'Rings of Power' star reacts to being BAFTA nominated against Leonardo DiCaprio

Robert Aramyo is up against the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael B Jordan and Timothée Chalamet in this year’s Best Actor BAFTA category and he’s opening up about what that feels like.

When his nomination was announced, The Rings of Power star was "literally doing the dishes!"

"I had it up on YouTube and just couldn’t believe it when I saw my name," he revealed. Aaramyo has also been nominated in the EE Rising Star category.

Aramyo, best known for playing Elrond in the Lord of the Rings prequel, has been nominated for his role in I Swear.

The film is set in the 1980s Galashiels and depicts the early life of Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson. Since people weren’t educated on his condition at the time, his teachers and parents thought him disruptive while strangers thought he was saying rude things to them.

John was later helped by mental health nurse Dottie Achenbach (played by Maxine Peake), and community centre caretaker Tommy Trotter (Peter Mullan). The film has received a total of five BAFTA nominations, including Outstanding British Film and Best Original Screenplay for writer/director Kirk Jones.

The actor didn’t expect the film would get so much recognition when he signed on.

"The first thing on my mind was John," he recalled. "I just think back to those early days, and me and Kirk being like, ‘How are we going to tell this story and do justice to him?’. Then I kept meeting all these incredible people who live with Tourette’s. I really, really care about them and their stories. And now here we are. I never expected any of this. It’s so lovely."

"It was more about settling into John’s centre of gravity, into the way John moves through the world, how John holds himself – his physicality, his body – without focusing on the obvious," he added.