Being in a film the size of Rogue One is quite a change for Mendelsohn, who admits he had a lot of trouble finding work in America earlier in his career. He says, “They came to me after Animal Kingdom — well, they sort of did. There was a bit of a lull until I got in a one-two punch with The Place Beyond the Pines and Killing Them Softly, and then they really came along. But I also had been coming here for about 20 years, trying to get something going on, and I could not get arrested, as they say.”
However, now that Mendelsohn is getting his work outside of his native country, he has to develop accents to portray non-Australian characters. But he welcomes the challenge, and says, “Ultimately, I’m really glad that I haven’t been able to. I believe that having to work on it more has made me better at what I do. Having to spend a lot of time making sure I’m not taking people out of Bloodline or film stuff, you need to put the work in. That has real benefits.”
(via)