What happens when you fall in love with someone who thinks of love as an alien concept? That’s the idea  director/writer Max Mayer came up with for his new film Adam. The story involves two unlikely neighbors who fall in love. Unlikely because Adam, played by Hugh Dancy, has Asperger’s Syndrome, an increasingly common form of high-functioning autism hallmarked by an inability to read what other people are thinking and feeling. In this film, Rose Byrne portrays a highly emotional, intuitive and socially vivacious woman looking for a deeper kind of love than she has ever known. She’s having her own problems with family connections -- so is Adam the right one for her?

I was fortunate to find out how Hugh Dancy feels about Adam when he sat down with me for the following exclusive interview.

Q. You’ve played several different types of characters, but this role required you to be completely open and vulnerable. Was this the hardest role you ever had to prepare for?

Hugh: Yes. I had to learn an enormous amount I didn’t know about. I had to absorb it and apply it to Max’s brilliant script, but also internalize something that ultimately I’m not sure is possible to internalize for someone who is nearer typical. It’s more of a stretch than other characters you will encounter because the wiring (of Adam) is different. Also, the tools that actors rely on -- sometimes too heavily -- were denied me, like communication and responsiveness, eye contact and empathy. That’s because that’s not how this character operates. So it was a bit challenging from that aspect.

Q. Unpredictable in many aspects, it’s really a surprise when Adam falls in love with a seemingly unattainable girl. Was it difficult to portray that innocent child-like quality which for him is more an internal thing than an external one?

Hugh: There’s a black and white way in which Adam sometimes sees things -- although at times he’s very sophisticated with an understanding of things. But as far as trusting; he’s not really equipped to understand that someone might deceive him or to think to read between the lines about things. I can see the truth in a child-like persona, but that really fails to take in the whole of him.

Q. You certainly transcended a typical character in your portrayal of Adam. I’ve read you like roles that scare you. Is that true?

Hugh: There are lots of criteria one looks for in a script, and not feeling like you know all the answers before you start is a good thing.

Q. Having the right actress play Beth was an important key to your performance because your interactions were not typical of conventional communications between romantic couples. Can you talk about acting with Rose Byrne?

Hugh: A lot of the time Beth does not understand me nor me her. So there’s a real contained quality to the acting, and I had to concentrate very hard to maintain that. In a sense Rose and I were like two ships passing in the night. We had to take different approaches to scenes and work out the kinks. Max and I were speaking the same language, an interior language of the character. It was at that point that Rose took that and ran with it and gave Beth qualities over and above what Max had already given her in the script -- a kind of brilliant worldview, an eccentricity and generosity. Beth is not just a free and loving spirit, she’s really odd in her own ways, and I think Rose brought all of that to the character and in many ways validated the relationship between the two of them and therefore the work that I was doing as well.

Q. What does this film say to the audience?

Hugh: The aim with Adam was to get beyond the point of considering the differences and to bring the audience to the sense of the story which is universal and really accessible to anybody. Adam had difficulty with communication and forging a relationship. Walking in his shoes and imagining what those constraints are like -- along with Max cracking the kernel of the story -- becomes about all of us.

Hugh Dancy recently starred in Confessions Of A Shopaholic. His other film credits include: The Jane Austen Book Club, Evening, Beyond the Gates, King Arthur, Ella Enchanted, The Sleeping Dictionary, Black Hawk Down and Young Blades. On television, Dancy starred in the critically acclaimed series Elizabeth I opposite Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons. Dancy received an Emmy nomination and Golden Globe award for Outstanding Supporting Actor for his performance in that mini-series. Dancy graduated with an English Literature degree from St. Peter's College, Oxford.

To read the complete interview with Hugh Dancy and Max Mayer go to www.reviewexpress.com

(Adam poster: © 2009 Fox Searchlight. All Rights Reserved.)