Oakes Fegley of Allentown can be forgiven for not being completely enamored with the acting profession after scoring his first big gig on the local scene. After all, he was only five years old in 2009 when he landed the role of Tiny Tim in Civic Theatre of Allentown’s production of A Christmas Carol. “I was completely uninterested in doing it,” he recalls. “I had no passion for it whatsoever. It was fun but it was very boring.”
Lucky for him—and lucky for his growing legion of fans—he stuck with it. And it’s really no surprise that he did. “My entire family is made up of actors,” Fegley says. That includes his parents, Michael Fegley and Mercedes Tonne Fegley, as well as his siblings, older sister August and younger brother Winslow. Fegley cites August as the reason he wanted to give it a go in the first place. “I always looked up to her,” he says. While each Fegley has pursued solo projects over the years, sometimes it’s truly a family affair; Michael, Mercedes, August and Oakes appeared together on Civic Theatre’s stage for the 2011 iteration of A Christmas Carol, with Oakes once again taking on the role of Tiny Tim. “Civic is a really great place,” he says. “They do a lot of great stuff.”
But bigger things beyond the Lehigh Valley awaited the young thespian. In 2014, when he was in fourth grade, he played a young Eli Thompson in a handful of episodes of HBO’s critically acclaimed Prohibition-era series Boardwalk Empire. He also stepped into the role of a young Judd Altman in the film This Is Where I Leave You. It was around that same time when he auditioned for a remake of the 1977 Disney classic Pete’s Dragon. He beat out thousands of other boys for the part and got to spend several months filming in New Zealand alongside Hollywood heavyweights like Robert Redford and Bryce Dallas Howard. It was then, Fegley says, that he knew he was all in on acting. “This is something that I definitely like a lot and see myself doing in the future,” he recalls thinking at the time.
Other big parts followed—he was Ben in 2017’s Wonderstruck, co-starring Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams, and Theodore Decker in The Goldfinch in 2019. Last year saw the release of The War with Grandpa, although the comedy, which also stars Robert De Niro, had been filmed several years prior. Fegley describes De Niro as “quiet and collected; very professional.” He says acting alongside luminaries like him is one of the biggest perks of the job. “My favorite thing about working on films and being able to be part of this industry is meeting people,” Fegley says. He views each project as a unique learning opportunity. “Everyone I’ve worked with, I’ve in my own way observed them and internalized something. The way they behave or treat people.”
He doesn’t have a favorite co-star—he has something positive to say about all of them—but he cites Sarah Paulson, whom he worked with on Goldfinch, as one of the best. “She was an awesome personality on set. She was great in the role she was capturing. She’s very real in what she does.” Fegley says his wish list for future collaborations is a lengthy one; he hopes to one day share screen time with Leonardo DiCaprio. He’d also love to be tapped for one of director Wes Anderson’s projects. “Even just meeting him would be amazing,” he says.
Like so many others in the entertainment industry, Fegley found roles hard to come by during the pandemic, as TV and film sets went dark to wait out the worst of it. But, at the time of this interview in March, he was fresh off a film shoot in Mississippi and was excited to be back in front of a camera. “It felt pretty natural and really nice to be in that position again,” he says. “It’s nice to see it coming back.” He couldn’t reveal much about the project, only to say that the project is an indie film, and he plays a major role in it. Fegley says his preparation for any new acting gig changes with the part, but regardless of whether the project is a drama, comedy or something in between, he needs to feel a certain “click.”
“Even if something is really well written, I need to be able to see myself doing it,” he explains. “The relationship between characters is really important.” And when he finds a role that’s right for him, there’s no doubt about it. “It sparks that passion,” says Fegley. “The rush is really nice.”
It’ll be a few more years before the now 16-year-old Fegley officially makes the transition to young adulthood. He’s unsure whether his future plans include sticking around the Lehigh Valley; he can envision himself someday putting down roots in a bigger city, like Chicago or New York (but not Los Angeles, he says—fun place to visit, but not really his scene). That’s not to say he doesn’t appreciate the opportunities the region has afforded him, from learning the tricks of the trade during his earliest roles at Civic Theatre to having access to meatier parts that are just a car ride away. “It’s a great location because it’s so close to New York,” he says. “I was often taking the one-and-a-half, two-hour trip [into the city], auditioning for things.”
Of course, his attachment to the region transcends his career. “I’ve called the Lehigh Valley home for a long time,” Fegley says. “It will always be very important, very special.” His family is here—he’s a nephew of Jeff Fegley, co-owner of the Fegley’s Brew Works locations in Allentown and Bethlehem—and so are his friends. “There are great people who surround me here,” says Fegley. He has fond memories of going to Dorney Park when he was a kid; these days, he says, he doesn’t go out as much because he likes to take it easy at home. He does get recognized on occasion, but it’s not something he finds bothersome. “It’s a cool feeling. It’s not something that interferes.”
Fegley has made sure his old stomping grounds don’t get lost in the shuffle, even as his career has taken off. Back in 2016, he attended a special screening of Pete’s Dragon at Civic Theatre, just days after walking the red carpet for the film’s star-studded premiere in Hollywood. Judging from media accounts of both events, the then 12-year-old Fegley was just as gracious and excited to be in the spotlight in Allentown as he was in the entertainment capital of the world. And now the Lehigh Valley waits to see what this talented native son will come up with next.
