Rising Star Fifi Hart On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Entertainment Industry
An Interview With Ming Zhao
Don’t be nervous in castings — Everyone wants to you to do well and someone always forgets their lines at some point so laugh it off and move on
As a part of my series about pop culture’s rising stars, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing FIFI HART.
Fifi Hart was born as Sophia Elizabeth Hart in Carshalton Surrey in 2009, she has an older sister Mimi who is the reason behind Fifi getting into acting. Her first casting call was for non other than Downton Abbey when Fifi was just 4 years old. Nobody in the family had ever watched the show before this time!
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I’ve had quite an exciting life so far considering I am only 12 (13 in November )
My family are quite adventurous and we love travelling and being out- doors. Growing up I spent a lot of summers on the IOW (Isle of Wight) on the beach with my cousins and Grand- Parents ,Paddle boarding and watching the Islands Carnivals , I still love to go now when I can.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
We live just outside of London and my older sister Mimi was already with an agent when I was still small.
We’d often be off on an adventure after school into the West-end sometimes 3 or 4 times a week for castings and it seemed natural to try me with an agent as I was going anyway! I was the first child seen to cast for little Sybbie and only remember bits of the day, when we came out of the casting there were a set of beautiful twin girls with ringlets wearing velvet coats waiting to go in next and my mum says she thought that was the last we’d hear about it but later on that very same day we got the call to say they loved me and wanted to offer me the role even though I wasn’t a twin!
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your entertainment career?
After the first film premiered I was able to attend the after party with my sister, Mum & Dad, it was such an awesome night and I was introduced to Rami Malek who played Freddy Mercury in the film Bohemian Rhapsody, I was still too young to have seen the film and only remembered him from the film Night at the Museum. Allen Leech who plays my dad in DA had asked him and the other cast members along as his guests I’ve never seen my sister at a loss for words before it was really funny!
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
During the filming of a new Era I wasn’t concentrating on what was going on in one particular scene and completely missed my line, I suddenly became aware of silence all around me and everyone was looking at me, it was so embarrassing but at the same time hilarious, after that I made sure I paid attention to everyone’s lines although I wasn’t the first person to have done this or the last LOL
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
I don’t like to say much about potential projects incase I jinx myself and also we aren’t always allowed too for legal reasons, but there’s been some very exciting opportunities for me this year and I’m hoping that something will stick at some point!
My advice to other kids who want to work in film or tv is that you have to be very resilient and need to be able to take rejection and not take yourself too seriously, also even though you’ve put in days of practice for a certain role, be prepared never to hear anything back on it! I try to forget about any castings as soon as I’ve done them which is sometimes hard as I’m desperate for feedback.
Most young people your age don’t’ have to balance work and school. Can you tell us how you manage to balance your schoolwork, auditions, and time on set?
When I’m on set I have tutors who have to teach a certain number of hours each day depending on the filming schedule for that day. I usually ask my school for work ahead of time so there’s always something to do.
The tutors I’ve had have all been totally amazing fun and I really enjoy spending time with them.
When ever I get a script to learn I will read it through several times and then practice with my Mum or sister and then we will go for a take which can take some time depending on how many laughing fits we have!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Hugh Bonneville who has played my Grand Father since I joined DA in series 5 when I was just 4 years old has been a constant source of inspiration encouragement and support as an actor & friend, he is extremely generous with his time and the support of other people’s causes, he even sponsored my Mum when she did the London Marathon.!
Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s jump to the main part of our interview. What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- Don’t be nervous in castings
Everyone wants to you to do well and someone always forgets their lines at some point so laugh it off and move on.
2. Beating yourself up over rejection is never a good idea.
It’s important that you can accept that even if you felt you gave the best tape of your life that sometimes the role just wasn’t meant for you.
3. Never be afraid to try new things even if it scares you a bit.
I’m totally up for trying something completely different to period drama.
Action, thriller comedy or even horror, it’s the thrill of becoming somebody so different to myself and also the costumes and make up that add to the excitement.
4. Its hard work and can be tiring learning scripts and prioritising them whilst still enjoying your other hobbies.
Homework always has to come first!
5. Loving the actual day to day of filming on set working with other kids and adults and all the challenges it can bring is only half of it, the other half is seeing the finished product on screen and how its all come together is insane to me!
You are a person of enormous influence. How do you think you can use social media as a platform to be a positive influence to your fans and society at large?
Social media for me is about sharing stories pictures & videos that I love with my family and friends, I always try to show kindness encouragement and positivity to everyone.
If you had the ability to choose to work on any TV show or film, or work alongside any co-star, or with any director, what or who would that be, and why? You never know who might see this article, especially if we tag them. :-)
Maya Hawke is in my eyes awesome and Id love to work with her one day. Her character as Robin in Stranger Things basically speaks before her brain is engaged (a bit like me sometimes)
Ryan Reynolds is hilarious and I think we could do a great Father /Daughter combo LOL
Directors I’d love to work with well obviously Steven Spielberg as he’s got an incredible imagination and who doesn’t love ET ?
I have been very lucky in that I got to meet a number of extremely talented Men and Women directors through the Downton Series and films. I especially liked Michael Engler who was just so sweet to me.
Id love to work with Simon Curtis again he was very encouraging and when he liked what I’d done onset he would be sure to tell me and I really liked that a lot.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
Tiktok
Hartfifi
Fifi.hart.7
This was very meaningful, thank you so much!
It was a lot of fun thank you for asking me.
Fifi x
