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FAMOUS former child actor Freddie Highmore – now all grown up and starring in a newly-released Spanish heist epic – left heads spinning when he appeared on the cult spoof chat show El Hormiguero due to his impeccable language skills.
Born Alfred Thomas Highmore in Camden Town, London, the 29-year-old who played Charlie to Johnny Depp's Willie Wonka in the Roald Dahl classic screen adaptation is completely fluent in Spanish, to the point where host Pablo Motos interviewed him 'unplugged'.
Normally, the programme, whose name translates as 'The Ant's Nest', has interpreters and voiceovers in place, as its celebrity guests are often international stars – to date, including Kylie Minogue and Suffolk-born, self-confessed Real Madrid fan Ed Sheeran – but they got the evening off when the British actor, producer, director and scriptwriter appeared in the studio.
It turns out this is because Freddie managed to find time to study a degree in Spanish and Arabic at Cambridge, despite having been acting professionally since he was seven.
Starting out in Women Talking Dirty in 1999, then going on to play key rôles in Two Brothers, Finding Neverland, and Five Children and It, all in 2004, aged just 12, the following year Freddie went global for playing the lead child part in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Since then, Freddie starred in at least one film or series a year – Arthur and the Minimoys and A Good Year in 2006, August Rush (2007), The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008), Toast (2010), The Art of Getting By (2011), and as Norman Bates in the 2013-2017 series Bates Motel – and also in the film adaptation of the first novel in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, published in the UK as Northern Lights but in the USA and on screen as The Golden Compass.
From 2017 onwards, Freddie has been a regular on Spanish TV in The Good Doctor, produced in Spain by Mediaset.
When Pablo Motos commented on Freddie's flawless Spanish, the actor explained: “I studied in Madrid for my third year at university – I lived in the Fuencarral district, near the Plaza de Olavide, and did work experience in a law firm.
“I really liked the culture, food, music, literature and cinema in Madrid, and although I'm a Londoner first and foremost, I feel half-madrileño.”
UK language degrees often involve a four-year route rather than the standard three, with all or part of the third or penultimate year spent studying or working in a different country.
“I used to hang out in Madrid with a group of friends, or just strolling round the city myself, going to the football,” Freddie told Pablo.
“I don't have a favourite Madrid team, although I'm definitely not a Barça fan because my UK team is Arsenal and Barça beat us in the Champions League in 2006.”
Freddie's latest film, directed by Jaume Balagueró, hits cinema screens in Spain this weekend – its title, Way Down, is the same in Spanish as in English, and Freddie was reportedly bemused and amused to hear himself dubbed into the Spanish language.
The plot is such an obvious concept you wonder why it hasn't been done before.
“It's basically about robbing the Bank of Spain, it's really simple. It takes place during the South Africa World Cup in 2010, because it's the perfect public distraction for us to carry out the heist of the century,” Freddie explained on the show.
Pablo Motos quizzed Freddie about how he fleshed out his character on The Good Doctor, the medic Shaun Murphy.
“[Dr Murphy] can never represent everyone with autism,” admits Freddie.
“This is his own journey, and we're trying to construct his character as well as we possibly can.
“We're filming season five at the moment – I've literally flown over from Vancouver [Canada] just to be here [on El Hormiguero] and I'm due to fly back afterwards to finish filming.”
Pablo Motos is a self-confessed huge fan of The Good Doctor, and begged Highmore to visit him in his dressing room in costume before he went on stage so he could take a selfie for his personal Instagram site.
“As we'd got Freddie Highmore here, I had to take advantage and get myself checked out,” Pablo captioned a short video which shows a white-coated Freddie holding a stethoscope to his chest.
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