A RAY OF HOPE. As the year comes to a close, DA MAN gets to chat with the next big British acting phenomenon: Asa Butterfield
Although he has yet to celebrate his 20th birthday (that would be next April), English actor Asa Butterfield has starred in an impressive number of high-profile movies and worked with some of the industry’s most celebrated heavyweights. One of his most recent movie appearances was in this year’s “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” (directed by Tim Burton and also starring the likes of Eva Green, Chris O’Dowd and Samuel L. Jackson) while early next year he will appear in “The Space Between Us” (with Gary Oldman). By the looks of it, it seems that his screenwork in 2017 will be no less tantalizing. For more on Butterfield’s recent work and his upcoming projects, DA MAN sat down for a short, trans-continental chat.
DA MAN: So, last we checked, you have several movie appearances lined up for the near future. Let’s start with “The Space between us.” Can you give a brief rundown of the story?
Asa Butterfield: The film follows my character, Gardner Elliot, who’s the very first human born on Mars. And he makes it his mission to travel to Earth to find out who he is, to find this girl that he’s been talking to—the only girl he’s really ever spoken to—and also try and find his dad. He also wants to find his roots and to figure out what it means to be human.
DA MAN: Did you find having to act like a clueless and wide-eyed character for most of the movie challenging? Or at least a bit offbeat?
Asa Butterfield: Well, I’ve done it a few times actually. I don’t know why, but I seem to play a lot of characters who have that kind of naive innocence about them. Maybe it’s my eyes. [Laughs] Maybe I just have a very innocent appearance. But in this film in particular, I actually really enjoyed playing Gardner’s oddities, and he’s an interesting character. He’s not like any other character I’ve played before on screen. And I had a lot of freedom, creatively, to come up with these ideas about him. Yeah, I had a great time doing it. I had to express what it was like to experience many things for the first time, and we haven’t seen much of that before on screen.
DA MAN: Besides the “playing the tourist” part, were there any other particularly memorable parts from playing in “The Space between Us”?
Asa Butterfield: There’s a big scene that involves a crop duster plane, and toward the end of the scene, I’m chasing after it. It’s this whole big action sequence and I ended up finally grabbing on to the plane after this incredibly tense moment, and I stand up and I’m holding on. Then I had the idea that rather than just getting in and taking off, Gardner—who’s so caught up in the moment and the thrill of doing this—just shouts to the sky in excitement. And it really worked. It really just added to that moment and really cemented Gardner’s character for me.
DA MAN: What would you say is the most meaningful message of this movie?
Asa Butterfield: Well, I hope people can get out of this and what I really got out of filming it is an appreciation for what we have, as in, as a planet, we’re so lucky to exist on this little rock in the universe. And that everything happened the way it did, and that we’re able to do these things, we take that for granted. Everyone does. and this film really highlights what’s special about our planet and what we’re really lucky to have.
Outfit by Gucci, shoes by Givenchy
DA MAN: Moving from sci-fi/teen-romance to coming-of-age drama: how excited are you about “The House of Tomorrow”?
Asa Butterfield: I filmed “The House of Tomorrow” in July this year, and it was probably the shortest shoot … It is the shortest shoot I’ve ever done excluding TV. It was four weeks to get the entire film done and that was kind of insane. It’s very ambitious, but we had an incredible cast. Somehow, I always seem to be blessed with an amazing cast—this one was no exception. I was working with Alex Wolff and we’ve formed this punk band. For me that was … Well, I got to learn how to play bass, which I always wanted to play. I’m very musical, and bass guitar always seemed like so much fun. And Alex, who’s already a great musician, coached me and formed this punk duo. We even performed our own gig at this random bar in Minneapolis. Yeah, it was kind of wild.
DA MAN: Once again you’re playing a character who must discover what it means to live a “normal” life. On a related note, what have you personally discovered—as an actor, that is—from working on “The House of Tomorrow”?
Asa Butterfield: Well, I guess I figured out that you don’t need six months and 150 million dollars to make an incredible film. I kind of knew that already, but this film really highlighted that you just need a group of incredibly passionate people who really want to make it and who are driven and will give their all. By working together, you can do amazing things in an incredibly short amount of time. That was pretty cool to be a part of.
“Hopefully, at some point down the line, I can get out into the Amazon and hang out with some monkeys”
DA MAN: Right now, “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” has been running for a while. What was filming this fantasy title like for you?
