Inside actor Jacob Tremblay’s bubble-boy career

Share

"I know I'll never be an ordinary kid."

The quote comes from August (Auggie) Pullman, the protagonist in the new film Wonder. Portrayed by the young British Columbian Jacob Tremblay, Auggie is a soulful child affected by genetic disorder that causes facial deformities. Stephen Chbosky's film, based on a 2012 novel of the same name by R.J. Palacio, is a tearjerker of the highest order.

For Tremblay the role continues his trend of playing children in their own little worlds. Auggie, for example, wears a space helmet to cover his deformities and lives a sheltered, home-schooled existence before entering a prep school. In the yet-to-be-released Burn Your Maps, Tremblay plays an obsessive preadolescent convinced he's an East Asian goat-herder, mistakenly born in American suburbia instead of Mongolia. And, of course, Tremblay starred opposite Brie Larson in the 2015 critical hit Room, about a mother and son held captive in a one-room shack. Having little or no concept of life outside "room," the boy is disorientated upon his escape from a prison-like existence into a louder, chaotic everyday world.

For a recent interview in Toronto for Wonder, photographers were not allowed to shoot Tremblay, a handsome (if undersized) 11-year-old. A request to speak to a parent or one of his handlers was also denied. Nevertheless, his mother was with her son for the interview. Twice during the brief chat she admonished her son for swivelling his chair between questions, but otherwise was unobtrusive.

"They treat you a little different," Tremblay says, when asked about his character's quote above and his schoolmates' reaction to his own celebrity status. "But mostly, I'm just Jacob."

"Just Jacob" spends his time away from middle school on film sets with Owen Wilson and Julia Roberts, his onscreen parents who he describes as "cool," though "not as cool as my real parents." His mother does not look up from her book when she hears this, but can't help but flash a small smile.

When questioned about his run of "bubble-boy" roles, Tremblay insists he has the "No. 1 say" when it comes to his motion picture choices. His top consideration is the script, followed by his character, then the other actors involved and, finally, the location of the filming.

In the Vancouver-shot Wonder, schoolmates initially make fun of Auggie for his distinct appearance but eventually come to see the bright, sweet boy that he is. Are there bullies at Tremblay's own school? "Every school has bullies, but there's not just one main bully," he says. "Everyone can be rude and everyone can be kind."

Wise beyond his years.

Busy watching Wonder in a nearby screening room, Tremblay had been a few minutes late arriving to our interview. Given the unrelenting sentimentality of the film, one wonders if the actor's own performance had driven him to tears. "I usually don't cry at movies, although I will get sad," he says. "I'm okay with it, though. It's good to make people cry."

Good to make people cry? Good god, Nicholas Sparks has gotten to him.

Tremblay's next film, if it were up to him, would not be a weeper but a sci-fi blockbuster: He wants to play a young Jedi in a Star Wars film. "I worked with Colin Trevorrow," Tremblay says, referring to his director on last summer's The Book of Henry. "And every day on set I'd tell him I could do it."

Wishing to be a Jedi, just like any boy his age would. Alas, while Trevorrow was originally picked to direct Star Wars: Episode IX, he left the project and, as such, wouldn't be much help in casting Tremblay as a lightsaber swashbuckler.

Sorry to burst the little guy's bubble.

Wonder opens Nov. 17.