East Ham student interviews George Clooney at the BAFTAs
Film-mad Plashet School student Shaguftah Akhtar starting a promising career in celebrity reporting when she quizzed A List actor George Clooney at the 2012 Orange BAFTA Awards.
Interviewing live from the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, the 16-year-old was the only teenager given access at the event as part of her work as Young Ambassador for education charity Filmclub.
Ocean’s Eleven star George Clooney, who was nominated in the Best Actor category for The Descendants, put Shaguftah at east by saying: “Don’t be nervous - relax, take a deep breath and fire away.”
He then told her: “Making films in general are always a little bit of a challenge but it’s till making movies so that’s fun. So it was a challenge but mostly it was fun. Congratulations and good luck in your young career!”
Shaguftah said: “Reporting from the 2012 Orange BAFTA Awards was the best thing I have ever done. Towards the start of the event I was very nervous but soon I really got into it and was looking forward to speaking to the talent.
“I got to speak to some amazing people like George Clooney, Holliday Grainger, Octavia Spencer and Douglas Booth. It felt surreal but they’re all such nice people to talk to.
“My favourite moment was getting to speak to Douglas Booth ebcause he is a very talented rising star who will soon be very well known and because he was just a very nice person to talk to.
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“Towards the end of the night I felt very confident about being able to speak to big stars and just has a really great time and the nerves were gone. Everything about the night was just brilliant.”
Shaguftah was joined on the red carpet by fellor Filmclub Young Ambassador Harry Harris, 14, along with news networks BBC, ITV and Sky News.
Pupils from Brampton Manor Academy in Roman Road also interviewed Kidulthood writer and BAFTA Rising Star award winner Adam Deacon, asking him questions such as “Are Kidulthood and Adulthood a true representation youth culture?” and “How did you get into acting and directing?”.
Afterwards, Adam said the questions were “very professional” and “you could tell there was some thought behind the questions”.
