11-year-old Dexter Sol Ansel stares into his Zoom camera, hands pressed to his cheeks and mouth wide open in mock shock.
The young British star is Hollywood Reporterbenefit, reenacting his confrontation with comedy legend Steve Carell at the HBO Max launch party in the UK two months ago. “I walk around, I say hello to people, they say hello. Then I walk around this corner, and it’s just Steve Carell in the chair.” (Cue the aforementioned entertainment from the stars.)
“I was like, ‘Should I say hi or not? I don’t know what to do!’ “Oh, come on, just say hello,” said Mami. “So I crawled up, and I said, ‘Hi,’ and he said, ‘Oh my God! I love you! You’re amazing!’ Steve Carell knows who I am? “It was crazy.”
“Crazy” is an apt description of what this kid’s life has been like since his first audition (for a UK soap). Emmerdaleof all things) at the age of four. He has continued to impress in every project since then, as The Hunger Games: Song of Songbirds and Snakeswhere he played the young Coriolanus Snow, and later in the 2024 mystery horror film Swamp.
But no one could have prepared themselves for the sheer talent — and astonishing maturity — with which Ansel co-led the first season of Ira Parker’s triumphant series. game of thrones spin off, Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. As the malicious squire Aeg (who would go on to reveal his true identity as Prince Aegon Targaryen), the smooth-headed Ansel rocketed to stardom upon its January release on HBO. Enthusiastic reviews followed for it, for Peter Claffey (as the tall Sir Duncan), and for the entire show. It has been pegged as a light relief from doom and gloom Thrones and Dragon HouseThe verdict was pretty much unanimous: it worked.
Season 2 is already being filmed in Ireland, where Ansel is calling. His head is freshly shaved, and he immediately displays the same impudence, but surprisingly eloquent, during our half-hour interview. Ansel’s mother, Debbie, sits off camera. It comes in handy when an actor can’t recall certain details from his blossoming career (which, of course, he can’t help it – he was four when it all started, remember?).
But the past six months have been clear for Ansel, who was just named IMDb’s youngest STARmeter Award winner. He says he still struggles with premieres and gigs thr, A recently created GIF on WhatsApp of his character, which his friends are “spamming” in their group chats.
His portrayal of Dunk’s stubborn sidekick earned George R.R. Martin’s approval early in the process (Seven kingdoms Depends on Martin Tales of the donk and the egg novels). He recalls meeting the fantasy legend: “He’s very happy. He didn’t give me any advice. He said, ‘You look like you just jumped out of the books.’ That was fun.” Ansel adds of the graphic novel adaptations of Dunk and eggs“If you actually look at the drawings, which were made, five years before I was born – they could have done it then, but they didn’t. They waited for me,” he joked, putting his hands under his chin and looking up like an angel in a Renaissance painting. “But those egg drawings look just like me.”
Ansel finds that he has a lot in common with the character in terms of personality as well. “He has a lot of humor, and he’s very funny, like me. I can be very funny sometimes.” THR We can agree. Although playing Egg also came with some obstacles: “There were some really difficult moments where I had to juggle being a Targaryen and just being a stable boy, and if you watch the first season, you can see the little moments where I’m playing between the Targaryen and the Squireness. That was a lot of hard work.” [I put] “In that.”
He really puts his own spin on Egg, since he can’t draw much inspiration from him game of thrones – Largely adult viewing – and you’ve only seen clips of it Dragon House (Mostly ones featuring dragons, although he did witness the epic final gullet battle). However, it helped him to have a true friend in Claffey. In fact, this is what Ansel describes as his most notable work Seven kingdoms Journey so far. “[The best part is] Maybe hang out with Peter. A few weeks ago, he came to my house, and we had a weekend when the National Horse Race was on [the U.K.’s Grand National] “He’s been working… He’s a really good singer,” he says when we ask what the audience might be surprised to learn about Claffey, “and he plays the guitar really well. “We can sing together, so we should write some songs and make an album. You name it Double trouble!
