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Archive for Press

The Rake spoke with Harrison recently. Check out their article on Harrison, including an interview, below!

The British actor Harrison Osterfield is a new English leading man in the mould of Jude Law and Hugh Grant. He talks to The Rake about his breakthrough – playing Prince Leopold in the Netflix series The Irregulars.

Had Harrison Osterfield arrived a decade or so earlier, his Surrey accent and floppy hair would have made a fine fit for an English actor in Hollywood. But on his first day at the BRIT School, London’s college for the performing arts, the 24-year-old wondered whether it was all a mistake. “I’d just left my strait-laced boarding school, and here I was, surrounded by extroverts,” he tells The Rake.
As becomes evident in our chat, Harrison is more than the sum of his posher parts. He toes the party line (there are people listening in, don’t you know?) but cracks on-point jokes, which help betray the mischief beneath those enviable Bloomsbury looks. An English leading man in the semi-traditional sense of the word — both ‘bugger’ and ‘pardon’ — he is a continuation of whatever Jude Law or Hugh Grant have done right.

Harrison recently earned acclaim for his role as Prince Leopold in Netflix’s The Irregulars, a cosmopolitan retelling of Conan Doyle’s Baker Street Irregulars. Aristocratic but weakly ill, Leopold escapes the palace to join a crew of juvenile mystery solvers in London. At first the group regards him as a ‘posh dabbler’; an outsider. Perhaps the most irregular. Over time, though, “they learn to appreciate him,” Harrison says, adding affectionately: “They see him for what he is.”

How does a young actor fill the days at home?
I’ve tried to keep busy, doing every online activity I can: baking, yoga, cocktail classes… The space I have in my flat is fairly accommodating. Oh, you can see the framed Nickelback poster? Usually I steer it out of shot. Their album Silver Side Up was the first album I ever got. It so bugs me they became unfashionable. However my acting goes, if I can push Nickelback, I value that as a success.

What was it like playing Prince Leopold?
My agent said it was a role I was born to play. The description was, “young, smart… and physically frail”. So it was nice to know what they really think of me! I tapped into the historical resources. I even spent time practising with a walking stick around my hotel corridors. But he’s got some comic moments, too. To take a prince who’s lived the high life for 17 years into a grubbier part of London is fun to watch.

What kind of prince would you be?
I know everyone goes down the dictator route, but I would be a good prince. More fresh fruits for all. I’m a fruit fan, you know? Let’s fill up all the aisles of the supermarkets and get everyone eating good fruits and vegetables.

Why do people online want you to eat peanut butter?
The internet is so strange. I can upload a video making toast and it gets 120,000 views. It’s a running thing… There are fan accounts and articles about it. So if I’m eating peanut butter for the first time, it has to be big. You get mean comments, but thankfully most people have been nice. I’m close to my family, and have a solid group of friends. If I’m being a dick, they’re the first to let me know.

How superstitious are you?
At my boarding school in Caterham [in Surrey], our house master would tell us ghost stories. At night I’d be terrified, seeing the sensor light go in the empty corridor. I couldn’t even get past the first episode of Game of Thrones. So when you see me looking frightened in the show, just know that it’s not acting. The make-up team did a great job.


Mood Magazine has posted their digital article on Harrison! Check it out below, sourced from their website.

The acting world has always been notoriously difficult to breakthrough into the spotlight. Many will spend most of their lives trying, but eventually fall just short of taking center stage. However, for British actor Harrison Osterfield, that moment of stardom has come sooner than expected. His latest role in the Netflix drama, The Irregulars, marks a breakthrough moment at just 24 years old. Starring in the fictional world of Sherlock Holmes, viewers are transported back to Victorian London where they are treated to a period drama, with a twist. Across eight episodes, Harrison shows the world his endless potential. After a successful modeling career, and assisting in some of Hollywood’s most renowned films, Harrison has built up a loyal social media following, accumulating over 800 thousand followers on Instagram. It’s been a unique journey that’s taught the actor a lot. We spoke to Harrison about his most important role to date, his path to fame, and his burning desire to use his platform for good.

