Africa-Press – South-Africa. Look out, Hollywood, Caleb Payne is coming!
The 11-year-old actor is headed to Los Angeles after becoming the first South African to be nominated for a Young Artist Academy Award in the Feature Film Leading Youth Artist category for his role in the 2021 Netflix movie Good Life.
Affectionately dubbed as the “Youth Oscars” by Huffington Post, the Young Artist Academy has honoured the likes of Scarlett Johansson, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jennifer Lawrence.
Established in 1978, it is considered the only youth awards modelled after adult award ceremonies, including the Academy Awards, Grammy Awards and Emmy Awards.
“I was actually at my aunt’s house in Bloemfontein when my dad called and told me that I’ve been nominated,” Caleb says upon finding out about the honour.
A “massive thing” indeed, as the young star’s achievement was even recognised during a National Assembly in Parliament earlier this week.
In minutes of the meeting obtained by News24, Deputy Shadow Minister for Sports, Arts and Culture in the DA, Ms Veronica Van Dyk, noted: “The Youth Artist Academy in Hollywood has honoured 11-year-old South African Caleb Payne with a nomination for Leading Youth Artist in a Feature Film.”
Added in the note is the acknowledgement that “Caleb’s nomination is the first South African nomination for acting,” with SA comedian Trevor Noah having received an honouree award for Journalistic Excellence in 2020, and The Gods Must Be Crazy receiving a merit award in 1984 for Best Foreign Film.
“It’s awesome,” Payne excitedly says of the note.
In Good Life, Payne plays Jet, a 7-year-old Albanian refugee who ends up as a guide and negotiator to Olive (played by Erica Wessels), a thirty-something-year-old with a broken heart who flees to a small town in Greece.
He shares more about the filming experience, “I had a lot of fun. It was really a small set, and it was all filmed in Cape Town, so there weren’t a lot of locations.”
Payne adds that what he enjoyed particularly about the production being a small set was having to “see how a film is actually produced” and being able to build relationships with the cast and crew.
Payne will travel to LA with his family for the awards ceremony, which takes place on 2 October but has big plans for when he gets there.
According to the youngster’s dad and agent, Stanford, “We’re going to take every opportunity to set up meetings and network.”
This includes setting up headshots, seeking roles for the youngster to audition for and more. As for Caleb, however, he is most looking forward to walking the red carpet and visiting Universal Studios.
With Hollywood set in his sights, the Payne family have set up a crowdfunding campaign titled Get Caleb to Hollywood to help cover the travel costs while also digging into their bond to invest in their son’s future.
Regardless the 11-year-old actor has vowed to do everything he can to make it to the big time.
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