Billy Elliot (2000)

Now that the script was to everyone's liking, the search for the title character began. And everyone involved realized that the film's ultimate success lay in the part of Billy. For this role, the filmmakers auditioned over 2,000 boys.

"It was a nightmare at first seeing so many boys, and we started to think the film might be uncastable," says producer Finn.

Daldry agreed, and says, "It was a tall order to find a child who could dance as well as act, who came from the North East and had the right accent, and was also the right age. But eventually we found Jamie, who completely under stood all the elements of the story, and he had that elusive thing that allows you to fall in love with a child and be terribly concerned about what happens to him. We found our needle in the haystack."

Jamie Bell, a 13-year-old from the northeastern town of Billingham, still can't believe his luck. It was through a friend of his that he was able to secure an audition, and after quite a few call-backs he was eventually chosen."

Bell started dancing when he was six years old. "I saw this girl in a competition and she was tap dancing, but she was missing millions of beats," he says. "So I told my mum I could do better than that and she bought me a pair of tap shoes and said I could go to classes."

Like his character Billy, it wasn't easy starting out. "It took a lot of practice, and there was hassle from the lads at school who kept saying 'you shouldn't be doing that Jamie, it's not for boys, it's more for girls,"' says Bell. "They said I should be playing football or rugby so I just didn't tell them where I was going after football practice and went on to my dance lessons."

Producer Brenman was impressed with Bell's discipline and commitment. "For someone so young, Jamie had a staggering amount of energy and focus," he says.

The confidence to persevere with dancing came from Bell's mother, in the same way that Billy's confidence grew with his teacher's support.

"When I was dancing, I had to do competitions month after month after month. and year after year," says Bell. "After the last one I thought, 'I can't do this anymore,' a bit like Billy who feels like giving up but his teacher keeps him going. My mum just kept encouraging me, 'something will pop up' she said. And it did - like this film!"

Bell loved the experience of collaborating with Daldry. "He didn't tell me that it had to be done like this or like that, but he'd say you could try it like this or like that. We used ideas from his head and mixed them with mine to get it to be what it is," said Bell.

The whole process of filmmaking was a fantastic new experience for the youngster. "Doing the dance scenes was very tiring because we had to get it perfect, but I began to love the type of music we used, like T-Rex and Marc Bolan, which really helped," declares Bell. "But the best thing about filming was how they made snow on the set - I wanted to take it home and show my friends!"

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