Jeremy Irvine didn’t have much of an acting career before he met Steven Spielberg. In fact, the reel of “past work” he used to have was fake and filmed by his pal. But that didn’t stop Spielberg from casting him as the star of the 2011 film adaptation of “War Horse,” launching one of the hottest careers in Hollywood. This Friday, the 23-year-old Brit returns as Pip in the latest incarnation of the literary classic “Great Expectations,” alongside Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes. We sat down with the star at the Crosby Street Hotel to talk his rising fame, dating in the spotlight, and whether he actually enjoys Dickens.
Before you became an actor, what were you doing for work?
I did lots of things. My dad was trying to teach me to be a welder because he’s an engineer. Thank God that didn’t work out! That’s not a fun job. And I was doing all sorts of stuff like designing Web sites for actors — just teaching myself about anything. And then I finally got myself in the chorus with a theater show with the Royal Shakespeare Company. I was literally just playing a tree.
You went to an all-boys school. Was it difficult to be interested in theater?
When you say, ‘I want to go into acting,’ I feel like there’s always a bit of embarrassment until you actually start getting work. It’s been very nice to be able to say, “Oh yeah, I do acting,” and not be too embarrassed about it.
Are you still embarrassed by it?
In front of some people, yeah. I come from a little small town just north of London, and it’s a very real town. My dad does engineering, and my mom does a lot of social work and works in politics. They’re very real jobs. Every day they both do a lot of community work. Whenever I start to think what I’m doing is cool, it’s like, well, what they’re doing is infinitely more important than what I’m doing everyday.
Tell me something you learned from working with Spielberg on “War Horse.”
He had to teach me how to act for the camera. The first shot I did was this shot where I’m meant to have just fallen off the horse, and I’m lying on the ground and I kind of pick myself up out of the mud — this horrible f - - king muddy field. Spielberg was lying down in the mud with me, showing me how he wanted me to get up and showing me what he wanted me to do.
You’re taking on Dickens with your current movie. Everyone says they like Dickens. But did you actually like Dickens beforehand?
Um, personally, I think anything with the Muppets is great. What movie can’t the Muppets make better? [Laughs.] Yeah, I studied it for school. I think especially as a British person, I think it’s very difficult to escape contact with Dickens.
Why do we need another adaptation of “Great Expectations”?
I felt there hadn’t been a period movie version since the [1946] David Lean adaptation. That one, when I watched it, it’s a wonderful film, but it felt very dated, and I felt like there was a wonderful opportunity to bring it to the modern audience. What I liked was [director] Mike Newell talking about how we wanted to make it sexy. The thing is, we wanted to do a modern movie in period clothes. I think that’s the way to see it. In period movies, you often get these characters and everyone focuses on the etiquette at the time. Whereas we wanted to go, if Pip wants to shout, he will f - - king shout. If he wants to just grab her, then he should do that.
Your little brother, Toby, who was 13 during filming, plays the younger version of Pip. Was there any on-set sibling drama?
It was fun because I’m really close to my little brother, and I mean, I was terrified. The first day of read-through, he’s kind of set next to me, and we’re in between Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes — all these amazing legends. And he’s got to be in the first scene — he’s the first person to read out loud in front of all these people. He just dived into it and was amazing. What we didn’t bet on was that if you’re under 18, you’ve got to have a chaperone. So my mom was also there on-set, reminding me to put on sunscreen and stuff like that.
Tell us something we don’t know about Helena Bonham Carter, who plays Miss Havisham.
[She goes] into such minute detail. There are things in the movie she did for her character you’d never know about. You’d never see them on-screen. She has a perfume made for each character. She had a Miss Havisham perfume made. Great stuff.
You’re pretty open about your diabetes. Did being diabetic ever get in the way while filming?
No, I just don’t let it. I figure everyone has something. Everyone has something they’ve got to get on with.
You’ve said before that you don’t want fame. Is that still the case?
I think you’ve only got to spend some time with some really famous people to realize that it’s not something anyone really wants. I think people like the idea of it because all they see is people smiling. But there are parts of your life that should always be private that inevitably end up not being so private.
Your reported relationship with ex-girlfriend Ellie Goulding garnered a lot of tabloid attention. Has that convinced you to stay away from famous women in the future?
No, because when you meet someone that’s right, it doesn’t matter. You make it work, and you try to keep it as private as possible.
It seems like every rising male star now is British. Why do you think that is?
I have no idea. We seem to be in fashion at the moment. I think British people tend to be very self-effacing, and I think that means you tend not to be . . . I don’t know, I’ve got to be careful what I say there because that didn’t sound right. I have no idea, but I’m very grateful for it!