JULY 2025
WEARING CARTIER
PHOTOGRAPHY ALAN GELATI STYLING CHLOE BEENEY INTERVIEW DAVID GARGIULO
LOCATION THE BOTREE HOTEL LONDON
Now in its eighth season, Outlander has spent the past decade building a world where time bends, love endures, and history bleeds through every frame.
With Blood of My Blood, the prequel series commissioned by Starz, that universe folds in on itself, rewinding to an earlier chapter, long before Claire ever touched the stones. Set in the turbulent 18th century, the series traces the origin stories of familiar bloodlines and the emotional scars that shape generations. Among the new faces stepping into this legacy is Jeremy Irvine, playing Henry Beauchamp, Claire’s father, a man shaped by the horrors of war and the fragility of the world he returns to. Henry isn’t just a link to the past; he’s a study in trauma, survival, and emotional unraveling. Jeremy’s performance is measured and deeply human, showing a man trying to rebuild after witnessing the worst of humanity. It's a performance rooted in stillness, in what isn’t said. You get the sense he’s always listening to something we can’t hear. A memory, a scream, a promise made on a battlefield. Jeremy has always moved easily through period roles, but here he offers something more raw. There’s no polish, no pretense. Just a man unraveling, quietly. Time doesn’t heal everything. Some pain is too deep. Some stories begin with a wound. And still, even in the bleakest corners of this history, Blood of My Blood finds flickers of hope. Of love trying to bloom. Of humanity clawing its way back. Through Jeremy’s Henry, we see not just the cost of war, but the fragile, trembling possibility of healing.
Total look MOSS, shoes MANOLO BLAHNIK.
David Gargiulo __ You grew up in the Cambridgeshire area of England. What kind of childhood did you have?
Jeremy Irvine __ I did! In a village called Gamlingay. It’s a small village so my childhood was quiet. I think that’s part of the reason I wanted to get into acting. I had my mates in the village, and by the time you're a teenager growing up in a rural area, you're basically just out making trouble, if you know what I mean? [smiles] So acting became something I could focus on that kept me out of trouble. It gave me a creative outlet.
DG __ How did your friends react to you becoming a movie star? Did they treat you any differently?
Shirt J W ANDERSON.
JI __ It's funny. The people who know you well don’t change at all. In fact, it’s almost the opposite. They really don’t want to hear about it. They're so unfussed by it. I took my three best mates to the premiere of one of my films not long ago. I was so excited. They were my guests, you know? They all went to the pub beforehand and by the time they showed up, they were embarrassingly drunk. I’m trying to introduce them to the director and all my people at work, right? I’m trying to make an impression. They sat down next to me, the director, and the other stars of the film and immediately fell asleep. [laughs] Snored through the whole thing. An absolute nightmare! So yeah, they couldn’t care less I’m famous.
DG __ [laughs] You can’t take them anywhere?
JI __ I know! [laughs] God, they’re always so embarrassing. They’re so impressed by everyone who’s famous to them. But me? I don’t impress them in the slightest. It’s annoying, really.
Jacket CRAIG GREEN.
DG __ The worst! [laughs] Will you take them to another premiere after that?
JI __ Of course! I never learn. I just keep doing it.
DG __ Your real last name is Smith. What inspired the choice to become “Jeremy Irvine” professionally?
JI __ I didn’t really choose it in any grand way. When I was signing up for Equity, the British actors’ union, right after drama school, there was already a Jeremy Smith. So I needed something else, and I just chose my grandfather’s first name. That was it. I think I had about 15 minutes to fill in the forms, and I couldn’t think of anything. One of those snap decisions you make when you’re 17, and now it’s stuck with me.
DG __ Were there early performances or mentors who shaped your instincts or gave you permission to take creative risks?
JI __ I was very lucky. I was a bit lost at 16. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. I actually tried to join the army. I went down to the recruitment center and thought, “Yeah, that’s probably the right path.” But pretty quickly, I found out I wasn’t going to pass the medical. I had a really good theater teacher at school. Then I went to drama school for about a year. I really enjoyed it. After that I dived straight into the industry. There were a lot of auditions, and a lot of rejection. At one point, I showed up uninvited to a Royal Shakespeare Company audition and somehow ended up getting a background role, basically playing a tree half the time. No lines. Just holding a spear now and then. And honestly, I thought that was about as good as it would get, working in theater, on a London stage. Then about a month after finishing that job, I got my first audition for War Horse with Steven Spielberg. It was a six months process before I landed the role. At that point, I’d never acted for the camera before. No training for it. I remember the first shot we did. I’d just been thrown off a horse and had to get up and say my line. Steven got down in the mud with me and showed me how he wanted me to get up. He was constantly giving me friendly, really helpful advice. So yeah, I did all of my on-camera training right there, with Steven Spielberg as my mentor. Which, obviously, is a massive privilege.
