Stephen Schaefer’s Hollywood & Mine

This Friday IMDB TV streams for free the new ‘Alex Rider’ 8-episode British series based on Anthony Horowitz’s best-selling young adult novels, now numbering 13. Alex at 16 is an orphan as the show begins and his Uncle Ian suddenly dies, a driving accident he’s told. But Alex is no fool and through his own detective work discovers this cover story has nothing less than top secret British M16 as its creators. Before he can have a primal scream, Alex is kidnapped and tortured – by M16! And basically blackmailed into becoming an operative for them now that he knows about his M16 uncle. It’s summarized this way in the press material: Alex Rider, a London based teenager has unknowingly been trained since childhood for the dangerous world of espionage. Pressured to help investigate his uncle’s death, and how it connects to the assassination of two high-profile billionaires, Alex reluctantly assumes a new identity as Alex Friend to go undercover in Point Blanc, a remote boarding school isolated far above the snowline in the French Alps. Point Blanc claims to set the troubled teenage children of the ultra-rich back onto the right track but as Alex discovers, the students are in fact the subjects of a disturbing plan which Alex will have to risk his life to stop. The season is based on the second book in the franchise, ‘Point Blank.’ For Otto Farrant, now 23, it’s a career-changing role from the stage and television work he’s done for the last decade. I recently spoke with Otto via Zoom from London; the HERALD ran a feature this week. Here, condensed and edited, is another part of that interview.

Q: Otto, this must be a career-changing role!

OTTO FARRANT: I had read the books as a kid, I idolized the character. I think I already knew when I got the job that it would be life-changing. Everybody knows the name ‘Alex Rider,’ it’s a much bigger challenge as an actor that I’ve ever had to take. Just by the sheer weight of the name.

Q: What was it like, this first starring role?

OF: It was a massive step up for me. It’s a big challenge being Number 1 on the callsheet. You take a lot of responsibility carrying the show. And you really have to look to the people around you and then yourself to get thru it. You have to dig deep.

Q: How was the audition process?

OF: It was really stressful. Even in the beginning I never really thought I would get the chance to do the role. I do a lot of self-tapes as an actor where you just send in an audition piece. And this was one of them. I remember I was with a friend doing it and I said, ‘I don’t know why they asked me to do this because they’re never going to pick me.’ And he said, ‘No, I can see it.’ I said, I’d love to do it but there’s no chance. Then each round that I got past I thought, Well this is it, the last round. The closer you get the less you want to admit to yourself that it might happen because it would be quite hard to take if I didn’t get it.

Q: Why are you right for Alex Rider?

OF: I knew what I wanted to do. I had a very clear idea of how I wanted to play Alex Rider. So the final audition day was me in a room with about 10 to 15 other boys and a few girls and I got paired up. It was like ‘X Factor,’ you’d go into the audition room and come out and they’ve kicked about 5 people home. Suddenly you’re down to 3, then 2. It was really stressful because you’re in a room with 10 executives – and they’re all looking at you in such detail.

Q: Did you have a big celebration once you were cast?

OF: I remember I was away doing a day job and it was evening. I was at Oxford with a group of people and I got the call, my agent said, ‘They’ve given it to you.’ My heart just kind of dropped into my feet and I had to run for about 15 minutes to get all the adrenaline out. I was hyperventilating so much. The annoying thing was I couldn’t tell anyone and all the people I was with, they knew I was up for the job. I was at this restaurant with this pizza and I went back in and they all went, ‘So?’ I had to go, ‘They’re still thinking about it.’ But I must have been acting very strange because I didn’t eat a single bite of that pizza. I’ve spoken to all of them since and they said none of them knew at the time. So I must have been doing something right.

Q: Who exactly is Alex Friend, his false identity at Point Blanc?

OF: One of Alex’s skill sets is he’s extremely focused. Once he gets something in his head he’s incredibly focused. When he has to adapt to ‘Alex Friend’ and play this persona, his mind is on it but he’s still firmly focused on the mission, why he’s there. He wants to find out why his uncle’s been killed. Who killed his uncle. And when he finds out that Dr. Grief [pronounced Gryf, not Greef] has been running this school just for evil corporations, it’s something Alex then has to contend with – both of those things. That’s the challenge for Alex in the series – he has to adapt to so many different scenarios really, really quickly. Sometimes, it takes him actually a moment to do that. And that’s the other thing – he’s not a perfect spy. He’s not a perfect person. He’s flawed. But he’s got heart. And he’s got a good moral compass – and that’s why you follow his journey.

Q: I have to say Otto, for me the name Otto which means ‘8’ in Italian is kind of perfect because it’s the same coming and going and it’s so distinctive. But were you bullied or harassed because you were Otto?

OF: I’ve only met one other Otto. It’s not a common name. It’s my whole identity in a way. I hear a lot of dogs called Otto. So if I’m at the beach or in the park I’ll turn my head when I hear the call for Otto.