Big breaks

• Published date: 04 July 2023
• Publication title: Signal

‘‘I don’t know what I did in a past life to deserve work at all,’’ Briney (25) said, remembering a time not long ago when he’d auditioned for 70 roles trying to land his first job. Once, the Connecticut native thought he might become a pro baseball player before the acting bug bit. ‘‘I think the love of doing it, or the prospect of doing it, kept me going because I don’t know what else I would do,’’ he said

The first door opened in the spring of 2021, when director Mary Harron (American Psycho), lost a key actor to another project a week into production on the indie drama Daliland, about Salvador Dali’s twilight years in 1970s New York City. Suddenly in search of a young star who had smarts, maturity and could hold their own against Ben Kingsley’s Dali, she combed acting-grad showreels and discovered the then-unknown Briney, casting him in his film debut as James, an art-world neophyte. ‘‘He had to look a certain way because the first thing that Salvador Dali says to him is, ‘You look like an angel; you look like a Renaissance painting’,’’ Harron told media. ‘‘He had to be someone who had a certain youthful innocence but also wasn’t a pushover. Someone who had certain strength inside, which Chris has as a person.’’

The fictional James’ entrance into Dali’s flashy orbit was reminiscent of Harron’s own arrival in New York City’s punk scene in the ’70s — an Alice tumbling into an intoxicating Wonderland where ‘‘if you met the right people, you would suddenly get invited in,’’ said Harron. ‘‘And with Chris, you had someone who you would want to invite in.’’

Obsessive fans of The Summer I Turned Pretty, would agree. They’ve already memed and memorised Briney’s every move, line and mannerism as the brooding Conrad, one of two brothers entangled in a love triangle with the show’s teenage...