Naturally, we’re keen to find out what we can about the sequel Seven kingdomsBut this young actor is already an absolute professional. “I’m having a lot of fun, but if you really want to learn more, there’s a book!” is his diplomatic response. He stresses again: “There is a book, and if you want to know more, just do it.” Read it“.
The purpose of our call is not actually to discuss Knight of the Seven Kingdomsthough it comes up almost immediately in the context of Ansell’s endlessly impressive year. It will be released in UK cinemas on Friday 26 June 500 milesa feature film based on Mark Lowry’s novel Charlie and me Written by Malcolm Campbell, directed by Morgan Matthews. “I really wanted to make a good feature film, a good independent film,” Ansel says. “I thought to myself, ‘This is great. “I loved the story, and I loved the character I was playing, so I thought: ‘Let’s do it.'”
In this haunting mix of British and Irish cinema, Ansel plays a young boy named Charlie. With his older brother Finn (Jojo rabbitRoman Griffin Davis, the siblings embark on a 500-mile journey from Sheffield to the west coast of Ireland to visit their estranged grandfather John (Bill Nighy), hoping he can put their broken family back together. It must have been a no-brainer for the directors — and Debbie, who reads the scripts before passing them on to her son — when Ansel’s audition tape surfaced; He and Charlie are energetic, sassy and light up the room.
“There were a lot of funny ads actually,” Ansel says. “Obviously the scripts are there, but they all allow us to throw in a few words now and then, and I like that. But Charlie is fun, and he’s very cheeky, and he wants to get his way, but he’s also not a know-it-all. I can’t say he’s very smart sometimes.”
Unsurprisingly, the annoying ads didn’t throw him away at all. Ansel enjoyed that even though at just 11 years old, each set was still a real learning experience. “Every day you learn more, no matter who you are, you can always learn more, and every day you work with Peter [Claffey] “It’s a great experience. And Bill Nighy and Maisie Williams and all these great people, it’s a great experience. People are great actors, and they teach you things, and then everyone bounces off each other,” he says.
He admits he didn’t know much about legendary British actor Nighy before signing, but he’s firmly on that train now: “I knew he was huge. I was like, ‘Oh, he looks great, let’s see.’ And then I was like, ‘OK, wow, he’s amazing.’ In the middle of [the shoot] When we’re resting, suddenly he’s giving a speech about life, and it’s amazing. Did Naegi happen to give the young talent any advice? “He said, ‘Pay your taxes, don’t smoke, don’t do any of those bad things.’” Obviously I wouldn’t do it anyway, but it would have been nice for someone else to say that,” Ansel said with a smile.
It was also something of a Thrones Universe crossed over with Williams, known as Arya’s Stark brother in game of throneswhich plays a young Irish driver who the boys pick up on their way to their grandfather’s house. “We talked a little [about the franchise]”And it was so much fun to say, ‘Oh, we want a dragon,'” Ansel says. But we didn’t talk much about it. It was the Mainly concerning 500 miles“.
behind 500 miles? Ansel photographs the stars. He lists Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks and “The King of Comedy” Jim Carrey as his top three favorite actors, and is desperate to work with Steven Spielberg one day (he has watched Disclosure dayAnd I loved it.) But with Carell and the crew of Ansel’s favorite show Strange thingsand it has already stopped, as he is keen to continue playing juggling as much as he can. “What I like to do is five[seasonsof[seasonsofSeven kingdoms]and then between each film, make a feature film THR.
With the combination of ambition and talent that Ansel possesses, it’s hard to imagine this kid being destined for anything other than greatness. For now, the wise-beyond-his-years actor is just hoping 500 miles It has a profound effect on his fans and he intends: “I hope they see that [that] No matter what happens in your life, your family is always there to protect you. Your family is always a family, and you need to stay close to all of them. Be nice to them. If you are fighting with your siblings, no matter what, you should always keep them close.
