Astro Goes From X Factor to Known Factor With Acting Roles

Brian “Astro” Bradley is just 17 years old but he’s already heading towards stardom. One of the most popular contestants on The X Factor as a 14-year-old, he’s appearing in Earth to Echo, a new movie that opens this Friday.

In the movie, he plays Tuck Simms, one of several friends who set out on an adventure and find much more than they expected. It’s theme is similar to another popular children’s movie, “E.T. The Extraterrestrial.”

And he’s scored another movie with Liam Neeson, A Walk Among The Tombstones that’s headed to theaters in September. Astro may have changed girlfriends since X Factor, but not hometowns. He still lives in Brooklyn.

“This is where I gotta be,” he told The Tom Joyner Morning Show. “This is how I keep my sanity. I didn’t real blow up. People know me out here but it’s not crazy to the point where I can’t walk down the street. That’s why I like it out here. I’m busy and I’m working and sometimes it’s good to just be back home like normal people. Whoever knows me, knows me. It’s not like my whole block knows who I am and that’s a good thing.”

Astro is also going to be a part of the new Octavia Spencer TV project The Red Band Society, which he says starts shooting in a few weeks.

Although Earth to Echo has many similarities to the E.T. movie, Astro hasn’t himself seen the original. It came out in 1982, well before he was born.