So I just interviewed Tom Courtney and he was speaking to me
about the war because obviously he would have been about seven years old.
I think so during the war.
I just wondered, having been around people like him
and said,
did you have any of your sketches or questions and find out what it was
was really like to have been a child during that time?
I was like.
I did a questionnaire with him on a film that I'd asked him
loads and I think he grew up in ho
and, and yeah, he was telling me about everything
because that's me that is near Yorkshire.
And yeah, it was, it was,
it was fascinating because course him and Jenny, that's of an older generation.
So did your parents sort of
have to tell you just how cool it was that you were in the movie with those two?
1918 really hit me until I sort of got on set on the first day. So
I think
it took a while for it to sort of sink in.
Yeah.
Because or well, Jenny was on the last week, so yeah,
we were all looking forward to meeting all the stars
there because I mean, you were playing effectively
this character, the Jenny played of all those years ago.
Did you also when you kind of advice or to sort of find out what was it quite
strange of playing that role with the
the woman who made it famous so all that sort of decades ago?
Well, they were definitely big shoes to fill.
I mean, I remember the first moment someone really said it to me.
I was sat down on a bench request station.
I think I was just on a lunch break.
I was just on my own, just taking it in.
And someone came who sat next to me, one of the crew members,
and he said, you know, you're the new you're lovely, Bobby.
You're you're like Jenny.
And I was like I was like, no, I mean, it was it was it's
such a compliment because obviously I look up to her so much.
I mean, I think we're all inspired by her being inspired by all of them.
Tom Courtenay, Jenny Agutter, Sheridan Smith, John Bradley.
I mean, all of them, they're such amazing.
They're just the legends.
And when we watched them, we would pick up things.
And yes, they did give advice.
And she she really acted as a mentor.
She was very welcoming.
And I think she said she was passing on the baton.
And I think it was it was so.
It was so it was so much and they really help helped us calm and collected.
And I think we couldn't we couldn't have made it without them.
I think I was it being the only American among on set.
Did you miss home at all when you're making this
a little bit?
But it definitely was amazing seeing how beautiful Yorkshire was.
It's definitely a change of scenery
and I was happy to be there and having such a good time.
You know, going into the movie, it's definitely a different experience for me
because I didn't know what the Railway Children was
and coming here and seeing the big legacy and impact
it has on so many people's lives and learning the history and meeting Jenny
and seeing what an iconic legend she is, it was amazing.
And if all of you know, if you were to sort of
go make a movie abroad, would you think you'd miss most from home
if you're away for a few weeks?
Mostly my family and friends.
It's just it.
But when you leave, it's a bit sad.
But then when you see, you know, the people that you might know
and that you make new friends, it's just
you kind of settle down and you can always rely on them.
Also, I suppose that you could make a new home where you're going, so
maybe you wouldn't miss too much if you made a new home.
Yeah, that's kind of how I was.
I mean, I miss my family definitely, but being here and creating new experiences
and meeting such lovely people, they're like my new family now, so.
Right. And it absolutely relates to the film.
Like it mirrors the film.
I mean, obviously not in the same way
the characters went through a lot, a lot more,
but I think we all mirror
characters a bit, and I think that helped with our performance and where we were.
I think we couldn't have been anywhere better.
We were on the original set
of the original Railway Children
and there are so many different references and little Easter eggs
and it's I can't I can't wait for everyone to see it
and spot them all because there are so, so many.
The detail is amazing.
Yeah.
Whenever you get English or actors who moved to America to make movies,
they always said the film they miss most is Tea Party.
You can't get really great English take over in America, but
I mean, the tea over here was great.
Yeah.
And and was it quite hard for all of you to imagine what it would have been like
to have gone through what these kids went through back then?
Because it's almost this is so far.
I mean.
Well, Dinah gave us some books.
She's in costume.
And I think the clothes really helped us
to understand the characters and their experiences.
Also, I think a couple of us were learning about it in school, so
I think we could have probably understood.
But how was it going back to school?
I mean, because I
because I remember I once played in a football tournament,
I scored a goal
and I went to school the next day and I was walking around
like I just owned the place because I was I felt like a true celebrity.
You guys went off, made a movie.
How did your classmates and staff react to that when you were back?
It was a good reaction, you know, because like when I told them before,
I wasn't they were all like, Oh, my God, oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.
It was it was quite a good reaction.
And I felt, you know, quite,
quite cool.
