A Big Friendly Giant break for father of film’s young star
THE acting profession is famous for its dynasties, the success of each generation opening doors for the next.
But in an inversion of tradition, Britain’s newest schoolgirl star has given her jobbing actor father a leg up as he appears alongside her in this summer’s family blockbuster.
Ruby Barnhill, aged 12, from Knutsford, Cheshire, plays Sophie in Steven Spielberg’s epic adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s story with the actor Mark Rylance as the eponymous Big Friendly Giant.
The big-budget movie, which also features the actress Penelope Wilton as the Queen, was filmed in London and Vancouver.
Ruby’s parents, Paul and Sarah, and her seven-year-old sister Darcey were with her for the duration, and several weeks in, Spielberg offered Paul the part of a footman. Paul 45, said: “We said from the outset that if Ruby got the gig we would all go with her. Seven weeks into filming, Steven said he wanted me in the film and gave me a role, which was amazing.”
He has never appeared in a Hollywood film but has had roles with theatre companies including RSC and in television soaps. He makes a cameo alongside Rylance. “It was thanks to luck, timing and of course Ruby,” he said.
Her father had not been keen on Ruby becoming an actress in the first place and had only very reluctantly introduced her to his agent when she begged him. “I thought it would be a character-building lesson in rejection, but she only went and landed the gig of a lifetime,” he said.
Ruby celebrated her 12th birthday yesterday, and Spielberg, who has become a family friend, gave her a gold Tiffany necklace engraved with her name. She said: “People always ask me if I’m in awe of him, but to me he’s just Steven, a really good friend. Someday I will probably look back and think, ‘Wow, I shared my birthday cake with Steven Spielberg and swam in his pool in Santa Monica,’ but I think of him as a lovely kind person, not a remote star.”
Ruby, who appears on the CBBC series was 10 when, after several rounds of auditions, she was flown to Berlin to meet Spielberg. He was working on the set and later announced he had “hit the jackpot” when he saw Ruby, spoke with her, and watched her effortlessly improvise with Rylance.
Ruby said: “I was feeling very nervous but I quickly realised there was no need and concentrated on performing as well as I could.” Spielberg, whose successes include
and had spent months searching for a young actress with just the right balance of innocence, ingenuity and feistiness to embody Sophie, the little orphan girl spirited away by the BFG who grows to care about him and instills him with courage.
Ruby, who kept in contact with former classmates and friends via Skype over the two years it took to make the movie, said: “I felt so comfortable being Sophie that she feels a part of me.”
This adaptation of Dahl’s linguistically inventive book uses photorealistic imagery, live action and motion-caption animation and often required Ruby to act into thin air. She said: “It was tricky to begin with, but I soon got used to it especially as Mark was with me in every scene, even if he was raised up on a crane.”
Ruby says she has “no plans to be in another film just yet”. However, Spielberg has already asked her father to appear in his next film, the dystopian science-fiction story