First actor with Down’s syndrome to star in Disney film, “Peter Pan.”
A Peter Pan & Wendy actor is Disney’s first big Down’s Syndrome actor.
The 2023 live-action feature, released on Disney+ on April 28, stars 15-year-old Noah Matthews Matofsky as Lost Boys leader Slightly.
The film is a remake of the 1953 animated Disney classic about flying kid Peter Pan, a fairy, and a group of lost youngsters in Neverland.
Jude Law plays Captain Hook, who Jason Isaacs played in the 2003 live-action version.
Matofsky told The Sun that Law treated the kids some ice cream on set. “One of my favourite days was when Jude hired an ice cream van and brought it on set, then served us ice creams himself,” he recalled. “It was an incredible experience, I had my own trailer and made lots of fantastic friends. I enjoyed swordfighting.”
“I had loads of lines to memorise really quickly, but it was exhilarating and I really enjoyed it.”
The British adolescent told the magazine that he truly got into the project and enjoyed filming action scenes like the pirate ship overturning. Matofsky told The Sun that Zebedee, an inclusive talent agency, informed him Disney was casting the film.
Before meeting with director David Lowery, Matofksy sent him an audition tape and bonded over Lord of the Flies. Matofsky and his mother filmed in Vancouver, leaving his father and sister in the UK.
The adolescent told reporters that he wants to go to drama college and inspire other Down’s Syndrome people. Matofsky said, “You can achieve anything” and “always dream big” of his situation.
Lowery told Collider in 2021 that Peter Pan & Wendy was his favourite project after 91 days of filming. “It’s my favourite thing I’ve ever made, which I didn’t expect. This movie is my favourite. I love this movie and have two weeks left. He called it his most personal work.
Ironically, it is my most mature film. I entered this movie believing I had Peter Pan syndrome […] “And I thought that was going to appeal to me about it, but in making it, in writing it, and now directing it and watching it come to life, I’ve discovered that this is a movie about me letting go of that […] it’s the first movie I’ve created from an adult perspective, if that makes any sense,” he said.