Show business is infamously littered with child stars gone bad. The transition from cute little popsy to spotty teenager and beyond is rarely easy, but for the Macaulay Culkins and Lindsay Lohans of this world, their cuteness enlarged and projected on to countless multiplex screens, growing pains can lead to some equally public off-the-rails behaviour.
More common than those sensational downhill trajectories into rehab or prison, however, are the child stars who quietly fade away as adulthood encroaches, fodder for endless “Where are they now?” articles – the Fred Savages, Mark Lesters and Peter Ostrums. Peter Ostrum? As a lad he played Charlie Bucket in the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, but is now a successful equine vet working in upstate New York. Ostrum is particularly relevant to the 18-year-old actor I am on my way to meet, for Freddie Highmore, who had his big break at the age of 12 opposite Johnny Depp in the JM Barrie biopic Finding Neverland, has also portrayed Charlie Bucket on film, in Tim Burton’s 2005 take on the Roald Dahl children’s classic.
“When you’re 18 you can’t play the kid from Finding Neverland any more,” is Highmore’s sensible assessment of his situation. “People have different expectations when you’re younger – it’s less about changing yourself into a character; they want a more natural thing. And they just want you to be able to turn up every day and carry on working. They have a horrible fear of 10- or 11-year-olds, that they’re going to say ‘I don’t want to play today.’”
That never happened with Highmore. He never sulked or threw his toys out of the pram, and he has worked steadily through puberty and adolescence. His latest transitional, not-quite-adult role will be screened on BBC1 over Christmas. In Toast, an adaptation by the Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall of Nigel Slater’s memoir of family and food in the West Midlands of the 1960s, Highmore plays the future cookery writer from his mid-teens through to catering college.
Slater’s enjoyable autobiography is almost Proustian, if you substitute Jammie Dodgers for madeleines; it tells, through the cooking and confectionery of the era, the story of his mother’s premature death and the takeover of the family home by the cleaner – and soon-to-be stepmother – the hostile Mrs Potter. It’s a not-altogether-lost world of what are now no doubt retro-chic victuals – salad cream, beetroot in vinegar, Angel Delight, Spangles, Sherbet Fountains and bars of Caramac.
Playing the obsessively house-proud Mrs Potter, polishing and cooking her way into the marital bed, is Helena Bonham Carter – the third time the actress has portrayed Highmore’s mother. “She’s my stepmum this time,” corrects Highmore, who had filial roles opposite Bonham Carter in his debut film, Women Talking Dirty, aged seven, and again in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. “It is very funny to go through your life with her as your mum every so often. This time she’s the nasty stepmum. It was a bit of a change. Obviously, when you get on so well with someone and then you have to dislike them on set…”
Bonham Carter is part of a tight web of associations for Highmore. The actress is married to Tim Burton, who is supposed to have cast Highmore in Charlie… on the say-so of Johnny Depp, Highmore’s co-star in Finding Neverland. “He put in a good word, yes; perhaps it came down to that in some way,” says Highmore. “People build up a picture of Johnny Depp as being some sort of weird pirate character. In reality he’s incredibly nice… one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. We meet up whenever we’re in the same country.”
If Highmore seems so unfazed by celebrity and the whole business of movie-making, it might have something to do with his heritage. His father, Edward, is an actor best known for his role in the BBC’s answer to Dynasty, the Thatcherite soap Howard’s Way, while his mother, Sue Latimer, is a talent agent whose clients include Imelda Staunton and Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe. “He’s a few years older than me, but our families have known each other for ages, not just through acting,” says Highmore. “Even before Dan and I had done our first film, we were playing together on the beach. I think there are photos of us somewhere. So it’s funny that we’ve grown up and both ended up doing films.
