WHALE I’LL BE DAMNED
Jesse from hit 90s movie Free Willy looks totally unrecognisable 30 years on
FREE Willy is a childhood classic that tells the heart-warming tale of a young boy and an Orca whale that became best friends.
After he vandalised the theme park where Willy lived, orphan Jesse's life was turned around when he was ordered to work there as punishment.
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But the tearaway teen soon found redemption after he halted plans that would have seen the whale killed.
Jesse was played by Jason James Richter who landed the role at just 13-years-old and went onto star in all three Free Willy films between the years of 1993 and 1997.
He took the role over 4,000 auditionees who desperately wanted the part as the heroic teen.
Speaking in 2013, Jason revealed that he actually had to interact with a real life whale, named Keiko, on set.
"I remember it being one of those moments of pure and utter fascination as a child," he told the Daily Beast.
"You don't see the danger. At 11 years old, you're just like, 'Oh my God, a whale. That's amazing! This will be awesome, he recalled.”
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“Had I been 17, I might have been like, 'Hey, this thing is going to bite my hand off,' but when you're 11 you're just like, 'Oh, wow. Cool. Let me touch it.'"
After taking a brief hiatus, Jason made an appearance in an episode of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch as Dante as a lad brought in as a potential suitor for Sabrina by her aunts.
He then took another eight-year break from acting between 2001 and 2009, during which he played bass guitar in the band Fermata.
But in 2015 the US-born star, now 41, began his movie comeback with accredited roles in the Last Rampage, The Brawler and most recently comedy-drama Last Call.
Speaking to Ok Magazine in 2016 he said: "I’m still acting. I just finished a film called High and Outside.
"I got to play a crazy biker in the film which was pretty different. Before that, I played a doctor in a film called inhumane and I’m slated to do a Western."
As of 2022, Jason is believed to be worth an estimated £386,000, according to
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