Middlesbrough actor on working with Julia Roberts in film After the Hunt

An actor and producer has spoken about his experiences of working alongside some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Julia Roberts.

Carl Wilson-Downie, from Middlesbrough, performed in a scene with the Oscar winner in her latest film, the psychological thriller After the Hunt.

He has appeared as an extra in Gladiator II – directed by Sir Ridley Scott, who grew up in Stockton-on-Tees – and Game of Thrones prequal House of the Dragon, as well as being Laurence Fishburne’s body double in the latest season of Netflix series The Witcher.

He told BBC Radio Tees of his pinch-me moment when he worked with Roberts – where he plays a maintenance man – describing it as a “career highlight”.

“She walked past me, I was like, ‘That person smells gorgeous, who is that there?'” he recalled. “I looked into the room, it was Julia Roberts. I’m stood there, I start to sweat, I can’t breathe, and I’m like, ‘What’s wrong with me? I’m alright, I’m cool’.”

After managing to get over being starstruck, the actor composed himself and remained calm while working with the Pretty Woman and Erin Brockovich star.

“It was a moment in my life where I was just like, ‘How did I get here?'”

Speaking about his scene, in which he has to remove a sign with a screwdriver, he said “everything was going wrong” while he was trying to get it off the wall, until Roberts stepped in to help.

“She goes, ‘Right, I know what to do with a screwdriver’. I’m no DIY expert, so I’m like, ‘Right what should we do?’. She said, ‘Get it underneath and just pop it out and take all the screws out’.

“Afterwards I go, ‘Thanks Julia’, [and] she walks past, touches me on the shoulder [and] she goes, ‘No problem’.

“I’m like, ‘Oh my god, she just touched me’,” he laughed.

Wilson-Downie said Roberts had been “wonderful” to work with.

“She’s very polite. She’s making little jokes with everyone. She made me feel so comfortable on set,” he said.

As well as filming his own projects with Middlesbrough-based talent agency Smoggie Bloom, Wilson-Downie said he had spent the summer working as Laurence Fishburne’s body double in the latest season of Netflix series The Witcher.

He said working with the Matrix star had been “the best acting lesson I’ve ever had in my life”.

“It was unbelievable,” he said, of the star’s voice technique.

“I’ve been stood next to Laurence Fishburne, like a couple of metres away, I’ve had to study his every movement…[and] listen to the way he plays with words,” he explained.

“If we’re doing a running scene, I’d run, I’d do the run, or if there’s a little bit of action scene that the stuntman’s not required for, I’d do that.”

He joked that he hoped his latest brush with fame would impress his daughter.

“My nieces and nephews, they think I’m the coolest guy on Earth,” he said.

“But my daughter… I’m not cool enough for my daughter.”