Alexander Richard "Alex" Pettyfer (born 10 April 1990 in Stevenage, England) is an English actor and model.
He's known for his roles in young adult-skewing films like Stormbreaker, I Am Number Four, and Beastly, but has also starred in more mature projects like Magic Mike and The Butler.
Selected filmography
- Stormbreaker (2006) as Alex Rider
- Wild Child (2008) as Freddie Kingsley
- Tormented (2009) as Bradley White
- I Am Number Four (2011) as John Smith / Number Four / Daniel Jones
- Beastly (2011) as Kyle Kingson / Hunter
- In Time (2011) as Fortis
- Magic Mike (2012) as Adam "The Kid"
- The Butler (2013) as Thomas Westfall
- Endless Love (2014) as David Elliot
- Elvis & Nixon (2016) as Jerry Schilling
- Back Roads (2018) as Harley Altmeyer
- The I-Land (2019) as Brody
- The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)
Tropes & Trivia in his works:
- Dawson Casting: He started off as a teenager playing teens, but continued to play them and young adult roles in his twenties. Inverted in In Time where he was playing a character eternally twenty-five and he was younger than that.
- Dyeing for Your Art:
- Dyed his hair brown for the prologue of I Am Number Four. Where his character then ironically dyes his hair blond on the run.
- Shaved his head for Beastly.
- Fake American: In I Am Number Four, Beastly, Magic Mike, The Butler. Averted for In Time, which features plenty of other Fake Americans - he gets to keep his English accent.
- Hollywood Hype Machine: He was being given an A-list push as the star of several young adult adaptations in the 2000s - starting with Stormbreaker - and then as a Teen Idol with Beastly and I Am Number Four. He ended up reportedly destroying his reputation in Hollywood with his partying antics and allegations of domestic abuse, and the films he was in flopped. Magic Mike did well, but he didn't return for the sequel.
- Romance on the Set:
- With Emma Roberts during Wild Child, where they played love interests.
- He and Dianna Agron began dating and moved in together during the filming of I Am Number Four; once again, they had portrayed love interests in the film. They broke up the day after the movie was released, with there being allegations Pettyfer was controlling and emotionally abusive towards Agron, and Pettyfer being ordered not to show up at an event Agron was attending.
- And with Riley Keough for Magic Mike, to whom he was briefly engaged.
- Star-Making Role: Despite the Box Office failure of Stormbreaker, his starring role as Alex Rider brought him to national attention.
- What Could Have Been:
- He was offered the lead role in Eragon but turned it down due to his fear of flying.
- He also turned down the lead roles in Seventh Son (2015) (eventually played by Ben Barnes) and City Of Bones (played by Jamie Campbell Bower).
