Former York College Acting student Ollie Briscombe has admitted to feeling like he’d won a competition on the back of “a cereal box” after finding himself filming a scene with multi-Oscar nominated legend Ralph Fiennes in his first major film role.
Ollie, 20, is currently starring as Lofty in The Choral – a historical drama movie set in Yorkshire during World War I and written by Alan Bennett.
During a return to his old college, where he spoke to current students before he starts filming his next major movie role on Monday, Ollie also shared how he found out that he had landed the part of Lofty while crouched in a flower bed.
He revealed, too, that he has watched the movie around 10 times now, including as a paying customer at local multiplex cinemas such as Cineworld at the Vangarde Shopping Park.
Describing the “surreal” moment when he shared the screen with an actor shortlisted for Academy Awards in recognition of his roles in Conclave, The English Patient and Schindler’s List and who also played Voldemort in the Harry Potter films,
Ollie said:
Lofty is a telegram boy and I relay some big news to Ralph’s character, which was my big, big scene in the film.
It was a bit daunting because all eyes were on me and I’m standing in front of the guy in Schindler’s List. It was a real ‘What is Happening’ moment!
But I learnt a lot off him in terms of how he approaches stuff, because he’s very professional. At first, I was thinking, ‘What cereal box did I win this from’ and, being on set, I felt like Charlie with the golden ticket that gets him into the chocolate factory.
“But the role models I had – young and old – like (York-born) Mark Addy and Alun Armstrong – really guided me all the way and, pretty quickly, you have to say, ‘No, I’m here for a reason and I’ve been picked to do it’.
In fact, Ollie was selected from a field of more than 400 hopefuls in what was his first audition for a professional film or TV job.
Having been pestered into putting together his initial submission just an hour before the deadline by his sister, he was then asked to produce a self-tape, before things took a “surreal” turn.
Ollie said:
All of a sudden, I found myself in an audition room in London with (director) Nicholas Hytner, which was just surreal.
Then, I was back for the chemistry reads with the other actors and, next, I got a call from London.
I was thinking, ‘Oh no, I’m just going to be told sorry, you’ve not got it’. My teeth were also aching because I’d just had braces fitted, so I just thought it would add to the pain.
On top of that, there was a load of construction work going on where I answered the phone, with a cement rolling vehicle and people drilling. I decided to run up the street but the cement roller was reversing with me, so I ended up just jumping in somebody’s garden and crouching in the flower bed.
I was then told I’d been offered the role and, after I hung up, I was left there, thinking, ‘What’s just happened!’ I didn’t trample any flowers though!
Ollie was subsequently on set for seven weeks from the end of May 2024 to the middle of July, working up to 15 hours a day.
On playing Lofty, he added:
His innocence was what charmed me the most. The world he was stepping into was too big for him and it’s so touching to have played somebody like that.
