On the 30th March, earlier this year, Film Education held preview screenings of ‘Tomorrow When The War Began’ for schools in selected cinemas across the UK to coincide with the release of their resource on the film.

Rachel Hurd-Wood attended a special screening in central London, giving the schools that attended a chance to ask her about the film and her career during a Q&A session.

Film students from St Charles Sixth Form College were also able to attend a Salon style discussion group after the screening where they learnt more about the filmmaking process and Rachel’s advice for aspiring actors

Tomorrow When the War Began follows the journey of eight high school friends in a coastal country town whose lives are suddenly and violently upended by an invasion that no one saw coming. Cut off from their families and their friends, these eight extraordinary teenagers must learn to escape, survive and fight back against hostile military forces.

You can listen to Rachel’s question and answer session here. The transcript is below for those who wish to read it instead.

Question 1

What advice would you give to aspiring young actors and actresses?

Rachel Hurd-Wood: You have to work really, really hard and be able to take rejection; I suppose you do need to develop quite a tough thick skin because you’re going to face a lot of rejection. Some people are really lucky and some people have to work so hard for so many years. My flat mate has just produced a short film and we got to go to the BAFTAs with it because he was nominated. We saw Rachel Hurd-Wood afterwards and he told us that he didn’t win his first BAFTA until he was 50 or 49 so there is so much time for everything so I suppose just to not take it to heart if you’re 12 years old and you are not an A-Lister because it does take a lot of time.

Question 2

How do you decide which the roles that you would like to audition for?

Rachel Hurd-Wood: Well, you audition for things that you think you can see yourself in or see yourself doing really well. It is such a competitive industry especially at the age I am now. When I was younger they made exceptions – if you messed up in an audition is isn’t such a big deal but now you are expected to be on your game at all times so there is a lot of pressure to do all that but in terms of picking roles its just things that I think have integrity, which I like the story, I feel I could do really well and showcase certain talents.

Question 3

When you are working on a film based on book how do you find the adaptation process?

Rachel Hurd-Wood: For me it is useful to read whatever came beforehand, if something is an adaptation, because it gives you more of a view on the characters or the story, some insight. However at the end of the day you have to listen what the director says and go by what is in the script rather than take it in a different path because you have to do what you are there to do.

Question 4

What do you think the moral of the film is?

Rachel Hurd-Wood: There wouldn’t necessarily be a moral – it’s examining how these young people are dealing with the circumstances in which they found themselves and how they related to one another and how they came to decide what the moral thing would be to do to. You see they have sort of a conflict with all that and there is different viewpoints on it, different approaches – you’ve got Homer whose wants to go and fight them and you’ve got Robin saying is it right to kill people so I think its up to the audience to think ‘What would I do?’

Question 5

Do you think the issues with the UK Film Council’s funding will mean that more actors look for work overseas where there might be more funding?

Rachel Hurd-Wood: Potentially, I think after the cuts there are going to be a lot less low budget British films being made so people are going to have to look elsewhere for work, like the States or Australia. Obviously, if you’re a struggling actor whether you can afford to just pack up and leave to go somewhere like the Australia or the States is another question so I guess only time will tell what’s going to happen. I’m not an economist and I couldn’t predict this sort of thing but potentially yes because there are going to be less opportunities to for low budget work.

I have also added a photograph from the event to our gallery, and a new photoshoot picture – thanks to Laura for the tip.

EDIT:

Thanks to AlexX, Rachel is in the Emporio Armani Summer clip at the 10 second mark. . View the clip here.

Also we are working on a brand new layout for the site.