“I Worked With Tom Hanks” – Lord Wandsworth College

LWC 2nd Former, Albie gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse of starring alongside Hollywood greats.

Many things happen in school car parks. It’s rare to discover in one that you’re about to star opposite Tom Hanks in a new feature film though.

“I was coming out of school and my parents told me that I’d got the role,” explains LWC student, Albie Salter. “I couldn’t believe it.”

The role that he’d secured was that of ‘Young Jimmy’ in Here. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the film is based on the 2014 graphic novel by Richard McGuire.

Tom Hanks, Robin Wright and Paul Bettany all star in the movie, which tells the story of a single plot of land and the people who have lived on it over time. Digital de-ageing has been used on much of the cast to allow them to believably portray their characters over the course of generations.

“I think you first get to see me 25 minutes into the film,” explains 12-year-old Albie, who filmed his part nearly two years ago at Pinewood Studios. “My first scene is where Tom Hanks introduces his new girlfriend (played by Robin Wright) to Al, (Paul Bettany) who’s my Dad in the film. My big scene is with Robin Wright. It’s just me and her, her waters break and she tells me her baby’s coming. She tells me to call a taxi, then I run out, get some towels and start trying to make a phone call on one of those old-fashioned (rotary dial) telephones. I didn’t know how to use it. Everyone was laughing at me on set and Tom showed me what to do….It was a fun scene to film.”

“On the last day of filming, he (Tom) said to me, ‘This won’t be the last thing we do together”

—Albie Salter

Aside from navigating the complexities of a rotary dial telephone, Albie also had to master the art of an American accent.

“I had an acting coach on set, which was amazing,” he reveals. “Then I was given an accent coach. I remember doing my audition and that was the first time I’d ever done an American accent. It just went from there.”

Here hit cinemas in the US in November of last year and is now on general release in the UK. “It was very funny to watch back,” Albie smiles. “It’s so incredible to see yourself on the big screen. It’s almost unreal because you watch these movies all the time and you don’t really imagine yourself being in something like that.”

Whilst this was Albie’s first rodeo in cinematic terms, he’s no stranger to taking centre stage. “I did two seasons of theatre at Regents Park Open Air Theatre,” he admits. He’s also combining the publicity for Here alongside rehearsals for LWC’s production of Bugsy Malone at Basingstoke’s Haymarket Theatre. It’s a busy schedule for a 2^nd Former. “I feel supported by LWC though,” he says.

“I had to work with a private tutor once we had wrapped for the day,” he explains. “It was the most tiring thing ever…but I’d love to do more. I had my own dressing room at Pinewood. There’s a long corridor which leads to the other studios. I remember on the last day of shooting, they said that we could do what we wanted. So, I went and saw where they filmed James Bond, I saw Harrison Ford filming.”

All of this is pretty cool for anyone, let alone someone who isn’t yet a fully-fledged teenager. But the best was yet to come.

“Tom Hanks was brilliant on set,” Albie grins. “He improvised in nearly every scene and it was just mesmerising to watch. On the last day of filming, he said to me ‘This won’t be the last thing we do together’. He then said, ‘I’ll see you in the next one’. They were all so nice.”

You’d think that being a star of stage and screen would be enough, but Albie is also ploughing his efforts into a musical career: “I play guitar and sing. I’m working on a third album and I’m looking to do a headline show this year.” He also reveals that he was whittled down to the final two for a role in a Disney movie last year.

Whilst the memory of working with one of Hollywood’s biggest actors is now fading, Albie admits that he has a great memento from his time on set.

“I got the phone!” he beams.