VARIETY.COM – Julianne Moore and Variety’s Steven Gaydos were on hand to honor rising stars Jack O’Connell (“Unbroken”) and Lola Kirke (“Gone Girl”) at the elegant Chopard Trophy ceremony that took place on the rooftop of the Martinez Hotel on Friday night.

“When you start out all you know is that you want to do it, it feels good to do it and you would do it for free but what you don’t know if you’re any good. But when you see a good actor, you can see it right away. And we saw Jack O’Connell and Lola Kirke immediately the minute they burst onto the screen, they’re beautifully alive on camera, it’s palpable their talent,” said Moore. “We’re so happy to have you, we’re excited to see your work and we know we’re going to see your work for many years to come,” added the Oscar-winning actress.

Gaydos concurred, “At Variety we have a great time introducing new talent, celebrating new talent because films become regenerated by them, and the Cannes Film Festival is the centerpiece of this regeneration. Masters leave us and new masters arrive — and it’s especially true in acting.”

Kirke was visibly moved by the honor and quipped that she hadn’t realized the turn that her career had taken until two days ago when she found herself on the red carpet at a Cannes premiere.

The Chopard Trophy ceremony, for which Variety is the exclusive media partner, drew Cannes Film Festival’s president Pierre Lescure and general delegate Thierry Fremaux, as well as actress Lupita Nyong’o, Colin Firth and wife Livia Giuggioli, Emmanuelle Beart and Emma Watson, among other stars.

The Chopardd Trophy jury comprised Elizabeth Banks, “The Imitation Game” helmer Morten Tyldum, Gaydos, producer Jerry Weintraub, Amazon Studios’ head of production Ted Hope, and Chopard’s artistic director Caroline Scheufele, who announced the creation of a Chopard Foundation to support movies during the ceremony.

One of the major pleasant surprises at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, ’71, a gripping and thoughtful drama set in Belfast during The Troubles, hits theaters this Friday. The film stars soon-to-be-household-name Jack O’Connell as Gary Hook, a British serviceman trapped behind enemy lines during a night of intense sectarian unrest.

O’Connell may be best known for his work on the U.K. soap hit Skins, but 2014 set him on a trajectory for Hollywood’s A-list. While American audiences might have spotted him in 300: Rise of Artemisia, it was the critically acclaimed British prison drama Starred Up, and Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken that cemented O’Connell as the potential next “it” actor.

We caught up with O’Connell (and the film’s director, Yann Demange) back at TIFF to talk about what makes ’71 a unique war story, and how he’s handling the demands of movie stardom.
Check it out below, and enjoy!

How did you come to be attached to the film?
Jack O’Connell: Jina Jay, who cast ’71, I’ve got a good relationship with. So she made the right noises to Yann [Demange] and he just wanted to get together and meet me. It was like a straight-out offer, he had decided that I was his Gary, and he was going to make it work. That was flattering, it was the first time in my career that that had happened. So, beginning last year, I had three films, back-to-back. Well, one of which being Skins, but that kinda felt like a movie shoot as well. That’s how it came about, but it was very challenging to do three jobs, three very different characters, back-to-back.

What is it about the Hook character that makes him a unique centre for an action movie?
JO: I’d say because we see him as a human, we don’t know if he’s capable to get through it. He’s not a stone-faced killer, he’s not a savage. He loses his best mate, he’s got a relationship with his younger brother which is vital to him. He has to return, otherwise his brother’s f***ed. There’s no selfishness to him, so he’s got a good reason to get the f*** out of there. But he’s so out of his depth, and he’s a young lad. It’s quite plausible that’s been the case; if I was witnessing this as an audience member, I’d really appreciate the lack of bulls*** that we offer.

Do you think Yann’s accomplished that: a film free of bulls***?
JO: Yeah, yeah. We never try to perpetrate, or assume, or point fingers, or explain anything that hasn’t already been discussed. It’s not a revelation, hopefully we’re exposing the cost on ground level. We see the lack of animosity between Gary and, who were at the time, his enemies. And we see how brainwashing takes its toll, and how that then escalates into these conflicts.

