5. Thomas Brodie-Sangster- Jojen Reed
Last time you probably saw him, he was imploring Liam Neeson to go get the shit kicked out of him by love. Yet the boy who probably sparked an international incident in
Love Actually (seriously, you really arent allowed to run through airport security) has become a man, and a very different man at that. Whilst Brodie-Sangsters most famous role required a certain wide-eyed wonderment thats oh-so-adorable in child actors, his most recent, a post-teenage turn on
Accused (where he played a young man reluctantly pressurised into killing a friend) has shown him to be somebody very capable of portraying a sense of burden. We really shouldnt have been surprised. Brodie-Sangster has had his fair share of dark scenes from an early age; in Peter Weirs
Master and Commander he underwent an arm amputation, and in his role as the conniving teenage Augustus Caesar in HBOs pioneering mega-production
Rome he showed himself fully capable of portraying a sense of omniscient melancholy. His knack of displaying the darkness that inhabits fresh-faced characters will certainly be something that comes in handy for his latest role as the often ashen Jojen Reed. Jojen is a greenseer who has the gift of prophecy, and has foreseen his own death- something that admittedly hasnt helped alleviate his gloomy mood. Whilst one could possibly argue that such a character is beyond even Brodie-Sangsters considerable abilities, time and time again he has proved himself capable of turning these potentially one-note individuals into interesting, conflicted characters. What matters now is that he can nail the gravitas of Jojen, an old soul made older by supernatural powers.