Lox Pratt, 14, Unpacks His Starring Role in ‘Lord of the Flies’ — and Playing Draco Malfoy in HBO’s ‘Harry Potter’

At just 14 years old, Lox Pratt has landed two roles that would have fellow actors — of any age — considerably envious.

The young Brit is not only about to star as Jack in the BBC‘s buzzy Lord of the Flies adaptation, penned by Adolescence‘s Jack Thorne and directed by Marc Munden, but he’s also currently spending most days with Johnny Flynn as Lucius Malfoy, playing the character’s son, Draco, in HBO‘s highly anticipated Harry Potter series.

Sitting with the teen on Zoom, it’s obvious: He’s a dead ringer for J.K. Rowling’s Slytherin antagonist. Curly blond hair and sharp blue eyes — reminiscent of a young Tom Felton, from whom he’s been passed the baton as Harry Potter and the entire wizarding world enters a new era. The cast for the show is effectively a roundup of Britain’s brightest talent, including Paapa Essiedu (as Severus Snape), Nick Frost (Hagrid), and Janet McTeer (Professor McGonagall), alongside newcomers Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton, who are playing our main trio.

“I don’t know how I did that — in the space of two years,” says Pratt about his short but mighty resume. He’s talking to The Hollywood Reporter in what is his first interview ever, unpacking his time spent in Malaysia running wild with a spear and staging coups against his frenemies.

If you aren’t familiar with William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies is the story of schoolboys stranded on a tropical island following a deadly plane crash. In an attempt to remain civil, they organize themselves, led by Ralph (Winston Sawyers), and supported by the group’s intellectual, Piggy (David McKenna). But when Pratt’s Jack becomes more interested in hunting and vying for leadership, he soon begins to draw other boys away from the group and, hope soon descends into tragedy.

“When me and Marc started exploring the character, he said he really liked Malcolm McDowell from A Clockwork Orange,” says Pratt about his version of Jack, who leads episode two of the four-parter (each following a different boy). “So I looked at his swagger, and there’s a little bit of Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders [in him], the way he takes up a lot of physical space.”

It’s a role not unlike Malfoy, of course, which Pratt hopes isn’t a sign he’s already become typecast a mere year into his acting career: “But I like to think I’m in a good position. It’s better than being stuck the nice guy the entire time, isn’t it?”

Below, a wise-beyond-his-years Pratt talks about jetting to Malaysia and approaching Jack in Lord of the Flies, airing from Feb. 8. He discusses what the boys would do to unwind at the end of a day of filming, putting his screenplay — yes, a whole screenplay — to Thorne, and what’s ahead for Harry Potter fans: “I feel like I can’t compare it to Flies in any way.”

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How long have you wanted to be an actor, Lox?

I’ve always loved storytelling. That’s always been my passion. I think I’ve always known I wanted to do that. But when I got Lord of the Flies, I was like, “This is my way in.” And I just chucked myself into the role.

Talk to me about when you found out you’d got the role of Jack.

I was absolutely pumped, but also it felt like I’d gone through this really long casting process, and I’d had to readjust my horizons a little bit. I’d overcome the milestone of actually getting the role. We were in Malaysia, filming on a tropical island and I was like, “I’ve actually got to do this now!”

How much did you know about Lord of the Flies? We study it in school here in the U.K., of course. Had you read it?

I read it afterwards. I’d heard the rough story, but there wasn’t much I knew about it and I was really, really intrigued when I found out the premise. I read it loads of times and studied each character, the way they acted with each other, and [thought about] how I was going to play it.

Did you know straight away you wanted to play Jack? Did they audition all of you for every role?

Yeah, so I sent the self tape for Ralph to start with, and then after that first one, they recalled me for Jack. I think I went for Simon at one point as well. But I always wanted to be Jack. I just connected with the character and felt I could see bits of me in him — despite him being a really horrible character — and those bits I really connected with and [thought I] would have the most fun playing. I’ve always loved being a leader, because I’ve got three younger brothers. I love being in the wild, having fun and hunting and stuff.

Was it weirdly fun, getting to dive into all the horrible parts of Jack?