Becoming an actor is something we’re all told as kids is just a dream, a fairytale so to speak, even the most supportive parents would recommend a backup career. For Harrison, the moment he got into London’s infamous BRIT school, his only focus was on making this dream his future life. At that moment, his family’s main role was to keep him grounded and focused on the long journey ahead. The actor explains: “When I first got into BRIT school because, obviously, it’s quite a competitive thing to get into – I think they have something like 6,000 applicants for 60 or 30 places – I remember getting in and thinking, ‘All right yes, I’ve made it now. I’m going to be an actor.’ My granddad had to sort of sit down and be like it’s way more difficult than you think and personally I think you’re on the road to disaster, but I’ll support you anyway.”

It was whilst Harrison was studying at BRIT school that he met Tom Holland, drawn together through a feeling of being somewhat out of place in the uber extroverted atmosphere they found themselves in. It was a meeting that would lead to a now-famous close friendship. When Tom was chosen as the next Spider-Man in 2015, Harrison found himself with the opportunity of assisting his friend on some of the biggest movies in Hollywood; it would open many doors for the actor. “When I first went to work with him it was a great opportunity to see how an actor is on set. I mean, I had great experiences at drama school and performing arts school, but being on set is a different world. To see someone who is so hardworking is so enthusiastic and so kind to everyone that he comes across – whether that’s someone in the crew or director or producer – was a real learning curve for me.” Harrison proclaims, “Now that I’m doing some cool stuff, we’re still very good friends and I can ring him up and ask him about anything. He’s happy to give his sort of advice from his own experience and apply it to mine.”

Now, Harrison finds himself fresh off the back of his first major role as an actor. A totally new experience that saw the artist go from a total of 10 minutes on screen to eight hours. He comments, “It’s a bit surreal, a bit overwhelming, and a bit daunting. I’ve been getting a few messages like, ‘Oh my goodness I binged it in one day or ‘I finished it in eight hours.’ And I’m like that’s really cool, but I spent like a year and a half making that so maybe just savor it like a little bit more. It’s been a bit of a crazy time.” Set in Victorian London, within the fictional world of Sherlock Holmes, Harrison plays Leopold in The Irregulars, one of five teenagers that help solve crimes for Watson and Holmes. Despite its setting, Harrison is adamant that this is a world totally different to ones we’ve visited in the past, as he explains: “When I first got it and I heard that it was a Sherlock Holmes adaptation I thought, oh that’s cool that’s interesting and then I read this script and realized that it was something completely different. Of course, we’re set in the Sherlock Holmes universe and Sherlock and Watson are featured, but it’s a very different Sherlock Holmes to anything that we’ve seen before. He’s sort of at the lowest of the low and he’s a shell of the person he once was, and can’t solve the mysteries he once could. I quickly realized that even though we’re set in this world, it’s a coming-of-age story about these five kids. These five characters are mentioned in the books briefly, but our showrunner Tom Bidwell has done an amazing thing of sort of fleshing out these characters; they’re all so individual. I think one of the main aspects of the show is that whomever you connect to like a character, there are so many different ones that you can relate to and relate to those stories and their upbringings and their experiences. So, it was a real joy as soon as I got the script and it was a role that I knew what I wanted to play.”

​Harrison’s character was a unique role due to its historical interpretation of Prince Leopold, the youngest child of Queen Victoria, famously known for his vulnerable physical state due to suffering from Hemophilia. However, despite that physical ailment, Leopold was an incredibly intelligent figure, something that Harrison quickly realized. “Once I started reading the script, I was like there are words in the script that I have not even heard of. So, I definitely had to brush up on my dictionary skills and see what the hell he was talking about. I quickly realized how sort of well-spoken he is, and how he’s always got perfect manners no matter whom he’s interacting with, whatever class.” On the journey his character undertakes throughout the series, the actor states, “My character has been kept away at home for most of his life due to some underlying health problems that you find out in the series. It’s on his 17th birthday that his one birthday wish is to go out and experience London, and it’s on that first outing where he encounters the other Irregulars. The secret with my character is that the home that he’s been kept away in is Buckingham palace because he is Queen Victoria’s youngest son so he’s aka Prince Leopold. He decides to hide that from the other Irregulars just in the hopes of being sort of accepted as a normal teenager, and it’s quite a fun journey to see him sort of balance those both lives as the series continues.”

