How long have you been acting?
I've been acting since year four, back when I was at McDonald College. I studied drama there throughout my academic years.

What was your first acting job?
I worked as part of the chorous in an opera with Opera Australia. That was my first professional job. I also worked on a kid's show called Don't Blame Me which was on Channel 9 years ago. It was a guest role and the first time I was on TV.

So, you've been acting your whole life pretty much?
I guess, I've always been doing classes here and there.

You play the lead role of Thomas in The Black Balloon. Can you give Bellaboo a brief rundown of the film?
Basically the film is a coming of age Aussie drama with a love story in between. It's about Thomas (who I play) and his brother, who suffers from autism. It kind of explores Thomas' struggle with that and it's also about his first love. It's a nice story.

It is a beautiful story. What drew you to the role?
I think he's such an essential character. He goes through just normal things but to an extreme scale. He's got the whole adolescent thing, trying to find out who he is let alone having a brother who foils every opportunity he has of finding any normality. I guess everything is just exemplified because of his brother. So every emotion is heightened, which is so interesting to play.

It's an amazing film and an amazing cast. Toni Collette plays your Mum and supermodel Gemma Ward as your girlfriend. What was it like to work with one of the most beautiful women in the world?
It was pretty good and it wasn't to hard to act beside those two leading ladies. Working beside Toni was so nerve racking, I have such an admiration for what she does. Then playing a supermodel's boyfriend wasn't too hard.

You weren't acting were you?
No, it was pretty cool.

You also had a kissing scene, were your knees shaking?
I was kinda nervous.

What do you do to prepare yourself for something like that, a lot of breathe mints?
I always have a mint before a kissing scene, that's about it really, I guess.

Did Toni Collette pass on any advice to you during filming?
It was like a dream that I even worked with her. I learnt a lot from just observing her. Seeing how she ticks and how she gets through it all. She's always giving something new to every take and she's nutted out every option that the editor and director could possibly want. So if they took us in a different way or changed the scenario she can always find a balance between performances. I think that's the greatest thing that I could have taken on board from her is finding variation and contexts to play it.

Luke Ford plays your autistic older brother Charlie. He's just come off the set of The Mummy 3 in The States. It must have been a really challenging role for him. What did he have to do before filming to learn about the characteristics of an autistic person?
I know Luke spent a lot of time with Elissa's (director) brother who the character of Charlie is based on. So he spent a lot of time with him kind of finding out who the character is and how to play it. So he picked up a lot of mannerisms from the real character Charlie. On the first days on the shoot he stayed in character for a bit of it. It was a bit difficult playing Charlie non-stop. The two of us also went road testing with the characters, so we had to remain in character the whole time. We walked around a Westfield in Bondi and put up with being in character. So that was the best thing that happened to both of us I think. You really understand how people react to that situation and I really got a grasp on how Thomas was feeling.

What were the reactions from people?
It's surprising how ignorant people are to it. Some people would look at him like he's some crazy man and going to murder them. And then kids would look at him and would be scared of him. We also went bowling once and when I left for two seconds to buy another game, Luke told me afterwards (while he was in the character of Charlie), these two guys came up to him and tried to get in his face and tried to mess with him and see how he would react. It would have been really hilarious actually ii Luke had jumped out of character. It was really interesting.

What else did you do to prepare for your role?
I spent a lot of time with Elissa, really nutting out her emotions and how she dealt with it because ultimately I was playing Elissa Down, the director of the film. I spent a lot of time with her and I met up with her brother Sean a bit and we road tested the characters a bit and I did a lot of internet research about autism. And really nutted out as much as I could about autism and the character as I could.

It must have been very challenging for you because you're practically in every scene in the film.
It's pretty absurd, it's one of the most exhausting experiences of my life. Very challenging.

Your character Thomas is 16 in the film, how old are you?
I just turned 19

Playing a 16-year-old, did you draw from when you were 16?
I guess so, those first little experiences of awkwardness. It wasn't too far away. Being 16 left an impression in my mind so it wasn't too hard to recap it and go back to when I was that age.

Did you get picked on as much at school as Thomas did?
Thankfully I didn't. The poor guy, he went through so much.

The Black Balloon is a story about a typical Aussie family and there were some hilarious scenes. There must be some great out-takes where you broke out of character and cracked up at the situation you were in?
Yes, the tampon scene where Charlie grabs Jackie's tampon and runs away with it. That was a funny day or two. There were times when we'd all just crack up and the director was cracking up too.

What about the day you shot the poo scene?
Oh….that day was argghhhhh! It wasn't too bad actually. When you look at it on screen it looks horrible but on the day, we could smell it and it was actually made up of nutella and peanut butter. It was food, so once you could smell it, it wasn't as bad. It was fun but it was also a nerve-racking day because I had a scene were I went off at Toni Collette and I got a big slap in the face from her. A little nerve-racking but an interesting one.

Tell me about the message of the film?
I guess acceptance is the big message. Leaving your mind open and accepting people for who they are.

Do you think the film will be successful internationally?
I would love to think so, it's a really hard thing to say but I think it's a really strong film, speaking as objectively as possible. I think any family, no matter where they're from, would relate to it. Young or old or ethnicity would enjoy it and find some laughs in between the deep and meaningful bits.

Why is the film called The Black Balloon?
In the really early stages of the film, it was going to have stylised animation and the recurring image was going to be a black balloon. It's more of a metaphor that amongst all the balloons, Thomas is kind of this black balloon and so is Charlie so they are kind of the black balloons of society, like the black sheep, the ugly duckling I guess. That's how I take it anyway, that's my interpretation.

Fave song:
Patrick Watson "To Build a Home"

Fave pastime:
I enjoy making short films with friends for fun.

Fave food:
Indian

If you weren't acting, what would you be doing?
I'd love to have something to do with a space program, which sounds really odd. I'm really interested in space and astronomy and all that stuff.

If Bellaboo could grant you a wish, what would it be:
Good year ahead work wise and family wise. I guess I'd also like to fly.