Zen McGrath is the middle son of cognitive neuroscientist Heidi Chapman and cardiac anaesthetist Craig McGrath. Zen has just turned 13 – the big day was July 30.
He and his family have just returned to their Brunswick home after several years living in the United Kingdom where Zen landed his first movie role. He follows in the footsteps of older brother Gulliver, now 16, who had appeared in such films as Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows and Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln by the same age.
What’s the buzz?
Zen had never acted before when he auditioned for the role of Ivan in
Aloft, a meditative drama about a falconer by Academy Award-nominated Peruvian director Claudia Llosa. Zen and younger brother Winta both had roles in the film and attracted glowing praise from Associated Press’s LA reviewer Lindsey Bahr, who noted “both child actors expertly convey the bone-deep sadness necessary for this story. Zen, in particular, nails the innocent deviance that Hunter McCracken exhibited in Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life”.
The big break …
When Zen was 11 he won a role in
Dig, a 10-part US television mini-series by the two writers respectively responsible for the hit series Homeland and Heroes. He was offered the part of Josh – a 13-year-old who had lived all his life in a sect compound, oblivious to his importance to the future – after the director of the pilot saw his tape.
Where to now?
Zen and Winta will again play siblings in
Blue Dog, but as they get older their parents are keen that their acting fits in with their schooling rather than the other way around.
The best part about success?
“On
Aloft I got to learn falconry and I had my own bird, a hawk called Josie. On Dig I got to travel to Tel Aviv in Israel and then, when the war broke out in Gaza, to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Split in Croatia, pretty good for a kid my age.”
If I could do it all again …
“Are you asking me what I could have changed or what I should have changed? Oh, you mean like if I come back … I’m not very old so I really don’t know.”
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SARAH HARRIS
» … Dig is available for streaming at www.stan.com.au
» … Blue Dog is due for release in 2016
