Nat Wolff has been keeping busy. With Shane Black‘s Play Dirty on screens and new music on the way, the triple threat is in full stride – pen and paper at the ready, you might need to take notes to keep up.

Ask any woman with a bob and vape addiction about musician-slash-actors, and you’re bound to elicit an eye-roll. Nat Wolff, however, is the real deal. From fronting the Nickelodeon-backed Naked Brothers Band and scene-stealing in teen rom-dramas, to balancing an indie-pop reinvention with blockbuster credentials, Nat Wolff has always set the standard for modern renaissance men. 

This month, the 30-year-old actor hits the screen in Play Dirty, an ensemble action-comedy from The Nice Guys director Shane Black, featuring a star-studded cast of thieves going head-to-head with the New York mob. And if that’s not enough Nat for you, the film lands just ahead of the latest full-length release from Nat & Alex Wolff, the brothers’ joint music project. Nat calls it their “best yet,” but as long as he’s acting, songwriting, singing, and performing—is that everything?—that’s good enough for us. 

Read on for our conversation with the older Wolff about wild days on set, watching his idols at work and the script he wishes he’d written. 

Let’s start off with music! Talk us through your music-making process. Does making music with your brother change that process?

Alex and I have been making music together since we were tiny kids, so we have this secret language that makes creating really inspiring. There’s not a lot of talking, but there’s a lot of communicating. When we’re in the studio, someone brings in a song and then we just go. Alex runs to one instrument, I’ll run to another, and we try to move fast so we don’t overthink it. It’s all about letting it be instinctual, keeping the enjoyment, and not getting bogged down.

Congratulations on your film Play Dirty! How did your role in the film come about?

I’ve been an obsessive Shane Black fan. I’ve probably seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Nice Guys a hundred times, and I desperately wanted to work with him. When I heard this project was happening, I would’ve done craft services just to sit at the monitor and watch him work. It’s probably the funniest script I’ve ever read.

The film is an action-packed ride. Tell us about your most exhilarating day on set.

The most exhilarating day was doing the fight scene with Mark Wahlberg. I told him he didn’t have to take it easy on me when he pushed my head into the mat, because I thought, Oh, it’s a mat, it’ll look better if he really goes for it. Then he did, and I realized he’s one of the strongest guys in the world. I completely saw white, then stars—like in cartoons when someone gets knocked out. It took about 20 seconds before I saw the room again.

It’s got an all-star cast! Talk to us about working with the likes of Mark Wahlberg and LaKeith Stanfield. Did they give you any advice or tips you’ll carry into future projects?

Mark—between takes of our fight scenes, we had a lot of downtime because they shot that sequence over several days—so I asked him about every great director he’s worked with. Paul Thomas Anderson on Boogie Nights, David O. Russell on I Heart Huckabees and The Fighter, Scorsese on The Departed. He told me hilarious stories. One of the best parts of working with older actors is getting those behind-the-scenes stories, some they’d share in interviews and some they wouldn’t, which is even more fun.

And then I got to work with Tony Shalhoub, who I’ve known since I was a little kid because he went to college with my mom. Finally working with him was a dream come true. I’ve seen him in countless movies, shows, and plays, so that was really special.

You have to carry out a heist and can bring three people to help. Who are you choosing and why?

I think I’d bring the entire family from The Incredibles. It would just be me and them.

Is there a song you wish you’d written—or a movie you wish you could have starred in?

I just saw Neil Young in concert last night, and I don’t think there’s a better song than Ambulance Blues. I would love to have written that song. And I wish I would’ve written and directed Paris, Texas.

Words – Beatrice Hazlehurst