The young and talented Ed Oxenbould. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

“It’s a bus and two trains,’’ says the third-generation thespian, who lives with his actor parents (Di Adams and Jamie Oxenbould) in Bondi. (Uncle Ben and grandmother Janice also tread the boards.)

After his scene-stealing performance as Debbie Vickers’ entrepreneurial baby brother in popular Network 10 series Puberty Blues, Oxenbould still gets the occasional strange look from commuters trying to place his familiar face.

“It’s not as bad now that Puberty Blues has finished but who knows what will happen when Alexander is released,” he said.

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The Year 7 student landed the title role in Disney’s big-budget adaptation of the Judith Viorst novel, which opens here in Australia next Thursday, after sending off a self-made tape.

“We didn’t want a typical child actor,’’ says director Miguel Arteta, who enlisted his wife to help sort through more than 500 auditions.

“The moment Ed came on, we both saw something special. He’s super smart, sweet and generous.”

Star-studded cast .... Alexander Cooper (Ed Oxenbould) in a scene from Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Picture: Dale Robinette / Disney Enterprises, Inc. Source: Supplied

Given the high-profile nature of his first feature film, which is set to open on 280 screens across Australia, it’s highly likely Oxenbould’s face will soon be plastered across one of the buses he catches so regularly.

“That would be really weird,’’ he admits.

But the surprisingly well-grounded 13-year-old doesn’t think his schoolmates would be overly fazed.

“I slot back in without people really noticing,” he says. “I’ll slide in and they will go: ‘Oh, OK, Ed’s back.’”

Truth be told, the young actor hasn’t spent much of his first year of high school sitting behind a desk.

After shooting Alexander, in which he plays the accident-prone second-youngest son in an unusually upbeat family of six, Oxenbould was cast as the lead in Australian director Robert (Balibo) Connolly’s G-rated children’s film Paper Planes, which opens here on January 15.

Co-starring Sam Worthington, David Wenham and Deborah Mailman, it’s the story of a self-reliant country boy who channels his grief over the loss of his mother in an unexpected direction.

“It took me three or four years to get the script right,’’ says Connolly.

“Then I realised I had written this role which requires an 11-year-old in absolutely every scene.”

“I don’t know how I would have made the film without Ed.”

“I feel like there is this good fortune and synchronicity that he was the right age at the right time. I found him an absolute joy to work with.”

Connolly and director Richard Roxburgh cast fellow Australian actor Kodi Smit McPhee (Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes) in Romulus, My Father at the age of 10.

“Some kids get completely caught up and go on this massive journey as an actor and others find interests in their life,’’ he says.

Children’s comedy ... Sam Worthington and Ed Oxenbould in a scene from Paper Planes. Picture: Roadshow Films Source: Supplied

“Ed is an amazingly well balanced kid with lots of interests. I feel like he has got his head screwed on enough to kind of find his way.”

After wrapping up Paper Planes, Oxenbould was back at school for only a couple of weeks before he landed another plum role in The Visit, the latest horror film to be directed by M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense).

First major role ... Ed Oxenbouldm with Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Ashleigh Cummings and Claudia Karvan in Puberty Blues. Picture: Channel 10 Source: Supplied

Illustrious cast mates ... Ed Oxenbould with Jennifer Garner and Steve Carell. Picture: Ricky Middlesworth / Disney Enterprises, Inc Source: Supplied

Shyamalan is notoriously tight-lipped about his projects prior to release, so Oxenbould is too.

“Working with him was incredible, intense, hard-core. I can’t really say anything more because it is super secret,” he says.

While Oxenbould is now on first-name terms with Carell and Garner, who he refers to as his friends, he stresses that life as a child actor isn’t always as glamorous as it sounds.

The temperatures were so hot on his first day on the set of Paper Planes, in Western Australia, that the camera actually seized

“I don’t want to sound like a whinger but it was one of the hardest days of my life,” he says.

Alexander presented an entirely different set of challenges.

Even though the trailer he shared with onscreen siblings Kerris Dorsey and Dylan Minnette had a “tree house feel,” Oxenbould still had to keep up with his trigonometry assignments.

America’s child actor laws are very strict.

“It’s like school, set, school, set, lunch. There is really no break and it is pretty intense. But I catch up,” he says.

The worst day on that set, Oxenbould decides after barely a moment’s hesitation, would have to be the last one.

“It’s so sad, because you spend every day with those people, and even nights sometime, so you get to know them really well.

“It’s just really hard to say goodbye to everybody, knowing that some people you might never see again.”

SEE:Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible No Good, Very Bad Day is now showing

SEE:Paper Planes opens on January 15