Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time is an inspirational and visual feast for people of all ages but it is the nine-year-old Derric McCabe who steals the big screen adventure.
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After leading a world wide casting search for the young actor capable of playing Charles Wallace in her film adaptation of the iconic A Wrinkle in Time, director Ava Duvernay found McCabe in Burback, California, merely miles from the Disney studio itself.
“I went through five auditions, and I didn’t know who anyone was,” McCabe tells ComicBook.com. “I didn’t know who Oprah was, I didn’t know who Ava was, so I thought they were casting people. And Ava was in the room, and I’m like, oh this is a casting girl. So I just acted casual around her, and I didn’t know that was the director of the movie. So I was like, oh, this is someone casting.”
Wrinkle producer Jim Whitaker is among the soon-to-be-millions of people impressed by McCabe. “He’s a really, really bright kid, needless to say,” Whitaker said. “Aisha Coley, the casting director, had been leading a worldwide search to find somebody. And it was literally worldwide…We were having a problem finding someone who could embody both sides [of Charles Wallace]. One side being the sweet side, which is relatively easy for a young kid. But the second side, which was when Charles Wallace turns and becomes less nice, I’ll put it that way. And there’s an intelligence to that that is really hard to find, and the irony of it was, was that that person, he was only about 25 blocks away from the studio where he lived.”
Playing Charles Wallace’s mother in Wrinkle, Gugu Mbatha-Raw sings a similar tune as Whitaker. “He’s so bright,” the actress said. “He’s such a special energy. I remember meeting him for the first time. Actually he was quite shy…Then, of course, we went for lunch and he warmed up and had a couple of root beers and he was like bouncing off the walls and singing and lip syncing. He’s got so much energy.”
McCabe’s charisma both on and off the screen makes it hard to believe his age hasn’t even broken a double digit mark, yet. The kid shines on screen in a way which is so unbelievable it’s almost distracting in itself but certainly deserves every bit of praise and then some. After all, Disney’s current push with diversity in films will only be bolstered by McCabe’s ability, which should inspire children to pursue talents beyond anything people might believe in.
Growing up in a time where diversity is more prominent than in previous generations, McCabe sees no difference in the people he works with, as A Wrinkle in Time pools talented people from around the globe. “I think it’s just, they’re regular people, that I go to work with these people, and I don’t really think of it as a job. I think of it as playmates, let’s play pretend.”
Bringing A Wrinkle in Time to life was no simple feat for the cast members, either. Scenes called for sprinting, flying, and visual effects heavy moments which came with a strong-imagination-required element for actors. For example, in a scene which allowed McCabe’s Charles Wallace to fly alongside Storm Reid’s Meg and Levi Miller’s Calvin, he was hoisted up in a robotic arm. “Storm was in a harness, I was in a robotic arm, and Levi was in a robotic arm,” McCabe recalls. “And we did stunt training for it.” Stunt training… At nine-years-old!
A truly humble young boy, McCabe is quick to credit Duvernay for molding his performance. “She’d tell me when I was good that I’m the sweetest boy in the world,” McCabe said — and he does carry such a persona on screen, and it’s not the only one. “And then when I was bad, she’d tell me the darkest mind in the universe. So I’m like, how do I go from the sweetest boy in the world to the darkest mind in the universe? But once I did it, it actually came pretty easy to me.”
It all adds up to Hollywood’s next amazing child actor breaking out in theaters later this week. Mbatha-Raw may have summed it up best, teasing the experience moviegoers can expect to get from watching McCabe: “He’s very witty and open and free, and I learned so much from working with him.”
Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time hits theaters on March 9, 2018.