It’s a hard film to pin down. What’s the first word that comes to your mind when you try to explain what it is to people?
JO: I hear the word “thriller.” But I never set out….or certainly on set, I didn’t feel like we were making a thriller. I guess in a word, it’s an “insight,” isn’t it? We’re portraying it on ground level, and we see costs like that. We throw out questions afterwards. So instead of boring an audience with low-budget cinema – with a portrayal of the politics and where this war started – we’re just in there. And it is thrilling, and that was Yann’s job, to provide that. But for me, I was portraying someone who, for as far as I was concerned, existed.

Did you film ’71 before or after Starred Up?
JO: After.

So did that make it hard to switch into a character that is very vulnerable and reactionary?
JO: Sure. That’s where Yann came in, and that’s why I’m here. With a lesser director I’d have been f***ed. So, I’ve come out here, mainly to support Yann because of his support for me during the shoot. He was always there to remind me when I was, perhaps, reverting back to something that I should have left in Belfast – funny enough, we shot Starred Up in Belfast, and then ’71 in Northern England. So that was his expertise, to have that sensibility, and enable and steer me in that way. I didn’t know the answers in this one, I don’t think anyone who’s in a realistic, life-threatening situation knows all the answers, you know?

Was Yann who you would go to when you didn’t have those answers yourself?
JO: Yeah. I mean, he was always available like that, but it wasn’t continuous. Sometimes I was trying to make my own mind up, and we had experts around the set as well. I knew the cinematography was going to be brilliant, because I trusted the people in charge. So there were all these elements in the film where I could find conviction, and I knew I was in a different beast all together, but it’s so f***ing physically enduring, that shoot. It was bad, man, I made myself ill.

What was straining you?
JO: The repetition of the running, stunts, and perhaps not the necessary attention to people’s safety. It results in bust-ups, and it wastes times. But I guess that’s all part of the process.

How’s it been handling all the publicity and work lately?
JO: Young as I am, 24, I started going out partying way before the legal age. I don’t have a lot of curiosity for that, I don’t feel any desire to be out on a Friday or Saturday night doing any of that s***. I think it’s very important the things I decide to do between work. So if I can just concentrate, knowing that I’ve got work coming up, if I can concentrate while I’m recouping myself, rejuvenate, it means I’ve got something to offer. It’s a full-time job, and I’ve always wanted to be here, but it’s a sacrifice.

What are you hoping people are going to be saying once they’ve seen the film?
JO: I just hope they feel like they watched a lot of honesty onscreen. I hope they feel enlightened by that version of honesty, not glorification of war. We all have a responsibility in this industry to tell proper stories amidst entertainment. I hate the term “war porn,” I f***ing hate that terminology. I find it insensitive, quite beyond belief. But it exists, and I’m going to be steering clear of war porn.

I don’t think anyone would accuse ’71 of that title, but it was Truffaut who said there’s no such thing as an anti-war film. Would you say ’71 is trying to be an anti-war film?
JO: It’s a depiction of war. In that sense, it can’t be an anti-war film, because otherwise it would so blatantly be an anti-war film that it doesn’t become interesting. We have to make out own minds up during that depiction. We certainly don’t glorify it, and the idea isn’t to tempt anyone into finding themselves in that situation, but again, we wanted to provide a reasoning for people on either side. All too often, you don’t see both sides of the story portrayed at the same level of attention and decency. I don’t think we can be accused of that.

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Having made a name for himself on Channel 4’s epic teen drama Skins it was only a matter of time before the film world took notice of Jack O’Connell’. One of his earlier film roles was as the king of the killer chavs in EDEN LAKE. A film which had O’Connell and his friends stalk middle-class Michael Fassbender and his wife as they went on a relaxing camping trip. Since then O’Connell has graced our screens in a variety of genres with last year (2014 in case you’ve forgotten already) featuring many chances to see Jack on the big screen as he starred in 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE, STARRED UP, ’71 and UNBROKEN.

We recently interviewed Jack O’Connell about his EE Rising Star BAFTA nomination and the young actor seemed to be taking it all in his stride, apparently happy to speak to a fellow Midlander. We kicked the interview off discussing the local area, where you can get an under-age pint (very naughty), and the heated rivalry between our home-town football teams (Derby County and Nottingham Forrest). Here’s what he had to say:

Congratulations on your nomination.

