Thomasin is shooting to the top

a BULLET in her luggage nearly derailed Thomasin Harcourt mcKenzie’s Cannes debut.

The 17-year-old actress, from Wellington, New Zealand, stars alongside Ben Foster in director Debra Granik’s splendid film leave No Trace.

Thomasin (pictured) told me she found a spent bullet when she was visiting a farm in New Zealand. ‘i saw it, and picked it up because i thought it was a cute thing to keep. i threw it in a bag and didn’t think for a minute it was going to create an incident at Heathrow,’ she told told me following the screening of leave No Trace, shown in the Quinzaine (Director’s Fortnight) to a rapturous reception.

‘i was worried for a bit that i wouldn’t be allowed to continue the journey.’

in the film, Thomasin plays the american daughter of an ex U.S. soldier who has chosen to live off grid in the middle of a state park. Father and daughter forage for food and live under the stars.

Granik made Winter’s Bone, which starred a young Jennifer lawrence and was pivotal to the oscar-winning star’s early career.

and there’s a sense the same will be true of Thomasin and leave No Trace.

She’s a natural, and i was as surprised as others in the audience when she came on stage later with Granik and Foster, and spoke with a strong Kiwi accent. She also has a small role opposite Timothee Chalamet, as Henry V, in director David michod’s Netflix film The King, based on Joel edgerton’s interpretation of Shakespeare’s Henry V (she will play one of Henry’s sisters). But there’s a bigger part — in a much bigger film — that will also shoot in europe later this summer.

Thomasin, who has a down-toearth sweetness about her, was travelling with her parents: mother miranda Harcourt, acting coach to the likes of Nicole Kidman; and father Stuart mcKenzie, a director; and younger sister Davida.

She’s truly part of New Zealand theatre royalty. Her maternal grandmother is New Zealand stage legend Kate Harcourt.