Josh O’Connor Reflects on the 'Impact' Wildfire Drama “Rebuilding” Had on Him: 'Community Is Essential' (Exclusive)

Josh O’Connor is always rebuilding himself after playing other people. 

“Very often it's like with characters, there's a sense that as an actor, you learn stuff from the roles you play,” the British star, 35, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “They have an impact on your own life.”

Nowhere was that more true than with Rebuilding (in theaters now), in which O’Connor plays Dusty, a cowboy coping with the aftermath of a wildfire destroying his Colorado ranch. Like many real-life survivors of fires, he moves to a FEMA camp, connecting with a community that includes his daughter (played by Lily LaTorre), ex-wife (Meghann Fahy), ex-mother-in-law (Amy Madigan) and itinerant neighbors (including Kali Reis, Binky Griptite and more). 

“That understanding that community is essential, is necessary, was something that I really learned from him,” says the Challengers star of Dusty. 

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Max Walker-Silverman, writer and director of Rebuilding, drew inspiration from his own upbringing in rural Colorado. Although the indie “deals with life after the wildfires,” says O’Connor, he did plenty of research to immerse himself in the character, working with local ranchers and drawing from his previous experience playing a farmer in breakout God’s Own Country.

And while Dusty isn’t “based on a real person or influenced by a real person,” it wasn’t until after O’Connor saw Rebuilding that he realized who he’d been channeling. “There are elements of Max Walker-Silverman in Dusty. And I think that happened accidentally,” admits the Emmy winner. “It was only when I saw it, I was like, ‘Wait a minute!’”

Dusty’s journey, he adds, is not unlike Dorothy’s in The Wizard of Oz. “The answer for Dusty is all around him from the beginning.” His arc, drawing strength from an unlikely community, is about “allowing him the space and the time to realize what he's got.”

O’Connor has had a busy fall with the back-to-back releases of The History of Sound, The Mastermind and Rebuilding. He’ll next co-lead Rian Johnson’s upcoming Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (in select theaters Nov. 26 and streaming on Netflix Dec. 12) with Daniel Craig. 

Following its 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere, Rebuilding is in theaters now.