RIDING HIGH
MEET OTTO FARRANT, THE ACTOR BRINGING TEEN HERO ALEX RIDER TO THE SCREEN
OTTO FARRANT knows there’s a lot riding on his latest role. As teen spy Alex Rider he’s bringing to life a character whose adventures in Anthony Horowitz’s best-selling series of novels have won a legion of devotees. ‘There’s definitely pressure on me,’ he confesses. ‘Alex is such an important character to a lot of people and it’s a big step up for me. So when I was filming I just tried to focus on it day by day and not think too much ahead.’
It’s safe to say the approach worked. Though he’s 23, the youthful-looking Londoner totally convinces as a teenager suddenly thrust into a world of espionage and intrigue when his uncle, his guardian, dies suddenly. But what doubled the pressure was that Alex Rider was a role model for Farrant in his teenage years.
‘I wasn’t a big reader at school but Alex
Rider was what I did read,’ says Farrant. ‘And Point Blanc, which is the story we’re telling in the new series, was my favourite book of the lot. Everything about it – the story, the mountains, the iconic scene when Alex snowboards on an ironing board… I was really disappointed that was one scene they wouldn’t let me do because it was the first day of filming and they were terrified I’d break my leg and it would be game over.’
He’s right about it being a big step up. You may recognise Farrant from supporting roles in BBC dramas Mrs Wilson and War & Peace, and he’s also impressed on stage, at 18 getting a seductive snog from Gillian Anderson in the National Theatre’s acclaimed A Streetcar Named Desire, which is available to stream now (‘I watched that with my flatmates and I hadn’t told them there was a kiss. They were like… whoa!’) but Rider is his big break. You can see why he beat off more than 650 contenders for one of the year’s plum roles: he delivers a disarming old-school presence.
‘Everyone loves a hero who is just a normal guy: there are so many superheroes out there right now but Alex’s superpower is his instinct,’ says Farrant. ‘It always manages to get him out of there alive. He has a great moral compass. I used to fantasise I was Alex Rider when I was that age and now here I am.’
Does he find it odd to be constantly playing a lot younger than his age?
‘I’m 23 but I’ve played a lot of 16- and 17-year-olds because I do look babyfaced,’ he says. ‘I’ll probably suddenly look 35 overnight! There was one anomaly, though – I played a German director in a play, a part that’s usually played by actors over 40.’
Talking of Germany, how does a lad from Tooting come to be called Otto?
‘I have no German in me at all!’ he laughs. ‘My parents couldn’t decide what to call me when I was a baby and my grandad was reading a book with a character called Otto so he said, as a joke, “Why don’t you call him that?” My mum just went, ‘That’s it!’ And grandad said, ‘I was kidding!’ You do get more Ottos now but they’re mostly dogs, which is confusing when people call out “Otto” on the beach!’
He admits he didn’t think of himself as an action hero but he threw himself into the physical side of the show.
‘I loved doing as many stunts as I could, I didn’t know I had that in me.’ he says. ‘But I learnt fight techniques using krav maga, the Israeli martial art, and I realised I had an aversion to violence, which was tricky. You do oneto-one fighting and they said, “Put on this jockstrap,” and then you had to try and kick each other in the goolies. I said, “You’re not serious,” and they said, “You’re meant to take it!”’ Farrant shines in the action scenes. ‘I’ve always been quite fit, I am a big runner and I love climbing, which came in handy because when you’re up at 5am running up a hill for the same scene over and over, it finds you out,’ he says. He comes across as an bright, straight-up kind of chap, who confesses to being a maths fan for whom Sudoku has been his lockdown salvation. Still, he does have a crazy side. Take his experience of taking a show with a friend to the Edinburgh Fringe in his student days.
‘We decided we’d tie ourselves together for the whole two weeks, not just the show,’ he says. ‘But on the first night we were crossing the road and a motorbike came hurtling down the street. It was obvious we wouldn’t get across the road tied together – so the ropes came off pretty quick!’
Like Alex Rider, Otto Farrant’s instincts are spot on.
Alex Rider season one is on Amazon Prime Video from tomorrow