Thank you!

How are you feeling?

I’m upbeat. I’m very upbeat. But apparently these things can’t define you. One way or another I hope to keep on working. Should that [winning] be the case lovely, if I’ve got the Rising Star award in my repertoire. But if not I can’t be crying myself to sleep about it can I?

Does this one mean a little bit more because it’s voted for by the general public?

It’s the fans, it’s home soil. I guess the previous honouries the Will Poulter’s, the Tom Hardy’s the James McAvoy’s of this world, Noel Clarke, you know homegrown talent. I’d personally like it to go to someone homely. But I guess that benefits me to say.

Everybody, even nominees, winners obviously, but even nominees have all gone on to have really successful careers; Cillian Murphy he was a nominee but didn’t win but has had a great career.

He’s one of my favourites is Cillian. Since WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY. Is that what he got nominated for? Brilliant film.

It was the year that THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY was released yes. You’ve mentioned in the past that Tom Hardy is someone that you aspire to. He’s a previous winner, are you hoping to emulate him?

Nope.

No?

No I love his work. You know I like him as a person, but I’ve gotta do my own thing haven’t I? Tom has his strengths, I perhaps have mine in other fields. No I don’t like modeling it on any others.

You’re the second Skins alumni to be nominated, Nicholas Hoult was nominated previously.

Got ya?!

So who out of the rest of the Skins cast do you think could be in your shoes in a few years time?

I think Sean Teale is a good little actor. He was in the generation after ours. I think he’s a good little actor. I think in my opinion who impressed me the most was Ollie Barbieri. Because he’s not JJ, he’s not socially awkward, well perhaps slightly, but what to be able to comprehend that Asperger’s essentially. To play it convincingly you only saw JJ on camera. He constructed a f**king very recoginisable, instantly recognisable character. Lily Loveless I think is a stunning actress too. And that’s just to name three names.

You could name pretty much anybody from Skins though, it was such a good show.

They chose us wisely.

Last year was pretty busy for you, you were in a lot of films, what’s next?

A film comes out this year called TULIP FEVER, which is seventeenth century Amsterdam during the tulip bulb boom. I’m looking forwards to seeing what that does, primarily because I love history. It was a lot of fun delving into that. Then you have after that, yeah next jobs in February. I’m in a thing called MONEY MONSTER with Jodie Foster directing me. But hopefully in the time in between a short film which I did immediately after TULIP FEVER with Holliday Grainger, who we were love interests with before anyway. We then went onto this short film together it’s CGI’d up. This geezer called Kibwe Tavares and a producer called Dan Emmerson they are really exciting me man. F**king brilliant little film makers. It’s great to after all the experiences of last year be back in at grass roots level carrying the set around and mucking in that way.

So no break then?

I think that’s what Christmas was want it? So I better get stuck in. I’m getting agitated actually.

If you think that Jack should win the prestigious award and follow in the footsteps of James McAvoy, Tom Hardy and Eva Green then make sure you cast your vote here.

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Great news! Jack is set to attend the BAFTA Film Awards this Sunday, February 8th! Let’s hope he wins!

Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Keaton and Reese Witherspoon are among the stars attending this year’s EE British Academy Film Awards.

Nominees attending this weekend’s ceremony will include Amy Adams, Patricia Arquette, Steve Carell, Ralph Fiennes and Ethan Hawke.

The Theory of Everything duo Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne will be in the audience, alongside Edward Norton, Keira Knightley and Julianne Moore.

Rising Star nominees Jack O’Connell and Gugu Mbatha-Raw are also set to attend, as are Rosamund Pike, Mark Ruffalo, Rene Russo, JK Simmons and Imelda Staunton.

Meanwhile, David Beckham has been confirmed as one of the presenters of this year’s prizes.

He will be joined by Hayley Atwell, John Boyega, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, Natalie Dormer, Chris Evans, Alice Eve, Phoebe Fox, Martin Freeman and Cuba Gooding Jr.

