At school Riley had told people who asked that he would either be a rock star or an actor, “not being cocky, only because acting and singing were the only things I could do”. It was a while coming. The first time he ever saw himself on a screen was the premiere of Control at Cannes five years ago. “I was lucky it was such a beautiful film,” he says. “But it was very weird. I mean like hearing your own voice on an answerphone, but magnified a lot. I think I left nail marks in the arms of the seat. You just fear you are going to do something false. You are just thinking: ‘Don’t fuck up.’ And as an actor I still don’t really know exactly what I am doing most of the time.”














