Since graduating from Victorian College of the Arts in 2006, Zukerman has worked both in Australia and abroad on projects as diverse as ABC’s award-winning political thriller The Code and Netflix’s horror anthology Fear Street. But this year will see him returning to the Roy family fray in Succession, starring in the miniseries City On Fire alongside Jemima Kirke and as the lead in dystopian drama In Vitro, filmed in Orange and marking the first time Zukerman has returned to Australia since the pandemic.

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Discover the world’s best fashion, design, architecture, food and travel in the March issue of WISH magazine.

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The role was a challenging one: dark, unsettling and different from anything the actor had done before. But every project is a learning opportunity. “That’s the joy of what I do,” Zukerman shares. “I get to think about how other people live, or how I would live in other circumstances.”

Let’s start with shooting for WISH. Do you enjoy photo shoots and getting dressed up in Prada and Armani kit?

There are things I like about it. I like it when people are trying to do something interesting, like they were here. And I like doing things that force me out of my comfort zone.

What’s your relationship to fashion and style? If I was to run into you on the street, what would you most likely be wearing?

I’m certainly not immune. We’re obviously all affected by fashion on a scale. I’d just say the trickle-down reaches me quite late. Typically I guess I’d be found in – well, what I’m wearing now – jeans, a T-shirt, a pair of Blundstones, an old knit. I can certainly appreciate the art, and maybe in the past few years I have been a little braver – but that’s come as I’ve become more aware of how unsustainable the fashion industry is. Like it taking 2500 litres of water to make a new T-shirt. Which is shocking. So when I do go outside of myself, or buy something new, my greater concern is looking for brands that understand that and try to move the needle on sustainable processes.

You came back to Australia to make In Vitro. When was the last time you were here before that? How did it feel to come home?

That was the first time returning since the beginning of the pandemic, which was two years at that point. The longest it had been since I started travelling for work. I always feel good coming back. The day to day in NY or LA or Toronto (where I had spent the majority of those two years) is very similar to Melbourne, so I don’t often notice that I’m a foreigner there. It’s only when coming home that I realise the difference, the ease.

You work predominantly overseas at the moment. Is finding projects to make back in Australia important to you?

Very. And it’s great that now, which has always been my hope, I can help projects that interest me get up. I really love what I’ve been seeing come out of Australia in the past few years. I think we’re making really interesting work that speaks to a broader understanding of what it means to be Australian.

In Vitro is a dystopian thriller that speaks to everything from climate change to coercive control. Even though it has a heightened, sci-fi setting, what does it say about our own world?

It’s the story of a woman who moves her family out to a remote station to support her husband – he’s this fragile genius type – who has a plan to raise livestock in tanks, skipping their life. And because he believes he’s doing something for the greater good… he loses perspective and begins using the people in his life just like he uses the animals.

When I first read the film it made me think a lot about the crossroads we’re at in the world – how despite great evidence to the contrary we continue to believe we can change nature to suit us, rather than change ourselves. About how full of bad wiring some of us are and how solutions to create a better world, solutions to the climate crisis, are doomed to fail in the hands of damaged people.

When the subject matter is dark, as it is in In Vitro, do you find it hard to decompress?

Sometimes, yes. But I’m older now and more experienced so I’m more aware of it and know how to deal with it. I know where the work ends and where I begin. I believe that when you pretend to think a certain way for a few months, your body doesn’t know you’re pretending – hate, desperation can change you.

How do you switch off?

I find it important to compartmentalise the work. I run. I swim. I watch films. Nothing outrageous. I think I was playing chess on my phone regularly while shooting. The most important thing for me is that I actually call it “downtime”, that in those moments I don’t think about the work. So when I do come back to it there may be some fresh ideas.

Do you watch much film and television? What have you watched recently and really loved?

Constantly. I just finished this last season of White Lotus. Which was brilliant. The Bear, The Drop Out, Fleishman Is In Trouble. And films lately: I just watched The Assistant, by Aussie filmmaker Kitty Green, which was remarkable. Also The Stranger, by another Aussie Thomas M. Wright – masterful.

You also have City On Fire in May. The series has a big sprawling cast, several stories woven together, a mystery that slowly unfolds… What was the drawcard for you?

I liked that in this piece the characters were primary. That’s the premise: a tragedy happens in the first episode and we see how all these different people in New York are affected. I liked that I couldn’t immediately describe my character, he’s many things. He’s a husband and a father. He’s an optimist, he believes that things will always work out for him, because they typically always have. He’s experienced great privilege in his life. So that’s led to a life without self-reflection or growth, and now to an affair with a younger woman that puts his family in danger. These are very human things to dig into.

There’s also season four of Succession coming at the end of the month… You are really good friends with your co-star Sarah Snook from before the series. How does it feel to get to go toe-to-toe with her?

I don’t know if we go toe-to-toe, I think she more wipes the floor with me, but it’s been a real nice thing to have that connection and see her do that incredible work from the inside.

The fandom around Succession is enormous. Do you get a lot of people approaching you about it?

I do… yeah. I’m proud to be a part of it, and a fan myself, so it’s usually a pretty nice exchange. It’s an astounding show.

You’ve been working as an actor through a period of great change, from the pandemic’s impact on cinemas to the overwhelming choice of the streaming boom. Where do you think the industry goes from here?

We’ve seen tectonic shifts in the way people watch things, and what’s being made, and I think we’re about to experience another huge shift: I think we’re going to see a real decline in the number of shows being made by the big studios. And what I hope that leads to is more smaller films, smaller shows being made. More original ideas.

And what about you personally: how have you changed in the time since you have been working?

I’m less of a perfectionist. Not because I care less, but because I understand that “perfect” is a myth. I prepare very differently now. Then I throw myself in, and trust the filmmakers.

Succession streams on Binge from March 27. City On Fire streams on AppleTV+ from May 12. In Vitro will be in cinemas soon.