In the achingly hip London district of Hoxton, young urban types
are checking their BlackBerry phones in a corner cafe, killing
time before lunch in one of the nearby Vietnamese restaurants. The
cafe goes by the curious name of No-One, which is a bit rich.
Almost all the fashionable regulars are convinced they are
somebody.
The only two customers not wearing Prada are Sean Biggerstaff
and a fellow actor, who are taking a coffee break from a new film
being shot in a nearby strip club. “In the scene we’re doing today
my character’s job is to find a stripper for his friend’s birthday
party,” explains Biggerstaff, “and naturally as an innocent young
lad he doesn’t know anything about these things.
“So my character has to find one for him,” interjects his
companion, the young Liverpudlian actor Shaun Evans. “Which is
strange,” says Biggerstaff, his brow furrowing, “because in real
life I’m the one who hangs out at strip joints and he’s the
innocent one.” They both crack up, and a plucked eyebrow or two is
raised in disapproval around them.
If anybody in the No-One cafe is going to be a somebody, it is
definitely Biggerstaff. The 22-year-old from Maryhill in Glasgow
has secured his first lead role in a feature film, and if his
producers are to be believed, it will showcase a remarkable new
talent.
The film is called Cashback, and the project is important to
Biggerstaff. It gives him the chance to emerge from the shadow of
the blockbuster movies that gave him his big break — the Harry
Potter series. In the first two Potter movies, Biggerstaff played
Oliver Wood, the captain of the Gryffindor house Quidditch team at
Hogwarts. It was not a starring role, but Biggerstaff made his
mark. His square-jawed good looks attracted the attention of many
of the teenage girls in the audience — and a few mums as well. In
the crowds of fans at Potter premieres, there was always a
disproportionate number who only had screams for him.
Apparently, it’s the combination of baby-faced boyishness and
the knowing look in his eyes, although one can’t help suspecting
that a name that sounds like the punchline of a dirty joke might
also be a factor. In the weird world of the internet, “Sean
Biggerstaff” throws up some curious websites, including pleas for
pictures of Biggerstaff minus his shirt. Understandably for a
young man, Biggerstaff at first revelled in the attention.
Answering an online questionnaire at the peak of his Potter
fame, he was asked if there was anything he wanted people to know
about him. “Yes! I’m devilishly good looking and single!” he
answered. Yet there was disappointment ahead. When the third movie
— Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban — went into production,
Biggerstaff was told his character was being cut. Even an online
petition of more then 50,000 signatures demanding his
reinstatement failed to persuade the producers to change their
minds. The petition was headlined: “It’s the Wood that Makes it
Good.”
For the past two years Biggerstaff has had to adjust to being a
former Harry Potter star. When I tell him I have to ask questions
about the Potter films, he grimaces and asks: “Do I have to answer
them?” Dutifully, he says polite things about the opportunities
Oliver Wood opened up for him, but he does so with a weary air. “I
loved the books and I’m very proud of being a part of Happy
Potter,” he says. “Sure, I haven’t worked on it for two years and
people still ask me about it. But I wouldn’t be where I am in my
career or financially without it, so it’s a small price to pay.”
Like Mark Hamill from Star Wars or the little girl from Chitty
Chitty Bang Bang, does he not realise he will still be answering
questions about the film in 20 years? “Well,” he says with a touch
of bravado, “I’ll just have to make sure I do enough between now
and then to ensure that’s not the case.”
Asked how he dealt with being dropped, he refuses to accept it
as a setback. Wasn’t he disappointed? “Well, in some ways, yeah,”
he says. “But I don’t think there was anything in particular that
my career was going to gain from being in three Harry Potter
movies that it didn’t gain from being in two. I think my bank
manager was more disappointed than I was.”
The fame which the Potter movies still generate seems to exist
in another world, he says. “Most of Thailand have written to me.
I’m not sure why. It doesn’t really make itself felt in my
day-to-day life.”
In fact, he still lives at home with his parents in Maryhill.
His father is a fireman and his mother an adult education worker,
and he has a four-year-old sister. “I’m away so long that when I
am at home I relish it,” he says. “I’m a real home-bird naturally.
I’d like to be in Glasgow 50 weeks of the year.”
Since playing Buttons aged seven in the Maryhill Youth Panto,
his ambition had always been to act. But the motivation was
different to that of the usual starry-eyed youngsters clamouring
for a slice of showbiz magic. “I’m not a natural showman,” he
says. “For me, it’s more the opposite — it’s the putting on of a
mask. I could never get up on a stage as Sean Biggerstaff. That’s
the most terrifying prospect imaginable. When you are playing a
character, it is not you that’s being exposed.”
When he was a 13-year-old in the Scottish Youth Theatre,
Biggerstaff was chosen by actor-turned-director Alan Rickman to
play opposite Emma Thompson in The Winter Guest, a haunting drama
set on the Scottish east coast. When Rickman was chosen to play
the oily Severus Snape in the Potter movies, he recommended
Biggerstaff to the producers.
The new film is set in a Sainsbury’s supermarket, Biggerstaff
playing an art student working the night shift. Directed by the
fashion photographer Sean Ellis, it first surfaced as a short film
last year and won a string of awards, including best short at the
Chicago Film Festival. It was shortlisted for a Bafta and is now
being expanded into a full-length feature.
Lene Bausager, the film’s Danish producer, says Biggerstaff’s
performance is a revelation. “Every single thing I’ve seen Sean in
demonstrates his main strength — he’s got a quietness in him,” she
says. “He says a lot with his eyes. He also gives off a
vulnerability. I don’t think it’s something he learnt, it’s just
part of him. He obviously goes somewhere in himself. You can stand
with him and chat and then he starts work, and it’s like flicking
a switch. He is a very old soul in a young person’s body.”
Biggerstaff is aware of this ability, but he cannot explain how
he does it. “Doing my first film with Alan Rickman, that was one
of the things he really valued — an ability to just do nothing and
trust that by doing nothing the character gains from that,” he
says. “It takes a while to be comfortable with the idea. It’s
sometimes a very precise nothingness. Other people are a better
judge of what you do than you are yourself. I never get what
people get when watching me. I don’t see it. I see a glaikit
idiot.”
As for his looks, Biggerstaff is aware that having a baby face
might not always be an asset. “I do look very young, which could
be a problem in terms of getting some of the work I want to do,”
he says. “But at the same time, if I didn’t look this young I
would never have got Harry Potter and I might be working in a bar
in Glasgow. Maybe one day I’ll grow into my face. Just now,
clean-shaven and with short hair, I can look 12.” After a beat he
adds, sotto voce: “Dammit!” Whatever face he presents to
the world, Sean Biggerstaff’s is definitely one to watch.
