Great Expectations star Jeremy Irvine reveals 'acting masterclass' with Colin Firth in The Railway Man - but says he doesn't want fame (COVENTRY TELEGRAPH)

 By David Bentley on December 10, 2012 9:12 PM

Jeremy Irvine is having the year of his life. No sooner had he made his film debut as the lead in Steven Spielberg's War Horse in January than he found himself being asked by director Mike Newell to play Pip in his adaptation of the Dickens classic Great Expectations, now on release in cinemas.


And then he was in demand yet again when Colin Firth wanted Irvine to play his younger self in upcoming war drama The Railway Man.

In The Railway Man - due out in 2013 (no UK release date has yet been announced) - Irvine plays the young Eric Lomax, a British army officer sent to a Japanese prison camp during World War Two and forced to work on the infamous Death Railway from Thailand to Burma. Firth portrays the older Lomax.

"I met Colin Firth and had dinner with him and he was the one that actually got me the role, which was nice," says the 22-year-old rising star.

"We kind of share the movie and he was so generous. We'd rehearse in his living room and I was thinking 'My God, this is the kind of acting masterclass you can only dream of when you're at drama school'.

"At the time, you're just working with someone who's really good at what they do and really interesting, and of course afterwards you go 'Wow, that was really kind of him'."


READ MORE: http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/thegeekfiles/2012/12/great-expectations-star-jeremy-irvine-on-his-acting-masterclass-with-colin-firth-in-the-railway-man.html