It was. I studied quite a lot. When me and Marc started exploring the character, he said he really liked Malcolm McDowell from A Clockwork Orange. So I looked at his swagger, and there’s a little bit of Tommy Shelby from Peaky Blinders [in him], the way he takes up a lot of physical space. So that was a big thing. It was really fun. But I think part of it [was] I could sort of take myself away from the character and wash him away at the end of the day when I was done playing him. And that allowed me to have a little bit of freedom [with] how I played him. I know everything I was doing was fine, because they’re all my mates and I knew them really well. Going home to the same place helped and getting in the pool at the end of the day [helped]. Like, I knew [Jack] wasn’t me.

How much did you speak with Jack Thorne? He’s big writer here, especially after the success of Adolescence. But did you get to talk to him a bit about what he wanted from Jack?

Yeah, I did. He was only out there for about a month before he went to do Adolescence. I [remember] I had quite a good, long chat to him about the way Jack was neglected, the way that he’s not a psychopath, the way he just doesn’t know how to show affection, the way he doesn’t feel love, which is really interesting. And the way he has these points where he’s shamed in front of the entire group, and he has to make himself vulnerable to these other children.

I think the way that a lot of Jack’s episode is shot is quite smooth, because he’s a smooth-talking character and he’s got a lot of swagger to him. He has this dance with a spear where he’s hunting and stuff. But Jack [Thorne] has some really interesting insights on it and he was very insistent that Jack wasn’t a horrible person. He was kind of misunderstood. That was one thing he made quite clear… I mean, I don’t think [William] Golding wanted people to feel sympathy for Jack and that’s what everyone says at [British high school exams] GCSE, but there’s so much complexity. When I first read the script for this, I was so chuffed there was more to play with.

I don’t want to spoil this for anyone that hasn’t read the book, so how would you tease the journey that Jack goes on across the series?

People often see it as a descent into savagery, and I think it is, but there’s a lot more going on. He has to accept a lot of his flaws. There’s this pile that keeps getting added to, [of] shame and different things. Like, the first episode where he gets caught off guard trying to stab a pig with Piggy, and he gets shamed in front of it. And he’s just met Piggy at this point, and [is] dissed in front of the entire group. So they’re obviously not on good terms, but he reaches out and answers, “Don’t worry, you lost your nerve.” That’s the first little flicker of the shame that’s adding to that pile. Eventually, that breaks in episode two where he loses his temper and gets shamed in front of the entire group. In my opinion, that’s one of the most important parts of Jack’s story. When I filmed that, I had to go to a bit of a sad place. I made sure the shame was totally hypothetical, just so I wasn’t in a horrendous [head] space for the rest of the day. But yeah, that was quite big.

After that, he’s just on his own and he completely ostracizes himself from the other group. I think being shamed by Ralph really hurt because he respects Ralph. Obviously, Piggy and him were never gonna be good friends. Then Simon also shames him. With Simon, he’s got such a complicated relationship that I won’t go into now, but yeah, that’s probably his arc. At the end, he almost takes himself out of his point of view and sees himself from the third person a little bit. This is just my opinion, and he just gets totally carried away.

It’s interesting that you talk about trying to protect your own head space. What did you guys do to relax at the end of the day?

I mean, at the end of the day, we were in Malaysia! We were all good mates. The sea was warm. We got in the sea. We just washed the day away. I’d wash the character away, and I would have really struggled without that — if the sea was absolutely Baltic, or we were somewhere like Iceland or something. It felt like a full stop at the end of the day.

Do you feel like you’ve made friends for life?

Definitely. I’m sure we’ll all be best men at all of our weddings and stuff.

Did you become particularly close with any of the other boys?

I’ve become really close with David, the guy who played Piggy, which is kind of ironic. And the guy who played Simon [Ike Talbut], which is also pretty ironic. So it’s nice to sit next to them at the premiere and go, “It’s all right, we’re mates. We’re all good.’”

Do you have any favorite memories from filming out in Malaysia?

