I never really acted at school. It was doing small parts on TV that really got me started.
Don’t get too set on becoming an actor at an early age. I think that’s where some people get into trouble. Acting becomes their life. I don’t want that.
There’s never been a particular band that I’ve followed religiously. But I do tend to listen to sadder music.
Scary is good. Kids like going to a movie and being really scared rather than fake scared.
It seemed really easy waving your hands around, it wouldn’t make any difference if you were moving it left or right, but I wanted to do it realistically. I think you can tell if someone doesn’t know what they’re doing.
Johnny Depp is probably the best actor.
I’m pretty rubbish, as we say in Britain, artwise, and I always envy people who can pick up something and even do just a little doodle of someone that looks vaguely like them. It’s impressive.
I like hot weather. I think it might be a bit better if England was a bit hotter.
I don’t go home and pretend I’m August rather than just the actual lines I’m saying in the film. If you do it that way, it makes it more natural and second nature. After awhile you get used to it and there’s so much, especially being in New York to film; you’re always surrounded by American people.
I like all sorts of chocolate. Milk chocolate, dark chocolate, anything.
As always, with acting, you can’t be too self-conscious. You shouldn’t care about what people are thinking about you at the time because they’re not caring about you, they’re caring about the character.
I like to go to bed early so I can get up early.
I guess I’m just a normal kid apart from the acting.
I’ve got a good family to support me, so I’m grounded in that way.
Every day is a different day in New York; there’s always something new going on.
Also “Catcher in the Rye”, which happens to be one of my favorite books, I just found that kind of useful. It helps you get into the American accent.
I think a lot of the time having someone who you, not base yourself on, but can see yourself being after a few years, you can get quite blinded by that, in the same way love can be.
For every different role you play it’s nice to have different challenges for each one.
I had been practicing guitar about six months beforehand; I concentrated mostly on the songs I had to play. I got those down pretty well so they could use me actually playing.
I think I’ve always been kept grounded. I’ve never been too involved with the movie business apart from just doing the film. I’ve never moved out to LA like a lot of people or been too drawn in by that.
It was great to do August Rush and have all the challenges of playing that character, especially the American accent for the first time and also playing the guitar and the conducting I had to do.