Freddie Fox

FREDDIE FOX IN NEW YORK, APRIL 2015. PANTS: ERMENEGILDO ZEGNA COUTURE. BRIEFS: CALVIN KLEIN UNDERWEAR. STYLING: KARL TEMPLER. COSMETICS: DIOR, INCLUDING DIORSKIN NUDE AIR HEALTHY GLOW ULTRA-FLUID SERUM FOUNDATION. HAIR: JAMES PECIS/D+V MANAGEMENT. MAKEUP: PETER PHILIPS FOR CHRISTIAN DIOR. MANICURE: MEGUMI YAMAMOTO FOR DIOR VERNIS/SUSAN PRICE NYC. SET DESIGN: STEFAN BECKMAN/EXPOSURE NY. PRODUCER: SARA ZION FOR PRODN/ ART+COMMERCE. PRODUCTION MANAGER: ASHLEY SCOTT FOR PRODN/ ART+COMMERCE. RETOUCHING: GLOSS STUDIO. DIGITAL TECHNICIAN: NICHOLAS ONG. PHOTO ASSISTANTS: SIMON ROBERTS, HUAN NGUYEN, MARU TEPPEI, AND DEAN PODMORE. STYLING ASSISTANTS: MELISSA LEVY AND ALEKSANDRA KOJ. HAIR ASSISTANT: ADLENA DIGNAM. MAKEUP ASSISTANTS: EMIKO AYABE AND TALY WAISBERG. SET DESIGN ASSISTANTS: MAX ZINSER AND YONATAN ZONSZEIN. PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS: KAIA BALCOS AND JOHN DANIEL POWERS. SPECIAL THANKS: SOHO LOFTS.

Freddie Fox, the latest member of a celebrated and storied British acting family to step into the spotlight (his father, Edward, played The Day of the Jackal‘s title assassin in 1973), has a pretty straightforward strategy for making his own name. “Work hard,” he says. “And trust my instincts.” Those instincts have led the London-born 26-year-old to play a series of critically acclaimed roles in the U.K., including Oscar Wilde’s young lover in the play The Judas Kiss and the irresistibly damaged Freddie Baxter on the Channel 4 hit shows Cucumber and Banana. “People balk at the fact that I’ve played loads of gay characters,” says Fox. “Maybe I have, but you know what? It doesn’t matter. For whatever reason those were the characters I was drawn to, and that’s what makes my career different from my father’s or my uncle’s or cousins’ or any number of those buggers who I love with all my heart and soul.” This year and next will see Fox in a variety of roles that showcase his range, from Shakespearean hero (in the Sheffield Crucible’s production of Romeo & Juliet) to monster maker (in Victor Frankenstein). Right now, he’s busy filming Knights of the Round Table: King Arthur, a Guy Ritchie production starring Charlie Hunnam and Jude Law. So, as Fox approaches the cusp of stardom in his own right, have his actor parents passed on any hard-won wisdom? “The best piece of advice they gave me is, before you start a job, have a cup of tea and go to bed early.”

For more from our New Wave portfolio, click here.