You know, definitely my American friends feel like
they're going to a different country to film a movie.
And I guess I did.
I don't really realize our process how it is because anything that I do like,
I just I don't I don't I don't really see it as like I like I'm so cool.
Like, I it doesn't really hit you that like you're in a movie
in another country until it all happened.
So, yeah, well, my teachers were all like,
I'm very happy that my friends are like that because I was like, Okay, yeah.
That's why I was like my because I've done it for four years.
And so I go into like, yes, in high school and stuff.
So I got used to it.
And so now I'm in turn that sort of on the stand.
So they do have to film it.
They just see the
same for me.
I mean, my friends know that I, that I do acting and
they're very, very supportive, but it's not as big of a deal.
But I mean that they're still where I suppose they will want to come see it.
And I'm really excited for it.
Have you guys got plans to see it with like friends and family on the open
school trip to see oh wow,
you life in London comes over to America.
My mom's like all my friends are, like, hitting me up and hit up my mom like, Hey,
we have to all go see it.
We have to, like, go to the theater and like watch it.
So have you seen like, have you seen on the big screen?
Oh, yeah. That's what what's it like?
Is it like we're seeing your face is that big on a huge hit me.
This seems like from a different perspective like you remember filming them
but you're eager to see what they actually look like.
Yeah, yeah. Because
I'm going to have seen your faces on the poster, legislative posters, all of your.
But it's quite strange actually seeing seeing myself like on the poster,
something like that kind of feels like, well, that's me.
Yeah. So on the post on a poster.
Yeah, on the right here we saw.
Did you really. Yeah. Yeah. Right here.
We saw our bus coming in with our faces on it.
Yeah. No way.
Yeah.
My eye was been so weird like people it's
in my town cinema now, a big poster of it.
And my friends went to the cinema the other day
and they sent me a picture and I first I just thought it was a picture with me
and they had taken a picture with the poster and an actor
I'm working with at the moment, Ben Barnes.
He was in the cinema all day, the day and the trailer came
when he goes because he's my father
and what I'm filming at the moment, he goes, that's, that's you.
That's, that's my daughter.
You guys, it's so funny.
It's so surreal because we obviously like being sort of bare bones is totally often
one of the younger members on set.
It was a quite strange decision as both to be there,
have the responsibility, I guess because you were kind
of the one of the oldest
of the collective, that it was quite a different dynamic was that when you
sort of quite enjoyed.
Well,
yeah, I always enjoy I mean, working with people.
YOUNG Are you working with people older?
And I think I got that variation.
And I love I love working with other kids.
I mean, because we we all kind of think alike.
And it's nice to have like, friends, like, similar to your own age,
though it is amazing to work with such legends as well.
I mean, the amazing opportunities that come along and I think
we worked as a team and I think we're family really.
We share good big sister in the Met.
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah.
I know I kept having you in the film, but I did love it to bits
like that.
But my final question, because when I first watched the Railway Children,
because I saw the original when I was a kid,
I wasn't old enough to watch when it came out,
but my mum showed it to me when I was younger and I cried so much.
It was on those films.
It just made I can't even watch it again because it's such an emotional experience.
What film makes all of you cry the most?
You say, I don't cry the films, but those one film, it's made me cry.
That's all. Folks Go to heaven.
That's the one.
Oh, not once.
So I watched it when I was like, So small.
Yeah. And a film of dogs, just.
Yeah, I watched the film of Les Miserables.
And when Gavroche died, that set me off after he died.
Okay, I'm joking.
Yeah, I've seen it. How about you guys?
Yeah, I mean,
I to be honest, I cried when watching this at the at the
at the premiere and at the screening.
And I think that that was because I, I mean, we've
all put so much into this film, and it really does mean so, so much to us.
And so having everyone else watch it, it's just it's it means so much.
And I mean, when I was watching it, I was on
casual looking it just like that.
And it was on point where we were literally just we'd be like
range of emotions.
We'd be crying, we'd be sobbing next to each other and then we'd be laughing.
But it was a rollercoaster of emotions
and it was so much and I think I haven't cried like that.
I haven't cried in a cinema like that in ages.
Yeah.
It's Yeah.
So I had a great time make let's make a sequel
now to see you guys can hang out again.
Yeah, a sequel of a sequel.
Thank you so much for your time.
Best loved the early stages story. The school trip as well.
Yeah, thank you. Bye.