Two Tiverton teens have made it on the big screen after landing roles in one of the year’s most talked-about films.
Zac and Eva Wishart, aged twelve and thirteen respectively, appear in Hamnet, a cinematic adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling novel, directed by Oscar-winner Chloé Zhao.
The film, which has already picked up accolades at the Golden Globes and is tipped for Oscar success, explores the grief of William Shakespeare and his wife following the death of their son, Hamnet.
The siblings originally auditioned for the lead roles of Shakespeare’s twins before reaching a screen test with lead actor Paul Mescal.
“Our mum entered us for the open auditions for Hamnet,” Eva said. First we sent in a photo of us and then a video. Then we went through five gruelling rounds of auditions where we were dying of the plague and crying quite a lot over each other’s dead bodies.
“Finally, we did a screen test with Paul Meskell, where I was crying on his lap.”
Despite narrowly missing out on the main child roles, both were cast in smaller parts – but still found themselves on set with major names.
“There was a scene where Paul Mescal, who plays Shakespeare, had to teach us Latin,” said Zac. “We only had one line, so we knew it perfectly. But Paul had loads of lines and forgot the Latin, so he asked me to tell him it just before we started filming”.
Eva added: “Zac taught Paul Mescal Latin. That was probably one of the best bits.”
The film also stars Jessie Buckley as Shakespeare’s wife, Agnes. Eva and Zac play her younger siblings in flashback scenes, which involved “dying of the plague several times” during the audition process, according to Eva.
Away from the spotlight, Eva has her sights set on conservation. “I’ve been breeding harvest mice for reintroduction. Being a conservationist doesn’t really pay, so maybe I’ll do acting to help fund that,” she said.
Zac, meanwhile, has dreams behind the camera. “I want to be a cinematographer. I love taking pictures and composing music,” he said.
The pair have already secured their next roles. They’ve been cast together in Ebenezer, a reimagining of A Christmas Carol, starring Johnny Depp, Ian McKellen, Andrea Riseborough and Rupert Grint.
Dominic Pinner, manager of the Tivoli Cinema in Tiverton, said Hamnet had proved a hit with local audiences: “It’s been outselling Avatar, which is very impressive for a film of this budget and subject matter. I’ve worked here four years, and this is the first time we’ve ever had two local stars in a film showing here”.
