Ones To Watch: Sam Claflin
From Clash’s current film issue. Photo by Samuel John Butt.
“So many dreams come true when you’re actor, or they do when you’re as lucky as I’ve been,” smiles Sam Claflin. On the cusp of achieving great things as an actor, Claflin has already portrayed a knight (in the TV mini-series The Pillars of the Earth), cavorted in a world of pirates (as Phillip Swift in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) and played a superstar footballer (the ill-fated Duncan Edwards in the BBC drama United.
Claflin’s upward momentum will continue this summer when he’ll be seen in a major role as Prince William in Snow White and The Huntsman. Childhood friends William and Snow White (Kristen Stewart) are torn apart, but when Williams finds out several years later that she’s still alive, he sets out in pursuit of the love of his life. ”It’s a darker retelling of a classic story. I’m very excited to see the outcome as Rupert Sanders the director has an incredible vision,” he enthuses.
Before filming, Claflin and Stewart discovered an unlikely connection: Claflin had met the singer-songwriter Marcus Foster after being impressed when he saw Foster supporting Foy Vance. Stewart, meanwhile, starred in Foster’s video for I Was Broken: “It was an immediate ice-breaker as we had something in common.”
Claflin can also currently be seen alongside fellow One To Watch star MyAnna Buring as one of the leads in the BBC drama White Heat which charts the lives of seven friends from 1965 to the present day.
As for the future? “I’m nervously excited! I’m nervous that I may never work again, but I’m excited at not knowing what part I might do next,” he concludes, flashing that soon to be famous boyish grin. “I’m very curious to see where my life might take me. It’s a good place to be.”
