Strike while Irons is hot

FOR ANY young actor, an audition can be a harrowing process.

Pity, then, Max Irons, when, during an early audition for his latest role, in the fairy-tale fantasy Red Riding Hood, he was asked to seduce the lead actress, Mamma Mia star Amanda Seyfried. It’s a tough life.

“Isn’t it?” smiles Irons. “Actually, it was a bit worrying because I was only told half-an-hour beforehand that the film’s director, Catherine Hardwicke, and Amanda would even be in there. That’s pretty scary. And it was at that time when Amanda’s face was on every bus in town, so you saw her everywhere, and yes, we had to kiss in the audition, which is very intimidating.”

He evidently kissed well, as he won the part. “I was embarrassed though,” continues the 25-year-old Englishman, “and when I walked into the audition room I tripped over a camera wire, just by seeing Amanda and going a bit gooey.”

The son of acclaimed acting couple Jeremy Irons and Sinead Cusack, he does not strike one as overly gooey. Indeed, one would expect the opposite sex to be going gooey over him. He’s extremely tall, quite broad, and is blessed with a thick mop of blond hair. The film in which he makes out with Hollywood starlet Seyfried is by far his biggest outing to date and it could set him upon the path to superstardom.

The movie Red Riding Hood comes from director Catherine Hardwicke, who shot the first Twilight film, thereby launching actors Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner on their startling career trajectory.

“Catherine is super intelligent and she’s very instinctive with young actors,” says Irons of his director.

In Hardwicke’s new film, Irons plays a blacksmith in a medieval village that’s threatened by a frightening, forest-prowling wolf, and he, of course, helps vanquish the beastie and save the girl, Seyfried’s Red Riding Hood.

“It’s fairly gory,” says Irons. “My character’s dad dies in the wolf’s attack on the village, as does Red Riding Hood’s sister and somebody then decides to send for a wolf-hunter, played by Gary Oldman.

“Hunting the wolf is not as easy as it appears, though, and people end up getting killed.”

The film is produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and was shot primarily in Vancouver, Canada, where Irons came face to face with a real-life wolf. “Yeah, I must say that was really scary day’s filming,” he says. “It’s the blue eyes, and the stillness. They are not yappy, like dogs. They are like spiders, tensed up, waiting and always ready to pounce.

“But I didn’t have to interact with it too much, which I was happy about. There was no petting and no: ‘Don’t wrestle with the wolf or pull its tail’.”

The toughest challenges came elsewhere.

“What was worse,” Irons continues, “was that we were shooting mostly on soundstages in Vancouver in the summer and it was really, really hot. We were under the tin roofs and had to act as though we were cold, even though we were sweltering. They’d built an entire medieval village and covered it with snow, which was pretty cool.”

The filmmakers no doubt hope their blend of cool looks and high-paced romantic adventure will attract the Twilight audience, and a handsome, light-hearted and terribly charming leading man does their bid no harm at all. Born in London, Irons grew up in a family blessed with a strong theatrical heritage, which extends back to his celebrated grandfather Cyril Cusack, a member of the RSC and a veteran of almost 100 films. The young Irons spent time on many of his parents’ film sets as a child.

“I remember one called House of the Spirits, and the day I was on set was pretty cool,” he recalls. “A car rolled down a hill, exploded and Meryl Streep’s severed head flew out of the car and rolled down the hill. I was about eight or nine. I thought it was brilliant!

“Really, though, film sets, once you’ve seen one they’re quite boring, unless I suppose it’s The Lord of the Rings. They’re very boring when you’re a kid particularly, sitting in your dad’s trailer while he’s out on set doing the same thing over and over again with no discernible differences!”

He enjoyed acting from an early age, battling with his dyslexia at school and eventually finding the confidence to perform.

As his talent blossomed so did his desire to follow acting full-time. Presumably, his family name has proved a boon when going up for parts?

“With casting directors the name can sometimes be a hindrance,” he says. “We live in world where a lot of people play that card and I have had someone say to me, ‘You’re only doing as well as you’re doing because of your parents.’ But if you look at it case-by-case, role-by-role, it’s not possible. People wouldn’t just give you a part if you couldn’t do it; it would ruin their film and the industry knows that.”

AFTER graduating from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, in the summer of 2008, Irons made his professional stage debut in Friedrich Schiller’s Wallenstein, at the Chichester Festival Theatre, which earned him a nomination for the Ian Charleson Award. He recently filmed in South Africa, shooting the mini-series The Runaway, based on Martina Cole’s bestseller, which will be broadcast by Sky 1.

“Making The Runaway was mad,” he smiles, “because they recreated Soho out in South Africa on the soundstages, with the red light district and all the hookers. The story is set in the 1970s and I play a guy who decides to get into the drug and kidnapping game, but isn’t quite capable. He’s not up to it and I’d imagine I wouldn’t be up to it either!”

Did the audition for that project involve any sensual moments? “Not this time, luckily. It is quite uncomfortable being judged on your kissing!”

After his dashing turn in Red Riding Hood, an army of female fans will no doubt emerge, each yearning to put him to the test.

* Red Riding Hood opens on April 15.