An 11-year-old Dexter Sol Ansell is peering into his Zoom digital camera, fingers pressed to his cheeks and mouth huge open in mock shock.
The younger British star is, for The Hollywood Reporter‘s benefit, re-enacting his run-in with comedy legend Steve Carell at HBO Max’s U.Okay. launch occasion a few months in the past. “I go around, I’m just saying hi to people, and people are saying hi. And then I walk around this corner, and there’s just Steve Carell on a chair.” (Cue aforementioned recreation of starstruck-ness.)
“I was like, ‘Should I say hi or should I not? I don’t know what to do!’ and Mummy went, ‘Oh, go on, just say hi,’” he explains. “So I creeped over, and then I went, ‘Hi,’ and he went, ‘Omg! I love you! You’re amazing!’ Steve Carell knows who I am? That was crazy.”
Loopy is an apt descriptor for what this child’s life has appeared like since his first audition (for U.Okay. cleaning soap Emmerdale, of all issues) at age 4. He has continued to impress in each undertaking since, similar to The Starvation Video games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the place he performed a younger Coriolanus Snow, and later, in 2024’s mystery-horror The Moor.
However nobody may have ready themselves for the sheer expertise — and putting maturity — with which Ansell co-led season considered one of Ira Parker’s triumphant Game of Thrones spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Because the mischievous squire Egg (who would go on to disclose his true id as Prince Aegon Targaryen), a smooth-headed Ansell shot to stardom upon its January launch on HBO. Rave opinions ensued for him, Peter Claffey (as Ser Duncan the Tall), and all the present. It was pegged as a light-hearted departure from the doom and gloom of Thrones and Home of the Dragon, and the verdict was fairly unanimous: it labored.
The season two shoot is already underway in Eire, the place Ansell is asking from. His head is freshly shaved and that very same cheeky, but surprisingly eloquent Egg-ness instantly comes by means of over our half-hour interview. Ansell’s mom, Debbie, sits simply off-camera. She’s readily available for when the actor can’t fairly conjure up specific particulars from his booming profession (which after all he can’t assist — he was 4 when this all started, bear in mind?)
Dexter Sol Ansell (proper) and Peter Claffey in ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.’
Steffan Hill/HBO
However the final six months are clear as day for Ansell, who has simply been named IMDb’s youngest-ever STARmeter Award recipient. He’s nonetheless reeling from the premieres, the events and, he tells THR, a recently-made WhatsApp gif of his character, which his buddies are “spamming” their group chats with.
His depiction of Dunk’s tenacious sidekick acquired George R. R. Martin’s approval early on within the course of (Seven Kingdoms is predicated on Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas). He recollects assembly the fantasy legend: “He’s very happy. He didn’t give me any advice. He said, ‘You look and sound like you just jumped out of the books.’ That was fun.” Ansell provides in regards to the graphic novel diversifications of Dunk and Egg: “If you actually look at the drawings, which were drawn, like, five years before I was born — they could have made it then, but they didn’t. They waited for me,” he teases, placing two fingers underneath his chin and searching up like a cherub in a Renaissance portray. “But those drawings of Egg look exactly like me.”
Ansell finds he has rather a lot in frequent with the character personality-wise, too. “He has lots of humor, and he’s very funny, like me. I can be quite funny sometimes.” THR can concur. Although enjoying Egg additionally got here with some hurdles: “There were some really hard moments where I had to juggle being a Targaryen and being just a stable boy, and if you watch season one, you can see the little moments where I’m juggling Targaryen-ness and squire-ness. That was a lot of hard work [I put] into that.”
He’s really placing his personal spin on Egg, on condition that he can’t pull a lot inspiration from Recreation of Thrones — very a lot an grownup watch — and has solely seen clips of Home of the Dragon (principally those the place dragons characteristic, although he did catch the latest, epic Battle of the Gullet). It does assist, nonetheless, that he’s acquired a real good friend in Claffey. Actually, that is what Ansell describes because the spotlight of his Seven Kingdoms journey thus far. “[The best part is] probably hanging out with Peter. A few weeks ago, he came to my house, and we had a weekend when the national horse race stuff [the U.K.’s Grand National] was on… He’s a really good singer,” he says after we ask what audiences is likely to be shocked to seek out out about Claffey, “and he plays the guitar really well. We can both sing, so we should write some songs and make an album,” he declares. “Call it Double Trouble!”
