The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep tells the tale of Angus, a young Scottish boy, who finds an enchanted egg. Taking it home, he soon finds himself face-to-face with an amazing creature: the mythical "Water Horse" of Scottish lore. Angus begins a journey of discovery, facing his greatest fears and risking his life to protect a secret that would give birth to a legend. 13 Year old Alex Etel plays the part of Angus MacMorrow, the young hero of the film. We caught up with him to ask him a few questions about acting, scuba diving in New Zealand and Las Vegas…
1. How did you get into acting?
Before Millions, I’d never done any acting at all. I’d never even had a big role in a school play. I was just in the right place at the right time: a casting agency came round to my old school and said if you want to audition, you can. I had seven or eight auditions altogether, and then I got the part!
2. Did acting come naturally then?
I was only eight then and it was a new experience for me. It was fun, because it was someone taking an interest in me. I learned the lines, and sometimes it was a bit boring but I’m glad I did it!
3. How has your life changed since then?
It’s been five years since then and my whole life has changed. Five years ago I was waiting to grow up to work in a shop or something. And now I’ve got this opportunity to do something that I really like, and I have the chance to go over to America and things like that.
4. How did you land the role of Angus MacMorrow in The Water Horse?
[The director] Jay Russell had seen me in my first film Millions. He said that he cried his eyes out at the end of that, which was a good sign for me. And then he called me up the week after I’d done my audition and he said ‘how would you feel about going over to New Zealand and learning to scuba dive?’
5. What did you say?
I was a bit shocked because obviously when someone says something like that to you, it’s a bit weird.
6. Why’s it weird?
It’s weird because you realise that that person likes you enough to put you in their film! I was really pleased and said ‘yes’ immediately.
7. How did you like New Zealand where The Water Horse was filmed?
It’s on the other side of the world, so it was strange. The first thing I thought when I got there was: ‘right, I’m going to be staying here for five months – it’s going to be my new home for a bit, so I just have to deal with the fact that I’m not going to see my friends or family.’ Once I’d settled in a bit, I was fine.
8. So you didn’t get too homesick?
Towards the end I did, because I was missing the last day of school. All my friends were going off to different schools – we’ve gone in to secondary schools now – so I was a bit annoyed about missing that… Oh well.
9. So, tell us about the scuba diving!
I went over to Greece and got my certificate; it was really good. I had lots of underwater scenes, like the drowning ones and riding underwater on Crusoe [the Water Horse], so I had to learn to be calm in the water.
10. In the film, your character Angus is very afraid of the water. Were you?
At first I wasn’t a strong swimmer and I was a bit scared of the water, but I’ve not really told anyone that! You see, I’ve seen Jaws… so I’m always thinking ‘where’s the shark? Where’s the shark?’ But if you spend every day in the water, obviously you get used to it.
11. The story starts when Angus finds a magical egg on the beach, and he tries to keep his discovery a secret. Would you be able to keep a secret like that?
I’m not sure whether I’d tell people or keep it a secret. It would be a hard secret to keep for very long, that’s for sure.
12. On The Water Horse, you worked with some big actors including Emily Watson and Ben Chaplin. What was that like?
Yeah, I got on with everyone really well and I think that’s what kept me from being too homesick. Because I think if I hadn’t had good relationships with everyone then I would have wanted to go home straight away. Ben especially – he was really funny and always kept me upbeat when we were doing night shoots in the water. It was freezing and there were rain towers and everything. It was not the funnest of times…
13. Did the rainy night shoots get to you?
There wasn’t really that many times when it got too much for me, but one time it did, and I had a bit of a cry then. I was a bit stressed out. (Laughs nervously)
14. In those scenes, Crusoe has grown to be an enormous monster… Was it quite frightening working with him that big?
It does look really frightening in the film but when I was acting with Crusoe, I was acting to a tennis ball on a stick, so it wasn’t really as scary for me (laughs).
15. What’s your favourite scene in the film?
I don’t know whether I could choose one scene because I’m in nearly every single scene. There are some that I like for my performance, and some that I just like because of the storyline.
16. How do you judge your own performance?
I think you are able to judge it by looking around and seeing if other people are crying or not at the sad scenes. I think crying is always a good sign!
17. Emily Watson plays your mum in the film, how was that?
Emily always kept herself to herself because she’d just had a baby – Juliet – and it was hard for her because she had to bring a brand-new baby on a 24-hour flight. She was mainly thinking about the baby. But when she was on set, she was amazing. She knew what she was doing. She was just great in every scene that she was in.
18. Did she try to mother you?
Yes, she was really, really motherly because that’s her part and I think she was always trying to get in to character and keep that bond between me and her.
19. Do you believe in Loch Ness Monster?
I don’t know. I’m not entirely sure, because I think it would be really cool for something like that to live in the lake, having no-one know whether it’s real or not. But there have been a lot of sightings and the more you hear about it, the more you think it could be true. I’m not really sure.
20. Do you have any pets in real life?
Yeah. I’ve got a hamster called Fry (laughs). I know, they’re not very fun pets, but I used to have a rabbit and it suddenly died when I went on holiday. My mum was the only one in the house so I’ve got a suspicion that she might have killed it.
21. What?! Why?
Because my brother and sister each had a rabbit too and mine was the last one left, and it was quite evil. Now, we’ve all moved on to hamsters.
22. OK, it sounds a little bit suspicious. So what do you like doing when you’re not hanging out with your ‘not very fun’ hamster?
I really like sport. I’m always playing football and I go rollerblading on ramps and stuff. I’ve got a big lump on my knee at the minute from doing that.
23. Do you support Man U?
Yes, I’m a big, big Manchester United supporter. In my bedroom, I’ve got loads of posters and a signed shirt.
24. Who’s signed your shirt?
Well, my Aunty knows Wes Brown’s wife, so she got it for me for a Christmas present. It’s got Wayne Rooney and Ronaldo and everyone.
25. So your aunty is a WAG, is she?
No she’s not a wag (laughs) but she’s in there with all the footballers…
26. What do you think about David Beckham disappearing off to Hollywood?
Oh, I’ve been asked this loads, and I really, really don’t want to offend him… but I think he’s over there for the money.
27. Not for the sunshine?
Well, the sunshine is a big bonus, on top of the big wad of money in his back pocket. He’s doing well for himself.
28. So when are you going to move out to Hollywood then?
I’ve just been talking about that with my mum actually, because at the minute I really want to move out to America! At the minute, I just don’t like England. It’s rainy and dull and, (sighs) I don’t like it. Me and my parents and my brother, we went to ten different cities in America to promote The Water Horse and it was really good. I really loved Miami but it’s a bit too humid for me. When we got back, we were just like: ‘why do we live here?’ It’s so depressing, all the bad weather and things.
29. You’d miss your friends though, think about that. What do they all think about you being a famous actor by the way?
My friends don’t really tell me what they think. They ask questions like ‘where you going this time’ and ‘what you doing this time’, so they’re interested, but they’ve never really told me what they think – and I’ve never really asked them. I should really ask them. I’ll go and ask one of my friends in a second… (Laughs)
30. What’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get your hands on your hard-earned money?
Ooh, I might take a trip somewhere… a trip to Las Vegas and gamble just a bit of it.
The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep is released into cinemas on the 8th February.
