Date of Birth

1 December 1997, Islington, London, England, UK

Birth Name

Asa Maxwell Thornton Farr Butterfield

Height

6' (1.83 m)

Mini Biography

Asa Butterfield was born in Islington, London, England, to Jacqueline Farr and Sam Butterfield. He began acting at the age of 8, after a talent spotting casting director saw him at his local after school drama club, The Young Actors Theatre in Islington. Following on from a couple of small roles in films, he was cast, at 10 as Bruno in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008). Since then, he has been acclaimed for his titular roles in Hugo (2011) and Ender's Game (2013), as well as other major roles as Nathan in A Brilliant Young Mind (2014), Jude in 10,000 Saints (2015), Jake in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016), Gardner Elliot in The Space Between Us (2017), Norman in Nanny McPhee Returns (2010), and Mordred in the BBC's Merlin (2008).

Asa was born Asa Maxwell Thornton Farr Butterfield, but now uses the middle name "Bopp" on his passport instead (after Comet Hale-Bopp), and is known as Asa Bopp Farr Butterfield.

Trivia

• Son of Jacqueline Farr and Sam Butterfield.
• He has an older brother called Morgan. Asa also has a younger maternal half-sister, Loxie, and a younger paternal half-sister, Marlie.
• In Hebrew, "Asa" means "healer" or "physician", also spelled "Ase". The name "Asa" appears in the Old Testament to designate the third King of Judah.
• He is a supporter of the Arsenal Football Club.
• He's a fan of professional gamer and caster "Destiny".
• In his GCSEs he got 1 A*, 3 A's and 6 B's.
• He grew two inches while shooting Ender's Game (2013).
• He developed an iPad app called "Racing Blind" together with his father and brother. It is the only game available on the app store that is meant to be played with the eyes closed.
• Has worked twice with Ben Kingsley in the movies Hugo and Ender's Game.
• His dream role would be to play James Bond.
• On his father's side, he is the grandson of Jeanne Elizabeth (Hewett) and Roy Butterfield, who is an Emeritus Professor in Engineering and the Environment.
• He was one of the final candidates for the third film incarnation of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, though Tom Holland was cast instead. On May 14, 2015, film journalist Umberto Gonzalez reported that Asa had already been chosen for the role, a story carried by most film news sites. In both the 2010 and 2015 casting cycles for Spider-Man, no actor reported by film websites as being all-but-confirmed for the role has ever ended up actually cast as Spider-Man. The other actors erroneously reported to have been cast are Logan Lerman (in April 2010), Jamie Bell (in early June 2010), Josh Hutcherson (on June 30, 2010, one day before the official casting of Andrew Garfield), and Dylan O'Brien (in March 2015).
• "Asa" in Arabic means (the name of Jesus ).
• As a young man, he has already played three characters whose younger versions were portrayed by younger actors: Aiden Flowers and Nicholas Oteri as Jake in "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children"; Henry Kelemen as Jude in "10,000 Saints"; and Edward Baker-Close as Nathan in "A Brilliant Young Mind".

Trademarks:

• Striking blue eyes
  

Quotes

• Don't do piracy. Piracy's a crime.
• I think I can speak for a lot of people in that they would be pretty nervous about meeting Harrison Ford, and I was definitely one of those people.
• My little sister, who is four, can work my mom's iPhone better than she can.
• When you have a book as material as it is, it's a lot easier to create a character because you have so many resources to draw upon when acting.
• People think when you're moving in Zero-G, it's like moving in jelly. But it's not. You're completely free to move however fast as you want.
• I always think that trying to push yourself as an actor in a direction that you've never been before, developing characters which are more difficult to get into the head of, or are more interesting and further away from yourself, is always a challenge. But, you want to take up that challenge and try your best.