The experience of filming an eight-part series is a first for Harrison. Despite long stints assisting on movie sets, The Irregulars was more of a marathon for the actor to undertake. It was yet another learning curve that only sets him up for good stead in the future. “It was a massive leap and for those kinds of longer jobs, you really need to have the stamina to perform to the level that I wanted to perform at. It was just such an amazing experience.” He states, “We were all very lucky enough to become very close, the five of us, and I think if we didn’t like each other, it would have been a much harder job. In those tough times are those like sort of 16-hour days, 5 AM starts, and to sort of help you along the way and have that camaraderie was a real privilege.”

The Irregulars is another period drama that we’ve seen gain such popularity in recent years. Whether it be historically accurate or with fictional undertones, we’re all craving for more of The Crown, Bridgerton, and Peaky Blinders. But why exactly have these shows drawn so many plaudits? Why now are we so desperate to venture back over 100 years to gain some entertainment? In Harrison’s eyes, it’s the vast difference from today’s advanced world and the escape it offers us. “I think it’s just because its stories are so different from our modern-day. I think with the way that technology is sort of advancing pretty much day to day, it’s quite a lot to take in. To have those stories, which were sometimes historical or things that you can’t imagine, is a nice thing to escape from and sort of draw away from the chaos that normal life can bring.” The actor proclaims, “I think to have a period show like The Irregulars but flip it on its head with being a bit more modernized – it’s modern music, there’s modern language as well – it’s quite a nice thing to see. the replication of today’s London. I just wanted to get on board straight away.”

Prior to Harrison’s breakthrough role, he had already built up a huge following on social media, with over 800 thousand people able to see anything he chooses to post. It can be a huge help to any artist in getting their name out there, but it can also be rather intrusive, for the actor the line is fine, but as long as it breeds positivity then it’s all good. “It’s mad. The fact that I can literally put up a video of me making beans on toast and get seen by a hundred thousand people is mad, it’s crazy. I’m very lucky that most of the reaction has been a positive thing and people are interested to see what I’m doing. Now that I have this big series that is by one of the biggest streaming services in the world, I’m really grateful that I can share that with them. Social media should be a thing of sharing the things that you love and sharing things about your family. So quite a lot of my social media has to do with my family and my friends and everything like that, and me just having a good time. Hopefully, if people can see a bit of positivity online, they may want to do the same thing. To have positive energy around and to be receiving it, that’s what I want to hopefully do with my platforms.”

It’s within that approach to the positivity that Harrison wants to use with his platform. Already setting up fundraisers for the likes of the Emily Ash Trust, there’s a determination there to make sure this journey isn’t a futile one. “Well, that’s also another thing of like, I’ve been lucky enough to do these fundraisers for charities that have been close to my heart from the start. Even in a time like this with the pandemic where charities are struggling, being able to shine a spotlight back on them where they have been hidden before.” He states, “Taking a back step has been really special. As my career progresses, I want to get more involved in charity work. I want to get more involved in sustainable action and climate change, and all of that and use my platform for good because if you’re not using them for good what are you using it for?”

It’s been a hell of a journey so far for the British actor and this breakthrough role is sure to only project Harrison’s career further in the future. Speaking of the future, he’s got his eyes on Hollywood and taking on his best friend at some point. “I’ve always wanted to go into the superhero universe. My mate’s taking the other one and I’ve always been a Batman fan.” Harrison explains, “So if I can get into that world, later on, I think I’ll need to go to the gym a bit more and get a bit more rugged maybe. And if that fails, I mean Batman’s got a load of sidekicks that I think I can slot into right now like with Robin or Nightwing. So, yeah there are possibilities and that world is constantly growing into a world that I’d love to be a part of, so we’ll see what the future brings.” With his feet firmly on the ground and a genuine passion for positive change, Harrison Osterfield is a breath of fresh air and we can’t wait to see what comes next for the actor.


