For Hero Fiennes Tiffin (After, Picture This), joining the cast of the new Prime Video series Young Sherlock as its titular protagonist pretty was much a no-brainer.
“There was no ‘thinking’ about taking on the role," Tiffin, 28, tells Teen Vogue on set at a shooting location in Seville, Spain. As a kid, he watched Guy Ritchie's version, and he, his brother, and his dad loved the BBC version to the point he's seen it multiple times. “I'm a proper Sherlock fan growing up … When the offer came, they didn't even finish saying his name, Sherlock, [and] I was in."
Tiffin plays the character as adapted from Andrew Lane's Young Sherlock Holmes book series, which finds a 19-year-old Sherlock studying at Oxford, years before he meets Watson. He's joined by his brother Mycroft (Max Irons) and future enemy James Moriarty (Dónal Finn). Additional cast include Zine Tseng, Joseph Fiennes, Colin Firth, Holly Cattle, and more, with Ritchie returning to the world of Sherlock to direct and executive produce alongside EP and showrunner Matthew Parkhill. The first episode premieres Wednesday, March 4.
Below, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, clad in his Young Sherlock costume at the beautiful Casa di Pilatos in Seville, talks to Teen Vogue about building Sherlock's origin story, working with uncle Joseph Fiennes, and how he's grown as an actor since he played young Voldemort in Harry Potter.
Hero Fiennes Tiffin: It's been pretty exhausting, but if there's any show and character that you can motivate yourself to get behind each morning is this. Do you know what I mean? It's my first taste of a proper long, long show. I think the longest I've done before would've been a few months. So yeah, it's been a real pleasure and a treat. We're still just at that point of, let's dig deep and throw the kitchen sink at it and finish strong.
HFT: I'm such a big fan of Sherlock. So yeah, [I] feel the pressure a little bit because I'm on that side of if I watched it, I'd be like, "I hope you live up to..." I know what to expect from a Sherlock adaptation, but the fact it's young Sherlock gives us a little bit of room. So welcomed pressure, exciting pressure.
HFT: I did a little prep in terms of, I've used it as an excuse to rewatch, but I obviously digested so much of Guy's one and the BBC one. I did go to the Sherlock Holmes Museum and they have a floor where they show a handful of the adaptations. You learn that people all over the world [have been adapting this story]. [There] is like a Japanese stage version with a female Sherlock and everything in between. So yeah, we're definitely not the first or the last to have a stab at it.
HFT: I think so. Sorry, Guy. I just like, I don't know … I love how different the two stars are. But don't get me wrong, I love the combat element and the take on Sherlock that Guy did. But I would say the one that I was the biggest fan of might have been the BBC one.
HFT: We've tried to make the most of the fact that he's not a fully fledged Sherlock. So it maybe feels somewhat like an origin story. The kid in me is like, "Oh, I'm excited for him to solve stuff and win. Find the solution." But I think in our adaptation, especially in this first season, there's so much that Sherlock has to learn. He's not a detective yet. He's just a curious, intelligent person who just wants to follow leads and work things out. And eventually that will lead to him realizing how that's his strongest trait and that he should look for a profession within that. But I think at the start, a lot of what happens is it happens to him and he ends up having no choice but to somewhat detect and investigate without it being his profession.
So it's been really interesting exploring that, but obviously we need to build up to him figuring out what these traits are and becoming very good at deduction and investigation. And even like the combat side of things, we've started him off very inept with his ability, we've hand to hand combat and that's something he learns from Moriarty. It's been interesting trying to map out the growth and the arc and not play him as the Sherlock we know and love yet, and play a version of that with still loads of room to grow and map out that journey. That's what's so fun about these adaptations and origin stories is watching them grow to who we know they're going to be. You need to make sure you document that growth rather than just give it all at the start.
HFT: It's been really interesting because we know, it's really hard to forget where Moriarty ends up because obviously as a fan [I] know full well who he becomes, but it's such an interesting take that Matthew's gone with of having them be friends at the start. There's so much that they learn from each other. So exploring that's been brilliant. I mean, Dónal, I can't sing his praises enough. He's a phenomenal actor and he cares so much. So we're so, so lucky to have him. Me and Dónal both quickly understood how much more stuff there was to unearth and potential there was to try and achieve. And he's always given 110%. And as I say, phenomenal actor with great instincts.
HFT: I mean, I've always looked up to Joe and admired him as an actor. So I think even if we weren't related, I'd still have a sense of excitement to work with him, but that's doubled by the fact that he's my uncle. And there's some scenes that we did where there's a familiarity that we already have that we feel somewhat makes its way onto screen without us having to find it. It's somewhat already there when we're looking at each other and it's a face that I've looked at, I've recognized all my life. There might be something that I'm not conscious of that happens. So there's that. There's also the fact that because I've looked up to and admired him, when I first started doing scenes of him, there's a part of me that went back to when I first started acting like, "Oh God, I hope I can impress him."
HFT: I hope he thinks I'm half decent, but he's very quickly been obviously nothing but supportive and I've really enjoyed it. You ask him between takes, "What do you think of this," and being able to collaborate. He's obviously been very, very generous with his looking out for me, not just doing his own thing, but not overstepping and telling me what to do, but being ready to answer questions when I say, "What do you think of this or how I should play?" He's always been super helpful and insightful with his advice.
HFT: Yeah, it feels like a lifetime ago, Harry Potter, because I was also so young. I feel like I've grown a lot on this job as well. I feel like when I was young, I felt like I work for the set, I turn up, I do what I'm told. And as we've gotten further into this series, I've realized how much of the direction Guy's given, I've started to understand and been able to implement that myself and needed to [say] sometimes, "Hang on, I think we should do that again." [I've been making that] transition from being like, "Oh yeah, if you guys are happy, then we're happy," to be like, actually no. Sometimes [you need] to not put your foot down because everyone's collaborative and we're all working towards the same goal, but [sometimes to] speak up in moments where I feel like we can make it better because you don't want to just turn up and say the lines. What's on the page is always amazing. But Matthew's done the hard work, so we need to do him justice … and just make everything the best thing it can be.
That has been a transition for me as an actor to go from, as I say, doing what I'm told, turning up, saying the lines to really like making sure the day players and the actors who aren't in as much feel comfortable and making sure that they feel like they can explore everything. And yeah, I definitely feel like I've grown as an actor since Harry Potter for sure. But I almost feel like I've grown the same amount on this job as I have from Harry Potter to the start of this job.
HFT: I'm sure it's the same in so many lines of work where it takes a while for you to get to that point where you go, actually I've got enough experience and understanding to give my two cents. At first you have to check yourself, but sometimes you need other really experienced people like our DP, Sean Savage, for example, to validate those and say, "No, I think that is [true]." And then that builds your confidence and everyone gets behind you and they say, "No, what you're doing is great. Keep doing it." Then you grow into that position of having the confidence to put a bit more of your stamp on it.
HFT: Yeah. Yeah. I'm very excited to take a little bit of time off and rest because you need the rest in any line of work, your work-life balance. So I'm excited for that. But I will definitely... I don't know how I'm going to feel. I'm definitely going to be really sad and miss it, but I'm very, very hopeful that we can come back and do season two because there's so much more to explore. So yeah, definitely going to be sad when it finishes, but hopefully it's more excitement to come back.
