"Dunkirk" interviews (part 2)

Christopher Nolan about casting Harry:

“As a director, I have to trust my instincts, my ability to figure out who’s the right guy for the part. I’m not too worried about baggage. I was new to Harry. I mean, I’ve heard his name from my kids, but I wasn’t really familiar with him… What I was seeing [when he auditioned] was a very charismatic guy who clearly had a truthfulness and a subtlety in his ability to perform as a film actor. When I cast Heath Ledger as the Joker [in The Dark Knight], it raised a lot of eyebrows and caused a lot of comment. I have to trust my instincts, and Harry was perfect for this part.”

Christopher Nolan on whether or not he was concerned that Harry's celebrity status would overshadow the film:

“I mean, my job as a director is to see potential within people you’ve cast whether you’re talking about someone who has never done a film before like Fionn and Harry or whether you’re talking about someone who’s very experienced like Mark Rylance or Kenneth Branagh. You have to see the potential for them to do something they’ve never done before. That’s really the idea. You try not to cast people who have done these roles because they won’t feel challenged. They won’t get anything out of the experience. You can’t worry too much about previous roles like Mark has

done, you know and Harry… I think the audience when they come to the film, if we all do our job right, they’ll become invested in what we’ve created.”