L’Officiel UK posted their interview with Harrison on April 20! Check it out below, as sourced from their website.

For those who live for a costume drama, allow us to add another to your Netflix queue.

There’s a reason why The Irregulars, a Victorian-era supernatural series, skyrocketed to cinch the top spot on the streaming service when it dropped last month. Though Harrison Osterfield may look familiar, it is not just because of his stint in the George Clooney-directed Catch-22. And it’s not because he looks like a young, dashing James McAvoy. It might be because the internet has made much to-do over his friendship with Spiderman actor Tom Holland (the duo are best mates who attended the BRIT School together).

Osterfield got a first taste working behind the scenes as Holland’s assistant on Spiderman: Homecoming, which proved to be exceptionally helpful as he was tapped for his first major lead role in The Irregulars. Though it was an eye-opening few weeks, it was showing up for work on the set of The Irregulars that helped Osterfield grow. Cast as Leo, a character based upon Queen Victoria’s son, Prince Leopold, Osterfield was tasked with playing a whip-smart young man who was chronically ill as a child. “I kept second-guessing on set and having the feeling of ‘Oh, they are definitely gonna re-cast me tomorrow if I don’t do a good job,'” Osterfield shared. “It took me a bit of time to realise that I was doing a good job and I was there for a reason.”

While our fingers are crossed for a season 2, Osterfield is looking forward to taking it all in and enjoying some time with friends. “I’m looking forward to spending some proper time with my family. Before the pandemic, there would be around twelve of us who would meet up for Sunday Roasts, birthdays, BBQs, so I’m looking forward to that.” Below, Osterfield talks to L’OFFICIEL about doing his own stunts, a practical joke gone awry, and learning to trust himself as an actor.

L’OFFICIEL: Did you ever expect The Irregulars to have the kind of audience it has, hitting number one on Netflix here in the UK?

Harrison Osterfield: It’s crazy! The last few weeks have been a bit overwhelming but also incredibly rewarding. I think The Irregulars is a show that really breaks down barriers of being a ‘period show’ or another Sherlock Holmes remake; it’s very unique in the story that it tells and the characters that it focuses on. Overall, I’m just immensely grateful for the support that the show has received.

L’O: Though the show and storyline are purely fictional, your character is based upon a historical figure. How did you draw upon the actual Prince Leopold, Queen Victoria’s son, for your role in The Irregulars?

HO: Well, both the factual and fictional versions of Leo are incredibly smart characters, so I knew I was going to have to get the dictionary out to start to understand some of the vocabulary he uses in the show! Also, to be able to draw from research and information about the factual Leopold was a real gift, and one that I could transpire into the character on screen as well.

L’O: What was the most fun scene to shoot? Any hilarious stories to share from set?

HO: There’s a scene in the final episode where Leo is being drowned by a villain in the sewer water of the cellar where the other Irregulars live. To make the water the grim colour it needed to be, they chucked a load of these mushrooms in the water to make it a lovely brown colour. I wanted to do all of the stunts, and I think we did two days of me just being constantly held underwater. A week later, my hearing was a bit funny, so I went for a checkup and found out I had gotten two ear infections from those days in the water. Still, the scene turned out great!

L’O: This was your first leading role, any learning curves?

HO: Wear earplugs? Haha, I’m joking. I think a massive thing for me was just learning to enjoy every moment and have the confidence to know I was doing the right thing. I kept second-guessing on set and having the feeling of “Oh, they are definitely gonna re-cast me tomorrow if I don’t do a good job,” and it took me a bit of time to realise that I was doing a good job and I was there for a reason. So, I think moving forward, just be more confident in my decisions and just enjoy it when the opportunities come along.

