Find out what happened to TJ Lowther, who played Phillip in “A Perfect World”, alongside Kevin Costner.
A Perfect World is currently broadcast on ARTE and perhaps you have wondered what happened to the young boy who plays the opposite (sorry) Laura Dern, Clint Eastwood and Kevin Costner.
Remember if you caught the film on the way that A Perfect World tells the story of the escape of two prison escapees, Butch (Costner) and Terry. To protect their escape, they kidnap Phillip, a young boy. Following a “disagreement” with Terry, Butch gets rid of him and Phillip quickly becomes his only traveling companion. Hot on their trail are Texas Ranger Red Garnett (Eastwood) and criminologist Sally (Dern).
A perfect world that has one of our 15 most moving scenes in cinema (but be careful, spoilers!)
What did he do after “A Perfect World”?
Warner Bros.
After research, TJ Lowther disappeared from the screens, like from the radars. During his years as a child actor, his parents always said that they would let him act as long as he liked it. At that time, the little boy said he wanted to become a pilot. Contacted by us via Instagram, he did not accept our connection request.
After A Perfect World, the young boy made two TV films: the western The Hand of the Angel, in which he played the young version of the character played by Tom Berenger and the Christmas film One Christmas, with Katharine Hepburn and Henry Winkler.
ABC
Hank McKee (TJ Lowther in “Grey’s Anatomy”)
We found him in 1995 in From Love to Madness with Drew Barrymore and Chris O’Donnell, then he played the leading role in Mr. Atlas, the story of a boy who falls into a hole and finds himself facing the Greek god Atlas! At 18, he appeared in his last feature film, the TV movie The Triumph of Jace, and four years later, he played his last role on screen: that of an intern in Grey’s Anatomy (S06E02, broadcast in 2004). .
“A perfect world”, a complicated shoot
Before A Perfect World, Lowther appeared for the first time on screen in Neon City, a sort of poor man’s Mad Max released on video in 1991, then My Mother’s Fight, in which he played the youngest of the six children of Kathy Bates alongside Edward Furlong in 1993. With these two experiences, he was cast for A Perfect World, Clint Eastwood’s new project.
Warner Bros.
At the time, the production is looking for children aged 10-11 who are 8 years old and Lowther is only six years old. He was finally selected, and spent 90% of his time on the set in the car in which his character was trapped, for hours, 6 days a week. He did not complain and even considered himself happy that the team had him trusted to learn his lines and want to work every day, despite his young age.
Clint Eastwood said of him in 1994 that he was “very intelligent, and a nice boy. Sometimes, paradoxically [pour un enfant]he was perfect in one take.”