Much has been written about the lengths Ben Foster has gone for a role. The 41-year-old actor, known for his immersive acting methods, has done what some would consider some pretty intense stuff for his craft: He ate dirt for Lone Survivor, tried performance-enhancing drugs to play Lance Armstrong in The Program, and carved out a chunk of his front tooth for Hell or High Water.

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For his latest film, The Survivor, Foster lost 62 pounds to play Harry Haft, who was forced to box fellow inmates in the Auschwitz concentration camp in order to survive. Directed by Barry Levinson, the biographical drama jumps from flashbacks at the camp to Haft’s life after, in which he continued to box while searching for the woman he fell in love with before being brought to the camp. In the film, which debuted on HBO on April 27 and will compete in the TV-movie category at the Emmys, Foster delivers a powerful performance in which the weight of the trauma Harry underwent is visibly on his (emaciated) shoulders.

Foster speaks carefully and thoughtfully, often pausing mid-sentence to make sure the words he says are the ones he means. During our phone call he seemed keenly aware of how these stories about his process can seem sensationalized. “I’m as leery as anybody of such things when I hear about them as they feel performative or results-oriented rather than in service of the story,” he says. But for him, there was no other way to capture the emotional and physical toll that Harry was up against without losing the weight—even though he was provided with another option, courtesy of modern digital effects.

Foster is in the midst of yet another transformation—he’s currently in Massachusetts filming Finestkind, for which he embedded on a commercial fishing boat for six days in order to play a scalloper. In our conversation he digs deep into his process and his comfort in “getting lost” in a character, and how his wife, actress Laura Prepon, keeps him grounded when he is on the verge of drifting away.

Vanity Fair: Once you had signed on to The Survivor, what was your plan when it came to preparation?

Ben Foster: We had a group meeting with the financiers and producers, and it was suggested that they could use digital technology to at least solve one of the problems, which was the weight gain, weight loss, and age. And I think I barked out, "If that's how we're going to do it, you have the wrong actor!" which was perhaps a bit more gruff than I intended. It's just that I intuited that we had the time and that having the opportunity to lose the weight, if we could do that first schedule-wise, it was going to inform the rest of the film. And thank goodness the team was supportive of that.

What did that process look like for you?

I just started eating less and training, and that became more extensive as the weeks went by. And it's a learning curve with any role. I spoke with experts—a Yiddish expert that helped dial in the specific accent that Harry had in Belchatow Poland, without having to turn the performance into an impression, which felt wrong. We had full support from the Shoah Foundation and they opened up their library and much of the work was just walking—I just walked and I'd listened to testimony after testimony, just trying to fill my mind with the voices of those that survived. I wanted this to feel lived in.

You said you had the time. How much time did you end up needing for both the weight loss and the research part of preparation?

I had five months. Traditionally, or at least my personal experience, I get about six to eight weeks of prep. So this was already a luxury and well-needed. It's unfortunate in a way that it's a thing to talk about—transformational actors. And I suppose I'm as leery as anybody of such things when I hear about them as they feel performative or results-oriented rather than in service of the story. But it felt intrinsic to the telling of this tale. It would be irresponsible of me not to do this kind of work. All you have to do is look at the photos, you watch the documentary footage of those in the camps. It had to feel credible. No matter how many excuses you make, it's either you believe that person has not eaten or you don't. And I needed that for myself.

What does losing that weight and being in that headspace for five months do to you emotionally?

My father was a lawyer at one point. I'm a ninth grade dropout, but what I've heard is that studying for the bar, you're going to lose your mind. It doesn't mean you're not going to recover it, but a part of the job is pushing yourself the way that an athlete will push themselves or a musician will keep pushing themselves. That's part of the pleasure, is pushing to your limits to find your limits. It's not masochism—it's much more an investigation of, I want to know how far I can go and keep fighting. And there are moments where you begin to drift. And I suppose that's part of the spark of the film is where does a human’s will exist when they're depleted, when they're denied sustenance. So this is the work that I love, it's to find your own edges, and in those edges, you find the character and hopefully that investment translates for an audience.

