Q: This is your second nomination. What did you learn about the whole song and dance the first time?

A: It was a lot of fun last time. I was there with my family, my parents and my sisters. I got to meet a lot of idols and heroes. I don't think it ever changes, the excitement and being honored like that. I’m still very excited and thrilled.

Q: It's like when you're a kid and you know Santa Claus came last year, but you still get excited that he's coming again.

A: Yeah. Or not, I suppose, if there's a bag of coal [Laughs.] There is that option.

Q: What do you remember about getting into Steve Jobs's head space?

A: It really was me spending time with the script. Whether we were rehearsing together as an ensemble and with Danny [Boyle] or myself at home. That was it, just spending as much time as I could. When I wasn’t doing that, watching YouTube clips of Steve Jobs and living alongside it for the first four or five months when I got the script in December.

Q: Is a Sorkin script tough to get down?

A: It's an absolute joy. I just had to work with it as much as I could so I could really let it sing. He's written such other fantastic characters … I didn’t want to fail any of those elements. When everyone works hard and you find those rhythms together, it’s very exciting.

Q: You have a lot of dialogue but at the same time, have to get down the nuances of how other people see this human. Was that challenging?

A: I don't really spend much time on the moralistic judgments of a character. I felt a complex human being there, but a human being nonetheless. I always found there was something very endearing about the character. Just the vision and the passion and the energy to really drive that vision forward for 20 years before he returned with the iMac — it’s pretty incredible. He’s somebody that’s changed the way we live, work, play, listen to music, shop, watch movies. It’s such a seismic shift that he brought into all of our world. It’s worth investigating.

Q: You can look at him as a genius and at the same time people had beef with him.

A: People have beef with lots of people, don't they? I find in my experience that if you don't have an interaction with somebody for longer than two or three days, you’re not really going to know somebody. We all have secondhand information or the prism of the media. I think it’s really hard to know what somebody was like. And this is, first and foremost, a dramatization. It’s not a biopic. It’s three different situations, backstage, before a product launch.

Q: Was it weird portraying someone that we collectively have this recent memory of?

A: That's what makes an interesting topic matter. The influence that he's had on us is what makes it so interesting. If somebody loses their phone, it’s like a limb has been severed. They take them to bed at night. This could not pass us by without us trying to investigate through the arts.

Q: Did your own use of devices change after playing Jobs?

A: I'm always conscious. Let's say going into a restaurant, I'm on my own, eating at the bar. I can take refuge in my phone as opposed to reading a book. But I’m not that tech savvy to be honest. But I’m very aware of the dependency that’s developed, for sure.

Q: The film didn't do great at the box office. Did it get a fair shake?

A: It's as fair as it can be. People chose to go see it or not, that's as fair as it can be. I'm not sure why people go see certain films over other films. A lot of the times in the cinema it helps if it’s an event of some sorts. You have to see that film at the cinema. There are a lot of options. People work very hard, long hours, come home, and they have good home entertainment centers. But I have no idea to be honest.

Q: You just wrapped "Assassin's Creed." How did it go?

A: It was great. It was a huge learning experience. To be a producer on it as well was very educational. I think we've got something special. I think we’ve done something original in this genre.

Q: What's Callum Lynch's vibe?

A: He is an outsider. He's been institutionalized from his early teens. He's a little bit of a lost soul of sorts. He starts to identify [his] lineage and where he comes from in a way.

Q: What's next?

A: I'm jumping on a plane tomorrow and heading out to Norway. Going to start "The Snowman" next week. It's really chockablock at the moment.