Local boy scores big screen break alongside A-List actress

Tuesday 28 August 2018

A 12-year-old local aspiring actor has scored his first big screen break starring in a historical drama alongside A-List actress Elle Fanning.

Owen Richards was playing Mary Shelley’s (Elle Fanning) younger brother in filmmaker Haifaa al-Mansour’s eponymous feature about the writer’s relationship with Percy Shelley.

But not only was he playing the sibling of an A-Lister, he also got to star alongside English actors Douglas Booth (The Riot Club, BBC's Great Expectations), Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey, A Streetcat Named Bob) and Stephen Dillane (Game of Thrones).

The movie premiered at The Toronto Film Festival in 2017 before opening in London in July. It is due for release in DVD in September.

Filming took place two years ago when Owen was aged just 10. At the time, Owen’s family was living in Luxembourg and his mum Rhona, an actor and director, was teaching drama after school. Haifaa al-Mansour, a ground-breaking film director and the first female Saudi filmmaker, came looking for someone to play William Godwin’s part. Owen auditioned and was eventually selected. 

The young actor spent three days on set and loved every minute of it. “It was really fun,” he told Express. “I got to meet a lot of famous people I’ve seen in movies. It was quite thrilling to be next to Elle Fanning, Douglas Booth, Joanne Froggatt, Stephen Dillane, whom I’ve seen in Game of Thrones, or Ben Hardy from Lord of the Rings.

“I was the youngest with lines on set. They were all very nice to me, especially Joanne and Stephen. It was a really great experience.”

Video: 'Mary Shelley' was Owen's first acting experience on a movie set.

While 'Mary Shelley' marked Owen’s first time on camera, the young boy has been on theatre stages many times. With his mum being an actor, Owen caught the acting bug from an early age and took to the stage aged just four as part of a school play, and many more have followed since. “I’ve always been really been into theatre and it sparked my interest for acting,” he explains. “It’s just fun to be on stage and get into character. Even in the rehearsals, I find it really fun.”

Owen’s performance impressed the director. Rhona says: “He was amazing. He really took in his stride. The director told me she couldn’t believe he hadn’t been on set before, he was such a natural. We were surprised because he had more screen time than we thought. I was a bit jealous because he was working with superb actors and had his own dressing room and someone to do his hair and make-up! I kept asking how the actors were and he wasn’t fazed. He once said, ‘They are just normal people eating chicken at lunch!’”

Pictured: Owen has already starred in many plays, including 'Guys and Dolls.'

As much as he likes being on stage, Owen preferred his time on set. “I would love to do more movies. It is my dream job to be an actor in movies. I love acting. It is so thrilling, even more so on a movie set. There are a lot more takes and it is more technical. You do stop a lot of time and then they will do some make up to make you look good on camera. They go around you and sometimes even take parts of the set out to put the cameras in. It was overwhelming to see everything that goes on behind the scenes.”

While Owen’s favourite hobby is definitely acting, he also likes to spend his time playing music, rugby, football or hockey. “Then there are my school lessons,” he adds. A very busy boy he spent the past week at a rugby training camp and is working on a short movie with his friends which aims to put a comedy twist on the Superman movies. He is also rehearsing for Bugsy Malone, the Jersey Amateur Dramatic Club (JADC)’s first production for young performers, under the direction of his mum. Owen will be on stage with the rest of the cast, from 18 to 21 October at the Jersey Arts Centre.

Pictured: In October, Owen will take to the Arts Centre stage in a production of Bugsy Malone.

He has also been cast to in St. Michael’s Prep School production of a 'A Child Shall Lead'. The play by Michael Slade is based on the true story of children sent to a concentration camp in Poland. “To raise the morale and keep up they start a newspaper and a secret school,” Owen explains. “They try to stop the propaganda from the Nazi regime. It’s very thought provoking and touching.”

As for the future, Owen will be joining a boarding school in Rugby next year. The school boasts an excellent creative arts department and hosts a three-day Arts Festival each year, where students are encouraged to produce and perform their own work each. Owen's really looking forward to becoming involved in the school's theatre community. However, he firstly intends to focus on his academic results and act on the site. “I find English and History both very interesting. I want to find a good university with drama for after but I think if I focus on my studies at least I will have something to fall back on if acting doesn’t work out.”

Pictured: Next year, Owen will fly to Rugby to join a boarding school.

With Owen’s future school being very close to Stratford-upon-Avon - Shakespeare’s place of birth and home of the Royal Shakespeare Company - Rhona is sure Owen will have plenty of opportunities to take part in more plays and maybe movies, but they are not pushing it. 

The young actor has however already thought of which actors he would one day dreamed to star alongside with. “I would love to work with Hugh Jackman or Bruce Willis. I also would like to work with the entire cast of ‘Brooklyn 999’ - they all seem like really good fun.”