Breaking Baz: ‘Stranger Things’ West End Stage Actor Louis McCartney Is Headed For Superstardom, Says Show’s Director Stephen Daldry
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Louis McCartney describes himself as “a West End baby” because before he was cast to play boyish-looking monster Henry Creel in the Stranger Things stage show The First Shadow, he’d never performed on stage in his life. “They were coaching me how to speak properly, how to project my voice,” McCartney says of the countless recalls he endured during the auditioning process.
The key was: Could McCartney play “the sweet little by whose mum loved him” who also happens to be “a killer” who’s “psychiatric at heart.” McCartney nails it all with one of the most breathtaking debut performances in the West End.
The show’s director, Stephen Daldry, remembers seeing McCartney out of the corner of his eye during an open casting call. The lad from Belfast was sitting quietly in a corner when Daldry remarked to casting director Jessica Ronane and dialect coach William Conacher, “Who’s that kid?” It’s an instinct that has served Daldry well.
He knew Jamie Bell was right to play Billy Elliot in the movie. He knew without a doubt that Claire Foy, Vanessa Kirby and Matt Smith were right to portray Princess Elizabeth, Princess Margaret and Prince Philip, respectively, in the first two seasons of The Crown. RELATED: Duffer Brothers Explain Origins Of ‘Stranger Things: The First Shadow’ In Featurette For Stage Play Daldry smiles and tells me that he considers McCartney “a proper theatre animal.” “It’s in his bones,” he says, marveling at the fact that McCartney has a performative ability of ”knowing how to respond and excite an audience.” And ”bizarrely” — for someone who, until November, had never been on a stage before — “knowing how to control an audience.” He shakes his head and gives a nod of approval: “He’s a proper star
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