REAL STEEL director Shawn Levy went through 400 child actors before finding 12-year-old Dakota Goyo to star as Hugh Jackman's son. According to Levy, child actors lose authenticity when they are over-drilled on their lines.
Shawn Levy transitioned from directing children on television to helming feature film projects starring young talent such as Frankie Muniz and Amanda Bynes in Big Fat Liar (2002), Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) to the two Night of the Museum movies. For his latest hit, finding Hugh Jackman's son in REAL STEEL took months, and he refused to make the film until that right actor was found, he told CineMovie. His goal was to maintain a realistic feel to the futuristic robot boxing movie to avoid making just a spectacle movie, and for that he needed a young actor audiences can root for. Hugh Jackman shared the same concern and worried about finding the right kid to play opposite his unlikeable character.
When casting a child for a movie, Levy says he looks for "authenticity," a word he credits to REAL STEEL executive producer Steven Spielberg. The problem with most young actors is their inability to appear natural without seeming like their acting.
"That's what happens with kids. They drill, drill, drill." And then they lose all naturalism. Most kids with acting chops, they are like... they're kid acting has ruined it. You need a kid that's good enough to carry a movie, yet if you feel they're acting -- you're going to hate them."
Suffice it to say, Levy probably avoided actors from the Disney and Nickelodeon Channel. For Levy, "kids that got it right" were in The Champ (Ricky Schroeder), Kramer vs Kramer, and E.T. He says the key to those actors was "an open authenticity."
"It's like you can root for them and then they can sneak up and just kind of really shatter you. I just saw that in Dakota when he was listening."
When Dakota Goyo, then 10-years old, came in to audition for the role of Max Kenton, it took over thirty auditions to finally get the right performance out of Dakota. At first the words were not coming out right, but he saw something in the actor who already has a long list of credits including playing a young Thor in Marvel's Thor.
"It was when he wasn't talking. Listening to Hugh defiant or kind. There was an authenticity to the kid that was... he felt like a real kid you would root for."
Levy, therefore, challenged the young actor. In the scene for the audition, Dakota tells his absentee father how he "screwed" him out of a trip to Italy with his aunt. Levy said the first few auditions were "no good" so he changed the lines to get something different out of Dakota. That is the trick to finding the right actor - "changing the words,"said the director.
Dakota got the job and performed as a professional during the entire production especially when it called for the Canadian-born actor to be covered in mud in the middle of a cold night. Dakota's character slid down a mud-filled ramp drenched in muddy, wet clothes. In between takes, according to Levy, the tween was shivering as he waited to hear "action." Once the cameras rolled, Dakota stopped shivering and continued through the scene three times. "He was amazing," said Levy.
Up next for Dakota Goyo is voicing Jamie in the animated tale Rise of the Guardians starring once again with Hugh Jackman (voice), Chris Pine, and Jude Law.
REAL STEEL is now playing in movie theatres.