Oh, I’ve got many, but I think one of them is probably the scene where Jack’s climbing up this massive rock and he falls and has to make himself vulnerable. That was quite tricky, because it was quite taxing — mentally, but also physically, because I had to climb up this enormous rock! And I’d love to say that I did it free solo but I didn’t. I had many ropes attached to me and things. But we had to get out on this crazy boat. It was like an hour-long boat ride. Then we got up to this mad rock and they’d set up this crate, this rig on it, and I had to get harnessed up. I think I was up there for like, two days. I was laughing about it with Mark Wolf, the cameraman [and cinematographer], yesterday at the premiere. We were just saying we were stuck up there for two days doing this scene! It’s probably going to be about two minutes in the actual show, but yes, that’s one of the most interesting days I did. I think it was also easy to act because I was genuinely quite scared, and it would have been embarrassing if I got stuck up there and there were all these people watching… I think that helped me quite a lot.

How was your first premiere?

Amazing. I’m really happy with [the show]. They’ve done it in such an insane way, and I think Marc’s given it this brilliant, realistic shoot — it’s everything I expected, but nothing I expected at the same time. Watching it hit me quite hard, because you feel like you’re one of the boys. He could have gone very Hollywood, [with] everything really smooth — some shots of a crazy monkey swinging in the trees and the theme tune, but I don’t think that would have worked. What he didn’t do is as impactful as what he did do. The slightly choppy, stumbly way that Piggy moves around, that just fitted really well with how he filmed the episode. I loved that. I was sitting there going, “This is brilliant.”

Have you met anyone along the way that have had you particularly starstruck?

I don’t know if anyone that came to the premiere made me starstruck. Obviously, seeing Jack Thorne again was pretty crazy, after all the Adolescence stuff kicked off. But I had a really nice, long chat with him and pitched a little screenplay I wrote to him, which was cool.

You’ve written a screenplay already?

Yeah. I’m always on the grind the whole time, always trying to figure out a new story to tell. So I’ve written [a screenplay]. It needs a bit of tweaking. I don’t know if it will happen, but it’s got legs.

So you’ve got screenwriting aspirations just as much as you have acting aspirations?

I’ve got everything. I want to write, I want to direct, I just want to be in the industry as much as I can and learn. That’s my main thing. I want to learn everything and I want to shadow people on Potter. I don’t know if I can make that happen…

You’re off to a very good start with Potter and Lord of the Flies.

I know. I don’t know how I did that — in the space of two years, I pulled off these two things. I was like, “Wow.” I mean, [I’m] blessed, but also, you need to put in the work and make them extraordinary.

I will ask about Potter, but before I do, who are some of your heroes in this industry? Who would you be excited to work with?

Really good question. I feel like Leonardo DiCaprio would be one. I’d be really excited to work with him. That’s probably a bit of an obvious choice. Maybe James Cameron at some point as well. And Chloé Zhao, because she’s just done Hamnet and I watched a really interesting interview — I think it was with you guys [THR‘s Roundtable], actually, with Chloé Zhao and James Cameron. I thought it was absolutely brilliant, the contrast between their two different ways of directing. I think James Cameron was just looking and her like, “What? Wow. That’s pretty out there.” But I love the way she directs and how she keeps everyone in the moment, and doesn’t really interfere unless she actually has to. I think that’s really inspiring and really different. It’s quite refreshing.

How has it been on the Harry Potter set, joining the Malfoy family and working with Johnny Flynn?

The set as a whole is absolutely brilliant. I feel like I can’t compare it to Flies in any way because it’s just so different. It’s literally apples and oranges [and] so different from running around Malaysia with your shirt off! But it’s great. The vibe on set is amazing. Johnny Flynn’s wonderful. He’s a really wonderful man. I think we work pretty well as a duo onscreen, or I like to think we do. But he’s a lovely guy and he’s got a lot of aura.

It must be a lot of fun playing characters like Ralph and Draco, but I’m sure you maybe want to play a nice character at some point as well…

Hopefully, yeah, fingers crossed. Maybe, I don’t know, I’m getting a little bit typecast! But I like to think I’m in a good position. It’s better than being stuck the nice guy the entire time, isn’t it?

Lord of the Flies will be on BBC iPlayer from Feb. 8, and BBC One will air the series weekly from that night.