I don't spot Iain Armitage first; he spots me. I am on the set of
Young Sheldon, waiting for him to show up to his photo shoot, when, from around the corner, he appears in a sensible grey half-zip sweater, like a middle-aged off-duty billionaire, only very small. He hides behind a door frame. We lock eyes. I move to say something when he holds a single, tiny finger to his lips. And so I hush, humbled.
At a dramatically appropriate count of three, he bursts into the living room set, where his mother, his tutor, a hair and makeup person, a CBS public relations rep, a production assistant, and photographer are chatting. The actor leaps into a sturdy pose with his arms outstretched and projects: "DID SOMEONE SAY, 'IAIN ARMITAAAAGE?!'"
We all laugh and clap. The star has arrived. Obviously.
Iain Armitage, the moon-faced ten-year-old boy who stars as young Sheldon Cooper in CBS's concisely titled
The Big Bang Theory spinoff
Young Sheldon (and who has likely made more money than I've seen in my whole life), doesn't seem capable of giving less than one-hundred percent at all times. It's not because he feels some kind of professional obligation to do so, but because The Theater literally pumps through his veins. (His mother, Lee Armitage, who is with him practically at all times, is a producer; his dad, Euan Morton, is an actor; and he's partially named after actor Ian McKellen.) That means he doesn't just participate in conversations; he dominates them. He doesn't act; he steals the scene. He doesn't enter rooms; he bursts into them.
If you momentarily forget that he's a child who would technically be in fifth grade if he wasn't already in the workforce, you would be forgiven for thinking that things don't happen to Iain—he happens to them.
READ THE FULL STORY 
No comments:
Post a Comment