Conner Chapman

Arbor takes scrap collecting seriously in The Selfish Giant (2013), and Conner Chapman makes his eagerness to earn money almost exhausting. He plays the boy with little concern for making him agreeable. We rate the performance highly because Arbor's poor judgement never makes his wants hard to understand. Chapman lets us feel the strain of his company without encouraging us to dismiss him. That is a difficult thing to sustain in a leading role, particularly one that asks for sympathy.

Director Clio Barnard found Chapman through open school casting. The subsequent credits are mostly smaller parts, rather than a succession of leads. They include the short Coach (2015), television appearances in WPC 56 (2014) and a minor part in Tulip Fever (2017). He also played Josh Crowther across 24 episodes of Emmerdale (2017). Those credits offer less to judge than the Barnard film, so our enthusiasm rests chiefly on Arbor.

Chapman's strong physical presence and Bradford speech suit Barnard's film, but calling him natural only gets us so far. Arbor can be wearing, and the performance does not soften that simply because his circumstances are hard. The important choice is to take his plans for earning money as seriously as he does, even when they are badly judged. Shaun Thomas gives Swifty a gentler presence, so their scenes need not be pitched at Arbor's level of intensity throughout. Chapman benefits from having someone beside him who need not compete.

We were moved by the boys' pleasure in each other's company during the scrap collecting, when earning money might so easily have crowded out everything else. Chapman allows that pleasure to coexist with everything difficult about Arbor; the friendship does not require a different, tidier child. The plotting sometimes feels familiar, which makes the convincing affection between the two actors especially valuable. See The Selfish Giant for the friendship, and allow Chapman to test your patience along the way.