Sophomore Thomas Horn will star in his second film, Space Warriors, which opens in April. Horn plays the character of Jimmy Hawkins, who fulfills his dream to go to space camp in the International Space Station (ISS). Hawkins and his four fellow campers work through challenges given to them at space camp until danger arises and they must save the ISS. The film is directed by Sean McNamara and features actor Josh Lucas.
Horn began filming in Huntsville, AL over summer break from the beginning of July to the middle of August.
“I got to learn about space, and got to experience a whole different flavor of America,” Horn said.
Parts of the movie were shot in the Huntsville Space & Rocket Center, and Horn said the movie got him excited about space and NASA’s space program.
Horn said the scale of Space Warriors is much smaller than that of his first movie, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, which was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars in 2011. Space warriors will be released in about 50 theaters and will also play on Hallmark channel on May 24.
On set for Space Warriors, Horn was accompanied by fellow child actors, which was also a change from his previous movie in which all the other actors were adults.
A typical day on set lasted from 8 AM to 6 PM and included rehearsals, makeup sessions, and shooting scenes. Horn would finish the day by relaxing by the hotel swimming pool and reading.
“The time when you’re in front of the camera is just very special because being somebody else is an interesting experience, kind of like freedom because you can think about what it would be like to live in someone else’s body,” Horn said.
He will be attending at least two premiers—one in Alabama and one in Washington DC—in the springtime.
Life has been different for Horn since he rose to fame after his success on Children’s Jeopardy led to him star in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. At the time, Horn had no acting experience or formal training, nor any experience being a recognizable face.
Yet, Horn said he is able to compartmentalize his acting life with his normal, high school life. Outside of acting, Horn enjoys playing the piano and practicing Shaolin Kung Fu. He hopes to earn his black belt in the next two years.
Horn’s Father, Erich, said he was initially worried that the Horn would be negatively affected by the attention and fame that comes with being a child actor.
“We were very concerned about that and I think fortunately it hasn’t been as bad as I thought,” Erich said. “He’s fundamentally a level-headed kid. He’s probably always been. He’s continued to just be a high school sophomore.”
Though Horn has been able to maintain normal aspects of his life, he is now seeking formal mentorship to improve his acting.
About two months ago, Horn began attending an acting workshop in San Francisco led by an experienced actress. Horn said his teacher prohibits her students from revealing her name to outsiders.
“It is a good place to go regularly to work on my acting skills and to gain experience,” Horn said. “I’ve learned that the imagination is a lot less powerful than I originally thought. You have to apply your own life and not your imagination in to a scene in order to portray it accurately. Your imagination doesn’t connect to your emotion as much as experience does.”
In other words, Horn said the workshop has taught him to draw from concrete experiences.
“If you’re performing a scene where you are a political leader leading against an evil dictator, you have to imagine the dictator as someone who you think to be evil,” he said.
To apply his training, Horn regularly auditions for roles by sending in audition tapes or travelling to LA to audition for movies recommended to him by his agent. Though Horn was casted for other movie projects, he said all of them were canceled because of funding problems.
Since becoming a child movie star, Horn has been recognized in public by strangers, but mostly by flight attendants.
“It’s very weird. Flight attendants are my biggest fan base,” Horn said. “Just a few days ago I was on airplane to LA and a flight attendant mentioned how much she loved my work, which she saw with her boyfriend who was a very stiff person but he was crying for half the movie.”
