“The Biggest Role of My Life — So Far”: Breakout Star Reggie Absolom on Putting the ‘Kid’ in ‘Club Kid’

While in the running for the titular role in HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter adaptation, British star Reggie Absolom made an impression.

The young actor had caught the eye of prolific U.K. casting director Lucy Bevan, who had been assigned the rather enormous job of sifting through tens of thousands of kids gunning to play Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger in the hotly anticipated reboot.

Bevan was able to ease the pain of rejection for Absolom by delivering news of another movie she was working on, a comedy-drama from a buzzy U.S. writer-director named Jordan Firstman. “Jordan needed a U.K. casting director for the U.K. child because it was an important role in the film,” Absolom begins to The Hollywood Reporter about Bevan’s search for his character, Arlo. “[Firstman] needed someone who’s done it before, who knows kids that could be put up for this role. And he definitely went to the right casting director,” he smiles. “She’d seen me for other things before, but it was mainly Harry Potter that made me get put forward for that.”

At 14 years old, Absolom is already the picture of professionalism. We’ve sat down during October’s chaotic BFI London Film Festival to talk about the smash-hit success of Club Kid, Firstman’s debut feature that gave the Cannes Film Festival a much-needed punch to the gut with its combination of laugh-out-loud humor and tear-jerking warmth. Out in U.S. and U.K. theaters Nov. 6, the movie follows Firstman’s washed-up, queer party promoter in New York, Peter, who gets the shock of his life when 10-year-old Arlo shows up saying he’s Peter’s biological son. Cue a frantic attempt to get his act together (and one glorious scene where Absolom’s character steals an “I Love Björk and Bareback” T-shirt from his dad’s wardrobe).

You’d be hard-pressed to find a Cannes premiere as high-spirited as Club Kid‘s. Absolom stood on stage with his onscreen father and co-star Cara Delevigne, and afterwards was lofted into the air by the duo as a misty-eyed audience showered the group with applause. The good vibes carried on with the year’s most competitive bidding war, eventually won by A24. All of a sudden, this teenage actor from just outside Oxford, who’s grown up on Despicable Me and Swashbuckle, found himself as close to Hollywood acclaim as anyone. Harry Potter who?

Here, in this room at Claridge’s Hotel on a dry and sunny day in London, he’s still pinching himself. “I was so excited to go there, and then when I got there, I thought, ‘What if people don’t like it?'” Absolom reflects on his trip to the world’s glitziest film festival. “I got a bit nervous, but when I watched it, people were laughing. And the standing ovation at the end, if you rewatch it, you can see I’m trying to hold back tears the whole time.”

Every critic was in agreement: Part of Club Kid‘s undeniable charm is the maturity and authenticity with which Absolom embodies Arlo. A lost child whose dysfunctional upbringing makes his doe-eyed attachment to Peter even more painful, the role lived and died on the chemistry between Absolom and Firstman. It’s no surprise, then, that Firstman spent his birthday a couple of years ago walking around a London park with the child, his mother, and an ice cream cone. “We had such a good, flowing conversation,” Absolom remembers. “It wasn’t small talk [or] icebreaker stuff. It just felt like talking to someone I had known for years already.”

The two immediately bonded over their love of music, and Firstman actually made a Spotify playlist for the kids auditioning for the role. “I took some photos of the songs that I liked because I wanted to get a gauge. You can’t play Arlo if you haven’t got good music taste,” says Absolom, referencing his character’s DJ aspirations. Two bands in particular have left a lasting impression, tying him to Firstman forever: Massive Attack and the Cocteau Twins. “I’m still thankful for that because I love the Cocteau Twins. They’re my favorite band,” he beams.

With this crucial bit of prep in his arsenal, Absolom, backdropped by his bathroom — “That’s where we do all our self-tapes; it’s the best place in our house” — got on a Zoom call with Firstman, Bevan and producer Alex Coco. He’d landed the job. “I knew I had a chance because everyone does,” he explains, “but I never really expected to get it, and it was such a shock. I was genuinely speechless. Just staring at the screen [with] a blank face, and then: ‘Oh my god, I’ve just landed the biggest role of my life so far.'”

It must be said that the shoot sounds like any teenager’s dream: Six weeks in New York with two days off a week, where Absolom went with his family to all of the obligatory tourist stops, like the Flat Iron and Empire State Buildings and the Statue of Liberty. The only sizeable set he’d been on until this point was the BBC and BritBox’s The Other Bennet Sister, in which he plays a small role as son to the Gardiners. But Club Kid, even as an indie, felt much larger.

For a kid whose only other credit was a John Lewis Home Insurance ad, the difference was initially slightly jarring. “There was more people,” Absolom concedes, “but I just felt like I knew all of them.” Being thrust into a room with real-life drag queens, trans people and queer performers was as vibrant, inviting, and as deliciously fun as you’d expect. “They were all so nice to me,” he continues. “And Jordan, even though he had so much on his plate — he had to think about directing, did a bit of producing, and obviously having to remember his lines and all — made me feel so welcome whilst doing all of that. He also helped me out acting-wise by teaching me that you can improv and you can suggest to change a line or do something a different way. You don’t have to be scared to talk to the director like that.”

In fact, one of the film’s best scenes is injected with a shot of real sentiment. “After I come out of the club for the first time, and we’re in the car on the way back to [Peter’s] apartment, and we’re celebrating because everyone was so happy about it.” There weren’t any set lines — Firstman had told Absolom to be amazed: “‘It’s the best day of your life ever,'” he remembers his director saying. This unsuspecting tidbit makes the onscreen conversation that unfolds between them even more tenderhearted.

We talk about Arlo’s future — a sequel, Absolom jokes, where he’s pursuing a career on the DJ decks stateside. When asked if there was any part of the shoot that he may have found difficult, he sheepishly tells THR: “Probably the most challenging bit was having no other kids on set, and also no other British people.” (He did, thankfully, have the opportunity to teach his driver some British insults — like calling someone a “mug” or a “melt.” Love Island U.K. viewers, this is your time to shine.)

And Absolom has so far managed to balance the jet-setting life of a celebrated actor with, well, being a kid. “Film festivals are normally on the weekends anyway, so I really only miss two days of the week,” he says. When I suggest that a statement like that must have his friends thoroughly envious, he replies: “I have two friend groups. […] And I think the ones I have out of school are more interested in it. When it comes out in the U.K., they’ll be old enough to watch it. I won’t!” (The film is rated 15 here in Britain, so you’ve got to be 15 or over to watch — Absolom’s first slice of industry irony.)

He finds himself in some pretty extraordinary company, with British child stars like Owen Cooper of Adolescence fame and 28 Years Later‘s Alfie Williams among his peers. But another sharp display of wisdom comes in Absolom’s pragmatism about what the next few years might hold. “I’m at a trickier age,” he tells THR. “The voice can go, and you don’t want to be halfway through filming and then the voice goes. So it’s gonna be, maybe, a gray area for a year or two.”

After that? Anything is possible if Hollywood’s big, sweaty embrace of Club Kid is anything to go by. Absolom’s dream role would be working with Christopher Nolan — he had his mind blown by Interstellar earlier this year — or Ryan Gosling, whom he loved watching in Project Hail Mary. He is, in part, still processing the last wild few months, which peaked when his mother came into his room recently and showed Absolom’s name in the 30th spot on Variety‘s early projection for the top 30 supporting actors at the Oscars. “A nomination is out of the picture right now,” says Absolom — that celebrity humility creeping in already — “but just being on the list is mental. I’d be happy with a nomination for anything. Winning is just a crazy, extra bonus.”