Faly Rakotohavana Interview by Carol Wright Photographer: Birdie Thompson
After joining the world of entertainment by way of musical theatre, Faly Rakotohavana became serious about acting and decided to pursue it full time. This decision led him to roles in shows like “The Mick”, “Raven’s Home”, and more. Now, he has a lead role in the new Disney+ film Secret Society of Second Born Royals. Rakotohavana plays the smart and shy Matteo who has an unexpected but useful superpower. Secret Society of Second Born Royals will premiere July 17 on Disney+.
What initially got you interested in acting? I’ve always dreamed of being an actor from an early age, but I never attempted to pursue that dream until I was in the second grade. The only problem was that I had a really bad stuttering issue, so when I went to my first audition, I couldn’t even say the lines! I took a break for a while, and then in 6th grade I joined musical theatre and started taking my acting more seriously. Doing musical theatre helped me realize that I wanted to act on the big screen! My parents and I did some research and found a program called CGTV, and they helped me get an agent and a manager. My career just took off from there. What drew you to the role of Matteo in Secret Society of Second Born Royals? Matteo is the complete opposite of me. He is an awkward and shy person, and I don’t fit that description whatsoever. The challenge of getting to play someone that is completely opposite to myself is what really drew me to play this role. You play a prince who also spends his time keeping the world safe. How did you go about preparing for the role of Matteo? Did you have any stunt training? Yes, we did! We did a lot of cool stunt training and it was definitely some of the most fun I had on set! We did a lot of really fun parkour training that I really enjoyed! We also did some archery and that was fun as well, but nothing’s going to beat the parkour training. 61
