C'mon C'mon star Woody Norman talks bonding with Joaquin Phoenix

When he was 5 years old, Woody Norman asked his mother if he could try being an actor. "I've been doing what I love ever since," the English actor, now 12, says.

Just seven years into the business, Norman has starred alongside Stanley Tucci, Benedict Cumberbatch, and now Joaquin Phoenix, playing his precocious young nephew in C'mon C'mon —writer-director Mike Mills' black-and white drama about a radio journalist interviewing youngsters about the future.

Norman and Phoenix first met at a chemistry read — to which Joaquin showed up in pajamas — and became fast friends after some play wrestling. "We just immediately clicked and I still have Joaquin as a friend now," says the young star, who hails from England and does a particularly convincing American accent in the movie. "He taught me that, always make a very, very strong bond with your costars. It'll make working in a film environment much better."

Once the two leads got on set, their easy chemistry allowed Mills to, at times, take a step back and just let them perform spontaneously. "Mike was an absolutely amazing director because every time we did a different take, we would do something different with the scene," says Norman. "We would improvise a lot and he just had a lot of room to play."

All that fun and bonding on screen made wrapping the movie particularly emotional. "I was close to crying when I first watched it afterwards," says Norman. "I spent all this time as this character and it built up and built up and built up... and it came out good."

When asked what he sees for the coming years, Norman (who idolizes Timothée Chalamet — "He's so cool" — and can soon be seen in Last Voyage of the Demeter with David Dastmalchian and Liam Cunningham) doesn't have to even think about his answer: "I see myself doing the same thing and living somewhere very nice. I really want to push the limits of my acting and keep doing it until the day I absolutely have to stop."

A version of this story appears in Entertainment Weekly's November issue, available to order here. Don't forget to subscribe for more exclusive interviews and photos, only in EW.

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