L’O: Your character in The Irregulars has led a sheltered life, and his first experience out in London was eye-opening. Growing up in nearby Kent, was going up to town when you were younger eye-opening in a similar way?

HO: For sure! Growing up in the English countryside is a very different world to growing up in London. I remember doing a few trips up when I was younger but didn’t really experience it properly until I started at Drama School at LAMDA. I was still living at home at the time so it would take me an hour or two to get into school. It was definitely a lot more lively than back home! So yeah, Leo and I are quite similar in that respect. Bit harder to sneak out to London without my mum knowing when you live so far away though!

L’O: Speaking of sneaking out… your friendship with Tom Holland is well-documented, as you both met as students at the BRIT School. What kind of trouble did the two of you get into at school? Were you both always on your best behaviour?

HO: If I told you some of the stuff we got up to, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t let us come back and visit that school! We weren’t terrible, per se, but we definitely caused a lot of mischief, a bit of broken school property, [we were] the usual troublemakers. We were always pretty good at coming up with excuses that made us get out of it; after all, that’s what we were there to learn at theatre school . . . sort of!

L’O: Numerous shows and movies have focused on Victorian London lately, not to mention the everlasting popularity of Sherlock Holmes. Is there another period in London history that you would like to explore in the future?

HO: I think the World War I era is such a big part of British history and a period of time with so many incredible stories. I was lucky enough to work on the Hulu series, Catch-22, directed by George Clooney, which explored topics around World War II. So in the future, I would love the chance to be part of a story which focuses around the time of 1914 in London.

L’O: How do you fill your free time?

HO: I’m a big sports fan. So, training and fitness is quite a big thing for me, I find it helps me just zone out from everything else and I can just focus on that. I’ll also happily watch any sport on TV; I found myself getting quite teary at a live darts match the other day, so anything goes.

L’O: Well, we can tell you have a good sense of humor to you. We heard that you played a bit of a practical joke on your mum recently. How upset was she when you first told her you didn’t get the part in The Irregulars?

HO: She was pretty angry! So, when I got the call that I had got the part in The Irregulars, I actually told my Mum that it wasn’t good news. I didn’t say anything else until that evening, maybe leaving a bit too long. I eventually rang her saying, “yeah, it’s not good news. . it’s really good news because they gave me the part!” We are all pretty easygoing as a family, so we are always making jokes between each other, but I might have taken that one a bit too far.

L’O: Do you think we’ll see you in a second season of The Irregulars?

HO: I mean, I would love another season! I think the series does a great job of wrapping up themes and storylines from earlier episodes but also leaves a lot of doors open for new possibilities. I think there’s so much more scope for future narratives, new relationships, and I just hope that audiences and fans want to see it as much as I do.

L’O: June 21st looks like it’s going to be a big day this year. Any plans, anything you’re looking forward to once all restrictions are lifted?

HO: First of all I’m looking forward to spending some proper time with my family. Before the pandemic, there would be around twelve of us who would meet up for Sunday Roasts, birthdays, BBQs, etc. so I’m looking forward to that. Also, my birthday is on the 4th of July so that’s not too far away either! I hope we can all enjoy whatever the universe brings us next.


Harrison Osterfield Gets Ready for His Star Turn

On March 26, Notion posted their article on Harrison! Check it out below, sourced from their website.

As Harrison Osterfield prepares to star in Netflix’s new show, The Irregulars, we caught up with the actor to talk all things acting, filming and his bromance with Tom Holland.

Having the confidence to know and trust your journey is a skill that not everyone possess. Too many times we question ourselves over the ‘right path’ and whether our actions could negatively impact some future unforeseen possibility. Harrison Osterfield is not one of these people.

Perhaps more known online as a result of his friendship with the current holder of the title ‘Friendly Neighbourhood Spiderman’, Tom Holland, Osterfield has worked on both sides of the recording camera, giving the actor a look at the inner workings of the industry at all levels.

