Gavin O’ Connor directed Janet McTeer to a Golden Globe winning performance in Tumbleweeds (1999) and coaxed equally powerful performances from Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy and Nick Nolte in Warrior. After dabbling in the western genre with Jane Got a Gun (2015) he gives a new twist to thrillers with The Accountant whose protagonist played by Ben Affleck, is a high-functioning autistic. Trained by his military father in order to overcome his disability, Christian Wolff combines ruthless combat skill with genius-grade aptitude for numbers, using both to carve out a career, which is unconventional to say the least. When he draws the attention of a Treasury agent (Golden Globe winner J.K. Simmons) and, of a different sort, from meek fellow accountant Anna Kendrick (Globe nominee for Up in the Air) his carefully managed life threatens to unravel. The HFPA’s Jenny Cooney spoke to O’Connor about the film and how Hollywood portrayals of autism spectrum characters has changed from Rain Man to Homeland and now his film.