TORONTO -- At only four-foot-eleven, budding movie star Neel Sethi's feet dangle freely from his perch during an all-day junket to promote his film, "The Jungle Book."
So freely that the chair squeaks, and it prompts urgent action to keep a reporter's recording from being spoiled: a duffel bag is plopped on top of a wooden crate and placed under the 12-year-old's feet.
The interview can resume. Like a pro, Sethi offers up a smile for the camera.
This pre-teen leading man takes the quirks of helming an international publicity campaign in stride, eagerly listing all the ways he's just like his big screen character, Mowgli, and dropping anecdotes about co-star Bill Murray and director Jon Favreau.
"I got to meet a lot of people," Sethi says matter-of-factly of his blockbuster turn.
"Bill Murray, me and Jon Favreau flew to Martha's Vineyard on a private jet and Jon Favreau made a brisket while me and Bill Murray played football."
Sethi stars in the live-action remake of Disney's animated 1967 film of the same name, also based on Rudyard Kipling's stories about an abandoned child raised in the jungle by an array of wild animals.
The effects-laden feature is packed with eye-popping spectacles -- virtually everything, save for Sethi, is computer-generated.
That includes the fearsome tiger Shere Khan, voiced by Idris Elba; the protective panther Bagheera, voiced by Ben Kingsley; Mowgli's bear pal Baloo, voiced by Murray; and the deceitful snake Kaa, voiced by Scarlett Johansson.
When talk turns to his on-set exploits, Sethi insists the project was more play than work, since his jungle-raised character spends a good chunk of time running, jumping, swinging or climbing.
"I trained in parkour like two weeks before filming, and that really helped me," says Sethi, who was chosen for the role out of 2,000 young contenders.
"They would teach me how to land safely and I'd get over things quickly. It was a lot of fun. And now it looks so cool in the movie."
Sethi acted against a blue screen opposite Favreau, or puppets from Jim Henson's Creature Shop.
His performances were then digitally assembled alongside the computer-generated creatures -- more than 70 species in all -- and matched up with a meticulously detailed digital jungle backdrop.
As for channelling the character of the 10-year-old Mowgli, it wasn't a big deal, says Sethi.
"We're so similar. I don't really need to turn into Mowgli because we're already the same," he says.
"We're both stubborn, energetic and adventurous."
And he's ready for another close-up, as long as he can also pursue a few other passions.
"I definitely want to do more of this," says Sethi, whose parents are both dentists.
"It's a lot of fun but also I want to be a dentist and a basketball player, a football player and a baseball player."
"The Jungle Book" opens Friday.