Now with his new project, Netflix’s The Irregulars, Osterfield is making his long-awaited mark on the industry. Starring as the character Leo, The Irregulars tells the story of a group of teenagers that appear throughout Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes saga. With the production, the series takes a look at figures that make up this group; their lives in Victorian London as young people with little or no support and their work in solving and the increasingly supernatural mysteries that Holmes usually takes the credit for.

Notion caught up with Harrison to talk about his career journey and what we can expect from The Irregulars.

You studied at the BRIT School and LAMDA. What made you want to become an actor?
Yeah, you sort of pick your path once you go to those schools. Before that I went to a very academic boarding school and there was this girl that I really liked in after school drama club. I thought it would be a good idea if I joined up and impressed her. I did not end up getting the girl at all, she wasn’t interested in the slightest but the acting thing’s actually turned out okay!

It was sort of a big leap for me to go from a very academic school to something so performance arts based but as soon as I went there it was eye-opening. It was like walking into Fame the musical, there were rap battles going on and all the thespians were outside with their skulls learning lines. It was really eye-opening, and it let me loose from my academic brain and once I started, I just loved it.

You play the character of Leopold in the latest Netflix drama, The Irregulars, what can you tell us about Leopold?
The drama is set in Victorian England, I play Leo the Prince of England and he is the actual, factual youngest son of Queen Victoria, which was so much fun to play because I’ve never played a factual person before. Leo has been kept in his bedroom for 17 years in Buckingham Palace because of some underlying health problems he has, which you’ll find out later in the series. So he’s always been wrapped up in cotton wool and for his 17th birthday his one wish is to leave the palace and experience London. When on that trip, when the wish is granted, he encounters The Irregulars and once he meets the guys who are doing some cool stuff with Doctor Watson and Sherlock Holmes that’s where he wants to spend all of his time.

But he doesn’t let them know that he’s the Prince because he wants them to accept him for who he is rather than his royal stature, so straight away there’s a lot going on internally which has been really fun to play.

What’s the experience like moulding a factual figure into a character on a drama like this?
So, I had to do a lot of research into it really, because of his health problems, he was quite frail. So, I bought myself a collapsible walking stick and, in the hotel, I would just walk around the corridors with it, which was quite fun. You have this factual information and obviously all of it can’t be included, it’s a fictional piece, but it was fun to look into that and coming from an academic school I like to rehearse, and I like to research, so it fits into it all very well.

People speak of him very highly of him, he was very witty as well as kind and charming. So, you have these little tasters but to be able to explore it in an 8-episodic experience is really a positive experience.

What skills/lessons did you learn whilst on set?
This is my second big job, so it was a very new experience for me, and it was amazing to be working on a project for 8 months. Just the resilience you need to have to not burn out to know when to take a rest or when to work hard, it was a real learning curve for me starting out and a great one to be in.
What do you hope viewers take from the drama?

To connect with it and to empathise with the characters. In creating 5 characters that no one really knows anything about in the Sherlock Holmes universe, our creator and writer Tom Bidwell made them engaging so that people can empathise with them, their storylines, their relationships and who they are as people so that people can feel that emotion back home. I think he’s done an amazing job with that. For viewers to get it, and also watch it, that would be a bonus.

You’re perhaps most famous online for your bromance with Tom Holland, who you worked for as a personal assistant whilst Holland played Spider-Man on Spiderman Homecoming and Avengers Infinity War. The bromance was declared the bromance to end all bromances by MTV – even outperforming Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. What’s it like to be put in the spotlight in this way?
We met at the BRIT school close to 10 years now. It was a case of walking into BRIT school and seeing all the crazy things there and the people and thinking maybe this isn’t for me and then looking around the room and seeing another boy thinking something quite similar. That was Tom and then we became best friends pretty much the day after that.

It’s been a strange, it’s been a rollercoaster with the whole social media thing as well I find it baffling how I can upload a photo of me boiling an egg and it can be seen by 100,000 people, it’s like wow! I hope this egg’s worth it! It’s been a very strange thing; I’ve been very lucky that the attention I’ve got online is positive and the people have been so supportive and that’s why I’m so excited for this show to come out and for them to see what I’ve been working on that last 2 years. So, I’m really looking forward to that (no pressure!)

