Joshua Grolman

This is not a review of the movie, it is a cut and paste from a newspaper about it's young star:

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A RANDBURG schoolboy's desire to always be the centre of attention has catapulted him onto the film screen - at the age of only nine.


Joshua Grolman, of Bordeaux, is the star of Pets , which is being filmed in Irene, near Pretoria.


Grolman - copper-haired, with intelligent dark-brown eyes - is working under the direction of South African David Lister, whose numerous TV and big-screen film productions include Barney Barnato, The Big Time, John Ross, Konings and Panic Mechanic .


US TV and movie actor Christopher Atkins, who starred opposite Brooke Shields in Blue Lagoon, wrote the script and the film's credit list includes actors George Hamilton and Emma Samms.


Hollywood legend Hamilton, who has also appeared in the TV soap Dynasty, plays the chief baddie in the film. Samms, who also starred in Dynasty, plays Grolman's mother in Pets. South African Graham Hopkins plays his father.


Grolman, a primary school pupil at King David, Victory Park, said learning his lines was "easy - I read them twice and know them off by heart".


Grolman plays a nine-year-old boy who lives on a farm and has lots of pets, including a pig and a flock of chickens. He said: "I love animals - we have four dogs at home. My screen sister is played by K-TV presenter Jenna Dover and I have to irritate her."


The story, he said, was "about some baddies who try to get gold from the O'Brien family. I stop them and save the gold - and my sister".


Grolman also shoots Ping-Pong balls at the baddies. He said with glee: "Tomorrow I do a stink bomb."


Filming began two weeks ago, and Grolman will be on set for another month.


"Jenna and I each have our own caravans, and our tutor is Stephen Rees. My caravan has everything."


Grolman began acting five years ago, when his parents - doctor Sally and surgeon David Grolman - decided to send him to youth theatre workshops


His mom explained why, saying: "He started talking at eight months and always loved to be the centre of attention.


"At two, he was already quoting Shakespeare and entertaining his friends."


After Grolman appeared in a small play, his grandfather suggested he enter an open audition for a part in Winnie the Pooh . He was given the part of little Roo, alternating with two other children.


He was working on an advert when he auditioned for the role in Pets . Lister said: "Joshua is a very good actor - intelligent, with a clear understanding of situations."

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