I’d like to try to do something helpful. I’d like to figure out what I want and then accomplish that,” says actor Paul Dano on a frigid Wednesday in March. “I’d like to be happy.” The 25-year-old actor’s life is at once as big as a blockbuster film and as intimate as a dusty studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where he just finished posing for this photo shoot. To exist—let alone thrive—in both worlds is a rarity, but with a caginess befitting a more seasoned actor, Dano has been weaving his way through the two, dazzling directors, critics and colleagues with his fancy footwork.

Dano has mastered the art of choosing quality projects, a talent he’s had ever since his breakout turn as a lost and sexually confused young teen in L.I.E., a role that won him the award for best debut performance at the Independent Spirit Awards when he was 16. His lucky, prescient film choices—or perhaps their choice of him—bear the mark of an actor uninterested in the perks of celebrity.

He played Dwayne, the mute Nietzsche apostle in Little Miss Sunshine; embodied the slaphappy preacher to Daniel Day-Lewis’ oil tycoon in Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood; and voiced a character in Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are. He recently shot Knight and Day, this summer’s Tom Cruise-and-Cameron Diaz action vehicle, as well as The Extra Man, alongside John C. Reilly and Katie Holmes, and another indie, Meek’s Cutoff, with Michelle Williams. He also stars in Icelandic director Dagur Kári’s The Good Heart,a very strange little film about a bar in New York City, shot mostly in Iceland.

The Good Heart reunites Dano with his L.I.E. co-star Brian Cox. “Brian was a father-like figure not only to my character in that film, but also to me, since it was my first time working on a movie set,” Dano says. I remember having a conversation with him about sex when I was like 16, and thinking, I guess I’m an adult now. Nine years later, we’re much more like pals.”

While neither meandering nor disengaged, Dano talks slowly, measuring each word and phrase, considering the weight with which they’ll land. There’s a knowing wit in him, too, a dry sense of humor one might expect from the bartender at the local pub—not, say, one’s pomegranate martini- making mixologist—which is fitting considering his latest film. A Good Heart tells the story of an old loner, played by Cox, who adopts Dano, a homeless young loner, and then trains him to take over his beloved dive bar. Things go awry when Dano’s character encourages a young French woman to join the twosome (which, technically, is already a foursome, if one considers their loyal dog and a duck named Estragon).

A Good Heart feels foreign and incredibly odd, though still touching and unique. In other words, it’s not the romantic comedy we’d expect from an indie star breaking into the mainstream. “I got the script and I read it and said, Shit, Kári is talented,” Dano says, explaining his choice. “And so we talked. And I liked him a lot. And I’m a sucker for a good bar. And I liked the duck. And the dog.”

But even when he takes on larger studio projects, he doesn’t sacrifice any of his obvious passion for the craft. Says his recent co-star Cameron Diaz, “The part that Paul plays in Knight and Day was a smaller role that he made into so much more than any of us could have imagined. He truly makes the most of every moment as an actor. He managed to find the humor as well as the humanity in the character.” Plus, she adds, “He’s dead sexy.”

Dano, who began acting in the theater long before he landed his first film role, last took to the stage in 2007’s Things We Want, an off- Broadway play directed by Ethan Hawke that paired Dano with his then co-star and now-girlfriend Zoe Kazan. “I love and trust her. I talk about everything with her, including my career, and not just because she’s an actress. She’s super-talented and makes me want to be better.” Kazan, who has appeared in films such as Revolutionary Road and It’s Complicated, shares the sentiment. “It’s nice to find common ground,” she says. “And that’s something I didn’t know, because I had never dated an actor before Paul. It’s lovely to come home and be able to say, I had a really tough time with this scene.”

Dano and Kazan call Carroll Gardens home, and count among their neighbors Michelle Williams. (“She’s good friends with Zoe,” he says. “We do the Brooklyn thang.”) Far from the bottom lines and overheads of Hollywood, Dano seems to have found his niche. There, he relaxes with his girlfriend, plays guitar with his pals and gorges on dumplings at a local spot called Eton.

Still, he’s always looking forward. Dano has just written and will be directing a short film. “It’ll be six to eight minutes,” he says. “It’s a love story. One thing about acting is that I wish I had more control over the final product. It’s probably best, when I’m acting, not to—but I’d like to be in an edit room. Everybody has a perspective on love, death or samurais.”

As he trudges past the warehouses that line this particular part of Greenpoint, hands in the pockets of his hooded army coat, Dano looks like any other man making his way home from work—or in his case, to a donut shop called Peter Pan where he’ll pick up snacks for Kazan’s parents, who are visiting from Los Angeles. But then he ducks into an awaiting Lincoln Town Car, and, just like that, Paul Dano reminds us he isn’t all that normal.

Photography by Billy Kidd. Styling by Anna Katsanis.