German star at Cannes condemns ‘madness’ of protective culture for UK child actors

Barry Keoghan shooting a scene from Bird. ‘It would have been great sometimes if there was a bit more trust,’ says Franz Rogowski, who also stars in the film. Photograph: Fraser Gray/Shutterstock

Is Britain leading the way in protecting young people and children from the potential traumas of working on a film set, or has it all gone far too far? Two of the most prominent European stars attending the Cannes film festival, both with high-profile premieres, have very different views.

Franz Rogowski, the acclaimed German actor who plays a key role in Bird, British director Andrea Arnold’s contender for the top Palme d’Or prize, said this weekend that the proliferation of chaperones and intimacy coordinators that had been required on the shoot on location in Kent qualified as well-intended “madness”.