Jamie Campbell Bower says he immediately wanted a role in Horizon: An American Saga -- Chapter 1 after reading Kevin Costner's screenplay for the epic western.
"I've been blessed that whatever has come my way has felt like that and this is no exception to me," he said. "I read this script and it was electric. I was absolutely buzzing from it and I just knew I wanted to be a part of it, and it just felt right."
The first movie in the planned three-western series premieres on Max on Friday.
It follows several groups during the Civil War expansion and settlement of the American West by Europeans on lands held by Indigenous people in the 19th century.
Costner wrote, directed and stars in the film as horse trader Hayes Ellison. The ensemble also includes Sienna Miller, Abbey Lee, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Owen Crow Shoe, Tatanka Means, Ella Hunt, Tim Guinee, Danny Huston, Tom Payne, Michael Rooker, Will Patton, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman and Wase Winyan Chief.Hayes and Bower's outlaw, Caleb Sykes, clash when Hayes heroically involves himself in some old Sykes family business.
Bower said he felt like his heart was "going to explode" when he heard Costner praise his performance during a recent press conference.
One of the film's most thrilling scenes is a showdown between Caleb and Hayes as they are walking up a steep hill.
While Caleb is ranting, Hayes remains mostly silent, conserving his energy.
"Physically, it was fine for me," Bower said.
"I run, so i wasn't too out of breath when we were doing It. I do also really enjoy physical work on camera," the Stranger Things and Twilight alum added. "I find it really fun."
The two-hander scene with Costner in Horizon has its emotional notes, too, as the power dynamics between the two foes begin to shift.
"You always hope for those as an actor, but they can't be scripted, really, and you don't know if they're going to happen all the time. You give 100% of yourself always, but sometimes an extra 50% comes in from out of nowhere and that's where the magic is, and we were lucky. We had those within that scene."
Bower described Caleb not as a villain, but more of a "broken and traumatized" man who thinks he is doing the right thing when viewers first see him trying to settle old grudges.
"One of the things that I really latched on to with him was that you see the family dynamic that he has, particularly, with his [abusive] mother very early on in the film and the way in which she treats him physically," Bower said.
The Sykes clan is not as loving as they could be, according to the actor.
"There's a lot of learned behavior for him within that, and then you kind of build on that," he said.
"So, what does that create? It creates a level of fear, and what does fear turn into? Fear turns into hate. It turns into resentment and I think Caleb constantly is trying to one up himself in any social situation that he finds himself in because, for him, the idea of control means that A, he's the toughest and the baddest, and B, there's a level of safety within that."
