The Verge: Steven Strait

Last week, your co-star Ezra Miller elaborated on the learning environment provided by an ensemble piece like City Island. What was that like for you?

It was amazing, man. I think the thing that I took away from City Island more than anything else was watching Andy and Julianna and Alan [Arkin] and Emily [Mortimer] work -- and working with them, and everyone working together so intimately. I mean, the unit as a whole needed to be incredibly cohesive for the thing to work as it did. I found everyone to be so generous as people, but also as actors. Everyone was there to push the project up; obviously everyone had their individual characters and stories to build and work with, but there was definitely a sense of a whole. It just felt like one unit that was very tight, and everyone was giving 100 percent whether or not the camera was on them. They might have just been giving you lines for your coverage. It was very cool. The whole process in and of itself was very organic. It wasn't forced; it just was. I guess you have to attribute that to the fact that everyone involved was so cool. I grew a lot out of it for sure.

Another thing that can have a huge impact on younger actors is a film that maybe meets with a less-than-warm reception. 10,000 B.C. made a fortune, but was critically reviled. Stop-Loss underperformed critically and commercially. How did those affect you?

With 10,000, our aim was to make a film that was entertaining and a roller-coaster ride; it is what it is. It's an adventure film. I had a blast doing it, and I learned a lot on that film as well. It was certainly disappointing the way it was received, but with that being said, it did incredibly well, and obviously a lot of people went to see it. And at the end of the day, that's really who it's for. And it was nice to see that it did so well, and people did like it and enjoy themselves and went on a ride with it.

With Stop-Loss, I thought it was an incredibly important topic, and to be able to work with Kimberly Peirce was amazing. The heart was definitely in the right place for both of them. I certainly don't regret anything. I took away a lot of really valuable experiences as an actor and as a person for sure.

So what's next? Are you working on anything now?

I'm looking at a few things. I've been incredibly fortunate to be able to have different opportunities and be able to choose, which is kind of amazing. I just finished a pilot that Amy Holden-Jones wrote that I had a really good time with, and I'm looking at a few different movies now. I haven't really decided what I'm going to do next. I'm just incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity at all.

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