Q: Sex addiction isn't generally discussed in media. How did you decide to handle the subject, which isn't a highly discussed subject?

A: I suppose our relationship with sex is not a clear one. As a society. How much is our own free will, and how much is being sold to us? We grow up in a world in which there is so much information and manipulation, at all times. It's like [sex addiction] is something that is happening; it's not something that we're trying to stir up here. We're trying to stir and investigate and really treat it respectfully. Because it happens. And yes, in the beginning, I was thinking, "Sex addiction, well... is it a real thing?" And then you start to look into it, and it's very real. And we can choose to repress it, hide it, or we can start to take a look at it, and take a look at ourselves, our relationship to it, how much we are involved in it, and not sort of treat it as a dissociated thing. It's a parcel of all of us, and the world we are living in. Me personally, I tried to keep Brandon as close to me as possible, instead of isolating him from me. And treating it as somebody else's issues and problems. His actions will speak for himself, but his inner life doesn't have to be associated with the act. It’s not about a dude in a rain coat with sweaty hands. It's about an everyday guy, that we all know, and in some ways, we are all a part of him. That was important to me, and to Steve as well.

Q: Is Brandon a player?

A: Playing means you're getting some sort of joy out of it. This is about being all encompassed in something. It's like he doesn't want to be going out to the bathroom during his office day. He wants to connect. It’s like his relationship with Marianne. He’s not going through obliviously sleeping with random people. He is very aware that this is an addiction that is taking over his daily life. When you deal with addiction, and a cycle or behavior has developed, and that cycle is tearing about your relationship with others around you...

Q: How much of the role was on the page, and what did you bring to it? What challenges were there with the subject matter and character that you didn't want to do?

A: Steve told me about the idea in 2008, I got the script in 2010. What struck me immediately was how beautiful the story was - I felt for Brandon and all of the other characters as well. It was sort of like finding him, and allowing him to tell me where to go, and to allow those around me and influence me. And when I mean others around me, I mean Carey and the other cast mates, Steve, David in costume, the props department, the art department. Everyone is informing you; everyone is collaborating. It just sort of represents something, as opposed to closing yourself off to something. I read the script a lot, I live with the guy as much as I can, and then I come to set, put it all out on the floor, and they come with their ideas, and you try to stay open, responsive, and most of all, focused. All of those things are in play. And then you start to go to places where you are shuffling around in the dark a little bit; and you're trying to find things. And you need a really good team around you to do that. It's about respecting the characters, and like I said before, I didn't want to isolate myself from the character.

Q: Michael, you also have 'A Dangerous Method' which is coming out this month, which is also a film about sex and psychology. Did working on one inform your work on the other?

A: I didn't even think about it at the time, but obviously you see there are some parallels, in terms of discussing our relationship to sex, even a hundred years after the characters of A Dangerous Method. So, at the time I just went from one to the next. I have a pretty good ability of diving into something and then flushing it out, because I went from Dangerous Method to X-Men: First Class to this. It's like I'm trying my best to facilitate what's on the page. You have people that are sort of sensitive, intelligent people. And I know when you're working with people like Steve or Abi (Morgan, co-writer) you respect what’s down on the paper, and not really think … the one thing I suppose, in a roundabout way, is that acting is like psychoanalysis. It's people who are trying to represent human life, and trying to understand what we are doing here, and representing life, and our experiences of life through a storytelling life.

Q: Could Brandon ever go too far?

A: I think that he's gone pretty far. The thing is, where do you get the fix? And when you're looking for the fix... it's like buying heroin off the street off a guy that you don't know. And you're injecting it into your veins. That could be anything. And you're putting it directly into your veins because you are so desperate to get your fix. And that's when you put yourself in very dangerous circumstances. And that's where this idea of "shame" comes from. You no longer are possessed with a choice, you’re not in control of your actions or you decisions. It’s the addiction and condition that is controlling you. After the act, it is the feeling of self-loathing that you are a slave. It’s not like there’s a line. It’s like, where can I find it? That’s why you see Brandon in the third act of the film, and he’s sort of on the streets of New York, and looking for a fix. One club turns him away, and he turns around and sees someone across the street. That's the availability to get his fix, and he goes after it.

Q: There isn't a lot of self-loathing in your performance. When it starts to leak out, Brandon slaps it down with another fix.

A: Of course, that's the pattern of addiction. The cycle. That feeling of self loathing, shame, "I need to escape from that, so I do it again." It continues.