GEORGE MACKAY

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More than fifty years on, the assassination of John F. Kennedy remains one of the enduring mysteries of modern American history. Hundreds, if not thousands, of history books have been written offering theories on who did it, and why, and it has proven to be a matter of fascination for more literary-minded authors as well, including Don DeLillo and Norman Mailer, both of whom published books (the former’s fiction and the latter’s not) exploring the backstory of Lee Harvey Oswald, the generally accepted—although controversially so—killer. A few years ago, Stephen King joined the ranks with his novel 11/22/63, which threw in the added genre bonus of a time-travel angle as the protagonist Jake Epping goes back in time to try to prevent the assassination.

The young British actor George MacKay, who plays Bill Turcotte, the confidant of Jake (James Franco), in the Hulu adaptation of King’s book which premiered earlier this month, admits to having no idea about the vast depths of Kennedy arcana before joining the project. “I knew a bit, but I didn’t know how much there was, that it’s a kind of bottomless pit of theories within other theories,” he laughs. “It’s a bit of a rabbit warren. It’s like the Hydra—you chop one head off and two more grow.”

MacKay, who listened to bluegrass music to perfect Bill’s thick Tennessee accent, says that the unique nature of his role—in one of the major changes from King’s novel, one of Bill’s main narrative purposes in the show is to, as MacKay puts it, “ask a lot of questions that Jake’s character in the book would ask himself”—allowed him the opportunity to learn about the history in real time, as it were. “When in doubt, the onset chitchat was, ‘So what do you think happened?’ and I had all these incredible writers who have been working on this for years present their different theories,” he recalls.

Over the course of the series, MacKay’s Bill comes to terms with the fact that Jake comes from the future, and eventually agrees to help him try to change history. Much of the show is spent trailing Oswald, although whether he will actually commit the murder remains appropriately unclear. Even if the truth remains unresolved, MacKay argues that part of the power of 11.22.63, and the fascination with Kennedy’s assassination as a whole, is that it forces us to question our understanding of fate, history, and the impact a single action can have. “It’s the idea that people can’t handle the possibility that it was just an angry man who managed to change the world,” he explains. “People just refuse to believe that an individual could do something so powerful and so terrible, and that is quite an interesting notion as well.”

11.22.63 may mark MacKay’s breakthrough for a wide American audience, but he is no neophyte when it comes to acting. The son of a stage manager and a costumer designer, he was exposed to theater by his parents from a young age, and points to an influential drama teacher from his high school years as an important mentor. “He took it seriously without it being pretentious,” MacKay recalls. “He had a respect for us that made us respect ourselves and him and the work that we were doing all the more.”

At fifteen, MacKay was cast in Defiance, playing the youngest brother (his older siblings were played by Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, and Jamie Bell) in a family of Jews trying to save other Jews in a hidden settlement in the Belorussian forest during World War II. “I think that was the first time I was aware of the importance of some of the stories that get told,” he says. The project, which proved at once both fulfilling and enjoyable, also served to reinforce his inclination to pursue acting. “What was so great about that experience was it was a very communal set in terms of the nature of the story,” he recalls. “It’s in a camp, so even if you’re not necessarily talking in the scene, everyone is walking through the background. That sense of camaraderie is such a huge part of what’s so wonderful about the job.”

He has worked nearly nonstop since then. He played Clive Owen’s son in The Boys Are Back in 2009 and a soldier in the 2012 World War I miniseries Birdsong with Eddie Redmayne and Clémence Poésy, and had a surprising turn in 2013’s Sunshine on Leith, a film adaptation of the stage musical of the same name based on songs by the Proclaimers. In 2014, he appeared in a featured role in the Golden Globe-nominated film Pride, about a gay-rights group that raises money to support British miners striking during the Thatcher era.

Even before 11.22.63, MacKay was no stranger to the literary adaptation. He was Saoirse Ronan’s love interest Eddie in How I Live Now, the 2013 film version of Meg Rosoff’s novel, and played the lead role in Sadie Jones’ television adaptation of her own novel The Outcast. “With book adaptations, it’s helpful [to go back to the original source material] because usually you get nuggets of gold in terms of the way the characters are thinking,” he explains. “Your job is to know what that is, and then in a script you just get the words out loud and it’s for you to fill that in.”

As if his busy shooting schedule wasn’t enough, last year MacKay spent two months in a production of Eugene O’Neill’s Ah, Wilderness! at London’s Young Vic theater. It was only his second professional play, and he says the experience offered a worthwhile counterpoint to the film and television work he has been doing so much of recently. “A lot of the time with films, you do the homework on your own, and it’s rare that you get to really talk through everyone’s motivations and feelings with the other actors and the director,” he says. “To be able to do that in a group and physicalize that is really helpful and insightful.”

Exciting as the run was, MacKay concedes to having a touch of residual stage fright. “It’s making me slightly nervous just thinking about it and remembering it,” he laughs. “When they say go, it’s begun and you don’t stop, and that’s a really thrilling feeling.”

Now twenty-three, MacKay says that having had the opportunity to take part in such a diverse range of experiences so early in his life has been liberating. “I was so lucky that when I was younger, I had so many experiences without the pressure that you have when you’re older of treating it as a career. I was very lucky to get to experience it in a very fluid way.”

His next film appearance will be this summer in Captain Fantastic, as the son of Viggo Mortensen, who plays a survivalist father bent on raising his children in the harsh forests of the Pacific Northwest whose family is forced to integrate into society. “What really intrigued me was the social questions and the challenges that [writer and director Matt Ross] was making,” MacKay says of his interest in the film, which premiered at Sundance in January. “It explores and challenges different ideas and it’s a fair debate that presents two different ways of living.”

In the meantime, he’ll spend the spring performing in Harold Pinter’s groundbreaking 1960 play The Caretaker at the Old Vic in London, and will appear in an innovative adaptation (yes, again) of a set of fantastical Neil Gaiman short stories for Sky Arts. MacKay’s CV is notable for both its length and its breadth, but he says the connecting thread is that he looks to each of his disparate projects to bring something new to his career. “I want to try and act in as many different ways as I can,” he explains, “and learn by different experiences.”

11.22.63 continues on Mondays on Hulu. The Caretaker runs from March 26 to May 14 at the Old Vic, London. Captain Fantastic is out July 8.