DG __ That sounds like a dream come true. Learning from the best in the world.
JI __ A hundred percent. People always ask, “What was he like?” Honestly, I’ve never worked with someone so unassuming and kind. He’s very paternal. He even had Dad written on the back of his director’s chair. He really took me under his wing. It wasn’t as scary as people imagine. He made it very easy.
DG __ Earlier, you mentioned trying to join the army and being turned down for medical reasons.
JI __ Yeah. I’m diabetic. I’d always thought that was what I was going to do. But when I went in, they told me I’d be classified as “non-deployable.” And I just thought, “Well, what’s the point in doing it if I can’t be fully involved?”
DG __ It sounds like whatever you do, you throw yourself into it completely.
JI __ I’ve always had that drive. It sounds a bit arrogant, but I like to go all in. I don’t know if it’s ambition or just recklessness. [laughs] Because, let’s be real, getting into acting isn’t exactly a smart move. The odds of making a living are tiny. But I still do things that way. Like during lockdown, acting completely dried up. I had some money from a couple of jobs, so I thought, “Screw it! Why don’t I try building a house?” So I did. And now I’m doing another one between projects.I love it.
Shirt LOEWE.
DG __ Come again? Do you mean that literally? You actually built a house?
JI __ Yes, I literally built a house. And now I’m building another. It’s actually really satisfying. When you’re acting, you can spend months working hard and still have no idea how it’s going to turn out. You’re creating something intangible. But when you’re building something, like doing the studwork or putting up a wall, you can see the results immediately. You know it’s done right. That kind of instant gratification is really satisfying.
DG __ You are full of surprises! This is a new chapter in the Outlander universe, but your character, Henry Beauchamp, is part of a lineage fans already love. How does it feel?
JI __ I knew the show was popular but I didn’t realize how popular until just a few weeks ago when we started the press tour. We went to the U.S. and fans everywhere. It was very special.
DG __ What can we expect from Henry and Julia’s relationship?
JI __ It’s a very dramatic series overall. Really epic. There are battles, big fights, and right at the center are these ove stories. Henry and Julia just met and lived happily ever after, it wouldn’t be very interesting,
would it? So yeah, they have to go through a lot. And then you’ve got time travel in the mix, which I’ve never done before. That added a whole new layer. But the Outlander world is beautiful. It’s a place where this heart-burning, unconditional love actually exists. These characters would die for each other. And it’s just fun to act in a world with those kinds of stakes and passion. You can go to emotional extremes and really make it sing.
JI __ Took me a while too. Luckily, Outlander has been going for eight seasons so they’ve got it all figured out! My character, though, doesn’t know anything about the time travel aspect of the story, so I tried to keep myself in the dark and discover things as he would. You know, you don’t have to go too far back in Scottish history to find folklore and magic. That stuff is still alive in Scotland. Especially out in the Highlands and the islands. It’s a mystical place. The mountains, the dark skies, the craggy cliffs. There’s just something so evocative about it. It’s a world where you can really believe in fairy tales and monsters. Think of the Loch Ness Monster. That legend lasted for centuries. And when you’re actually there, you kind of get it. You think, “Yeah, maybe there is something out there.” So if you’re doing a show with time travel or magic, and you set it in that world, it just makes sense. It doesn’t feel so far-fetched anymore. People do believe in the fairies here. Spelled f-a-e-r-i-e-s, I think. So the idea of stepping through some magical stones into another time, it’s really not that wild.
DG __ The show is called Blood of My Blood, a phrase packed with generational meaning. What does legacy mean to you?
JI __ My motto has always been to try and be as happy as I can and to make the people around me as happy as I can. If I manage to do that, I’ll be satisfied with that as a legacy.
DG __ There’s a lot of emotional disillusionment in Henry’s world, war, social duty, tradition. Do you think that sense of questioning the ‘system’ makes the show especially relevant right now?
JI __ What I really like about the show is the escapism. It’s a world I feel like I can get completely lost in. I remember being obsessed with The Lord of the Rings when I was younger because it let me disappear into another world. And this show feels similar. It’s set in a different time, different rules, different pace. There’s something really satisfying about that. Especially now, with everything going on in the world, this show gives you a break from it all. For an hour an episode, you’re not doom-scrolling the news. You’re just somewhere else. And I think that’s valuable.