You’ve played a number of roles based on real people in your career, like Harry. Has your perspective on that responsibility changed over time?

It hasn't changed a whole heck of a lot. The work or the trade of an actor, or at least for myself, is how can I get as close to an essence of feeling a person rather than giving them something that's a plastic product. I respond to a little mess and that's why I suppose Barry and I get on. He too is obsessed with the idiosyncratic, the awkward, maybe the less appealing, comfortable, and attractive qualities of the human animal. The more time I get the better, but sometimes you just got to jump in and say, let's go. And as [James] Cagney says, “plant your feet and tell the truth.”

You’ve become known for taking on these intense roles. Is that something you consciously search out or more what comes to you in offers and opportunities?

It's not conscious. It's ridiculous because my dream as a kid was to be on SNL. [Laughs]. Even to this day, I would rather watch the great standup rather than pretty much anything. My first television show was a sweet Disney show, it was comedy. And I was going to like improv classes in Los Angeles as a teenager. I certainly was not the direction that I thought that I was going to end up in. But these are the scripts that happen across my desk with filmmakers that I respond to. I keep asking Barry, when are we going to do a comedy? Anytime I see Judd Apatow, I'm like, get me in here. My mother just is, she says, "I'm so tired of watching you die."

You mentioned starting out on a Disney show when you were just a kid.

I was 14.

When was there a moment when this work shifted into your forever career?

Well, I dropped out of school in ninth grade. I could probably safely say right now that I paid for my proficiency test and I cheated on it. I was a voracious reader and probably on the shy side and enjoyed the getting lost in other people. I suppose it’s kind of like an athlete—I imagine that they find the zone and that zone is being in tune with everything around them. You're just in the harmony of what's happening. That became overwhelmingly seductive and something that I felt that I was able at access that place and getting lost a bit. And I like getting lost.

Do you remember when that began happening?

I was young. I was probably doing a play. There was a particular moment that I was doing the scene on a play and I blacked out. It was about troubled kids. I think the play was Juvie. And I just remember checking out. And then finding myself back and then becoming suddenly aware that there was an audience again, and people were supportive of what had just happened. They were very complimentary.So to have positive feedback and also in tandem with this moment of losing self and feeling connected became this drug that I've been chasing since. I'm very comfortable being uncomfortable, I suppose.

You filmed The Survivor back in 2019. Are you able to let go of a character like Harry after the project is done?

This one in particular was a pretty tall bill for a very large meal. We're built to learn. We're built to absorb. Hopefully we can integrate in some capacity that which we've learned. If one is going to spend concentrated time thinking about one subject day and night for months on end, and then the emergency exit door is pulled and you're off that ride. You're going to dream about it. So without getting to... I don't think it's that strange that it sticks with you?

No, I don't think so at all.

And thank God for family. I'm one of the lucky ones—my wife's in this business. We've known each other a long time and there's definitely a certain point where it's like, "Baby, I love you, but get your shit together." I'm not bringing that guy home—I'm not like coming home as Harry and kissing the kids as Harry and talking to my wife as Harry. There's none of that nonsense, but I will say that if I'm up at 4 AM, because of the dream that I'm having, and I just want to talk about the horrors of the Holocaust and she's like, “that's fine. But the kids have school—it's time to take a walk.”

How would you say you’ve most significantly changed as an actor from the time you worked with Barry Levinson 20 years ago on Liberty Heights?

I'm much more comfortable being uncomfortable. I'd say that the resources are closer and easier to access. have found a confidence in the work. People are going to like it or not. It's not for them—well, it is for them. Of course, it's for them, but I suppose. When I grew up in Iowa, I learned to drive. There was a lot of ice in the winters, hazardous roads, a lot of dirt roads. When you hit an ice patch, your initial instinct is to grip the wheel and hit the brake. And as you become a more experienced driver, you have to let the wheel go. You got to feather the brake. So I suppose metaphorically, I don't feel like I need to white knuckle the wheel.