OTTO FARRANT

The young actor ready to throw himself into the fray as Alex Rider

- Tara Bennett

When Amazon Prime’s TV adaptation of Alex Rider appeared earlier this year in the UK and Ireland, it not only gave fans of Anthony Horowitz’s bestselling YA series a faithful adaptation to savour, but it also thrust actor Otto Farrant into a new realm.

As a working actor in the British theatre scene from the age of 11, Farrant has ably shifted between stage and screen roles for half of his young life. But getting cast as Alex Rider afforded him a first: playing a character from his own time. “To be honest, the idea of playing a teen super spy

was something I didn’t think was possible because it’s so far removed from what I’ve played before,” Farrant tells SFX. “I’ve done a lot of roles in period dramas and on stage, but never anything action-packed, and rarely doing contemporary pieces.” Now he’s a globe-trotting mini-Bond, and he likes it…

Alex Rider is a role that asks a lot of anyone who plays him. Were you all-in straight away, or a bit intimidated by what it would require of you?