Robert Aramayo’s mother knew her son could “command an audience” at his very first primary school assembly.
It was still “bonkers” though that her son, from a “humble little family in Hull”, was now competing against Leonardo DiCaprio and Timothée Chalamet to be crowned this year’s best actor by the British film academy.
Lisa Dawson and Robert’s father, Mike Aramayo, spoke to The Times this week after his Bafta leading actor nomination elevated their son, 33, to the top tier of the film world.
Robert Aramayo with his mother Lisa Dawson and father Mike
Both made sacrifices to help him progress from Hull Truck Theatre to a life-changing audition as a teenager with New York’s prestigious Juilliard School.
In that year, 2011, he was the only British student accepted. After graduating, Aramayo began carving out a career with roles in the television series Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Robert Aramayo and Morfydd Clark in Lord of the Rings
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His role in last year’s low-budget British film I Swear playing a Tourette’s syndrome sufferer catapulted him into the leading actor category alongside DiCaprio and Chalamet, as well as fellow screen giants, Ethan Hawke, Michael B Jordan and Jessie Plemons.
Mike Aramayo, 60, said he had been “flabbergasted” watching the Bafta shortlist announcement on Tuesday.
Robert Aramayo in I Swear
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“You get lost in the names of DiCaprio, Chalamet, Jordan and all of that,” he said. “You realise just how talented you need to be to get there.
“But Robert has worked his socks off all his life. Whether it’s a small part or a big part he [has] still put the same research in, the same effort and [given] it his best shot.”
Mike was born in Hull after his father escaped Spain’s Basque region during the country’s civil war, and began working on fishing boats in Milford Haven and then Humberside.
“There is no more grounded, humble person than Robert,” Mike said. “He is just from a normal, working-class family from Hull.”
Robert has two sisters, Laura, 35, who is a midwife, and Charleigh, 27, who is doing a degree in social work.
His double Bafta nomination — he is also in contention for its Rising Star award, which members of the public can vote for until February 12 — comes amid continuing concern that success in the performing arts is increasingly the preserve of the privately educated given the downgrading of arts within state schools.
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Aramayo’s mother, Lisa, 59, said they had needed to “gather” money from family and friends to allow him to study in New York.
“One day he came home from school and said: ‘I really want to study in America, can you help me?’ We couldn’t afford it. Neither of us had any money at the time. We did a bit of gathering and family and friends put in money to get him there.
“Fortunately Robert’s dad’s circumstances changed and he weighed in with quite a bit of funding after that but initially we were: ‘Okay, he has earned his place but how can we make it work?’”
She added that it had not been easy for her son to secure success at first. “He had quite a lot of knock-backs initially and he would say: ‘I will use this to spur me on, it drives me on’. He is just so positive. He won’t let anything grind him down.”
Mike, who has worked for Buoyant Upholstery for 26 years, and eventually became managing director, said he thought his son had the talent and attitude to “ultimately become a household name”.
“He is so versatile and loves a challenge,” Mike said.
“It is bonkers, really bonkers,” Lisa said of her son’s success. “We are just normal, very unremarkable people.
“Well, Robert is remarkable,” she added with a laugh.
“I just hope we can get a ticket for it,” she said of the Bafta ceremony on February 22 at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
Mike added: “I just hope that I’m there somewhere. Maybe even behind the bar serving drinks, hanging coats, however I can get in. Gatecrash the Baftas. There we go — I will do that.”