Wonderstruck

Honestly, I look back on the Harry Potter films with amazement and pride. I can’t quite believe it all happened. We really pulled off something amazing. To make eight of those films, to the quality and level we did, I think is quite miraculous really and a testimony to how dedicated and how passionate everyone was who worked on it. I think it’s a real success story for the British film industry.

Aronofsky is known to be a demanding director, can you share your auditioning experience with him?

The auditioning process was a challenge. Before my audition, he sent me a page of the script, which I performed. He then handed me three more pages, and said, ‘I’m going to leave you alone for five minutes and then you get to do it’. You can imagine how I was feeling when he left me alone for those five minutes. But it was fun. I’ve never produced real tears in an audition before, but I did with Darren.

Can you give us a peek into the character you are playing in Noah?

Noah’s family finds Ila when they go through this abandoned refugee camp. She is a victim of war — a refugee, badly wounded and her family killed. Noah decides to rescue her, even though it means carrying her as she’s bleeding and can’t walk. If they left her there, she’d bleed to death. She’s a child at this point, seven or eight. He risks himself to save her and adopts her as his daughter. It’s a really beautiful story. Noah and Ila have this very intimate connection and relationship, and you can tell that they truly care for one another.

Tell us about working with Russell Crowe.

Russell isn’t prepared to say anything that he doesn’t fully understand and believe. If it doesn’t make sense to him, he isn’t prepared to let it go. During the rehearsals, he went through every single word in that script with a fine toothcomb. It had to make sense in Russell’s mind. Everything. He’s really meticulous like that. How many years has his career spanned? But at the same time, there’s something very sweet about him. I was really intimidated to meet him at first, but he was very caring with me. He started very young himself, and he knows what it’s like to be a young actor on the set. And he was like that with all the kids in the film. He took all of us under his wing. He’s very generous like that.

Would you say it’s the hardest film you’ve had to do?

By far the most challenging thing I’ve had to do is to deal with the kind of themes that I’ve been working on. Like, you’ve just been told it’s the end of the world, how do you feel? The world is coming to an end. It’s almost like, how do you get there? It’s Shakespearean. Darren would say, ‘When you see this on a huge screen, and you’ve got the soundtrack and the noise of the waves and the rain…’ It almost felt like what you give couldn’t be big enough. At times I was like, ‘Is this going to be overacting?’ But when you’ve got that scale supporting your performance, you’ve just got to go for it, hook, line and sinker.

Which of Darren’s films have stayed with you?

 The Fountain was one of my favourites. I found Requiem for a Dream about five years ago. That film is so impactful. I remember feeling physically ill after I saw it. I always think, ‘Every teenager who is thinking about experimenting with drugs should watch that film.’