How did your experience working as personal assistant inform you about the industry and your career?
Very much so, I’d finished drama school at LAMDA and Tom was going star in his first Spiderman movie and he was like ‘oh they’ve given me the opportunity to bring someone along do you think you’d like to come along and we can run lines and you can see how these films work’ and I was like f**k yeah! let’s go! So, it was an amazing experience to see these huge budget films. Drama school was incredible, and I learnt a lot about acting and growing as an actor, but it doesn’t teach you how to be on set. It was a completely new world and I made so many new contacts. I met my manager; I met my team and after two years of working together I made the leap to try it out myself.

It was interesting to see the main actor and how he interacts with the crew, how kind he is with the crew, learning their names and having conversations with everyone. It can be a bit misconstrued a bit, but Tom is a perfect example of how to be on set and someone to look at but also see behind the scenes of each department doing their work and working alongside them was a real treat.

As a result, you have a huge online following, and even a Harrison Osterfield day (July 4th). Does it ever feel weird that so many who you’ve never met in person discuss you so much online?
I try not to think about it too much, it’s a bit difficult when you’re looking at your phone and all these people are just discussing you. It’s a weird thing but most of the reaction has been positive but even the negative stuff I just take with a smile and read them out to my friends. I’m glad they’re laughing with me and not at me, it could be one of them making the messages(!).

I think you have to take everything with a smile, you can be so vulnerable to what people think about you but as I’ve gotten older and come to terms with it, it’s an amazing thing to build this show bigger and build my projects. I’ve turned it into something much better and I’m enjoying it.
You also set up a fundraiser for the Emily Ash Trust, the 3000 challenge – 3000 Chin Ups in 30 days, which means 100 per day for 30 days. Why did you want to do this and what was the response like?
Because I was going to be locked in a hotel for about a month while filming the rest of The Irregulars I was like I’m going to get pretty bored. So, I did a bit of training and then I realised I could raise some money as well. The charity is very close to my heart, it’s run by my best mate’s Dad and I’ve known my other mate for about 20 years, and he’s been running that charity. I’ve always done something for them growing up, I’ve done 10k runs before and I did the marathon with them as well. It’s always been close to my heart and to raise a bit of money for them in some very difficult times was very important for me to be able to do.

I tried to get some of my friends on the cast involved and so I was doing 100 chin ups a day for 30 days and they contributed maybe… 20? So that was good – I really appreciated the gesture but I didn’t get any messages of people doing it themselves but hopefully as I do more fundraisers, people can start to do it as well.

Those causes don’t go away, they keep coming and they take a backseat [during the pandemic] so it’s important to keep them in the limelight and keep trying to raise money for the causes.

If you could work with anyone on your dream film/TV series, who would it be?
I think Tom Hanks would be a really cool one. He’s one actor where I just look at all of his work and it’s sooo good, there isn’t one film where I’m like ‘oh you were a bit off there’ he’s perfect throughout, so to be a part of something that he’s doing would be amazing.

What’s next on the horizon?
At the moment there’s some cool projects going on. I’ve got an amazing team behind me but solely now I’m just focused on getting this show out. It’s been close to two years in the making so I’m just really excited for it to come out and see what people think of it. There are some things coming up in the future which I’m looking forward to, the sky’s the limit.


Behind the Blinds's article on Harrison

Behind the Blinds posted their feature on Harrison! You can read the entire article below, sourced from their website.

[INTERIOR. DAYTIME] HARRISON OSTERFIELD APPEARS ON SCREEN, SANS GEORGE CLOONEY WHO DIRECTED HIM IN THE “CATCH-22” MINI-SERIES, OR THE PRINCELY ATTIRE HE’S DONNED FOR “THE IRREGULARS,” HIS NEXT PROJECT SET IN THE SHERLOCK HOLMES UNIVERSE, WHICH WILL DROP ON NETFLIX THIS WEEKEND. AND SUDDENLY, A LOUD MEOWL IS HEARD.

