“I thought I would go to Paris, get a girlfriend, and write killer sentences,” says Bill Nighy, the legendary screen and stage actor. He’s holding court at a Monday night post-screening Q&A for his latest film, Living, moderated by an enthusiastic Hugh Jackman at the Crosby Street Hotel in SoHo. Nighy is describing the way he thought his life would shake out as a young man, when he was an aspiring novelist. But, instead, he became an actor, turning in memorable performances in films like Love Actually and About Time. And, if awards prognosticators are right, Nighy’s on the cusp of a new career hallmark: an Academy Award nomination for his turn in Living, a stirring adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru.

Hosted by Anna Wintour, the lively Monday night screening and reception was attended by guests like David Harbour, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Huma Abedin, Jesse Williams, Tovah Feldshuh, Georgina Chapman, Annie Leibovitz, and more, who sipped champagne and shook Nighy’s hand after the screening. In her opening remarks, Wintour introduced Nighy as “one of our greatest actors.”

Also in attendance were Living director Oliver Hermanus and novelist, and screenwriter Kazuo Ishiguro. The film stars Nighy as Williams, an uptight English civil servant whose life is transformed after a devastating health diagnosis. Nighy gives a beautiful performance of a man at a crossroads, instantly generating Oscar buzz and putting him in competition with fellow frontrunners Brendan Fraser (The Whale) and Austin Butler (Elvis). If nominated, it would mark Nighy’s first-ever nod from the Academy. 

It was actually Ishiguro who roped Nighy into the project. As the actor explained to Jackman in the post-screening Q&A, producer Stephen Woolley invited Nighy to a dinner with the Nobel Prize–winning writer and his wife, producer Lorna MacDougall. Nighy almost missed it entirely. “I was late for dinner because I fell asleep on the sofa,” he confessed. On his way to the dinner, Nighy had been listening to Gregg Allman’s cover of Bob Dylan’s “Going, Going, Gone,” which the Southern rocker released after finding out he was dying of cancer. When the topic of music came up later that night, Nighy mentioned the original Dylan song, assuming no one would know the Allman version. “[Ishiguro] leaned over to me and said, ‘Gregg Allman does a great version of that,’” Nighy said. “And I thought, He must be the only Nobel Prize winner who knows that.”

“At the end of dinner, Ish and Lorna were in a huddle, and they came out and said, ‘We know what your next film should be,’” Nighy recalled, explaining the origin story of his casting. A few weeks later, Woolley rang him up to tell him about Living.

Jackman, an ardent fan of Ishiguro, took a moment to acknowledge the legendary writer. “My mother’s a big fan of mine, but not always the films I choose, and somewhere around X-Men 7, she sent me your book and said, ‘Maybe you should be reading this kind of book,’” Jackman said. “Just putting in a plug for me there!”

Before joining Living, Nighy watched Kurosawa’s original Ikiru, which he had never seen before. “I’ve never seen any of the films you’re supposed to see,” Nighy said. “I’ve seen a lot of sports movies that go into slow motion at the end.” He rattled off a few titles he loved, including Mississippi Burning, Punch-Drunk Love, and Bringing Up Baby. Ikiru, of course, is a new favorite. “I admired it tremendously,” Nighy said. 

The charming conversation soon veered away from the film and into more personal territory, with Jackman asking Nighy about everything from the best time to dance (“After coffee, before I go out the door in the morning”), to his workout attire (“I don’t wear shorts. Don’t be insane.”) Nighy also elaborated about his exercise routine to Jackman. “I go to a very nice man who doesn’t hurt me,” the actor said. “I was philosophically opposed to physical exercise most of my life. I was going to smoke until I died. It’s a miracle I ever did any of it, but now I do, and it’s one of the best things that ever happens to me—not the thing itself, but the bit afterwards when you’re walking towards a cup of coffee,” he added wryly. 

At the end of the Q&A, Jackman wrapped things up by lavishing Nighy with praise. “As an actor who’s looked up to you for many, many years, your work is so inspiring,” Jackman said to Nighy. “It is so truthful and honest. I think you’re an artist of the highest order.”