The Hull lad who beat Leonardo DiCaprio to a Bafta

Ellie Harrison, The Independent

Last night’s glittering Baftas ceremony was full of special moments: Hamnet’s Jessie Buckley became the first ever Irish woman to win the Best Actress prize, One Battle After Another swept the board with six trophies, and Kylie Jenner encountered the quintessential British pub snack, Scampi Fries, for the first time. But the real cockle-warmer had to be the moment I Swear’s Robert Aramayo, a young lad from Hull, beat Leonardo DiCaprio to win Best Actor.

Taking to the stage to accept the award – his second of the night after his Rising Star win – a gobsmacked Aramayo gestured at DiCaprio and said: “I can’t believe I’m looking at people like you and I’m in the same category as you. Never mind that I’m stood here.” He was crying, we were crying, his dad was definitely crying – and DiCaprio even looked like he was on the verge of a little sob.

It’s been a huge month for the 33-year-old. Not only has his first lead film role secured him two Baftas, but it has also raised awareness of a widely misunderstood condition. In I Swear, Aramayo plays real-life Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson. Tourette’s is a neurological condition that induces motor and vocal tics, which can include coughs, twitches, and fully articulated phrases. The film, both hilarious and heart-pinchingly sad, is a life-affirming study of how Davidson, who started experiencing symptoms as a young teen in the Eighties, fought to change the world’s perception of Tourette’s. It shows, beautifully, how people with Tourette’s are often defined by the reaction of others.

Aramayo fizzes with charisma in the part, and portrays the condition with incredible empathy and sensitivity (he spent a month living close to Davidson in Galashiels, Scotland, to prepare for the role). The film’s success at last night’s awards will be a major moment for the estimated 300,000 people living with the condition in the UK.

As if promoting the film through awards season wasn’t enough, on top of all this, Aramayo has spent the past month performing in the most talked-about play in London, the Royal Court’s heart-wrenching Guess How Much I Love You? He brings the same electricity and urgency to that role, playing one half of a couple who receive devastating news during their baby’s 20-week scan, forcing them to navigate an impossible decision about their pregnancy. I went to see it in the final week, and there was not a dry eye in the house.

Speaking to The Independent last week about all the madness, Aramayo said: “I’m absolutely knackered, I won’t lie to you. It’s a bit of a mental time. You know when you’re at this point in your life where people are just like, ‘What about that? And what about some of this as well? Can you handle that?’ At what point is your plate a bit too full? I guess I’m going to find out.”

So, how did Aramayo get here? He grew up in Hull in the 1990s; his father made sofas, and his mother worked in foster care and had her own business selling safety clothing. He has admitted he was “naughty” at school, routinely getting sent out for larking about and impersonating his Irish maths teacher. But Aramayo’s first ever taste of real acting was at the age of seven, when he performed – as so many of us did – in a primary school production of Bugsy Malone. He played the lead role of the Italian-Irish boxing scout at Cavendish Primary School.

A couple of years later, at the age of nine, he joined the Hull Truck Youth Theatre, where he acted in plays throughout his teens. Andy Feetom, former theatre and performing arts teacher at Wyke College, where Amarayo was later a student, told The Independent: “He was very shy and very humble as a lad, and always kept himself to himself. He was just always about the performance, and always had an idea and a plan.”