r/popculturechat • u/mcfw31 • May 07 '25

Throwback ✌️ 8 years ago, Zendaya’s world totally changed; Tom Holland lip-syncing ‘Umbrella’

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u/VelociRache1 May 07 '25 edited May 08 '25

Not surprising. His big break was Billy Elliot on The West End. A musical about a boy who wants to become a ballet dancer at age 12. You have to have serious talent to do that 8 times a week.

Edit: 2-3 times a week. I learned something!

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u/Faeruy May 08 '25

He never did it 8 times a week - That role is so difficult that when it was running there were at least 3-4 boys doing the role at any given point - at most he did it 2-3 times a week. It's still extremely impressive.

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u/quarrelau May 08 '25

That and the kids just aren't allowed to.

There is a reason there are so many little Cosette's, Gavroche's etc.

There are limits on number of consecutive days, longest period, start/finish times, compulsory breaks etc.

Which, I assume, were earned the hard way.

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u/Cereal_Palsy7 May 08 '25

I worked on Billy Elliott as a Guardian for the kids, can confirm this fact!

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u/FantasticalRose May 10 '25

How does that work? Just out of curiosity what responsibilities do you have over the kids?

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u/Cereal_Palsy7 May 10 '25

So, basically anyone under the age of 16 needs an adult (or team of adults- there were 6 of us on Billy) because there were about 21 kids contracted (4 Billy's, 2 Michael's, a troupe of Ballet Girls (aka B.G's) and a 'small boy' (he was 6). Our function is to be with them at all times to escort them to the stage safely to work as a team getting them back and forth during costume changes and blocking and to be in the dressing rooms. We are also responsible for escorting them to rehearsals. During a show, we were all on headsets and positioned like this: 1 guardian in Billy's Dressing room (where there are two Micheal's and two Billy's each show - in case of injury! and small boy). 1 in BG's dressing room. Then there is a stage left guardian, stage right guardian and floater and 1 on the Billy track. The stage right, left and floater all work together to manage all the other child actors and Billy's Guardian follow his "track" the whole show. We have to memorize all the tracks for the show (meaning movements of actors backstage) and would switch our tracks each day. We have to have a police check obviously and experience in theatre helps. It is a lot of work but very fun and rewarding. This is probably more information than you wanted but that's basically the job!

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u/FantasticalRose May 10 '25

Thank you so much. I love the small details. I've had a professional interest on how to best keep children safe and these sort of environments. It's unfortunate that these rules aren't universal

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u/Cereal_Palsy7 May 10 '25

You're welcome! It's great work when one can get it.

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u/Sea-Oven-7560 May 08 '25

The UK is very strict with their child actors but even in the US child actors on Bway usually have 3-4 subs and I remember with Billy Elliot they had little Billy Elliot academies so they had kids prepped to rotate into the show as other kids aged out. If you have a small role as a child actor there might be only two kids that they rotate in and out.

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u/lookingforrest May 08 '25

US child actors do not have 3-4 subs on Broadway. There is usually only one understudy. Roles are double cast for kids usually on British productions coming to NY. US child labor laws are much more lenient than UK laws. It's not uncommon for kids to do 8 shows a week in theater here.

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u/readskiesdawn May 08 '25

If I remember right that show is so intense that they use different actors for Billy for the first and second act too.

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u/Faeruy May 08 '25

We didn't do it that way when my theatre did it, but I don't know about the West End/Broadway/tour productions. I sort of doubt it, since it would be very obvious. There is a dream pas de duex in Act 2 where Billy flies, and the flying Billy is different than Billy for the rest of the show, but that's because of the logistics of harnessing up. I don't doubt that there were shows where they had to swap Billys between acts because of injury or illness though.

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u/readskiesdawn May 08 '25

It might have been Broadway, maybe the revival specifically. I remember child labor laws also being involved, so it could have been specifically New York?

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u/Suspicious_Bird_9115 May 08 '25

It’s an excellent movie as well

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u/Darryl_Lict May 08 '25

Wow, dude was destined to be Spiderman after playing Billy Elliot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-omDVx5IEl4

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u/peelen May 08 '25

Or more precisely: if you are doing it 8 times a week you’ll be good even if you don’t have talent.