Freddie Highmore, the saddest, sweetest boy on the planet when placed in front of a camera, has turned 16 since filming The Spiderwick Chronicles.

This is a crucial period in his young life as an actor.

It is obvious that he is in that transition zone when you watch Spiderwick, a Hollywood fantasy thriller which debuted on DVD this week. In a significant departure, the English youth plays American twins who must rally, with their sister, to face the goblins and demons from another dimension.

It is his first role as an American and his first as twins, with one of them rebellious and moody, the other more well-adjusted. It was an acting challenge, as he explains on the DVD.

So it is easy to get the articulate Highmore to talk about his future -- just ask him! -- when he calls Sun Media from London, where he was born and still lives with his family in the upscale neighbourhood of Highgate.

"I think I did say something along those lines," Highmore offers when I remind him of quotes on the Internet that indicate he may not pursue a career as an adult actor. "But it was more that I'm not sure what I would like to be. And it is great fun at the moment and it is a fantastic opportunity. I'm really enjoying it, so it would be great to continue.

"But I am 16 and I'm still quite young and I could change my mind and say: 'I'd like to go and try this!' or 'This thing would really interest me and I'll give it a go!' So it is important to keep going with schoolwork and keep my options going and have the opportunity to do something new -- if I want to -- in the future."

As for that sad, sweet persona -- the one that captivated us in Jean-Jacques Annaud's marvellous tiger story Two Brothers, or broke our hearts in Marc Forster's poignant masterwork Finding Neverland, or disturbed us in Tim Burton's wildly inventive reworking of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, or engaged us when he played those troubled twins in The Spiderwick Chronicles -- there is no trace of it in his voice.

"You try to get into your character as much as you can," says the London-born son of actor Edward Highmore and talent agent Sue Latimer, whose clients include her son and his friend Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame.

"I mean, I try to put myself in the situation of my character. So, if the character is really upset and his parents have just died, like in Finding Neverland, then you've just got to put yourself in that situation and think what it would be like. It's always great to draw from your own experiences in film, but, as you say, I sometimes seem sad in films and I'm not sad in real life."

Nor is he obsessed with himself. Highmore is happy to deflect any credit for how Spiderwick turned out to American director Mark Waters' crew.

"It all worked out pretty fantastically," he says of the special effects, which are revealed in the two-disc version of the DVD, the Field Guide Edition.

"Without that, we wouldn't have had the movie, really. If I was there just kicking into mid-air (instead of at CGI created nasties) it wouldn't have been too good." Highmore chuckles. He knows his place in an FX-driven film.

"I think it's kind of scary, this one, and I think the characters are quite real. The CGI on this looks really real and it is part of our job as actors to make sure that we make our characters even more believable."

So the task, he says, is simple, yet complicated: "To make the unbelievable believable!"

Another part of his job is to service the demands of DVD. Like Hayden Christensen -- who recently called the Jumper DVDs his personal scrapbook of experiences on set -- Highmore sees these collectible editions as treasures that will jog his memory in the future.

"It's not something that I would watch every weekend," he says with a knowing laugh.

"But it is nice to think you do have it there, like family photos. It's a great memory to have. It's nice to know they are there and something to show people when you're older."

Acting still a lark for Highmore

At 16, Freddie Highmore is unsure of whether he wants to pursue a career as an adult actor, as his friend and fellow Englishman Daniel Radcliffe is doing coming out of Harry Potter.

But Highmore does seem to be going about it the right way, just like Radcliffe. He sees filmmaking as a life adventure.

"I'm really lucky," Highmore tells Sun Media. "The important thing is to just enjoy it the whole time. The minute I don't, I should just stop and give up, really, because there are so many people who would have loved to have done the films that I've done and be in the situation that I'm in. If I just stepped aside for a second, they'd all just come in and mow me down."

So, for the time being, he will keep on keeping on. "It's fun!"

That means wrapping up filming this month on two sequels to his endearing fantasy Arthur and the Invisibles. Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard is slated for 2009 while Arthur and the Two Worlds War will arrive in 2010. Meanwhile, Highmore did voice work for Astro Boy, the digitally animated feature spun out of the popular Japanese manga.

But he will not be doing Eddie Dickens and the Awful Truth, despite postings to the contrary on the Internet Movie Database and Wikipedia. Highmore says he filmed a test for Dickens five years ago "to see how this new technology would work out."

But that was it.

"I'm definitely not doing that and I'm not even sure if it's happening. But, if it is, good luck to them!"

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