I have seen this movie and while it was not one of my favorites (6/10 movie rating - 7/10 boy movie rating) your comments made me question whether Anthony's stutter was real. An online interview with Stephen Frears, the director settled the question.


Q: Does directing a child that small present any particular challenge?

SF: Not if they've got good concentration, which he had. You were only asking him to deal with feelings that he knew. There weren't things … he knew what unhappiness was or what happiness was or whatever. So you were always dealing with experiences that, in one form or another, that a child would have been through.

Q: It was painful watching him in scenes in which he would stutter.

SF: Yes, terrible. The writer [Jimmy McGovern], who has a stutter, would just shout at him and make him stutter. He had to act. He didn't have a stutter.