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Manchester schoolgirl soaks up glory at Cannes Film Festival before heading home for exams

Raffey Cassidy is making her Cannes Film Festival debut - Getty Images Europe
Raffey Cassidy is making her Cannes Film Festival debut - Getty Images Europe

If Nicole Kidman has been called the Queen of Cannes this year, one needn’t look too far to find the princess: a 15-year-old schoolgirl from Manchester.

Raffey Cassidy, the young British actress, has made her Cannes Film Festival debut to rave reviews, after a meteoric rise to fame from the chorus of the school play to the red carpet.

Miss Cassidy, hailed as the rising star of this year’s festival, made her first visit to Cannes for the premiere of The Killing of a Sacred Deer, in a darkly comic turn as the on-screen daughter of Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell.

US actress Sunny Suljic, Australian actress Nicole Kidman and British actress Raffey Cassidy - Credit: ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP
She stars alongside Nicole Kidman Credit: ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP

She won the part after a weird and wonderful audition in which she convinced director Yorgos Lanthimos she could faint realistically between delivering fast-paced monologues, before being awarded one of the leading roles.

In an interview with the Telegraph, she modestly told how her acting career began by accident, when she was waiting outside her older brother’s audition at the age of seven before the casting team opened the door and said they needed a little girl.

After proving she could cough well enough to appear in the 2009 BBC drama about the Spanish flu in Manchester, she won the part and never looked back.

Cast members Sunny Suljic, Colin Farrell, Raffey Cassidy, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan, and producer Ed Guiney pose on the red carpet - Credit: ERIC GAILLARD/REUTERS
Cast members Sunny Suljic, Colin Farrell, Raffey Cassidy, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan, and producer Ed Guiney pose on the red carpet Credit: ERIC GAILLARD/REUTERS

Eight years later and she is a fully-fledged professional, taking part in a Cannes press conference and attending the premiere accompanied by her father Simon. After the screening, she celebrated with her A-list cast members - though, her agent said, strictly on the sparkling water.

On Tuesday, she flies home to normal life, going straight into school to report back to her friends before taking her GCSE mock exams in two weeks.

“It’s amazing,” she said of her Cannes debut. “I’m really excited”.

Raffey Cassidy - Credit: Stephane Cardinale /Getty
Credit: Stephane Cardinale /Getty

The film, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, tells the story of a father-of-two forced to make an appalling decision to atone for his own mistake.

Miss Cassidy plays Kim, his 14-year-old daughter and the key to some of the film’s darkest moments. In it, she performs in a flawless American accent, with deadbeat delivery and a lot of physical requirements including crawling on her elbows.

Telegraph reviewer Robbie Collin said of her performance: “For an unknown 15-year-old to stand out on camera between Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman is no small feat.

“To have done it in one of the best and most controversial films at Cannes this year is something else entirely.

“Raffey’s controlled and captivating work will make film fans – and casting agents – sit up and take note.”

Raffey Cassidy - Credit: REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
Credit: REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

The actress was due to see the finished film for the first time in the Palais de Festival on Monday night.

On working with Kidman and Farrell, she said: “It was a very warm set. Even though it’s a very dark film, behind the camera you wouldn’t know it because we were all having such a good time.”

She now aims to pursue a career in acting, fashion design or as a prosthetic make-up artist, cheerfully admitting that, like most people her age, she changes her mind about her path in life frequently.

In primary school plays, she said, she might have wanted the part of Mary in the nativity, but was more often than not in the background “holding up a letter or something”. But since her first acting job, where she said she “just happened to be there at the right moment”, she has gone on to appear on episodes television shows including Mr Selfridge and in films including 2015’s Wonderland.

Barry Keoghan, Raffey Cassidy, Nicole Kidman  - Credit: Rex Features
Credit: Rex Features

Her father Simon, who used to be an actor himself and accompanied his youngest daughter to Cannes, said he realised she had something special after seeing her on set for her first job.

“It was a really long day and she had to die slowly,” he said. “I watched her doing that for hours.

“I thought she just seemed to take to it and was so disciplined. The word professional sounds strange for a seven-year-old, but it was kind of there.”

Sitting next to her during an interview at the prestigious Majestic hotel in Cannes, he joked: “She seems to have done ok since then. We just don’t interfere.”

Nicole Kidman, who said her own children would not certainly be seeing the film, said of Raffey and fellow child actor Sunny Suljic: "I think they felt very protected. 

"They were up for anything. They were really engaged and excited."

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