Holliday Grainger, Olivia Grant, Sally Hawkins, Tom Hiddleston, Nimrat Kaur, George MacKay, Dougray Scott, Kristin Scott Thomas, Mark Strong and Julie Walters will also take to the stage.

The Grand Budapest Hotel leads the nominations this year, with Birdman and The Imitation Game also securing multiple nods.

It was recently confirmed that Mike Leigh will receive the BAFTA Fellowship during the ceremony.

The 2015 BAFTAs will take place on Sunday (February 8) at London’s Royal Opera House, with Stephen Fry hosting for the 10th time.

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Acting saved Jack O’Connell’s life – but from what, exactly, he’s not sure.

As a child, he was good enough at soccer to think a trial with his local team, Derby City, was a real option, but he also spent more time on the streets, scrapping than he ought to.

“I was juggling things,” he says. “I didn’t know I wasn’t going to be a footballer then. I didn’t know I wasn’t going to go into the army. I didn’t know I wasn’t going to be a criminal. All of these things, I was weighing them up as sort of routes out.”

His parents were hard-working strugglers, but O’Connell saw no appeal in following his father into the railways, with its 5am starts. Acting, though, was a way of showing off for the girls, and that certainly had its attractions.

Even so, it was chance that took him there.

Just as he was about to start secondary school the government decreed that all state-funded schools in Britain had to pick an area of specialisation; his Catholic secondary chose performing arts. “Had I gone to the community school near me, and been Protestant, there’s no chance any of this would have happened,” he says.

By “all this”, he means a career in television and film that has reached its highest point to date with the lead in Unbroken. He plays Louis Zamperini, the United States Olympian-turned airman who was shot down over the Pacific in 1943, spent 47 days afloat in a raft and the next two years in Japanese POW camps, where he was brutalised relentlessly by a guard known as the Bird.

O’Connell met Zamperini shortly before he died last July, aged 97. “Awe-inspiring,” he says of their two meetings. “I’m calling it one of the biggest honours in my life so far.”
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Jack O’Connell has confessed he finds he has to hide his Derby accent in Hollywood as people struggle to understand him.

The 24-year-old British actor – who is among the nominess for the EE Rising Star Award at this year’s Baftas – has worked with Angelina Jolie on drama Unbroken, and is about to star opposite George Clooney in a new movie.

Jack revealed: “The main issue is my accent, because when you’re out talking to people who don’t necessarily know Derby, you struggle to be intelligible. So I end up having to pronounce my s*** better out in different countries, and I get home and I slip back into it.”

He joked he may have to have elocution lessons for future roles, adding: “But not personally – sod that! It’s not that day and age is it? It’s 2015 – subtitles man!”

The former Skins star said as soon as he got home and got a pint of Derby real ale in his hands he felt back to his old self.

“It’s good, it’s good. Just to get half way down a pint of real ale, in pubs that I know and love with the people I know and love, it doesn’t take long for you to fall back into it.”

Jack admitted he was “itching” to get back to work on his next project.

He said: “I can only focus on one step ahead, and that’s a film called Money Monster. Jodie Foster’s directing and I’m very excited.

“I’ll be opposite George Clooney in that, Julia Roberts is in there as well, so I’ll be in good company.”

Jack has already picked up a few awards, including Breakthrough Performance for Unbroken at the 2015 National Board of Review Awards Gala in New York earlier this week.

But he feels very proud to be shortlisted for the EE Rising Star.

He said: “I’ve done a whole lot of this malarkey in foreign lands, so now I’m on home soil I feel quite sentimental about this one. It would certainly mean a lot if it came my way. It means a lot that I’ve been nominated.”

Also in the running for the Rising Star Award are Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who starred in last year’s period drama Belle as a mixed-race aristocrat, and Margot Robbie, who first found fame playing Donna Freedman in TV soap Neighbours and has gone on to appear in The Wolf Of Wall Street.

They join Miles Teller, who has recently appeared in Whiplash, and his Divergent co-star Shailene Woodley, who has also appeared in The Descendants, on the nominations list.

