Interview Hector Bateman-Harden (“Homeless Ashes”)

He would love to star alongside Adam Driver and pretty sure young actor Hector Bateman-Harden will do that in near future. He puts on a stunning performance as a young boy called Frankie, who sadly has to endure abuse and homelessness in “Homeless Ashes”, the latest film from director Marc Zammit. We had a very nice chat with Hector and talked about the movie, the casting process and his love for Star Wars.

Liselotte Vanophem: Hi Hector, welcome to the Raindance Film Festival. Excited to be here?

Hector Bateman-Harden: Yeah, very excited!

LV: Is “Homeless Ashes” your first film?

HBH: No, it’s not my first film but it is my first movie at the Raindance Film Festival.

LV: Congratulations on your stunning performance as young Franke in “Homeless Ashes”. How did the casting process for this film go?

HBH: Marc [Zammit, director] was originally looking for 13-year old actors for this role but during my self-tape for him, I was crying real tears. He saw that, was quite surprised and e-mailed my mum to ask if those were real tears. She said yes and then he said that I had the job.

LV: How was it to work with him?

HBH: He was very nice. During the emotional scenes, he always came up to me to ask if I was doing ok. If I said yes then we would do the scene again.

LV: He told me that you played games before shooting to make you feel at ease and to get that parents-son connection between you, Dean [Maskell, who plays Frankie’s dad] and Angela [Dixon, who plays Frankie’s mom]?

HBH: Yeah, we did. It was so much fun

LV: When you knew that you wanted to become an actor?

HBH: It was when I was watching behind-the-scenes footage of Star Wars. I like star Wars and I thought it was fun. Originally I didn’t know that children could start acting as I always thought it was something for grown-up actors. I told my mum and she said that children actually could do acting. I asked if I could try that and then I just started getting into it.

LV: You have a very supportive mom, I can tell.

HBH: Oh, yes she is.

LV: If you can think one actor with whom you could star in an upcoming movie, who would it be?

HBH: Adam Driver. He was Kylo Ren in Star Wars. He’s my favourite.

LV: He has a lot of movies coming up soon.

HBH: Yes, he does. Looking forward to those.

LV: So do you already have upcoming plans?

HBH: I don’t have any films lined up at the moment but I will shortly.

LV: When people see this film, I’m pretty sure you will.