The jump from acting to directing can be intimidating, but some are more than ready to do it.
British actor Tom Cullen made a name for himself with a breakout role in 2011 romantic drama Weekend before going on to play a charming aristocratic love interest for Lady Mary Crawley ( Michelle Dockery ), Lord Anthony Gillingham, in the iconic period drama Downton Abbey.
Now taking on the challenge of directing, Cullen brings audiences the romantic drama Pink Wall, which follows the love story of two normal but flawed people named Leon and Jenna, played by Transparent star Jay Duplass and Orphan Black's Tatiana Maslany, respectively.
The drama is tracked told over six years with six non-chronological sequences, giving us a love story scattered across time.
Tackling gender roles, long-term romance, and societal expectations on everyday relationships, Pink Wall is an emotional watch.
Cullen spoke to Mirror Online to discuss directing the film, his previous work, a potential Weekend sequel, some exciting new projects - and whether or not he'd ever return to the world of Downton Abbey as Lord Gillingham.
So, how did this emotional new romantic film come about?
"It's strange how the film came about. Pink Wall was never the film I intended to make first, I'd been writing other things," he explains, "but I saw Jay Duplass' performance in Transparent and I was really into his performance and I thought him and Tat [Maslany] would work really well together.
"I had a hiatus between two TV shows and I made Pink Wall and wrote it specifically for Jay and Tat... I wanted to explore my successes and my failures as a partner and in my relationships, especially coming out of my twenties and into my thirties."
Despite being written and shot before the #MeToo movement and more pertinent discussions about gender behaviours, Cullen still hopes Pink Wall resonates on an everyday level in regards to gender roles in romantic relationships.
Cullen points out: "I don't think a good relationship drama has been done in this tumultuous time where gender expectations have been thrown up into the air, and we're really deconstructing gender roles and what affect that has on relationships. All of that stuff in the film is very much under the surface."
He also developed his own process from directors like Mike Leigh , Ken Loach , and John Cassavetes with a semi-improvised technique where some of the scenes are scripted and others are not.
"The actors have to go through these very fixed points but how they say the line is up to them," says Cullen, revealing that he encouraged the actors to bring their own experiences to the scene in a natural way whilst still keeping to the story and themes that he wanted.
The director also explains his desire to freshen up a classic genre, particularly through the use of the non-linear structure across six years.
He reveals: "Relationship dramas are a very well-trodden path and wanted to tell a relationship drama in as fresh a way as I could and I always really liked Pinter not wanting to wrap his plays up in a big bow and hand them to the audience.
"Questions are always much more interesting than answers and I agree with him. I didn't want to preach, I wanted it to be experiential and have the audience feel like they were feeling and witnessing a relationship and not being told what it was and create an argument.
"When we reflect back on any experience or a relationship, it's not linear, we juxtapose different moments throughout those years to build an emotional landscape. You cross-reference to build an idea of what happened and why something went wrong or why something worked. That's what I wanted."
He wants the central question to be: "Despite something ending was it still worthwhile?"
Although the film has a heavy romantic focus, the low-budget feature was also a family affair for Cullen himself.
"I was able to cast my mum, my step-dad, my brother, my sister, my two cousins, and everyone's friends and families. My step-father plays a weed dealer," he says with a laugh.
Meanwhile, Cullen still gets critical praise and fans talking to him about his turn in director Andrew Haigh's popular 2011 gay romantic drama Weekend, which he starred in opposite Chris New, but would he be interested in revisiting the characters?
"Chris and I ran into each other at a train station, bizarrely," recalls Cullen, remembering that the characters were last seen in a train station in the film.
"I hadn't seen him in years and it was so nice to see him and we had this instant chemistry and I emailed Andrew Haigh that night and was like 'Have you ever thought about it? Would you want to do it?'. He's super busy filming something for the BBC at the moment.
"If it was the right story, everyone would be up for the idea. I'd love to do it."
On how much that role of Russell in Weekend changed his life, Cullen confesses: "That character taught me a lot about how to be a better person. He's so openly vulnerable in a way that has such strength in it and I was a quite typical male in that I really struggled with vulnerability and he really taught me that to be vulnerable is okay... it changed my life. It's the project I'm most proud of."
Cullen revealed that Haigh was also an inspiration for his own directing style on Pink Wall.
"Andrew was a huge, absolutely massive influence," describes Cullen. "One of the things I took away from working with Andrew was the softness and kindness with which he directs and the autonomy which he gives his actors, and he does it in such a delicate way. He gives the actors complete ownership."
But what will the actor-writer-director tackle next after Pink Wall?
"I'm really interested in exploring masculinity and what masculinity is in this climate and why so many men are taking their own lives in epidemic proportions," says the director, "so I'm writing a script about that and I'm also writing a script about divorce from a child's perspective. So, I guess like Marriage Story from the kids' perspective."
Some directors never like to make the jump from smaller independent filmmaking to bigger studio budgets, but is this how Cullen feels?
"Not necessarily," he points out. "If I feel like it's the right story, but there's a certain freedom with independent films as you can tell films with less compromise.
"If I make films for five pounds I can take bigger risks, but the bigger budget means more time and working with some of the best actors."
But which other actors would he dream of working with?
"I think Florence Pugh is absolutely amazing and she's f***ing great in everything, man," says Cullen.
He adds: "I've always been obsessed with Joaquin Phoenix even though I know he's the flavour of the month right now."
But, of course, what Downton Abbey fans want to know is if he's seen the film.
He answers: "I haven't. I think I'll watch it for a good Christmas movie, potentially. I just haven't had the time."
Would he be interested in returning to the series as Lord Gillingham?
"I don't think anyone would want to see my character revisited," he laughs. "I'd turn up like 'Hi Guys' then walk off and they'd be like 'Thank God he's gone'."
But what can we next catch him in? Well, quite a few projects, but there's one he's rather excited about.
"I've got a film called Castle in the Ground with Imogen Poots and Alex Wolff from Hereditary, who's great," says Cullen. "That film's about the Opioid Crisis, so a nice cheery number!"
Until then, however, when can film-goers catch Pink Wall?
Pink Wall is released in UK cinemas on December 13, 2019.
