddenly exposed to worlds that weren’t mine — it’s like a cheap version of travel. It just opens up your perspective.

Do recent events make you worried for the future of America?

I’m always optimistic about everything. It’s not so much America as the world. But I don’t know if I, as an actor, am qualified to answer about the future of America. Nor do I feel like I would do it justice with a one-line sentence.

How do you choose your roles?

I try to do things that are no-brainers to me. Do you want to work with Martin Scorsese? Yeah. Do you want to work with Terry Gilliam? Of course. Spike Lee, Jim Jarmusch? Of course. You just have to try to make time. Sometimes you overlap and that’s tricky because you don’t want to always be on a film set… again, that’s a good problem to have, but you also have to live life. Then when people notice you, or you’re aware of the loss of your anonymity, that’s a weird thing too. That’s a direct conflict with what your actual job is. Your actual job is to be a spy, live life, have experiences and be anonymous. Suddenly you’re at some place and people are looking at you… how do you not feel self-conscious? I don’t know how to do that.

Do you feel more pressure now you’re famous?

I feel pressure ordering soup! Just because… how will I time this out right so I’m not burping in people’s faces? I’m joking but it doesn’t take a lot for me to try to make things in my life meaningful. I’m aware that we don’t have a lot of time in life as people and you want to try and do things that are important to you but not take it so seriously. Be available but not be absent.

You’ve talked in the past about a super-fan dressing up as Kylo Ren and marching up your hotel corridor trying to find you. Is that as weird as it gets?

It’s all different kinds of weird! It’s not all one thing. It’s just strange. I lived a life for a long time where no one knew who I was. That was great. I know what that is.

You were in the army. What did you take from that into acting?

Working as a team was the biggest lesson I applied from the military to the film set. You have to know your role within the team. It’s not about you. You’re part of something that’s telling a story that’s bigger than any one person.

When did you start seriously thinking about being an actor?

It was in the military where I was like, ‘When I get my civilian life back, I think I want to pursue this in an earnest way.’ For me, when I got out of the military, I felt like I could handle the basics of where to eat, where to sleep, where to go to the bathroom. You have all this confidence, so civilian problems are pretty small.

You’re big into motorbikes too. What’s the best trip you’ve taken?

It was when I had just learned to ride a bike when I was still at Juilliard. I worked for a friend of this teacher of mine on his house in the Adirondacks. He, as payment, gave me this Honda bike he had. I just had my licence for a week and I rode it from the Adirondacks, a four- or five-hour bike ride back to where we were staying in the city, and that was really scary.

Next, you’re in Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, which collapsed mid-shoot 18 years ago. Are you surprised it got made?

Well, we had a celebration when we passed the first week! The first time they only shot a week’s worth of footage, so even getting past the first week was a victory. I had this experience with Scorsese. He tried to make Silence for 20 years. Even when we went to go make it, we had to delay six months. Honestly, I think of every movie that’s being made as a little miracle.

BlacKkKlansman is in cinemas from August 24