Art Parkinson’s had a tumultuous life so far: He outran an earthquake in “San Andreas” and was felled by an arrow on “Game of Thrones” — all before he turned 14. These days, you can hear the young Irish actor voicing the eponymous, one-eyed Japanese musician of “Kubo and the Two Strings,” which recently opened to warm reviews. “I did a lot of research on Japanese culture so I could accurately portray him,” Parkinson tells The Post in his soft brogue. Making the film forced him to share a recording booth with co-star Charlize Theron, a happening he calls “brilliant.”
“She’s lovely!” he says. “I was nervous at the start, but it was her animation debut as well, so that put my mind at ease.”
Here’s what’s in this actor’s library:
I have a springer spaniel, and I was making a film in Sweden and missing him when I saw the dog on the cover of this book. It turned out to be an amazing novel, about a boy in Afghanistan who sort of adopts this bomb-sniffing dog. The boy makes his way to England, but the dog stays behind with the army. It’s just a great novel. I’ve not read [Morpurgo’s book] “War Horse,” but I loved the film and his novel “The Butterfly Lion.”
I’m very interested in history. This is set in Nazi Germany, at a concentration camp. The son of the man who runs it finds the boy and brings him food. It shows the innocence of children before their minds are corrupted. I definitely recommend it.
This is set at the time of Ireland’s potato famine. Three children are left on their own and are afraid of being sent to the workhouse. They think their parents are dead, so they set out to find their aunties.
This is probably my favorite book, ever. It’s about an autistic boy who’s caught in a web of lies, goes on an epic adventure and finds himself along the way. At the time I read it, I was studying to play an autistic character in a film, and my father recommended this. The film wasn’t made, but I’ve read this book about five times.
