Disclosure- I went on an all expense paid trip on behalf of Disney to cover the Blu-ray release of Tomorrowland and Aladdin as well as Disneyland’s 60th Anniversary. All opinions are my own.
Last week when we were in Los Angeles we had the opportunity to interview Raffey Cassidy and Thomas Robinson, the child stars of Tomorrowland. I’ve interviewed other child stars before and as always I was so impressed by how well spoken Raffey and Thomas were. They were both mature and a pleasure to talk with. I could have listened to Raffey talk with her accent all day!
Here are a few things we learned:
Thomas started acting when his brother’s acting coach thought he’d be perfect for an up coming role. He landed the role and it just snowballed from there as he puts it. Raffey said it wasn’t really one specific day that she thought, “Oh I want to be an actor.” Kind of like Thomas (Robinson) she got one part and then from then on she just wanted to “carry on ‘cause I was having so much fun doing it”.
For Tomorrowland, Raffey learned gymnastics and marshal arts to do some of her own stunts. To train for the jet pack flying scenes in the movie Thomas trained on a flying trapeze and then indoor skydiving. Sounds like a lot of fun to me! He also had athletic development training to be able to keep up with the stunts he needed to perform in the movie.
The script was HIGHLY guarded and protected. When Thomas went in to read the script for his audition he had to be locked in a room with the script and then once he finish reading they locked the script in a safe in a locked room. Talk about top secret!
In her spare time Raffey Cassidy likes to do special effects make-up and Thomas Robinson like to skateboard and cook. He especially likes to bake things like lemon bars and different kinds of sweets.
We asked Raffey and Thomas what it was like to work with George Clooney and Raffey said, “He’s a very professional man, but at the same time he keeps the set very relaxed.” Thomas added that Hugh Laurie was nice as well.
When asked what advice they would give to kids their own age that wanted to act, Raffey said to never give up and always try harder. Thomas added that people are going to say NO a lot. You’re not going to get every audition you go out for. There’s so many people going out for the role. Don’t give up and keep trying because if you’re good at what you do and you just be yourself, don’t take no for an answer, and keep going and something will happen. Great advice for sure!
