'My character is a bully – but he's a bully for the law'

Billy Crudup, the star of ‘Almost Famous’ and ‘The Morning Show’, talks to Patrick Smith about Method acting, playing the lawman in ‘High Noon’, and bumping into Robert Plant

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Billy Crudup is in an echoey east London rehearsal room, practically vibrating as he unpicks one of the best scenes in one of the year’s best films.

The star of Almost Famous and The Morning Show, dressed in a grey quarter-zip fleece, looks faintly horrified by his own enthusiasm. “It’s the nerdiest job I’ve ever had,” he says, eyes lighting up.

In Fay Kelly, Noah Baumbach’s Fellini-like meditation on ageing and Hollywood vanity, Crudup plays Timothy, a former drama-school classmate of George Clooney’s fading movie star of the title. Though clearly the more talented of the pair, Timothy didn’t “make it” as an actor, and became a child therapist instead.

The pivotal scene happens in a bar. Jay, in town for his mentor’s funeral, urges his old buddy to show off his Method genius there and then by reading the menu in character. Timothy takes a breath and steadies himself; soon, tears are cascading down his face to the words “truffle parmesan fries”.

It’s hilarious – yet there’s a lot more going on. From across the table, Jay watches, mesmerised, as years of unspoken rivalry bubble to the surface.

The twist is that Crudup really did have to use Method acting techniques to get those tears out. The double twist is that this 57-year-old has never been a fan of Method acting.