Photo Source: Dreamworks
Where you've seen him: Only 15 years old, Colin Ford has already built an impressive résumé, and if you haven't seen him before, you've probably heard him. His body of voice work ranges from his starring role as Jake on "Jake and the Never Land Pirates" to characters on "Family Guy." Ford says voiceover is a lot of fun, and his approach to voice roles is more lively and animated than to on-camera roles. He has also appeared in a variety of television shows, including "CSI: Miami," "Private Practice," "Hawaii Five-0," and, in a recurring role as the young version of Jared Padalecki's Sam, "Supernatural."
Upcoming projects: Ford recently wrapped "We Bought a Zoo," directed by Cameron Crowe. He plays Matt Damon's character's son Dylan in the family-friendly film about a single father who needs a fresh start after his wife dies, so he purchases a home with a zoo attached. Ford is also excited about his next project, "Disconnect," a feature in which a number of individuals come together through events that take place on the Internet. Fittingly, part of the audition process for the film was a Skype interview with director Henry Alex Rubin.
Breaking in: Ford began his career at age 5 when he went to an open call for "Sweet Home Alabama." With no formal training, he booked a small role and just kept going from there. "When I was about 9 years old," he says, "I moved out to Los Angeles to kind of really take the next step in my career, and I've been out here for the past six years or so, and it's just something that I absolutely love. My parents support me 100 percent, and it's just so much fun for me." Booking his role in "We Bought a Zoo" wasn't quite as easy. It was a long process with lots of meetings and auditions, but Ford says the film was "definitely the most amazing experience I've ever had on set." He was excited to work with Damon, who has always inspired Ford's career. Besides working with an "amazing" cast and crew, he says he was also excited to work with the animals. He also loved the way Crowe wove music into the movie. Ford says his method of preparing for a role depends on the character. As part of his research for "We Bought a Zoo," he took drawing lessons because Dylan is a great artist. And though Ford didn't become "great" at it, he learned what he needed to create authenticity for the character, such as how to hold the pen and the proper way to draw lines.
Life/work balance: One of the biggest challenges for a young actor like Ford is balancing his education, social life, and work. But he feels he's got a pretty good handle on it. He attends school and sees his friends and, when it's necessary, has a tutor on the set. And his school is great about working with him. "So it's been a joy," he says. "I still continue to go to school and hang out with my friends at school and kind of maintain a normal life." And he takes the skills he has developed as an actor and applies them to all aspects of his life. For example, he says, "Having amazing memorization skills has helped me and will continue to help me for the rest of my life."
Asa Butterfield
Where you've seen him: British actor Asa Butterfield has played a variety of roles in his burgeoning career. The now 14-year-old showed off his drama skills in television's "Merlin" dug into his emotional side in "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," the story of the son of an SS officer at a World War II concentration camp who makes friends with a Jewish boy on the other side of the fence; and flexed his comedy muscles in "Nanny McPhee Returns." Butterfield says "Nanny McPhee Returns" was great because he worked with Emma Thompson and a wonderful cast, and it was the first lighthearted film he'd done.
Upcoming projects: Butterfield is probably most recognizable to American audiences from the trailer for Martin Scorsese's soon-to-be-released "Hugo," in which he plays the title role of an orphan in 1930s Paris who lives in a train station. Butterfield was attracted to the project because he thought it would be "amazing" to work with the legendary Scorsese. Butterfield says it was probably the most difficult audition he's had, requiring him and three other hopefuls (two for the role of Hugo and two for Isabelle) to fly to New York to audition for Scorsese. "Most directors would tell you to do this or tell you to do that, whereas Marty told us to come up with your own ideas to bring to the scene," Butterfield says. A couple of weeks later, he learned that he booked the role. He cites a scene in which he runs through a castle being chased by a dog as one of his favorite parts of filming, even though it was tiring.
Breaking in: Butterfield says he never made a conscious decision to be an actor. While he was taking acting classes at age 7, an agent found him. Butterfield did several small projects, but only after "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" did he suppose he could make acting a career. Getting that role was a long process, though he says by the time he booked it, "I'd done so many auditions, I felt as though I deserved the role."
His philosophy: He says he learned a great deal from the people he worked with. The best advice he got was from Ben Kingsley, one of the actors he most admires. Kingsley told him, "Acting is a duet. And if one person doesn't do his best, then the other person can't. So it requires both of you to do your best in order to get the best out of both of you." Butterfield believes hard work pays off. He says, "Don't give up hope, even if you've exhausted yourself. Just keep on going because it will always come out really good." He thinks it's important to have a life outside of work and makes a point not to talk about filming when he's not on set. "When I'm not filming I feel like I'm more of a normal kid. And doing what 14-year-old kids do," he says.
Jeremy Irvine
Where you've seen him: Jeremy Irvine's first job was an MTV commercial when he was 18, which he says he got by "fluke." British audiences have seen him on the Disney Channel series "Life Bites," playing the best friend of the two leads. He's also been seen "literally playing a tree" in the chorus of the Royal Shakespeare Company's "Dunsinane."
Upcoming projects: From carrying two branches on stage in "Dunsinane," Irvine is bounding to his American film debut as Albert in Steven Spielberg's "War Horse," based on the novel and play of the same name, about a horse named Joey and his experiences during World War I. "I virtually went from having no lines in a theater show to playing the lead in a Steven Spielberg film," Irvine says. "It was so beyond my wildest dreams." Booking the role in "War Horse" was a long process, which Irvine feels was necessary because he didn't have a long résumé to prove his abilities. Throughout the journey, he trained himself to ride horses, as he'd never been on a horse prior to the film. Irvine recently completed shooting "Now Is Good," the story of a young woman (Dakota Fanning) who has a list of things to do before she dies. He remembers the advice given to him by "War Horse" casting director Jina Jay: "Choose projects based on people you're going to learn from." Besides loving the character-driven script, which he says made him cry, Irvine says Fanning was someone he could learn from. He is currently shooting a film version of Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" with Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter in which he plays Pip. He calls the cast a "dream team."
Advice and preparation: Early in the shooting of "War Horse," Irvine says, "Steven Spielberg told me: 'The camera shows true emotion. So if that emotion can be real and your feelings can be real, it doesn't matter what else is going on; that's what it will show.' [So] it's not about going through every single thought you think you should force yourself to have while you're playing the role. It's about just being very present in the moment and truthful." To prepare, Irvine spends as much time as he can with the script, just walking around the fields outside his house, experimenting and trying to find the most truthful and interesting way of saying a line. "When you've done it a thousand times," he says, "it's going to be so embedded in you that when you do it for real, it can just come naturally and you can just focus on making yourself be in the moment."
First inspirations: When he was 16, Irvine had a great drama teacher at school who inspired him to get into acting, he says. Around the same time, he got new neighbors who were working on "The Phantom of the Opera" in the West End, and they took him to work backstage for a week. There, he says, he found a group of people who were just like him, and he loves acting because of the people he gets to work with: "It's a great atmosphere and environment to work in. And once you catch the bug, that's it. Suddenly nothing else matters." Irvine also remembers sneaking in to watch "Saving Private Ryan" (because he was too young for a ticket) and thinking, "My God, to be in one of Steven Spielberg's war sequences...." When shooting the war sequences in "War Horse," Irvine says, "It was just like every dream came true." He got to throw a grenade and use rifles and machine guns—all of which were real World War I equipment. As he says, "I mean, what boy doesn't dream of doing that one day?"
