In settings ranging from the streets of London during World War II to the tribal compounds of modern-day Kenya, young actors are leading some of the most compelling and emotional onscreen stories. Four emerging faces, some of whom had never acted before, have captivated audiences with their vulnerable work. And, according to them, it’s been a breeze. The Envelope checks in with four actors who have showcased impressive potential — and a sense of fun — in this year’s awards contenders.
Izaac Wang
Izaac Wang felt a real passion for acting for the first time while performing in Sean Wang’s deeply personal film “Dìdi.” Although he started early, appearing in a My Little Pony commercial at 8 after his dad connected with a talent agent, and landed jobs in “Raya and the Last Dragon” and “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” Wang was never sure if the pursuit was more than a hobby.
“All these other gigs that I was doing, I wasn’t feeling the job,” says Wang, who is now 17 and attends a performing arts school in Los Angeles. “But ‘Dìdi’ changed a lot. There was something about the set and how I felt connected with everyone. Instead of just feeling like an actor, I felt like a person. I was doing my job but also having fun at the same time.”
In the film, a coming-of-age story about a Vietnamese American teenager set in 2008, Wang plays Chris, a role that really pushed him. At first, he wasn’t sure he could do it, partly because he found Chris unlikable. “It’s a character I haven’t really explored before, someone more vulnerable and immature than I am,” he says. He changed his mind when the film went to the Sundance Labs, and he got to improv with co-star Shirley Chen. “It clicked that, ‘Oh, this is fun trying something new that I haven’t done before and trying to learn more about myself through this character,’” he says.
The actor ended up appearing in nearly every scene, learning to skateboard and use a flip phone (at which he says he “failed miserably”). He eventually found empathy for Chris by bringing himself into the story, imagining the events of the film were happening to him in a parallel universe. “I never see characters as a separate person,” he says. “I always see them as just myself, but something else happened along the line, so it wasn’t a challenge to stay in character.”
Elliott Heffernan
Elliott Heffernan submitted a self-tape in hopes of being cast in Steve McQueen’s “Blitz,” about a young mixed-race boy named George traversing London during the German air raids of World War II. He was called in to audition several times and remembers not knowing much about the character. “I just got the lines and I played with it,” says Heffernan, who was 8 during filming and is now 9. “I say that like I was a professional, but I wasn’t really an actor. I was a kid who wanted to be an actor. Now, I’m an actor.”
Heffernan spent six months shooting “Blitz,” which he enjoyed because it meant time off from school and playing Nintendo on his commutes from Bedfordshire, England. But he also was captivated by the stunts and action, a lot of which was practical on set. “I did all of my stunts, except the wide shot where [George] jumps off the train,” he says. “I was not allowed to do that, although I wanted to. Nothing else compared to the stunts.”
Saoirse Ronan, who plays George’s mom, Rita, took Heffernan under her wing and gave him an important piece of advice as a young actor: “Don’t be embarrassed, and when it stops being fun, don’t do it anymore.” Despite the hard work and long hours, Heffernan says making “Blitz” was a great time from start to finish. He worked with an acting coach, learned about the history of WWII and accepted McQueen’s notes with humility.
“Sometimes it was giving me a lot of love,” Heffernan says of the director’s approach. “Sometimes it was letting me do what I was doing because he liked it. Sometimes he had some tweaks. And I got taught that that’s fine, even though I was sensitive about it at first.”
The actor, who has high hopes of being in a TV series next, had little acting experience before “Blitz.” But he was able to carry every scene with emotion and gravity, something he credits to Ronan’s advice.
“You’re not pretending to be someone else,” Heffernan explains. “You’re just being yourself in someone else’s shoes. And it doesn’t feel like a job. It feels like an activity.” He adds: “When it isn’t fun, it feels like a job. When it feels like a job, it isn’t fun.”
Nykiya Adams
For Nykiya Adams, the key to successfully performing in Andrea Arnold’s “Bird” was focusing on reacting. Adams, 14, had never acted before she was cast as Bailey. The filmmaker found her on a visit to her Essex, England, school, looking for the perfect kid for her coming-of-age drama about a young girl growing up in challenging circumstances.
“Bailey’s just a more extreme version of myself,” says Adams, who was 12 when she was cast opposite Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski. “Andrea only gave us scripts day by day, so I didn’t know anything that was happening. When Bailey was finding out all this stuff, it was me actually finding that out as well.”
Adams describes acting as a “side hustle more than a lifestyle,” preferring sports to the stage. Still, she enjoyed the experience of transforming herself, including cutting her hair on camera and improvising scenes with her co-stars. She says the character taught her to be herself. “She’s weird, but she’s not weird,” Adams says. “She’s unpredictable. And Bailey’s a very forgiving character. She’s very wise. She knows what she’s doing.”
Adams has been surprised by the reaction to “Bird” and delighted by the red carpets at film festivals such as Cannes and Toronto, where she met Jacob Elordi. “If you ask my family what I’m like, I would stop in the middle of a shopping center and look at myself in the mirror,” she says. “So seeing myself everywhere is a bit of an achievement.”
Going forward, Adams plans to keep acting. Her favorite part of making “Bird” was getting to know the people on set, especially “Top Boy” actor Jasmine Jobson, who plays Bailey’s down-on-her-luck mom.
“From your first film, you can get to learn a lot of things,” Adams says. “Like you might not even want to act anymore. You might want to do something more behind the scenes. But I’m so proud. I’m the first person in my family to actually make something like this.”
Michelle Lemuya Ikeny
Growing up in Lodwar, Kenya, Michelle Lemuya Ikeny never imagined she would star in a film, let alone be doing interviews about “Nawi,” her country’s official entry for the international feature Academy Award. Ikeny, 15, was cast in “Nawi” after the filmmakers visited numerous schools in Kenya’s Turkana County, where the story is set. “I never had this in mind,” she says. “I never knew I could act. But it was an amazing job.”
Ikeny plays Nawi, a teenager who dreams of studying hard enough to be accepted into a girls school in Nairobi. Instead, her father sells her into marriage with an older man, a practice that is still accepted in Turkana. Nawi rebels against her family and runs away but eventually can’t escape her fate.
“I love the way she was so ambitious, and I love the way she was assertive enough to stand up to her father and say no to the practice,” Ikeny says of the character’s battle against her forced marriage. “I also come from that community, and they don’t see a problem with practicing that. So for me, it was a bit challenging. But at the same time, I also wanted to save these lives of these young girls and give them a voice.”
Ahead of filming, Ikeny spent two weeks working with an acting coach. She also drew from personal experience. “I found it easy to play this role because I’ve interacted with girls who are victims of this practice,” she says. “And then I tried really hard to follow the director’s instructions, since they know best, and to try to fit in the shoes of the character.”
Like Nawi, Ikeny is an ambitious student and now attends a boarding school in Nairobi. She has imagined a career in medicine or law, but she’s interested in continuing to act, and she hopes there will be more opportunities soon. Mostly, she’s gratified to be part of something that has a real message at its core.
“I hope it gets the exposure it needs all around the world, because people need to know what’s happening there,” she says. “I hope this film can create awareness, and maybe we could find help from them and [involve] people with other ideas on how we can fight this.”