Spike Fearn is home in Coalville, Leicestershire for the weekend, a few days after wrapping a lengthy shoot for James L Brooks’ new film Ella McCay in Rhode Island.

He is still shaking off the jetlag but his enthusiasm is evident for a role that took him far away from the characters he portrayed in UK indie films such as Sweetheart (2021) and Aftersun (2022).

“When you’re young, you’re often going to play characters similar to yourself,” says the 23-year-old, “but this was completely different for me, and a real character arc. I was trying to pull from sources and people I knew, and I just had so much fun. And that’s what I want to keep chasing in acting, for sure.”

Fearn can reveal little about his character Casey in the upcoming feature, which stars Emma Mackey as an idealistic US politician juggling family issues and a challenging work life. Jamie Lee Curtis, Albert Brooks, Rebecca Hall, Woody Harrelson, Ayo Edebiri and Jack Lowden also feature in the rich ensemble.

Nor is he permitted to say much about Alien: Romulus, which he shot in Budapest last year for director Fede Alvarez and producer Ridley Scott. “I’d go to work and run around and get excited,” he says of the latter experience, working alongside a young cast including Cailee Spaeny and 2023 Star of Tomorrow David Jonsson. “I was playing every day.”

Living with dyslexia, and an inattentive student at school, Fearn was encouraged by his schoolteacher mother to pursue drama “because I couldn’t shut up”.

He was also impacted by the films his car-mechanic father showed him, including Taxi Driver and — conveniently for later life — Alien. Inspired by the example of Jack O’Connell, who he had admired on TV’s Skins, Fearn snagged a place at Nottingham’s Television Workshop, and “caught the bug”. Martin Compston in Ken Loach’s Sweet Sixteen (“Wow, that person is not acting — who is that?”) was another early inspiration.

Fearn is now taking a break after a busy time shooting Alien: Romulus, Ella McCay, the unaired pilot for FX series Never Let Me Go, and a small part in Amy Winehouse biopic Back To Black. “I’m just trying to work with good people and do good work,” is his philosophy. “And hopefully have a long career.”

Contact: Alexander Cooke, Hamilton Hodell 

Topics