He has received nominations for three British Independent Film Awards, two Critics' Choice Awards, two Saturn Awards, and three Young Artist Awards.īeginning his career as a child actor, Butterfield first achieved recognition as the lead of the historical drama film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008). He thought that Chinese people thought that all Westerners are weird.Asa Bopp Farr Butterfield ( / ˈ eɪ s ə/ born Asa Maxwell Thornton Farr Butterfield on 1 April 1997) is an English actor.
When he was in China, he felt like he wasn’t weird. He felt much more comfortable communicating in Mandarin than he did in English. He learned that in conjunction with the language. He said that when he was in China, when he learned Chinese, he not only learned the language but the facial communication that went with that, what people were doing with their hands, what they were doing with their faces.
He taught himself Mandarin in three months and then he went to China and he came back with a Chinese girlfriend. He started embracing Chinese culture and he taught himself Mandarin – this is Daniel, the original kid in the documentary. In England, they could be treated badly, as geeks or freaks. The young kids on the mathematical Olympiad squad are called “kids” because they’re very good at math. The people who are great mathematicians are heroes. Then, he discovered Chinese culture and he was particularly taken with it.įirstly, he believes that they embrace mathematics in a way that perhaps we don’t in the UK. It means that he just clams up and finds the experience of basic communication quite traumatic. He doesn’t know what to say – what’s appropriate, what’s not appropriate.
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He doesn’t really know how to read other people’s facial expressions. Morgan Matthews: What Daniel told us was that he finds ordinary communication very difficult, because he doesn’t understand or know what to do with his face. So developing that and bringing it to the character and talking with Morgan to develop Nathan was an amazing experience. And I got to meet him and talk to him and really learn about what’s going on inside his head, and how that manifests both physically and mentally. Daniel, who my character is loosely based off of… watching the documentary, you get an insight into what’s going on. Five years later, here we are.Īsa Butterfield: Before we starting filming, I did a lot of research for background. And I had always felt that this world of the International Mathematical Olympiad and these fascinating characters that inhabit that world would be a great subject for a feature film. They asked me if there was anything that I had came across that could translate into a drama. Further down the line, when I started thinking about moving into fiction and drama, I had a discussion with the UK Film Council. We were very lucky to be with them during that time. So it was a really interesting time in their lives and a fascinating story. Several of the kids that we followed were on the autistic spectrum and they found aspects of life difficult. Some of them in the group were facing challenges. I thought that tbey were such an interesting, extraordinary bunch of individuals who had these incredible talents. Then, I went to see and meet the UK team, the boys who were then going on to compete at the Olympiad. And I thought there might not be room for another. Then a producer I was working with came across the International Mathematical Olympiad.
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