Interviewing actors usually involves asking them to remember things: lines spoken, expressions pulled, performances given weeks, months or even years ago that are only now seeing the light of day. But instead of fondly reminiscing about his latest project, Asa Butterfield is desperately trying to envisage it. The Sex Education star is about to appear in Second Best, a play about the boy who came agonisingly close to being cast as Harry Potter in the film franchise. It’s his first week of rehearsals, and Butterfield isn’t merely figuring out how to play the part, he’s also trying to predict how scared he’ll be while doing it: in an extremely bold move, this 90-minute one-hander will be the actor’s theatrical debut.
It is an especially ballsy choice when you consider that theatre “has always terrified” Butterfield. “Standing on stage in front of hundreds of people without being able to say, ‘Cut! Can we try again?’ is sort of ‘eurgh!’” he says, sitting in the middle of a spartan rehearsal space in north London. He tries to visualise himself in the wings before the first performance. “I’m going to have stomach-churning anxiety, undoubtedly.” Is he someone who tends to ruminate on that sort of thing? “Yes,” he sighs instantly, with the knowing weariness of a chronic overthinker.
