Original title: David Jonsson on Mentoring Young Filmmakers With BAFTA: “We Can’t Expect Them to Make It to the Table — Odds Are There Aren’t Enough Seats”
David Jonsson is beaming with pride as he sits down to talk to The Hollywood Reporter. It’s late August and the in-demand British actor has come to a local school in rural England to counsel the next generation of film creatives. He’s teamed up with BAFTA and EE for a new initiative, Set the Stage, where 16 teens have been selected to form a crew and produce a short film under the mentorship of Daisy Edgar-Jones and Jonsson, 2025’s recipient of BAFTA’s EE Rising Star Award. “I’m relatively quite shy,” the Rye Lane and Alien: Romulus star says to THR. “I feel like I don’t really have anything of use to say most of the time. But it’s just not true. And I think Set the Stage and their initiative with BAFTA and EE, it’s just so pivotal in getting the opportunities that I got as a kid that really helped me go: ‘Oh man, I can do this.’” It’s this experience that made it a no-brainer when Jonsson was asked to get involved with Set the Stage. The hand-picked group of 17-year-olds are on site a