Alex Frost at Cannes Photo by Karl Rozemeyer

What made you interested in the part of Filkins in Drillbit Taylor? Was it the chance to work on a broad comedy with this cast or did you like the message of the film?
I really liked the character more than anything. I responded to it really well, and I went in to audition for it, and I really liked the way they had the cast set up. I really liked working with the kids — they were hysterical. Pretty much every day was a new challenge to find something funnier than what we had done the day before and we were pretty much free to do what we wanted. And that was the kind of atmosphere I liked working in. You get to make things up as you please. And if you can come up with something that is funnier than what is on the page, then you get to shoot it — which is not something that you usually get when you're doing an independent or a heavy drama or something like that. You've always got to be on the page and [know] exactly what is going on in the script and you can't really make up [material] or improv at all. This film was all about the improv. It was a big part of my getting the part actually, the improv auditioning. You had to pass that before you got the role.

Although this film is quite different, it has similarities to the role of Alex in Van Sant's Elephant, which shows your character constantly being picked on at school by the jocks, with people throwing spitballs at you, et cetera. Is the school bullying something that you have either experienced or witnessed, or something you have thought a great deal about because of these roles?
Not necessarily. I have thought of it specifically because of these roles, [and] when I was going to high school, I would see it all the time. It's a natural thing that happens in high school and middle school, [maybe] a lot more in middle school. I have seen a lot bullying, but I can't say that I specifically wanted to portray a bully or somebody who was picked on, for that reason. But it is something that I feel needs to be represented.

In both of these roles, you're a kid with unresolved anger issues. How does this differ from your role as Shorty in Stop-Loss?
Well, Shorty was very different. Shorty was just a kid that was left alone; he lived by himself. He was a young kid who looked up to all the people that were around him, and they guided him to do the things that he wanted to do. I don't want to give away anything that happens in the end, but it was different to slip into something like that. It was a lot more about camaraderie, about being with people. I felt like a completely different person when I was shooting that movie.

Speaking of camaraderie, Stop-Loss has an ensemble cast of great young actors. What was it like shooting with Ryan Phillippe, Abbie Cornish, Channing Tatum and the rest of the cast?
It was all about the group that we put together, and Ryan was pretty much our leader the whole time. Both on and off the set, he kept his guys in line, making sure we didn't get in trouble, providing for us as much as we needed. He really went the extra mile on that. I really respect him for that. He is a great guy.