Meet the star of Guy Ritchie’s new action comedy
How did Hero Fiennes Tiffin get his start?
Despite growing up the son of two filmmakers, Hero Fiennes Tiffin had zero interest in show business as a kid. “What your family does isn’t initially cool to you, so I just wanted to play football with my friends,” he says of his South London childhood. Nevertheless, you might recall one of his early onscreen appearances, as the young Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. (His uncle, Ralph Fiennes, portrayed the fully formed villain.) “My mom said, ‘There’s an audition for Harry Potter,’” Fiennes Tiffin remembers, “and I said, ‘Why are you telling me?’” She incentivized him by letting him miss school on audition day, and he ended up booking the role. “I was like, This acting s***’s amazing—you just get so many days off school!”
Which projects has he worked on?
In 2019, after scoring supporting parts in a film and a British drama series, Fiennes Tiffin took on the lead role of Harry Styles–inspired heartthrob Hardin Scott in the After franchise, based on the romance novels by Anna Todd. “The more time I spend away from it, I realize how luxurious it is for an actor to get the opportunity to play the same character again and again,” he says of starring in the five films, the last of which came out this past September. “Everyone talks about their big break, and that was definitely it for me. I don’t think it just put me on the map, per se; I think it really gave me the opportunity to develop my skills as an actor.”
What is his role in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare?
This month, the 26-year-old actor stars in the Guy Ritchie action comedy The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, a fictionalized account of a real-life secret organization that Winston Churchill founded during World War II, giving birth to modern black ops. “The files that documented these true stories were only de-filed in 2012, so it’s actually fresh information about a cool revolution in warfare,” Fiennes Tiffin says. Speaking of cool, that was Ritchie’s big note during an intense scene in which the actor’s character hides from Nazis. “Guy goes, ‘Do it again, but just be cool … a bit cooler … even cooler.’ By the end of it, I’ve abandoned everything I know about acting,” Fiennes Tiffin remembers—thus bringing to life the director’s “boldly confident” vision.
What’s next?
Fiennes Tiffin’s passion for football remains, and last year a dream came true when he joined a squad being fielded by his favorite club, West Ham United, for The Soccer Tournament—a seven-on-seven competition with a $1 million prize—after a chance encounter at a match. “One of the staff members tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘There’s an opportunity to come play with us in America,’” he recalls; the next day, he was training with the club. While West Ham didn’t win, “it was an unforgettable experience,” and he adds that a football-focused film will surely be in his future. Until then, his fans can look forward to an upcoming rom-com costar-ring Bridgerton’s Simone Ashley. “I had lots of fun,” he says. “It’s nice to do the other side of the romance coin.”
