How I wish Mum was alive to see my tribute to her
Tear-jerking new film A Monster Calls tells of a boy losing his mother to cancer. Here its young British star reveals how his own tragic loss made the part so poignant
IN A heartrending scene towards the end of the new coming-of-age blockbuster A Monster Calls, the young hero of the movie, Conor O’Malley, sinks to his knees and lets out a scream of unfiltered pain as he tries to deal with twin despair: his mother is dying of cancer while he suffers as the victim of merciless school bullies.
The surprising power of the performance has rightly earned plaudits for teenage actor Lewis MacDougall, who finds himself starring alongside such Hollywood luminaries as Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones and Liam Neeson.
But few outside his immediate family will know that the Edinburgh schoolboy had good reason to pour out such raw grief and anger at the age of just 12 – for he had lost his mother to terminal illness just a few months before winning the part that looks set to make him famous.
Today he is open about the extent to which his own experience of loss – he could only watch as his mother Fiona succumbed to latestage multiple sclerosis three years ago at the age of 53 – is visible on screen.
He says: ‘I think it helped me, although my own experience of death was different. I was always told the truth about my mum from a young age, whereas in the film Conor is shielded from reality.
‘It gave me a better understanding of what he was feeling. It allowed me to portray him better because I could relate to what he was going through.’
Now, two years after filming, Lewis is 14 but speaks movingly and with a maturity that belies his age.
‘You have to put your heart and soul into a role like Conor, and when you do the emotions just come out,’ he says. ‘It isn’t a kids’ film and has quite dark themes, but I hope children see it because I think it could help a lot of them understand grief, whether they are going through it or have a friend who is. It shows it is OK to feel a certain way.
‘In the film, Conor is struggling with the fact that people are not telling him the truth. I think death should be talked about more openly. People think children don’t understand, but the message of the film is not to talk down to children just because they are young. They understand far more than adults want them to and it does not help to hide the truth.’
LEWIS’S rise to fame was as sudden as it was unexpected. Unlike some child stars, he is not a product of stage school, although he was encouraged by friends to go to acting classes at his local group, The Drama Studio.
‘I went along one night when I was about ten and really enjoyed it,’ he says. ‘I hadn’t done anything like it before, but I’m so glad I went.
‘My dad and I both like football but my mum used to do musicals when she was young and I get my artsy side from her. I would have liked her to have been able to see what I have done, but what I do is a tribute to her.’
He carried on with the classes during his mother’s illness and, just a few weeks after her death in December 2013, Lewis was cast as one of the Lost Boys in the film Pan, the big-budget prequel to J. M. Barrie’s famous Peter Pan story. Four months later, in spring 2014, he won his first lead role after auditioning for A Monster Calls.
Proudly sitting alongside Lewis at the home they share in Edinburgh, Lewis’s 61-year-old father Billy says the pain his son had suffered meant he understood the emotion of Conor’s role far more than other actors of the same age. Mr MacDougall says: ‘The casting director told me he was the only child who was able to display both sorrow and anger in his performance. The team were all struck by that.
‘I had to think long and hard about letting him take on such a role after losing his own mum, and it is not something I did lightly. I knew he was strong enough and that he really wanted to do it.
‘The film team were also very supportive. Part of Lewis’s reason for taking on this role was to show others experiencing loss that you will get through it. It is hard but you will make it through.’
Mr MacDougall, a retired banker, accompanied his son to Barcelona for the four months of filming. He is protective without being overbearing and says he ‘only wants Lewis to be happy in whatever he does’. Father and son have had a profoundly close relationship since Lewis’s birth, he explained, as his wife was not well enough to look after him as a baby. ‘My wife had MS and suffered from pre-eclampsia at the end of her pregnancy that left her very unwell and unable to move. I would get up and do the night feeds. ‘Lewis and I have always done a lot together – we have spent more time together than most fathers and sons. He would come to the shops with me and I got him ready for school. I love being able to go with him when he is filming and see him work.
‘Now that he is a teenager I have to be careful not to tell him what to do too much, but I am there for advice and guidance.
‘When I watched his performance in A Monster Calls, it suddenly struck me that my wee boy wasn’t a wee boy any more. He grew up there in front of my eyes on screen.
Mr MacDougall adds: ‘The theme of A Monster Calls is that they do not tell the boy the truth about his mother’s illness, but I always made sure I was honest with Lewis about his own mum.
‘I always felt that was the right thing to do and seeing the film rein- forces that. There were a couple of times before my wife died that we thought she might die so I had prepared Lewis for that.
‘I didn’t pretend to him, to try to shield him, and that helped him in the long run.’
Having suffered such a loss, it is perhaps no surprise that Lewis says he formed a particular bond with the actress who plays his mother, Oscarnominated Felicity Jones, 33, who is herself a former child star and is best known for playing heroine Jyn Erso in the new Star Wars spin-off Rogue One.
The pair went to the zoo and a theme park together to get to know each other before filming began, and their closeness is evident on screen. Lewis says: ‘Felicity and I became very close. She is such a warm, kind person and I still consider her a friend.
‘The producers wanted us to hang out to get comfortable with one another and replicate the bond the mother and son need to have on screen. Going to the zoo and on a rollercoaster together meant our relationship was natural in front of
It helped me tot portray my character – I could relate to what he was going through
the camera. While she plays my mum, she is a young mum and the two characters are also best friends. I felt totally comfortable with her, even in the very close and emotional scenes when we were cuddling.
‘She was kind to me whenever I was nervous.’
HE ADDS: ‘ On the other hand, I deliberately didn’t spend any time with Toby [Kebbell], who plays my father, as they have an awkward relationship and the production team wanted it to look that way.’
Lewis’s eyes light up when asked how it felt to work alongside such accomplished actors.
‘It was just amazing to be on set with such talented people.
‘I was like a sponge, absorbing everything they did. I watched them and took it all in. I am so lucky to have been given this opportunity and I don’t take it for granted. I want to keep working hard and doing films I enjoy.’
While the outdoor scenes were filmed near Manchester, the majority of the production took place in a studio in Barcelona in late 2014.
The cast regularly dined together, and one highlight for Lewis and his father was a tapas meal with Alien star Sigourney Weaver.
Lewis says: ‘Sigourney was really down-to-earth and working with her made me admire her even more.
‘We also spent time together off screen, which was fun. My dad and I went for food with her in Barcelona and she invited us to come and see her in New York if we are ever over there.’
Lewis admits that showing emotion on set was difficult at first. ‘Crying on screen was definitely hard, much harder than any of the other scenes.
‘I guess the hard bit about it is getting to that place when something hasn’t genuinely upset you.
‘But once you are there, you can stay in it as you feel the real emotion. When you are told you can scream and let loose, it becomes more natural.
‘The first time I watched the film I did cry a little,’ he adds. ‘I think it was a sense of pride and relief that all my hard work had come together and that other people could enjoy it. ‘I put a lot into it. I think seeing Conor’s story on the big screen was also sad.’
He says: ‘I love doing what I am doing and getting to see the world. I have been able to see things and go to places I never would have been to and that part of acting is just amazing.
‘I do miss my friends, though, and am glad I can come home and go back to normal.’
Not that he’s in any mood to stop just now. Lewis has recently finished filming two new movies, Boundaries, with Christopher Plummer, and The Belly Of The Whale, filmed in Ireland and due for release this year.
As his father so poignantly says: ‘I am proud of him and I know his mother would be too. It is she who had the artistic, creative streak. In her younger years she was in her local operatic society and put on musicals.
‘She may not have seen him achieve his dreams, but he is a credit to her.’