Watch out for ... Sam Riley

The English group Joy Division was never a huge commercial success during Ian Curtis' lifetime, but since his suicide in 1980 he has become more myth than man.

The new movie "Control," directed by noted photographer Anton Corbijn and based on a book by Curtis' widow, reframes his tragic tale of averted rock glory as a post-punk romance. Caught in a love triangle between his wife and mistress (played, respectively, by Samantha Morton and Alexandra Maria Lara), Curtis is portrayed battling the demons and problems, both internal and external, that drove him to his crushing fate.



In his first major film role, British actor Sam Riley, previously a musician in the group 10,000 Things, brings Curtis vividly to life. With his rock 'n' roll cheekbones and cigarette-scuffed voice, Riley has just the right balance of kitchen-sink realism and outer-limits glamour, and turns in a remarkably assured, emotionally nimble performance.

Most astounding of all, Riley sang the vocals for the film's live performances, nailing Curtis' hollowed-out baritone and distinctive elbows-and-angles dancing.

Only days after being feted in Los Angeles, Riley recently called in to The Envelope HQ from New York City as he completed a whirlwind U.S. promo tour.

Part of what's so remarkable about your performance is how you really humanize Ian Curtis. Was it tough for you to get behind the icon and find the person?

Well, all icons are everyman as well. But I thought Ian, more so than your classic rock star, was very grounded in normality, from his home life to his job that he was still doing.

And the script didn't approach him particularly reverently, and nor did Deborah Curtis' insightful book in the first place. So I was following that tradition to a certain extent.

And I just had to shut my ears to what people were saying, "You're playing an icon, don't mess it up."

I tried to ignore those people as much as I could.

Anton Corbijn shot some of the most famous photographs of Joy Division, so he knew Ian Curtis a little bit. Did he talk to you about Ian?

Anton moved from the Netherlands as a 19-year-old to find Joy Division because he loved their music and he wanted to photograph them. But being a Dutchman, and his first time in England, and the Mancunian accent being quite a broad one, he doesn't really remember a word they said. He couldn't understand them, from what he told me.

It was strange. We had an understanding of what we both thought Ian was, and we were fairly close to one another with that.

The only time we sort of panicked before shooting was whether I was getting this dance right. Although that is secondary to being convincing emotionally, to people that do know this band it's very important to get those live things as close to what Ian did on stage as possible.