BOY BEATS HUNDREDS OF HOPEFULS TO LAND LEAD IN SCORSESE FILM
Source: The Evening Standard
BY PETER DOMINICZAK
29 March 2010
A LONDON boy aged 12 has beaten hundreds of children in auditions to land the lead role in the latest Martin Scorsese film.
Islington-born Asa Butterfield has been cast as the hero in The Invention Of Hugo Cabret to be made by the director famous for screen classics such as Raging Bull and Goodfellas. (Feilongfan: So Asa will do a high-profile movie. Wonder if he has time to do Merlin 3?)
Based on a best-selling children's book by Brian Selznick, The Invention Of Hugo Cabret tells the story of an orphan who lives in a Paris railway station in the Thirties.
Asa, who will be 13 on Thursday, will star alongside Ben Kingsley and Sacha Baron Cohen in the film, which begins shooting in May.
He had minor roles in 2006 television drama After Thomas and the 2007 film Son Of Rambow, but he first won wider attention for his role as the son of an SS concentration camp commandant befriending a Jewish boy in the film The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas.
He also landed a starring role in the current release Nanny McPhee And The Big Bang alongside Emma Thompson and Ralph Fiennes.
Asa, who does not come from an acting family, joined the Young Actors' Theatre in Islington at the age of seven.
Mark Herman, who directed The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, said Asa was the third person among hundreds that he saw for the role.
He added: 'I thought he was fantastic but we kept on searching, just because we wanted to make sure that no stone was unturned.
'In the end, we went back to him because the crucial thing was to find a child who can hold the screen.
'Asa does that. And he has just the right blend of innocence and curiosity for the role, and such compelling, watchful eyes.'
Asa has also appeared in three episodes of the TV series Merlin and in an episode of Ashes To Ashes.
The artistic director of the Young Actors' Theatre in Islington, Andrew Harries, said of Asa: 'He has been studying here with us for six years and this is his third major feature film.