The nominees for the Rising Star Award – which recognises screen talents tipped for bright futures – were chosen by a panel which included actress Alice Eve, director Dexter Fletcher and casting director Nina Gold. It will now be put to a public vote with the winner announced at the Baftas on Sunday February 8.

The public can now vote at ee.co.uk/bafta.

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Jack O’Connell has vowed to try to help underprivileged actors break into the movie industry.

The Derby-born actor used to sleep rough in parks so he could attend auditions in London.

He told Newsbeat: “I had no drama school training. I came up through a workshop in Nottingham and then the funding got cut.

“The only money I ever had to pay out was for train fare.”

Jack O’Connell got his big break landing the role as James Cook in Channel 4 teen drama Skins.

“I’m a product of that workshop, reflecting on 10 years of professional work now.

“They could never guarantee their survival for more than six months at a time,” he added.

He’s not the first actor to comment on the cost of pursuing a career in acting.

Last year Dame Helen Mirren told us that she feared the cost of trying to break into the industry might put off young people from poorer backgrounds.

A year of tuition at a private acting school can cost thousands of pounds.

After leaving Skins, O’Connell went on to star in films including Starred Up, Harry Brown and 300: Rise of an Empire.

His most recent role has seen him catapulted into the Hollywood mainstream.

O’Connell was handpicked by Angelina Jolie to star in Unbroken which was her debut film as a director.
“I’ve worked for a long time through very strenuous periods to someday receive a level of recognition,” O’Connell told us.

The actor says that once he’s cemented his stance as one of the industry’s leading actors he hopes to use his influence to help others from a similar background as him.

“Hopefully things will go full circle one day. Once I steady my own ship a little I am certainly going to direct my attention into creating these sort of opportunities for people like myself.”

Things continue to look up for the the actor after he was named as one of the nominees for the Bafta Rising Star award.

Jack O’Connell will be up against Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Miles Teller, Margot Robbie and Shailene Woodley for the prize.

He said: “This one here is official. I am quite flattered to be nominated, it’s a very competitive category.”

Previous winners of the award include James McAvoy, Kristen Stewart and Tom Hardy.

“It’s the only category that’s voted for by the public so all the more reason if it comes my way but you can’t let these things define you,” said O’Connell.

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Former Skins actor Jack O’Connell is among five young actors nominated for this year’s EE Bafta Rising Star award.

The 24-year-old, from Derby, who plays the lead in Angelina Jolie’s war film Unbroken, is joined by Belle actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw on the shortlist.

Whiplash star Miles Teller, Shailene Woodley from The Fault in Our Stars and The Wolf of Wall Street’s Margot Robbie are also up for the prize.

The winner will be announced at the Bafta Film Awards on 8 February.

The award, which is decided by a public vote, is not just for newcomers and can go to actors who have already appeared in a number of films.

O’Connell, who was also seen in 2014 in prison drama Starred Up and Belfast-set thriller ’71, said he was “honoured to be considered… amongst such a talented field”.

Mbatha-Raw, whose fact-based role in Belle saw her play a Caribbean slave’s daughter raised as an aristocrat in 18th Century England, said she was “delighted… to be recognised for a growing body of work”.
Born in Australia, Robbie played Donna Freedman in Neighbours and had a lead role in the short-lived US series Pan Am.

She was subsequently cast as Leonardo DiCaprio’s wife in The Wolf of Wall Street, Martin Scorsese’s film about notorious New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort.

Teller plays an ambitious musician in Whiplash and will soon be seen as Reed Richards, aka Mr Fantastic, in superhero adventure Fantastic Four.

Woodley was previously seen as George Clooney’s daughter in The Descendants and starred last year in the dystopian fantasy Divergent, in which Teller also appeared.

British actor Will Poulter won last year’s Rising Star award, following in the footsteps of such previous recipients as James McAvoy, Tom Hardy and Shia LaBeouf.

Another previous honouree, Kidulthood star Adam Deacon, was arrested this week after failing to appear in court to answer a charge of harassment allegedly involving the actor and director Noel Clarke, an earlier recipient of the prize.

Actress Alice Eve, film critic James King and director Dexter Fletcher were among those who selected this year’s nominees.

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