Lou Taylor Pucci was always destined for acting. At least that's what his parents thought. "They gave me a name that sounded like a good stage name," he tells me.

We're in the lobby of a hotel on a Wednesday morning, just before the Night Visions Film Festival is about to kick off in earnest. Pucci is here to promote his latest horror film, Touch Me, in which he plays a hip hop obsessed alien. It's one of the wilder offerings this year, yet also a surprisingly tender and nuanced depiction of depression, abuse, and power dynamics.

"I end up being the person who gets a lot of jobs that no one else wants because they're too scary. They'll go 'I have no idea how to do that' and that's the whole fun of it for me. Like, 'let's figure it out together, let's fucking party!'" Pucci exclaims.

Before we get into it, I can't help but bring up Pucci's prior films. He's been in the industry for over 20 years, effortlessly moving from mainstream to indie darlings and always being the best thing about whatever project he's in. The Story of Luke, released in 2013, is one of those films. It's a low-key dramedy about a young man with autism, who tries to make a life for himself in the midst of a chaotic family and a society that doesn't quite understand him. To date, it remains one of the most earnest and realistic depictions of autism on screen.

"It was hard for me, because we were making a comedy. It was important that the audience didn't think we were making fun, because we weren't. It was walking a fine tightrope to create a character you could laugh with, but not laugh at", Pucci explains.

His breakthrough role came in Thumbsucker, a droll comedy about a troubled teenager still sucking his thumb, and the way the world around him reacts to his coping mechanisms. The film had an all-star cast of Keanu Reeves, Tilda Swinton, and Vincent D'Onofrio, all playing against type at the time.

"I was a kid at the time, I was 17, so I thought of Vincent and Tilda as mom and dad! But I can see it now. Tilda as an unconfident woman, while she's one of the most confident people on the planet, and Vincent this weak father, while Keanu was this psycho hippy dentist, everyone was going against type!"

His newest film, Touch Me, is all about defying type and expectations. His character is an alien, but also deeply human.

"What was fun about playing this character was that I got to have multiple personalities. He wasn't built by a history. He's built by being whatever everyone needs him to be at that moment. He's created an understanding how to manipulate people using his personality. He's truly a cult leader type of person. Wildly in love with himself. Truly a scary narcissist."

Touch Me comes from a deeply personal place. Writer and director Addison Heimann uses genre tropes to speak of his own past experiences.

"It's based on Addison's own depressive times. He wrote it when he was very depressed. He was trying to find a metaphor for what could make him happy. If you could touch someone and it would take all your anxiety away, and make you feel whole again, that's why he made this story."

I can't help but ask if Pucci enjoys making people squirm more than he makes them laugh, or if that consideration even enters into the equation.

"As an actor, I can't think of that as we're filming. For me, watching it now, it's more fun to make people laugh. But making it, it's getting under people's skin. So maybe it's a bit of making people squirm. If you make people think about themselves, they have to face truths they don't want to see. The only way to do that is to be really honest with yourself as an actor. To be that person showing the truths of what we're hiding. That makes others a little freaked out. But in a movie theater I want to see people laughing."

Beyond Touch Me, Pucci can be seen in Marvel's Daredevil: Born Again, where he plays Adam, the lover of Kingpin's wife. Pucci got the part for his special set of skills.

"Everyone loves torturing me. It's happened two or three times now. They love putting me in a cell and torturing me. I don't know if it's my face, but they just love me getting tortured. I saw the script for this and went 'oh my God, they're going to torture me again!"

Adam began as a completely different kind of character. He was pictured as an intimidating rival to Kingpin. Pucci auditioned and later got the call welcoming him to the Marvel universe. When Daredevil took a creative turn, his character transformed into an artist far removed from the criminal underworld.

"Ayelet Zurer said that her character, Vanessa, would fall in love with someone in that dark world of scams and cheating. She would fall for someone who was sincere and honest. So that's what they ended up going with."

It's a fascinating performance as Adam isn't in the story much, but he's talked about constantly. Especially who he is to someone else. His agency is almost an illusion.

"For me, it's about finding that in the writing. It's already there, and if not, you have to create it. There's not a lot of dialog or things that Adam says or does. It was more about portraying innocence. Being the victim. Every part that I'm trying to put on film is dynamic with peaks and valleys. People with opposing strengths and weaknesses. It's a testament to the writers of the show, because they said they wanted Adam to be intimidating as well, so there would be a dynamic character because he has that level to him."

You can listen to the full 40-minute talk in the YouTube link above.