When an actor gets into character, they do more than rehearse their lines in their head and prepare to move on certain cues. An actor has to momentarily abandon their own personality, thoughts, and mannerisms to become a completely different individual. The best actors tend to study their characters, and some take on their new personalities much longer than when they are in front of the camera. Freddie Highmore is becoming one of the better actors who does this. On The Good Doctor, Highmore plays a surgical resident with autism. He told Digital Spy that he is constantly learning and researching, so that he can be as true to his character as possible. People who have autism, or are close to someone who does, find Highmore’s performance spectacular, and they are able to connect to Dr. Murphy.
Even in his earlier years, Highmore often played characters to which others could relate. His soft nature and boyish smile makes people either like him or want to be like him. Before he played the blunt genius on The Good Doctor, check out where else you likely know Highmore from.
Highmore plays the innocent and wise-beyond-his-years Raoul in the adventurous film, Two Brothers. He befriends a tiger cub for some time, though his mother is hesitant about a “dangerous creature” being so close to her baby boy. When his mother’s yappy dog and the cub get into a fight, the cub is taken away and given to the prince. A year later, Raoul notices his former tiger friend is in a cage during a festival, and he is heartbroken to find out that the adolescent tiger is supposed to fight another tiger (who is discovered to be his brother).
After the tigers recognize one another, they manage to escape into the festival. Raoul catches up with them and instructs his friend to run away and never return to the city. The moment shared between a boy and his tiger friend is sweet, and Raoul knew that it was for the best to let his friend go.
Finding Neverland (2004)
Before Tinkerbell’s magic pixie dust could make children fly alongside Peter Pan, young ones had to get creative and allow their imaginations to run wild. Highmore stars alongside Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet as the young Peter Llewelyn Davies, who is skeptical of his mother’s illness, in Finding Neverland.
J. M. Barrie (Depp) takes a liking to the Llewelyn Davies family, and he finds inspiration in the creative stories and adventures he goes on with Sylvia’s four sons. Peter is unlike his brothers in the sense that he knows something is not right. He previously lost his father, and now with his mother sick, Peter believes all adults are lying to him about what is going on.
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Barrie tries to walk the fine line of being an honest adult in Peter’s life, but he also wants to help the young man enjoy his childhood through silly stories and games. In the end, Peter and Barrie form a strong connection due to the fact they were able to help one another when they were both in need of a friend.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
After Highmore and Depp parted ways on the set of Finding Neverland, the young actor wished he could see Depp again, per IGN, and that wish came true once he landed the lead role in the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Highmore plays the titular character, who finds a golden ticket that permits him into the mysterious chocolate factory owned by the peculiar Willy Wonka (Depp). Charlie, along with four other children and their guardians, enters the unusual factory, believing they are on a simple tour that has a prize at the end.
Little do they know, Wonka has strategically planned out how the children will go about the tour, and those who are greedy, rude, or ungrateful find themselves booted from the event. Charlie is the only one who makes it through the whole factory, and to Wonka’s delight, he gets handed the keys to the factory. However, Charlie declines the prize due to him not wanting to leave his family behind. Charlie teaches Wonka that forgiveness goes a long way, and success comes in many forms.
A Good Year (2006)
The simplicity of childhood is often forgotten as we grow up, create our own families, and get lost in our career fields. For a middle-aged Max Skinner in A Good Year, he is forced to think back to his younger days when he inherits his uncle’s vineyard where he spent his summers as a boy. The film starts with a young Max, played by Highmore, learning to enjoy the best life has to offer on his Uncle Henry’s estate.
The two spend their summers drinking fine wine, playing chess, and telling stories. Uncle Henry was trying to impose on his nephew that life is too short to not take the time to enjoy the finer things it has to offer. When Max grows up (and Russell Crowe takes over the character) and is told that he has inherited his late uncle’s estate, he has flashbacks to his childhood where he learned some important lessons that contradict his current way of living.
