Reggie Absolom Club Kid is the pairing that turned a near-miss into a breakout. The 14-year-old British actor was in contention for the title role in HBO’s forthcoming Harry Potter series when casting director Lucy Bevan, who was overseeing that search, pointed him toward another project: Jordan Firstman’s comedy-drama Club Kid. Absolom ultimately landed the part of Arlo, the 10-year-old who upends the life of Firstman’s character, Peter.
That switch is the heart of the story Absolom tells during a conversation at Claridge’s Hotel in London, on a dry, sunny day during the BFI London Film Festival in October. The film, Firstman’s debut feature, opens in U.S. and U.K. theaters on Nov. 6.
From Potter auditions to a Cannes ovation
Absolom is candid about how the opportunity arrived. Bevan had seen him before, but he credits the Harry Potter process with putting him forward for Club Kid. Firstman, he explains, wanted a U.K. casting director who knew young actors for a significant child role, and Bevan fit that brief.
The result was a film that became one of the year’s most competitive acquisition targets, with A24 emerging as the winner. At Cannes, Club Kid’s premiere was among the festival’s most buoyant. Absolom appeared on stage with Firstman and co-star Cara Delevingne, and afterward the two adults hoisted him into the air as the audience applauded through misty eyes.
Absolom admits he felt jitters before the screening. He was excited to be there, then wondered whether people would respond. Watching the film, he heard laughter, and during the standing ovation he was fighting back tears.
A father-son story with a DJ dream
In Club Kid, Firstman plays Peter, a washed-up queer party promoter in New York whose life is thrown into chaos when Arlo arrives claiming to be his biological son. The film blends broad comedy with emotional warmth, and one memorable scene has Arlo taking a T-shirt reading “I Love Björk and Bareback” from his father’s wardrobe.
Critics have singled out Absolom’s maturity and authenticity as central to the movie’s charm. Arlo is a lost child whose dysfunctional upbringing makes his wide-eyed attachment to Peter all the more affecting, and the role depends on the chemistry between the two leads.
That chemistry began before cameras rolled. Firstman spent a birthday walking around a London park with Absolom, his mother and an ice cream cone. Absolom recalls the conversation flowing easily, without small talk or icebreakers, as if they had known each other for years. They bonded over music, and Firstman made a Spotify playlist for the young actors auditioning. Absolom took photos of songs he liked, reasoning that Arlo’s DJ aspirations demanded good taste. Two bands in particular stuck with him: Massive Attack and Cocteau Twins, the latter now his favorite.
His final audition was a Zoom call from his bathroom, which he describes as the best place in the house for self-tapes. Firstman, Bevan and producer Alex Coco were on the other end. When he got the job, he was genuinely speechless, staring at the screen before thinking he had just landed the biggest role of his life so far.
New York, drag queens and learning to speak up
The shoot sounds like a teenager’s dream: six weeks in New York with two days off each week, during which Absolom and his family hit the tourist landmarks, including the Flatiron Building, the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. Until then, his most sizable set had been the BBC and BritBox production The Other Bennet Sister, in which he plays a small role as the Gardiners’ son. His only other credit was a John Lewis Home Insurance ad.
Club Kid, though an indie, felt much larger. Absolom concedes there were more people on set, but says he felt as if he knew them all. Being around real-life drag queens, trans people and queer performers was vibrant, welcoming and fun. He remembers everyone being kind, and Firstman, despite directing, producing and remembering his own lines, making him feel at home.
Firstman also taught him that improvisation was allowed, that he could suggest changing a line or trying something a different way, and that talking to a director need not be intimidating. One of the film’s best scenes grew from that freedom: after Arlo comes out of a club for the first time, he and Peter are in the car heading back to the apartment, celebrating. There were no set lines. Firstman told Absolom to be amazed, to play it as the best day of his life, and the resulting exchange is tender.
The hardest part, Absolom says sheepishly, was having no other kids on set and no other British people. He did teach his driver some British insults, including “mug” and “melt.”
Balancing school, stardom and a changing voice
Absolom has so far managed to balance a celebrated actor’s schedule with being a kid. Film festivals usually fall on weekends, so he misses only a couple of days of school each week. He has two friend groups, and the ones outside school are more interested in his work. When the film opens in the U.K., they will be old enough to watch it. He will not: the film is rated 15 in Britain, so viewers must be 15 or older.
He is now in the company of British child stars such as Owen Cooper of Adolescence and Alfie Williams of 28 Years Later. But he is pragmatic about the next few years. “I’m at a trickier age,” he says, noting that a voice can change and that he would not want it to happen midway through a shoot. He expects a gray area for a year or two.
After that, he has dreams. He would love to work with Christopher Nolan, whose Interstellar blew his mind earlier this year,
