What’s the movie all about?

The movie starts off with a big dilemma because Zeus has lost his powerful lightning bolt and they are all pointing fingers at Percy Jackson. They think he stole it because he is the only offspring of one of the big three gods: Poseidon. But Percy himself has no idea who he is and knows nothing about his background. He just thinks his father was some guy who left him and his mother. Then suddenly he’s thrown into this dangerous situation and has to save the world and his mum.

How did you get the part of Percy?

When I was approached about the film and heard that Chris Columbus was directing, I said:  ‘Man, I have to be a part of this.’  Chris was my hero growing up. The Harry Potter films just blew me away and I loved his other films. I didn’t really know anything about the books, but I read the first Percy Jackson book immediately and liked it a lot. 

Does it feel like a big responsibility, playing such a popular character? 

It does not feel like pressure. I didn’t realise what I had got myself into when I started out. But I began training a couple months before filming began and it started to become real to me. I was working out in LA with Brandon T Jackson (who plays Grover) and Jake Abel (who plays Luke) and we became immersed in the project.  The scale of the film and what it meant never really hit me until I got on set and we started filming. I saw these fantastic sets and thought:  ‘Who did I fool to get to this point, man?’ I just had to step up and try to do my part to make it good.

What’s Percy like?

He is the leader of the group. He’s the kind of guy who feels he has to be the strong one in the family. He has a lot of pent up anger about his father abandoning him and his mother. He is also angry that his mom, whom he loves, is married to a horrible man named Gabe. Percy is just a guy trying to find his place in the world. Then he is thrown into an extraordinary situation, where he has to figure everything out very quickly. Percy is still a teenager, even though he’s a demigod. That is why this movie is awesome and why it’s so relatable. He is like any
other guy you’d see on the street; he’s just a kid who’s in an extraordinary situation and has to try to survive.

So do you think that teenagers will be able to identify with him?

Yes, a lot of people will be able to relate to Percy. Kids will know what he’s going through. The story proves that when someone is thrown into a difficult situation, they can rise to the challenge. It really shows the potential that people have inside them.

Can you personally relate to Percy?

In some ways I can. But he is trying to get his father’s attention. In that way, I can’t relate to him at all. I have to be honest with you; my parents have always been there for me and I’ve always had their attention. But the best thing about playing a character is that you don’t need to relate to every part of them. You just need to find a way to understand them, get into that emotion and feeling of who they are. 

What kind of teenager would you say you are? Are you an adventurer like Percy?  

I’m boring. I’m a boring person and not at all like most teenagers. My best friend Dean Collins, who is also an actor, and I are both film geeks. We just live in the cinema. We do nothing but study film and music.

Did you always want to be an actor?

Acting has always been a part of my life and I can’t imagine myself doing anything else. I have a medical family background and they all wanted someone to hand their business over to, but I just said: ‘Sorry I want to be an actor. I want to be a director.’ Making films is my passion.

Are you prepared for the changes that might happen to you once this movie comes out? You could become a huge star!

To be honest with you, it is interesting. Brandon T Jackson has become a close friend and he has been harassing me saying: ‘You don’t even know man. You’re not going to be able to walk down the street after this movie. People are just going to be screaming: “Percy Jackson” all the time. And I’ll be known as Grover everywhere. It’s going to be crazy.’  But I can’t imagine people knowing who I am from any movie. So if that does happen I will be very surprised.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is at cinemas across the UK and Ireland now.

Check out the trailer.