Max explains; "The training was full-time and practical. I'd be in the building from 8:30am and I'd usually leave at about 10:30pm Monday to Friday and usually for a few hours on a Saturday too. We had skills classes in acting technique, voice and movement, textual analysis and performance projects. The first and second years were internal and skills-based and then the third year opened up into public shows and showcases for the industry."

Animal studies is a long-recognised practice in movement for actors and Max enjoyed taking the physicality and characteristics of various animals to create and strengthen a characterisation. He said; "I've always been a biophiliac and so I was naturally drawn to animal studies. My teacher left halfway through our training so I had to come up with a lot of my particular way of working. I brought in my knowledge and interest in rewilding and regenerative agriculture; if you translate yourself to be a landscape you can use these things to alter and strengthen your ecology and expression. It's all very vague and mysterious and in truth needs to be done to be understood!" 

As well as acting Max teaches, he said; "It comes from a capacity to nurture. I enjoy seeing things come from nothing, into something. People come to my sessions with no knowledge of a technique and they leave being able to use it, I think that's cool. I've grown some oak trees from acorns that I picked last autumn and it's the same sort of feeling."

Max's career to date has been varied, he has had his biggest successes in the theatre. He finds the work rewarding and played Oswald in King Lear at Shakespeare's Globe during the summer of 2022.

Max took the part of Henri in the beautiful film, The Women by the Lake (which has yet to be released). It was written and directed by Tom Shkolnik and also stars Henna Holländer and Alice Godfrey. A recent mini TV series titled 'Who is Erin Carter?' included Max who played the part of Caldwell.

With other work in the pipeline - Max will soon be shooting for an indie film before returning to the theatre to appear in an adaptation of Stravinsky's 'The Soldier's Tale' - he is pleased to be so busy. 

It's ten years since Max left Ipswich School, he said of his ten years; "It was a good time at Ipswich. I moved to Suffolk in Year 4 and stayed at the School the whole way through. A lot of my best friends are people I met at School. I'm grateful for what I learnt, I didn't do any work really and I apologise to all the teachers for that but I learnt a lot even if I didn't write it down diligently. Something like the poem 'What You Missed That Day You Were Absent From Fourth Grade' by Brad Aaron Modlin..."

"I don't miss the social anxiety of being a teenager. I remember the day Twitter took off at School and it was a big deal; I cannot imagine what it's like for the students there now with the presence of social media and trying to keep to a global standard of coolness - sounds like a lot of pressure to me!"

We look forward to keeping up with Max's career!