Nor did his acting coach. He was terrible child actor. There were plenty of other kids who could have done a great job. Good child actors aren’t that rare a find and there’s more than one better choice in the BTS casting clips! Every line Jake delivers is truly terrible and not just because of the writing. “Sandstorms are very, very dangerous.” That’s not a bad line on it’s own…
Also, along this vein, casting him younger and expecting him to act older while casting Natalie older and expecting her to act younger was a terrible choice. This comes off incredibly creepy during their scenes together.