Current Crush: Josh O’Connor – From Prince Charles To Gay Favourite
UPDATE: Since this story first ran, Josh O’Connor’s year got even busier. He appeared in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery as Father Jud Duplenticy, which opened in select cinemas on 26 November 2025 before landing on Netflix on 12 December 2025.
Josh O’Connor had a knack for choosing roles that made people talk, then rewatch, then quietly Google at 1 am. When this Current Crush first went up, we loved the whiplash of seeing him move from playing Prince Charles in The Crown to Patrick Zweig in Challengers, a washed-up tennis champ with a big ego and messy chemistry in every direction.
And, did anyone watch Challengers without picking a side at least once?
Love Stories That Break The Mould
Before the awards buzz and bigger budgets, his breakout for a lot of us was God’s Own Country. He played a Yorkshire farmer who was stuck, guarded, and lonely until love forced him to crack open. That film helped put him on the map and it set the tone for what he did next.
Today, I'm grateful for the movie GOD'S OWN COUNTRY, for teaching me, very profoundly and poignantly, that there's a world of difference between simple and simplistic. pic.twitter.com/znX49eQ4W7
— RickRReed (@RickRReed) April 28, 2018
Why he stayed a DNA favourite.
Some actors got talked about because they were famous. O’Connor got talked about because he was good, and because he kept picking characters with emotional risk. From the restraint of The Crown to the volatility of Challengers, the pattern held. He played men who wanted something, then made you feel the cost of it.
the word powerhouse is thrown around carelessly but josh o’connor is just that- he navigates raw physicality and fluidity and tenderness and control in such a marvellous way, drawing your eyes to savour every moment that he’s on screen. pic.twitter.com/NRKPZJPEBQ
— yasmin clara-hanani (@kendallroyz) May 2, 2024
Jonathan Bailey & Josh O' Connor for Vanity Fair pic.twitter.com/w9ankTEKSS
— Pop and Films (@popandfilms) December 8, 2024
josh o connor photographed by luca guadagnino pic.twitter.com/eSLP8cZkq0
— mia 🍉 (@arrivalleneuve) June 29, 2024
