For Douglas Booth playing the lead in next year's highly-anticipated new version of Romeo & Juliet will be no tall order.
"I fell in love at 14 and I remember that mad, tense feeling and all the mad things you do for the person, all those extremes and all the stuff you don't mind putting up with," Booth told us. "I'm not with that person anymore, but I fell in love again and it was even more powerful, maybe deeper."
This year sees Booth, chosen as one of VOGUE.COM's 2012 faces to watch, make his big screen debut. At Christmas he starred as orphaned Pip in the BBC'S adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic Great Expectations, and the year before he took on the role of Boy George. Perhaps best known for his modelling - as the face of Burberry - he insists that this part of his career was an accident.
"I dreamt of being an actor ever since I was young," he said. "I never thought I'd do modelling, I'm so clueless about fashion, but Christopher Bailey is such a lovely guy. Burberry was a very positive side note. Christopher told me it was a campaign starring young actors and that Emma Watson would be in it too - I didn't mind accompanying her!"
It is definitely acting that Booth wants to be famous for. The London-born 19-year-old first took to the stage when he was just 12 - as Agamemnon in a school play - and has been hooked ever since, later joining the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where Orlando Bloom, Daniel Craig and Ewan McGregor all trained.
"I struggled with dyslexia when I was young, so I knew that whatever I did it wouldn't be academic. Then playing Agamemnon - well at the age of 12 - I thought 'I rather like being the centre of attention', this is where I want to be," laughed Booth.
Booth went on to act alongside Dame Maggie Smith and Timothy Spall in Julian Fellowes' From Time To Time, before landing the role of Boy George in last year's television drama Worried About The Boy - which saw him dress up in some colourful costumes.
"I nearly died of exhaustion," Booth recalled. "It was the first time I felt really comfortable on screen - it was really liberating. I spent lots of time with George and actually borrowed a lot of his clothes."
His biggest challenge to date though is his role as Romeo - undoubtedly one of literature's most famous roles and one widely explored in film. Written by Julian Fellowes and set in Verona, the film sees Hailee Steinfeld play Juliet.
"It's pretty daunting, but what an amazing character. And Hailee will be a great Juliet," he said. "The most important thing is really knowing what I'm saying - you have to live the lines. I want to throw away the banner of Romeo and boil it down to two young people fallen in love and having a really tough time. I read this newspaper story recently about a teenage boy who was a gamekeeper. He was cleaning his gun and accidentally shot it, killing his girlfriend. He was so grief-stricken he then killed himself. Romeo & Juliet is still relevant and real."
And how will he recreate that chemistry so masterfully portrayed in Baz Luhrmann's version, starring Booth's acting hero Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes?
"You get to know that person so well during filming, so as long as you get on with each other then it works," explained Booth. "It might look very passionate on screen but in reality it probably wasn't. I don't feel like I've ever kissed any of the people I have done for acting. That moment didn't exist for you, it existed for that person."
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