Young, famous and very, very aware of the shadow he casts over his fans, 11-year-old Jacob Tremblay launched a campaign called Choose Kind on the day he began his new semester at school this September.
This may have had something to do with his upcoming movie, Wonder, out in the UAE on November 16, where he plays a child with Treacher Collins syndrome, which leaves him with facial deformities, and the tough task of joining a mainstream school.
“What I took away from this movie [Wonder] was to accept everyone for the differences and choose kind,” he explained, on the sidelines of his trip to Sharjah International Children’s Film Festival last month, where he played jury member as much as he did visitor. “To prepare for the role, I reached out to kids from SickKids hospital in Toronto, and I got to know them and spent some time with them. And we got to know each other and I asked them if they could send me any letters of stories and experiences or any tips. So I had these letters and I put them in this book I had so I could read it over and over again, and they really [stood] out,” he explained.
Wonder, based on R. J. Palacio’s book of the same name, also features Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson.
While it seemed odd at the time that such a young person would have such focus, in hindsight, it’s not so dubious that he’d have a few tricks up his sleeve. Tremblay, the son of stay-at-home mum Christina Candia Tremblay and police detective Jason Tremblay, got into acting rather young. He was only five years old when he nabbed a role in live animation movie Smurfs 2.
He recalls that after watching his older sibling Emma — he also has a younger sister called Erica — on screen, he had a hankering for the spotlight.
“My sister pursued acting and one day I was like, ‘hey I want to do acting, too’ — this was just in commercials — and then one day I got an audition for my first movie, Smurfs 2, and I did it. I got to go to Montreal, Canada and Paris, France. And my mother asked me if I wanted to do more movies and I was like, ‘yeah, I want to do movies for the rest of my life’,” he said.
A few years later, at age nine, came his path-breaking role, the Oscar-winning Room, alongside the stellar Brie Larson, which not only won him plaudits by the film fraternity but also a varied fan base.
But, for Tremblay, acting as a career just seemed fun. “What I enjoy most about acting is I love to pretend to be different people, like, Halloween is my favourite because I can dress up as a bunch of cool people [this year he had two outfits ready; a werewolf and a Ghostbuster] ... and acting is basically that in a job. And I love acting so much because I love to learn about my characters and I love to know the challenge of hard roles,” he said.
The avid Star Wars fan — one of his notable Oscar moments was when he showed off Star Wars-themed socks on the red carpet — dreams of a role in the franchise. “I would like to be, like, a young jedi in training, like do some cool stuff and have some awesome stunts, like Tom Cruise. I think that would be my dream role in Star Wars,” he said.
Well, Tremblay, may the force be with you.
Best part of UAE trip
“I have really been enjoying my stay here,” said Jacob Tremblay, on the sidelines of the Sharjah International Children’s Film Festival last month. “One of the funnest moments I’ve had here has probably been when I went to the desert. That was really cool, because we went into this four-wheel drive thing, and it was like a rollercoaster [because] we were going over all the sand dunes.”
Don’t miss it!
Wonder releases in the UAE on November 16.