Total look MOORER VERONA. (opposite) Jacket MIU MIU, Jeans LABOUR AND WAIT, shoes MANOLO BLAHNIK.
DG __ Your character, Henry Beauchamp, lives through the trauma and upheaval of World War I. A conflict that, like many wars, has been depicted countless times in films and stories showing its pain and futility. Why do you think humanity keeps repeating these cycles of conflict despite all the lessons and warnings we've seen?
JI __ We seem to have incredibly short memories, don’t we? The First World War in particular was so brutally unsanitized. It was mass slaughter on a scale that’s hard to grasp. And back then, things like shell shock weren’t understood the way we understand PTSD today. It was one of the first times we saw psychological trauma on that kind of scale. Raw, visible, and completely overwhelming. You see those old footage reels and it’s chilling: people with tremors, tics, completely incapacitated. Unable to sit still, unable to function. That’s why I think the emotional cost of WWI gets explored so much. It was the first time we really saw it, we really documented it. My character Henry is scarred by the war and suffers from PTSD. As an actor, it’s essential to approach that with care and respect. I remember reading the script and thinking, “Oh wow, there’s real psychological depth here. He’s dealing with this torment. What does that look like? What if he has a physical tick? What if he’s unraveling?” Those are the questions that help ground the performance. As the episodes kept coming in, it got more and more extreme. It’s a painful truth for the character, but from an acting standpoint, it’s a privilege to explore something so layered and real.
Shirt RICK OWENS, jeans LABOUR AND WAIT.
DG __ Between horror, period drama, and dance comedy, your upcoming slate is incredibly varied. Do you seek out different genres on purpose?
JI __ I do. There’s something really exciting about doing something different each time. I think I’d get bored pretty quickly if I were just repeating the same kind of character over and over. One of the best parts of acting is the process of finding the character, that prep work before you even get on set. That’s where so much of the fun is. And if I were doing the same thing every time, I think that part would start to lose its spark.
DG __ So how does that discovery process work for you?
JI __ It’s strange. Sometimes it’s just me sitting with the script, trying out ideas, thinking, “What if he moved like this? What if he spoke like that?” But honestly, a lot of my better ideas come when I’m not trying at all. I’ll just be walking down the street and see someone do something weird or interesting, and suddenly I’ll think, “That would be perfect for this role.” Sometimes it’s someone I meet in a pub, or just a little moment I notice. And I’ll wonder, “Can I build that into the character?” I’ve learned not to force it. When I’ve tried to push too hard, it never works. But eventually, things tend to click into place.
DG __ Do you find yourself carrying the character into your day-to-day life when you're deep in a role?
JI __ It depends on the role. I’ve had a few where that’s actually been helpful, where staying in that mindset between scenes made sense. But it’s not something I always do. This series, for example, was a very different process. I’ve only done one other American TV show before, and the pace is intense. Sometimes you’re getting the script the day you’re shooting it.
DG __ Wait, really? The same day?
JI __ Yeah, last week we got a scene the morning we shot it. So you have to work differently. You can’t come in with this rigid plan. You’ve got to be flexible, ready to adapt. In a way, you need to know your character even better but in a more open, fluid sense. I actually enjoy it. It forces you to be more instinctive.
DG __ Is there one role coming that you feel will reshape how people see you as an actor?
JI __ I’m really proud of how Blood of My Blood has come together. It’s a strong cast of proper British actors. People who’ve been doing top-quality work for years. Acting alongside them makes you level up. I’d be in a scene thinking, “Jesus, there’s no way I’m matching what you’re doing,” and it just pushes you to go harder. Everyone’s raising the bar. I’ll tell you a secret, I hate watching myself. Honestly, out of the 20 or 30 films I’ve done, I probably haven’t seen at least 10 of them.
DG __ Seriously? What about premieres?
JI __ I’d stay for five minutes and sneak out. [laughs] I can’t stand it! It just makes me feel terrible. I just sit there picking myself apart.
DG __ Oh yes, the inner critic. I have an idea for next time. Just get drunk with your friends first! [laughs]
JI __ That might work. I’ll give it a shot. Good idea! [laughs]
Photographer Alan Gelati, Stylist Chloe Beeney, Interviewer David Gargiulo, Groomer Amanda Grossman (Forward Artists), Photo Assistant Stephen Young,
Actor Jeremy Irvine (Prosper PR), Location The BoTree Hotel London.
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