Hero Fiennes Tiffin wanted to give his version of Young Sherlock ‘room to grow’
Opening up about his new streaming show, actor Hero Fiennes Tiffin wanted to give his lead character “room to grow” in the new television series Young Sherlock.
Hero Fiennes Tiffin wanted to give his lead character “room to grow” in the new television series Young Sherlock.
The actor, 28, made the remark while opening up about his approach to playing the young version of Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective in the Prime Video prequel series Young Sherlock, which shows the detective before he becomes the figure global audiences recognise.
Speaking to Radio Times about his approach to the role, Hero said: “I mean, loads of it was on the page already, and I don't think there's much point in doing an origin story if you don't document some sort of journey.”
The actor added: “But also, I think you won't be doing it correctly if you don't make the character similar enough for audiences to believe that they'll eventually get to become the character that we all know and love.”
Hero continued: “So I think you're bang on with identifying that the thing that was most important for us at the start of our journey is marking the character in a place where we believe he will become Sherlock, but giving him enough room to grow and warranting the need for an origin story.”
Hero said he was also conscious of portraying a younger and more open version of the character compared with the more emotionally reserved figure often seen in earlier adaptations.
He added: “I think there are more specific things like in Conan Doyle's works we know that he's very capable of defending himself, for example, and when we first meet him in our show, he's definitely not.
“But I think something that I was very conscious of implementing myself was, I guess, giving him a youthful enthusiasm and positivity that the Sherlock that Conan Doyle has created, maybe at that point in his life, is a little bit more cynical and emotionally shut off from the world.
“And I think that's kind of relatable to a lot of people, when you experience the hardships of life that kind of benefit of the doubt that you give to everything, maybe sadly, slowly wears off a little bit. And I think I've enjoyed documenting that in Sherlock’s growth.”
The show explores the early life of Sherlock Holmes before the character becomes the famous detective depicted in Conan Doyle’s stories.
The series was created by Matthew Parkhill and executive produced and directed by Guy Ritchie, who previously directed two Sherlock Holmes films starring Robert Downey Jr.
Hero stars in the series alongside his uncle Joseph Fiennes.
The character of Sherlock Holmes has been portrayed on screen by numerous actors across film and television.
Previous versions include Basil Rathbone, Robert Downey Jr, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jonny Lee Miller, Ian McKellen, Henry Cavill and David Thewlis.