Asa Butterfield: It was pretty surreal, honestly. A Tim Burton set is unlike any other I’ve ever been on. And I always was a massive fan of his films and his style of filmmaking. So, to be able to watch him and be such a crucial part of the process was incredible. Every day was like stepping onto some kind of weird, gothic fairy tale. and it really helps you as an actor to kind of believe it and be a part of it when it’s so rich and so full of detail and so much time and energy has been put into crafting this world. It makes your job a lot easier.
DA MAN: Do you have any other movie projects in the works or under consideration?
Asa Butterfield: Well, I’ve just started filming a movie called “Journey’s End,” and it’s an adaptation of the famous World War I play [of the same name]. I will be playing Lt. Raleigh, a young officer who just came up to the front lines. We’re filming at Ipswich and Wales at the moment, so it’s very cold and very muddy. We’re also in trenches most of the time—it’s all very appropriate to the era. And it’s exciting. We’ve got an incredible cast playing these officers and I think it’s going to be a great film.
DA MAN: How about TV? The last time you appeared in a television series was in 2008/2009’s “Merlin.” Do you have any plans to one day revisit the small screen?
Asa Butterfield: Yeah, I think I would do some more TV. “Merlin” and “Ashes to Ashes” are the only things I’ve done so far, and I think there are some incredible TV shows on at the moment. If something great came on, I would love to get back into it.
Shirt and pants by Salvatore Ferragamo, coat by Louis Vuitton, shoes by Vivienne Westwood
DA MAN: Looking back again, you started acting since you were seven years old. At the time, what was it that drew you into this art form?
Asa Butterfield: [Laughing] Nothing, really. Not when I was seven. I didn’t know what acting was, I didn’t know it was an art form. I just did it for fun. When you’re seven years old, you do things for fun, don’t you? I was in this drama class and I didn’t take it all that seriously—I just kind of enjoyed doing it. You don’t really think about acting when you’re that age. You just go with it, and you believe it. It’s all make-believe. When you’re a kid, it’s so much easier to let go of all of those boundaries and just have fun.
DA MAN: When did you finally make the decision that acting was your calling?
Asa Butterfield: I don’t think it was until I did “Hugo” where I really appreciated the level of work that goes into it. And I really started to develop myself as an actor and I started working with my acting coach, Amanda Brennan, whom I’ve been with ever since. She really helped me understand the process behind acting and the process which best worked for me. And just being on that set, being surrounded by everyone who was, like, the best of the best in the industry, I was just like, “Wow, this is pretty cool.”
DA MA: Have you ever encountered situations where being an English actor working in the American film industry is extra challenging? Or on the flip side, where it is an advantage?
Asa Butterfield: The biggest challenge is the accent. As an English actor here, to be successful means you really have to be able to do an American accent, and, thankfully, I can, and a lot of English actors can as well. I tend to think that English actors are better at American accents than American actors are at British accents. Don’t know why. Maybe our accents are just a bit harder. No, I think that’s right, actually. The American accent is really kind of relaxed and easy. Once I start doing an American accent in a movie, I actually prefer to talk like that because it takes much less effort and it takes me a while to get back into my normal voice, so to speak. So, yeah, I’d say it was an advantage. Except on “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children,” actually, where I was doing an American accent but everyone else in the film was British. I kept having to kind of fight the urge to speak normally, because I was kind of the odd one out.
Hat and T-shirt by Gucci
DA MAN: By the way, in Indonesian, the word “asa” means “hope” or “passion.” So, besides acting, what else are you passionate about?
Asa Butterfield: I’m very passionate about music. I love playing music and listening to music. I love finding unknown, small bands or solo producers who just make great music that you don’t really hear on the radio. I’m also passionate about video games and gaming, and advancements in all sorts of technology. I’ve just built a computer for myself. So, yeah, I’m having fun delving into that side of the world. It’s crazy how fast technology develops every year—that really interests me as well.
DA MAN: And your hopes for the future?
Asa Butterfield: I’d love to carry on acting and keep working on projects, but also be able to do other things. Something what I want to do is film wildlife documentaries: Go out with a camera into the wild and just film some animals. I think that’s probably my dream job. So, hopefully, at some point down the line, I can get out into the Amazon and hang out with some monkeys.
To see more images from this exclusive photo shoot, get your copy of DA MAN December’16/January’17 here, and check out these outtakes below:
Photography Mitchell Nguyen McCormack
Styling Steven Doan
Grooming Shukeel Murtaza
Digital Imaging Jon Norris