David Dastmalchian admits that being cast in Oppenheimer “scared the crap out of” him

David Dastmalchian is likely used to fear—his characters are often scary themselves or find themselves in scary situations, as in his new film Late Night With The Devil—but it was a different kind of fear with Oppenheimer. The opportunity to play “a small but integral part” of the Best Picture winner “was something that scared the crap out of me. That’s a good thing,” he explained to The A.V. Club in a recent interview. “I think it’s important for people when they’re scared to explore what that means and hopefully summon the courage to step into a frightful situation.”

Christopher Nolan gave Dastmalchian his “first break” in the movies: “I had never been on a film set before The Dark Knight,” the actor said. “And now I’m in Oppenheimer. He is conducting this incredible film. I knew we were making something important as soon as I got there. You could feel the energy, the crew and everyone else knew it,” Dastmalchian recalled. “And all of a sudden I’m there with Robert Downey Jr., one of my heroes, one of the greatest actors of all time, and he is so kind, loving, and warm to me. And then here’s Cillian Murphy, another one of my favorite actors, and he’s also so kind and loving. The space was the perfect laboratory to make discoveries and create something.”

The Suicide Squad star is part of another stacked ensemble film, The Life Of Chuck, from horror auteur Mike Flanagan; he’ll appear alongside Tom Hiddleston, Mark Hamill, Chiwitel Ejiofor, Harvey Guillén, Jacob Tremblay, Matthew Lillard, Kate Siegel, Rahul Kohli, and his All Creatures Here Below co-star Karen Gillan. “When I got the call from Mike that he wanted me to be part of The Life Of Chuck, I was over the moon. We’ve been friends for a while now. Mike, his wife Kate, and my little coven of weirdos, we all play games regularly. We have game nights. We love hanging out,” Dastmalchian revealed. “I think he’s an incredible storyteller, I love everything he makes. Going to do a Mike film with this insane cast based on a Stephen King work was like, holy goodness, this is out of control. It was all you could hope it could be. Mike is surrounded by artists who love and support him. There’s a reason he’s wonderful to be around.”

As for the film itself, here’s Dastmalchian’s brief tease for all you Flanagan heads out there: “The film is going to shock, entertain, transport people just as much as it’s going to wrench into your heart. It’s a beautiful story.”