A common fear today, the theft of intimate data, has come to pass in the TV adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s dystopian sci-fi classic, Brave New World. Early in the series, now streaming on NBC’s Peacock, a hologram replays racy encounters between a love interest (Jessica Brown Findlay) and Henry Foster (Sen Mitsuji). Foster is the ultimate alpha in New London society, which deems promiscuity and memory-wiping drugs civic duties.

“[Henry] dishes out all the shit and doesn’t take any of the consequences,” says Mitsuji, a Sydney native living in Tokyo. “People only experience Henry being a dick for the two seconds it takes to pop a pill. I think contemporary society might hate him a lot more than [they do in the show].” Maybe so, if it weren’t for society’s weakness for relaxed good looks that channel a young Keanu Reeves.

Mitsuji’s favorite pastimes underscore his alt-bro energy. He took up photography in his male-model days, and continues to flex his refined eye on Instagram. And whether he’s shooting in L.A. or self-quarantining in Sydney, his thoughts tend to drift seaward: “I love being in nature, but I get bored of stuff pretty easily. I like surfing [because] you’re in nature but it’s really dynamic, and a little bit violent,” he says. “I like that.” Free-thinking as he is, Mitsuji’s comfort zone evolved on the Brave New World set— especially while shooting semi-choreographed orgies.

“As someone who doesn’t do that regularly, my mind was constantly going, ‘What the fuck am I doing?’” he says. He may have come away with a new favorite pastime: “Just before you see everyone with all of their clothes off, toward the crescendo, [we were] just pushing and pulling each other,” he says, referring to a scene set in New London nightlife. “It was more physical than erotic, but it felt amazing to get rid of your inhibitions. I remember leaving and thinking, ‘Maybe the people of New London were onto something.’”