Asa Butterfield Does the Math for 'A Brilliant Young Mind'

That's Taiwan and we decided to come up with something called The Man Game when we're in Taiwan.

Joining me on the couch.

Asa Butterfield.

Hello.

Hey.

Nice to have you drop by.

It's good to be here.

It's good to be back.

It's been a little while since uh you know, that other little movie you did.

Since last time.

Yeah.

Since the last time Enders Game.

Your new movie you play a character who's pretty complicated and and wicked smart.

Tell me about him a little bit.

Um, well, my characters is Nathan, he's uh, he's on the autistic spectrum.

He has a lot of difficulties with social interaction and various different things which have uh, made his life growing up quite difficult, especially after the loss of his dad, when he was little.

Which really meant that he struggles connecting with a lot of emotions and so this film really helps him well, it follows his story of finding out about himself through through maths.

You are the clifffest young scientists in this country.

We will be training with four other national teams.

Nice to meet you.

The beauty is truth, and truth is beauty.

Well then surely mathematics is the most beautiful thing of all.

A one followed by a one to the zero.

Good work, everyone.

He competes at the IMO which is the Olympics for young mathematicians.

Really?

Playing this character because he is on the autism spectrum.

Did that change how you view that community, or or do you think it's going to resonate with people from that community more?

Um, well, it was something prior to doing this film, there was something I didn't know that much about, that's one of the reasons I wanted to do it because for me it was going to be an educational experience and so I met with a load of people who were on the spectrum.

Um, this one boy in particular, Daniel, who my character in the film is inspired by.

Um, and so I was speaking with them and just learning about the things that they grew up with was really interesting and having all this information at my hands was really useful.

And uh, yeah, I think you're right.

There aren't enough films made about this sort of thing and I think this will draw a lot of exposure to it and people will understand it more because uh, we try to give it a as realistic interpretation as possible.

Yeah.

Are you good at math?

I like how you say maths.

You're so British.

Maths, Maths.

I know, we say Math.

Oh, we're so terrible.

I'm all right at it.

I'm all right at it.

What's six times seven?

Six times seven is 42.

Nicely done.

Yeah, that was on the spot.

Yes, you are.

Yeah.

But um, yeah, we had to

Now I know what six times seven is.

There we go.

Maths, teacher Asa.

Yep.

But uh, yeah, we were taught a lot just on the set because the level at which these people are competing at is so intense.

Like, were you doing math problems on the set?

They try They tried to get us to do them.

Okay.

But pretty much no one of the cast can even attempt to answer these questions so we just played it like if we look like we know what we're doing.

Just it just like and then that's all right.

Be really intense while you're doing it.

Yeah.

And just have just stick your tongue out and all of that really concentrating and that.

Yeah.

Do you have a math face?

Yeah.

Do you have a math face?

I can only do it when I'm doing math.

Really?

Yeah.

Okay, well, let's give you another one.

Six plus seven this time.

Six plus seven.

That's a tricky one.

Yeah, I know.

That's thirty.

Yeah.

That's a tricky one.

Called me off guard.

I was thinking of something hard.

I know, you thought you were just gonna come in here and chat and talk about your movie.

No, we're gonna we're gonna quiz you on math in here.

Yeah.

And did you get to travel for this movie as well?

You got to This is a test.

We did.

Yeah, we went to

How was that?

We went to Taiwan.

Which is mad.

I'd never been to that part of the world before.

So uh, A lot of us was quite a young cast.

There are a group of young men who are the students in the team.

And uh, we all gone so well at that point.

And we decided to come up with something called The Man Game.

When we're in Taiwan.

Okay.

Which I mean, Taiwan is uh, is a amazingly, it's a beautiful country.

But um, the food, it was harder to keep down.

I'm going to put it like that.

Okay, okay.

That's a polite way of saying.

They have a lot of interesting delicacies.

And we decided it would be fun to have a bit of competition to see who could eat the most of these uh, these delicacies.

And and what kinds of delicacies uh, were you trying?

Um, well, there are the some We have the wasabi, the spoonful of wasabi which was where we started off.

It was difficult but that's where you started off.

That was level one.

That was level one.

And then uh, we went up to a they have chicken's hearts there which.

Oh, yeah.

Uncooked, you have a little skewer.

Oh, okay.

I only get my chicken hearts cooked.

We have to cook them ourselves on a barbecue in front of us.

Thank you.

Yeah.

But they were they were all right.

They were quite coppery.

They're chewy is what I've noticed.

They're chewy.

Very chewy.

And they taste a bit like I imagine if you uh, ate a quarter.

That's a good Yeah.

Sure.

Like a quarter that's like been melted a little bit or charred, right?

Yeah.

So it wasn't it wasn't that nice.

Um, they have something called stinky tofu.

I don't know, They don't have it anywhere else.

It's uh,

Yes, the foods of my people.

I I apologize.

It's all right.

It was um, I couldn't eat it.

Okay.

Is that So that's where you gave up.

That's where you do it.

Okay.

That's where I drew the line.

That's where I drew the line.

You could smell it from miles away.

You think blue cheese smells bad.

This is So much worse.

Yeah, it's a whole different level.

I mean, that's like survivor style.

But I mean, I gotta say, I gotta So you did but you did do the wasabi, you did do the chicken The chicken's, the chicken's heart.

Um, the duck's tongue was another one, which is uh, which is interesting.

Okay.

And I mean it it varied.

We had some non-eating challenges.

And some other challenges which I probably shouldn't talk about for the sake of my cast members.

Okay.

You don't want to put anybody on blast or anything.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Well, it sounds like you have a pretty adventurous.

We actually have some chicken feet like just sitting down there.

Oh, lovely.

I'll get my ketchup.

Next to Yeah, exactly.

Just douse that thing.

Um, I saw somewhere that you love to play rugby or you did anyway.

Do you still get to play it or is that become just like a huge liability for you?

Um, rugby, it's it's probably my favorite sport to watch.

Um, I haven't played in a few years just because in the industry I'm in, they don't really like you playing those sort of sports.

Okay.

Yeah.

Um, I actually got tickets to the World Cup Rugby World Cup this year.

Nice.

But I can't go because I'm in America.

Oh, bummer.

I was gonna say they don't even let you go to the games now.

It's not just you're not allowed to play, you can't even go, you can't be a fan to them.

What do you get to do?

Like, what what sports are sanctioned for you?

You can't.

Um, most things apart from those where you're sort of diving head first into other people and so I play football, or soccer, as I should probably call it here.

Is that your American accent?

That was my American accent.

It just came through.

Soccer.

It's pretty good.

It's pretty good.

Can you say other things in American?

I could just uh, Just pasta.

I go into an American accent.

We could finish the interview like this if we wanted.

That is I love it.

No, I like your British accent.

I like my British accent.

Yeah.

Oh, you like Yeah, you like it better too.

Let's be honest.

If you've been in this business for a while, what's it like growing up in front of the camera?

Yeah, I think it's uh, you definitely grow up faster when you're in when you're an actor just because of the things you've got to do and the people you talk to and you learn a lot.

You're in that industry.

You're working with adults.

You're working with professionals.

So you have to be professional.

Yeah.

So I think there's definitely a lot of maturing.

Right.

That goes into especially when you're about 14 or 15.

And you're surrounded by all of these amazing people who are so good at what they do and you're like, hey, I want to I want to prove myself.

So

You gotta step up the game.

Step up the game, exactly.

Yeah.

Asa, thank you so much.

It's a pleasure.

Thank you.