KARL GLUSMAN

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In the opening scenes of Nicolas Winding Refn’s new film The Neon Demon, a bloodied Elle Fanning is being photographed in neon light before the camera ominously shifts to the photographer, played by an intense looking Karl Glusman. Film buffs might recognize him from Gaspar Noé’s erotically charged Love, but for everyone else, it’s the introduction to an actor who is on a stretch of impressive indie titles, just the start for the burgeoning star.

Born in New York and raised in Oregon, Glusman went to college in Portland to study business. After reading books by Stella Adler and Sanford Meisner, he ended up dropping out of school and moving back to New York to pursue acting as a career. His passion for acting, however, had already formed organically in childhood. “When my parents divorced, I remember playing in the kitchen with my little sister and I had created an imaginary cooking show called Thor’s Kitchen. My mother has always been really interested in Norse mythology, so I decided I was the god of lightning and I put on a cooking show and had a colander on my head, and it would make my mom laugh,” he recalls. “I think that was the start of it. I think it’s always been to impress my mom, or to make her laugh or make her happy.”

Glusman still beams with excitement over his newfound success, and in many ways it’s still slightly surreal to him. He might go toe-to-toe with Oscar-nominated actors and work with revered directors, but without a car in Los Angeles, he still needs a friend to drive him to the premieres. “We went to a diner afterwards in my neighborhood to go talk about the [The Neon Demon], which actually happened to be the Bright Spot Diner, which Nick shot part of the movie in,” Glusman explains. “The hostess sat us down in the exact booth that Abbey Lee, Bella Heathcote, and Jena Malone are sitting in when they’re talking about [Fanning’s character] Jesse. To me, I’m like, ‘Oh my god, it’s destiny!’ Can you imagine?”

Destiny does seem to play a role in Gusman’s career. After scoring the lead in Love, director Gaspar Noé made a recommendation to Refn. “Gaspar called Nick and said, ‘Do you want to meet the most caring, the most professional, best improvising actor you can imagine?’” Glusman explains with exaggeration. “It was really funny, and he was selling it better than my agents normally do.”

Noé and Refn would be enough for most actors, but Glusman will also appear later this year in Tom Ford’s follow-up to his celebrated debut A Single Man, entitled Nocturnal Animals. Nonetheless, he’s levelheaded about his string of success, and doesn’t take it for granted. “Ideally, you want to be a part of something that you actually want to buy a ticket to,” he explains. “That doesn’t have to be a rule that stretches across the board to everybody, because people have motivators when seeking out work or selecting projects, some people have families to feed. But for me right now, I’m living in a little studio in Echo Park, and I can be a little snobby at times or picky. I just want to be a part of things that I want to buy a ticket to. Then I feel like I can get behind the thing.” And while he’s shown up in these high-profile films, he’s cautious about being selective and not spreading himself too thin or overexposing himself. “Then people get sick of your face. ‘I’ve seen him six times this year, I’m done with him.’” 

For now, The Neon Demon will bring his face at least to a much larger audience than the unadulterated and graphic Love. It is a Refn film, so it’s a still a little mysterious and gory, but it’s a fun ride which is a departure from his other works. “I know he wants to make a movie about women, with women, for women,” Glusman explains about his director. “If you look at all his other movies, it’s usually a male protagonist, and usually the same guy, the silent warrior. You see him in Only God Forgives, you see him in Drive, you see him in Valhalla Rising, it’s the same character.” This time, the brooding warrior is replaced by Jesse, played by Elle Fanning, a teenager who moves to Los Angeles to become a model and is suddenly thrust into the spotlight when cast by a major designer. Ironically, the unnamed designer is in some ways reminiscent of the very same fashion industry titan Glusman went on to work with: “I think that maybe it was intentional, he’s never named. And I’m not sure if Tom would appreciate that or find it humorous, I don’t know. I have not brought it to his attention.” 

Watching the film, it’s hard not to be both fascinated and cynical towards the fashion and beauty industry. “I think Nick really nailed it on the head,” Glusman says. “It kind of illuminates the disgusting parts of the beauty industry. After watching, it you’re really kind of disgusted by beauty or at least what we label beauty in magazines, on the internet, and on runways, this cutthroat meat market.” As Dean, Glusman serves as the innocence that Jesse relinquishes at the taste of success. He’s the artistic photographer that the major agencies and designers deprecate as an amateur, and as Jesse embraces stardom, she’s inclined to agree. In keeping with Refn’s atmospheric style, the minimal dialogue is used more to expound upon Jesse’s transformation. “He even cut out my biggest scene, and I understand why,” Glusman says. “The movie is not about Dean, it’s about Jesse; it’s about these women who are put through this horrible meat-eating machine, and I support that. When I sign up for something like that, I’m your loyal soldier, I will do whatever you want.”

As someone who has made more artistic than commercial choices throughout his career, Glusman says it was easy to relate to both the film and the character. “As a struggling actor in New York, I definitely found myself opposite people who were higher up than me who belittle you, who judge you, who dismiss you and think your little short films are trivial,” he recalls. It’s still something that occurs, even as his fame rises. “I still experience it. Although things are seemingly going well for me, it’s a big imaginary pyramid that exists in the entertainment industry, and some people buy into it and others don’t. At Cannes this year, I went to the AMFAR Gala and went up on stage with Elle. But before that had happened, I sat at a table and I brought my friend along. There are models everywhere, Russian billionaires, different celebrities and musicians. As we sat down, we said hello to everybody, and people just didn’t even acknowledge that we said hello and just ignored us. At one point a woman needed a seat so I gave her my seat and was standing next to my table for a while, and I think people thought that was weird, like, ‘What’s this guy doing standing next to us here, who is he?’ And of course someone came out and brings me up on stage, we sell this thing for the auction, raised like six hundred thousand euros for the foundation, and then I come back and suddenly everyone is treating me very differently, like, ‘Oh you shouldn’t be standing, please have a seat.’”

It’s unlikely that he’ll receive that kind of treatment for long. He’s currently filming a Phillip Noyce film in Kentucky alongside Emilia Clarke and Jack Huston, he’s slated to work with Charlotte Rampling in an upcoming film, and despite, a cast that includes Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal, he was most excited to share scenes with Michael Shannon in Nocturnal Animals. “I had seen Michael on stage multiple times, once in practically a one-man show in an Ionesco play called The Killer, and Michael is a force to be reckoned with. He’s an incredible presence on stage, he’s a big guy, he’s very intense, and when you act opposite a guy like that, it’s like playing jazz, where you’re just kind of listening to each other, and you can throw anything at that guy and he will not get thrown. He will not miss a beat, he will just play off whatever you’re giving him, and it’s like playing Olympic ping pong, it’s so exciting to see where the ball goes with him, and I really had fun shooting with him.”

The career trajectory Glusman is experiencing is rare, and he seems poised to make the most of it by continuing to build his career on passion projects. But he’s always looking to challenge himself as an actor, and see how far he can stretch. “I think I’ve been watching a lot of comedies lately, and I think that should be on the docket soon,” he says. “Because the moment you become this sort of predictable cereal flavor, they go, ‘I’m gonna go watch a Glusman film, I get Frosted Flakes every time.’” He might capitalize on this sustained rise and ditch the studio and ditch the car rides, but for now, all we know is this is a face you’ll be seeing onscreen a lot over the next couple of years, if not always how you’d expect. “You want to surprise people. As an actor, I think it’s cool to be unpredictable.”

Nocturnal Animals is out November 23.