Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00It feels a little less special being on set than it was when I was 12.
00:04But at other times, I have a much, you know, greater experience because I'm older.
00:09Hi, Roman. Thank you so much for chatting today. I can't wait to...
00:12My pleasure. My pleasure.
00:14So, The King of Kings, what was it about this script that initially drew you in?
00:19Well, initially I was offered it, which is quite big for me.
00:21So that initially drew me in.
00:25I mean, I'm a big fan of Dickens.
00:28I love Dickens.
00:30And I think he's very good at writing children's roles.
00:34And it had such an amazing cast.
00:36I was very lucky to be offered it and to be a part of it.
00:39Did you get to interact with, you know, Kenneth Branagh, Mark Hamill, or was it most...
00:45I sadly did not.
00:47I saw the cast and I was thinking, oh, maybe I get to meet him.
00:51No, it's just me alone in a booth for three days.
00:55Stop. If it's not about the king, then I'm not interested.
00:59I go through a pattern of just watching a film, a series of films by a certain director or an actor.
01:04And I don't know, I just like subconsciously have all these questions for them.
01:08And then when I do get the opportunity to meet them, I'm so bloody annoying.
01:12I just, you know, won't shut up.
01:14You know, this and that and that.
01:15And I've learned so much from all these actors and directors I've met.
01:18So much.
01:20And I think my acting's changed quite a lot since I've been able to meet them all.
01:26Because it's become like a proper craft now.
01:29I didn't see it so much as a craft with kind of different ways to go about it and different ways of doing it.
01:36And I guess I've been kind of enlightened on that.
01:39Would you say that there's one resounding piece of advice that you remember from an actor that you've worked with or a director?
01:44You know, like certain actors improvise because, you know, they're comedic geniuses.
01:48And certain actors improvise because they don't feel comfortable saying their lines.
01:52And the reason they don't feel comfortable is because they don't know them off their heart.
01:57And that's what Bill taught them.
01:58So he says that, you know, you start feeling more comfortable saying the lines, not because it's well written, but because you've learned them.
02:05That was his biggest tip to me.
02:07And not to take drugs.
02:08Become a pop star and they give you them for free.
02:11How would you say that you've grown as an actor since your breakout role in Jojo Rabbit when you were 11 or 12?
02:17I'm now in a different kind of age bracket, which is actually a little trickier.
02:23But it means I can go up for roles which are not so limiting.
02:27I was very lucky with Jojo because it's such a brilliant role, but they don't come around, roles like that for kids, for young adults.
02:36And now I'm growing up, I'm starting to kind of get more material that is a bit more, that has more complex characters in which I could play.
02:47So I've learned a lot, a lot about, I know, sometimes it gets a little less special.
02:56It feels a little less special being on set than it was when I was 12.
03:01But at other times, I have a much, you know, greater experience because I'm older and because I know more about this and that and how to do something in a certain way.
03:13But it has, it's kind of lost its magical sense, in a way, since I was 12.
03:18By the time you're 60-odd, you'll be like, you know, this old thing.
03:23Today, you become a man.
03:26With your role in Jojo Rabbit and also Silent Night in 2021.
03:30Yes, yes.
03:31Which, like, both of them were really darkly comedic roles.
03:34How much of that was improv?
03:36Because you mentioned improv a minute ago.
03:38On Jojo, there was a lot of improv and that was so fun to be around.
03:43Especially with all the funny German accents, like, it was hard to keep it together.
03:48Who was the best kind of coming up with stuff off the cut?
03:51Sam Rockwell, I think, and Stephen Merchant.
03:55But they're very good at kind of improvising, but still sticking to the structure of the scene.
04:00I've got a video, I think it's on my mum's phone or something, when we were doing Jojo.
04:04And he'd tell me, hey, you go, hey, kid, just run, just run down there, run, run.
04:10I said, okay, so I can run in this field, I think, what am I doing?
04:12All of a sudden, there'd be a lasso around me, around my legs.
04:17Like, I was some sort of castle.
04:19And he'd lasso me.
04:21Lasso me.
04:22And before he left, before he left, he came up to me and my brothers.
04:26They've got twin brothers.
04:27And, well, I'm not a triplet, but I have brothers who are twins.
04:30And he gave us boxing gloves.
04:32And he went, don't tell your mum, but have at it.
04:35And it was great.
04:36Your mum must have been like, Sam Rockwell, why would she do that?
04:40I don't know.
04:41I think she had a crush on him.
04:42Don't get any ideas, kids.
04:44With both of your parents being in filmmaking and in the industry, was acting always a natural path for you from a really young age?
04:51Did you just know that's what you wanted to do?
04:53Well, I told them when I was nine, I was like, I really want to act.
04:55And they were like, well, you know, excuse my language, but tough shit.
04:59You're not going to.
05:00And I said, oh, no, okay.
05:03And, you know, I nagged them for two years.
05:06And then they were like, they reached out to agents.
05:09I made videos, trying to get an agent.
05:11And I owe everything, every job I've ever gotten is because of my mum, because she helped me so much.
05:18And she helps me so much when I'm doing the job as well.
05:22But, yeah, I was quite, I'm quite good at, you know, taking crap from directors because I took, well, I didn't take so much crap from my mum, but, you know, I'm, you know, she, you know, built me up.
05:37The benefit of having a, you know, the director?
05:40The benefit of having a strong, yeah, mother.
05:42And what's next for you?
05:43Where do you see your career going?
05:45I really don't know.
05:46And that's the kind of scary part about the industry.
05:49I've done four, I've got, I've done four films that I think are coming out this winter or early next year.
05:56King of Kings being one.
05:58And I'm very excited.
06:02I'm hoping that the momentum of the, of these films will land being my next job.
06:08I've done, I've done meetings of things, but I don't know.
06:11Nothing's conclusive.
06:13I might be working in the pub next year.
06:15I hope not.
06:16But, you know, I, yeah, I mean, there's nothing else I want to do.
06:22Um, and I don't see myself doing anything else just because I don't have the, the, the will to do such hard work.
06:30I mean, acting is quite literally the easiest job in the world.
06:33And I, you know, I'm a bit too used to it.
06:36So many people would say, no, I mean, acting is the hardest job in the world.
06:39I enjoy it so much.
06:40And each time I'm there, even if I get stroppy or I'm tired or whatever, you know, you have to take a minute to go, God, I'm so lucky because it's like, it's like football, you know, like no one gets to be a football player.
06:51So when you are, you know, you have to really, you know, let it soak in.
06:56If there was a eight, nine year old kid out there who was like, I really want to be an actor.
07:00Do you have one standup piece of advice that you would give them?
07:05You have to work really, really hard, um, to actually get the job.
07:09Um, I still get told off by, if I'm not working hard enough, but my mom, my agents, I, I need to, I mean, you can always work harder and it's, it's just one of the, it's like everything else in the world.
07:21It's like talent, talent won't get you anywhere.
07:24You know, it's like a minimum, right?
07:26Um, uh, yeah, it's really hard work just to get in, into the industry.
07:32And it takes so much, uh, so much work, uh, that you have to be willing to do.
07:38And if you're willing to do it, you know, you should a hundred percent go for it.