The cat is ready to interview you now, Mr. Osterfield.
Love that. Those are the best Zoom meetings, when you’ve got a dog or a cat in the background. I will warn you, that’s where all my attention will go.

We’re about to be locked down again in Paris. How’re things for you in London?
I’m in my flat in South London, and I feel like I’ve gone through every lockdown activity there is to do. Baking classes, yoga classes, zoom cocktail classes – I feel like I’ve done it all. I’m lucky that I have a bit of space so I can exercise outside a bit.

What’s your forte then?
Definitely not the baking. I’ve tried that a couple of times and it hasn’t turned out too well. So I’d say the cocktail making, but I can’t really remember them.

They must have been good then. Maybe ask Sherlock Holmes to give you a hand at sleuthing what they were?
A key part of investigation is remembering things, yeah. And I struggle at that. (Laughs.) So I’m glad I’m play acting it and not having to do it in real life.

So why become one of the Irregulars?
Sherlock is really at the lowest of the low, and he’s a shell of the man he once was. He can’t solve these crimes that he once could. So out of necessity, Dr. Watson really turned to these five kids who get thrust into a series of investigations. They, or rather we, start taking on these sort of investigations and crimes, and start to realize that something much more sinister and possibly darker is going on. It’s a very different Sherlock to the one that we’ve seen before. Our showrunner, Tom Bidwell, has done an amazing job of taking the may four or five lines out of Arthur Conan Doyle’s work that mention the Baker Street Irregulars and create this eight-hour episodic extravaganza.

And if that wasn’t an excellent lockdown activity on his part, I don’t know what is.
Yeah, exactly. I wish I could do that. I’ve just been messing up baking every day.

At least you went from baking to Baker Street.
I will say that. That is a very good connection. I should have run with that.

You mentioned you’d be the posh kid of the Irregulars. How posh are we talking?
Not just posh. He’s actually a prince of England, Queen Victoria’s youngest son. And in the first episode, he decides not to tell the other regulars that he is a prince. And I think that’s because he wants to sort of be accepted as a normal teenager and not have these things that have been held holding him back his whole life.

And let me guess: he has a gorgeous American actress wife in his future.
(Laughs.) Yeah, probably. Leo’s been kept in his room at Buckingham Palace for 17 years of his life, so he doesn’t really have any friends his own age. So that’s why he wants to experience London and on his very first outing, he encounters the other Irregulars.

What about you? How posh are you in real life? Do you know your fish knife from your butter knife?
I definitely fell into that sort of princely thing quite quickly. My first day on set, I put on this incredible princely royal attire and just went “yeah, this is for me.” (Laughs.) In real life, I’m pretty posh but when I read the script and saw how well-mannered and well-spoken he was, I started taking notes whenever I spent time with my granddad, who is just the most perfect man in terms of being well-spoken and perfectly mannered. I can’t wait for lockdown to end, so I can take up the curry night tradition I have with him and one of my cousins.

So how’re you occupying your time until curry’s on the menu again?
At the moment, I’m gearing up for the release of the Irregulars. It’s been a very big part of my life for the last two years. But as an actor, you have long stretches of time where you’re between roles, so I’ve set up a sustainable marketing company with some of my school friends.

It’s called Addvert, with the double D. You see the #ad hashtag on social media? Well, this is about going the extra mile to ensure the profits are going to charity or that the product we are supporting is a genuinely sustainable one, not just something that’s been greenwashed. We work on fundraisers for charities that we support or doing campaigns for sustainable products online or projects promoting mental health. It’s been really rewarding and fun.

What’s the product that we should all be paying attention to, then?
An amazing search engine called Ecosia. It’s very similar to Google, except that each search contributes to getting trees planted in Madagascar and South America. It’s quite an easy thing to put into your life and the benefits are there. So we’ve got quite a few projects like these coming up. They’re all under wraps at the moment, but I’m excited for the future.