Watch: Alex MacNicholl Rows His Way to Indie Stardom in 'Heart of Champions'

You may not immediately recognize the name Alex MacNicholl, but chances are you recognize his face. The actor has appeared in a number of high-profile TV shows, including major roles in the streaming series "Transparent," "The Society," and "13 Reasons Why," as well as many recent indie films, including "The Rising Hawk," "All Roads to Pearla," "Unpregnant," and "No Man's Land."

MacNicholl was also cast as the 17-year-old Dick Cheney in Adam McKay's Oscar-winning film "Vice," but his work ended up excised from the final cut. (He can be seen among Blu-ray's deleted scenes).

The young thesp is currently making a splash in Michael Mailer's "Heart of Champions," a retro sports film of sorts about a college rowing team that needs to get its act together so they can take on Harvard. Enter Coach Michael Shannon to shake things up and lead them to potential glory. MacNicholl plays John, an excellent rower whom the coach decides should be team leader, much to the dismay of Alexander Ludwig's character, Alex. John also happens to be dating Alex's ex-girlfriend, so the rivalry is compounded.

MacNicholl shows tremendous range in "Heart of Champions," which is currently playing in select theaters. EDGE had the pleasure of a Zoom chat with him. (Below in its entirety).

Here are some excerpts:

EDGE: You have quite an extensive list of credits, but John feels like a breakout role for you, in terms of really being meaty. Would you agree?

Alex MacNicholl: I hope so. It's one of those things where you do the performance, and it comes out, and you hope it connects with somebody in some way, but I definitely agree... There's a lot going on in the story. It's not just about a team and trying to win a championship. Some things happen. It's about overcoming adversity, and there's some love triangles going on.

EDGE: With a film like this one, is the prep work mostly physical, or were you able to do some character work prior to filming?

Alex MacNicholl: Yeah, it was mostly physical. We were there for a couple, for three weeks working with an incredible team and coach... getting our bodies in shape and learning about rowing and all that... but we were able to rehearse on our own outside of that to build up some emotional truth in the relationships between the teammates and between the lovers.

EDGE: Tell me about working with all these guys. Did you feel a camaraderie right away, or was there a competitiveness in the group?

Alex MacNicholl: No, no, no. There was tons of camaraderie. There was tons of mutual love and respect for everybody. We had these few weeks prior where we basically did like a rowing boot camp where we'd wake up five in the morning, six in the morning, get on the water being exhausted, being completely worked and just being beaten down. Going to get some food, stretching, getting a little recovering, and then back on the water in the afternoon for more of the punishment.

So doing that in that environment, if you have some bad eggs, it can just turn into chaos and be detrimental. But it was the opposite with all of us. We all came together. We all just loved being around each other. We all got along great. And still to this day a lot of the guys keep in touch... and hopefully it comes through onscreen.

Watch the interview below: