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COVER STORY
A Man Well-Educated
October cover star Asa Butterfield on acting; growing up in the spotlight, success, and much more.
COVER STORY
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WHAT IS AN ACTOR?
If you distill the calling down to its purest, most uncompromising, distraction-averse fundamentals, you’re left with the simple and profound realisation that an actor is a vessel for character. At 25, our Londonborn cover star Asa Butterfield has been an age-defying-and-defining vessel for a host of characters, whose presence in our cultural consciousness has left an impactful effect on those who’ve consumed the form.
Though well in his youth, Butterfield seems to have already lived many lives. As a child actor harnessing his gifts at the Young Actors Theatre Islington, he caught a glimpse of the transportive powers of the dramatic arts that would come to chart the course of his chosen career path. In 2008 at the age of 11, he heralded his way on to the big screen as the lead in the Holocaust drama The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, where, as Bruno, he brought an affecting sense of nuance and poise to the bestselling novel by John Boyne (released in 2006 with the same name).
Next, he caught the eye of Martin Scorsese, who cast him as the lead in his first-ever 3D film Hugo in 2011. You don’t need to be a scholar of film to affirm that being one of Scorsese’s leading men puts you in very good company. Since then, Butterfield has been turning heads in a slew of conversation-starting productions, including the coming-of-age dramedy Sex Education, widely regarded as one of the most popular shows in Netflix’s repertoire. There’s no denying that over the years, Asa’s truly earned himself a position as an affable, approachable and very able actor.
Later this year, Butterfield will take on a more light-hearted note, spreading the festive cheer in the romantic comedy (a Prime Video film) where he stars opposite newcomer,