Naturally, we’re eager to seek out out what we are able to in regards to the second instalment of Seven Kingdoms, however this younger actor is already an absolute professional. “I’m having a lot of fun, but if you really want to know more, there is a book!” is his diplomatic response. He emphasizes once more: “There’s a book, and if you want to know more, just read it.”
The aim of our name isn’t truly to debate A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, although it comes up nearly instantly within the context of Ansell’s endlessly spectacular 12 months. Out in U.Okay. cinemas on Friday, June 26 is 500 Miles, a characteristic movie adaptation of Mark Lowery’s novel Charlie and Me by Malcolm Campbell, directed by Morgan Matthews. “I really wanted to do a good feature film — a good independent film,” says Ansell. “So I was like, ‘This is great. I love the story, I loved the character I was playing, so I thought, ‘Let’s do it.’”
‘500 Miles’ is in U.Okay. cinemas now.
Courtesy of True Brit
On this heart-wrenching mix of British and Irish cinema, Ansell performs a younger boy named Charlie. Along with his older brother Finn (Jojo Rabbit‘s Roman Griffin Davis), the siblings embark on the 500-mile journey from Sheffield to the west coast of Ireland to visit their estranged grandfather John (Bill Nighy), in the hope he can knit their broken family back together. It must have been a no-brainer for the casting directors — and Debbie, who reads the scripts before passing them on to her son — when Ansell’s audition tape got here by means of; he and Charlie are equally spirited, sassy, and lightweight up a room.
“It was a lot of ad-libbing, actually,” says Ansell. “Obviously, the scripts are there, but they all let us throw in some words now and then, and I like that. But Charlie is fun, he is very cheeky, he wants to get his own way, but he’s also not aware of everything. I wouldn’t say he’s very intelligent at times.”
Unsurprisingly, the ad-libbing didn’t throw him in any respect. Ansell relished it, although at simply 11, every set continues to be an actual studying expertise. “Every day you learn more, no matter who you are, you can always learn more, and every single day working with Peter [Claffey] and Bill Nighy and Maisie Williams and all these amazing people, it’s a great experience,” he says. “People are such great actors, and they teach you stuff, and then everyone bounces off of each other.”
He admits he didn’t know a lot about legendary British actor Nighy earlier than signing on, however he’s firmly on that prepare now: “I knew he was massive. I was like, ‘Oh, he sounds great, let’s see.’ And then I was like, ‘Okay, wow, he’s amazing.’ In the middle of [the shoot] when we’re resting, he all of a sudden does a speech about life, and it’s amazing.” Did Nighy occur to supply the younger expertise any recommendation? “He said, ‘Pay your taxes, don’t smoke, don’t do any of that bad stuff.’ And obviously, I wouldn’t do that anyway, but it was so nice for someone else to say that,” beams Ansell.
It was additionally one thing of a Thrones universe crossover with Williams, finest referred to as Stark sibling Arya in Recreation of Thrones, who performs a younger Irish busker the boys choose up on their option to their grandfather’s. “We talked a bit [about the franchise],” says Ansell. “And it was very fun to say, ‘Oh, we want a dragon.’ But we didn’t talk too much about that. It was mainly about 500 Miles.”
(L-R) Dexter Sol Ansell, Roman Griffin Davis, Invoice Nighy, Clare Dunne and Michael Socha in ‘500 Miles.’
Courtesy of True Brit
Past 500 Miles? Ansell is capturing for the celebrities. He lists Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks and “the king of comedy” Jim Carrey as his prime three favourite actors, and is determined to work with Steven Spielberg someday (he’s seen Disclosure Day, and cherished it). However with Carell and the forged of Ansell’s favourite present, Stranger Issues, already ticked off, he’s eager to maintain juggling as a lot as he can. “What I’d love to do is five [seasons of Seven Kingdoms], and then in between each one, do a feature film,” he tells THR.
With the mix of ambition and expertise that Ansell possesses, it’s onerous to think about this child is destined for something apart from greatness. Proper now, the wise-beyond-his-years actor is simply hoping 500 Miles has the profound affect on its audiences that it’s meaning to: “I hope they see [that] whatever happens in your life, your family is always there to protect you. Your family is always family, and you’ve got to keep close to all of them. Be kind to them. If you’re bickering with your siblings, no matter what, you’ve always got to keep them close.”
