Jeremy Irvine Is Bloody Brilliant

Cher loves Jeremy Irvine — and the 35-year-old British actor can prove it. “I’ve got a necklace that she gave me,” he says with a glint in his chambray blue eyes. “It says, ‘To Jeremy. Love, Cher.’”

If one of the 20th century’s most important cultural icons stamps her approval in silver, it’s safe to say Irvine gives a hell of a performance. They met eight years ago on the set of Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, where he played the young version of Pierce Brosnan’s character. Now, he’s starring as Henry Beauchamp in another beloved franchise, the Outlander prequel series Outlander: Blood of My Blood, which premiered in August on STARZ.

Irvine is talking to me over Zoom from his hotel room in Glasgow, Scotland, where he’s been staying since June while filming Season 2. Though he considers the necklace one of his most prized possessions, he rarely wears it. “What if the chain snaps?” he says, running a hand over his neatly combed blond hair.

Irvine is pragmatic like that. “Never let an actor tell you that their job’s hard, because they’re lying,” he says. “We’ve got tea and coffee on tap, and people to bring it to us.” His spouse, Jodie Spencer, whom he married in 2024, works as a midwife. “She works in a hospital getting babies out of people,” he says, “and I sort of flounce around on screen in silly costumes.”

Irvine doesn’t like to watch his own performances if he’s in the bulk of a movie or TV series, but Blood of My Blood — thanks to its ensemble cast — is more palatable to him. “I can see how good everyone else is being and then tear myself apart in between that,” he says. When he’s acting, he’s all in: Irvine gained nearly 30 pounds for one role, lost around 15 for another, and even got trench foot by repeatedly reenacting the Battle of Somme in Steven Spielberg’s World War I drama War Horse.

Blood of My Blood is similarly intense. He plays Henry, a starry-eyed romantic and PTSD-stricken World War I vet who is separated from his wife, Julia (Hermione Corfield), and young daughter Claire (the future heroine of the original Outlander series) when a car accident magically plunges him from 1923 to 1714.

Irvine and Corfield are longtime friends — the two met 11 years ago on the set of Fallen, a fantasy-tinged teen romance. “I don’t think that movie turned out quite as we all expected,” he says diplomatically. (On Rotten Tomatoes, critics gave it a 7%.) The friendship, however, stuck, and tonight, he’s headed to a dinner party she’s hosting for him and several other Blood of My Blood cast members. They take turns cooking for each other. “All my mates live within walking distance from each other,” he says, “so that’s what we do every evening.”

What does the cast get up to on weekends?

Loads of silly stuff. A lot of it is not suitable for interviews. But recently, I hired a boat and we took a motor out to one of the islands in Loch Lomond, which was really gorgeous. Me and Sam Redford, who plays Dougal Mackenzie, go free-diving and spear-fishing.

What was the hardest scene to film in Blood of My Blood?

I mean, I could give you the press answer, which is like, “Oh, somewhere where you’re in freezing weather.” Our first war sequence was physically exhausting but so fun and so easy. There are explosions going off all around you, and you really are wet and cold. It’s brilliant. No acting required.

Honestly, the frustrating days are when you feel like it’s just a bit sh*t. The little-bitty, boring scenes are the hard ones to make really believable.

What’s trickier, those or sex scenes?

You know what? Sex scenes aren’t hard. I mean, they’re a bit uncomfortable and a bit exposing, but that all depends on who you’re working with. It doesn’t feel difficult making that chemistry with Hermione. We know each other very well. But there are days when I wake up and go, “God, not that today.”

The scenes where Henry is dealing with his PTSD are really moving.

Oh, good. Well, I mean, it’s horrible for the character. It’s an absolute joy as an actor, because you go, “Great, maybe that gives me the opportunity to do something interesting.”

Have you met the OG Outlander stars, Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan?

Yeah, they were filming Season 8 while we were filming Season 1, so we were all working in the same building. All really nice people. Everyone’s always like, “Oh, what advice did Caitriona give you?” And you’re like, “We’re going to talk about the catering.” That’s what actors talk about, not really going into depth on their character and stuff. Disappointing, I know.

I heard your wife is a romance reader. Had she read Outlander prior to this?

She did, yeah. She’s my sounding board for projects. When it comes to romance stuff, if she likes it, then I’ll be doing it. With Blood of My Blood, she was like, “This is exactly the sort of thing that I love, absolutely, go for it.”

She was quite critical of my accent, actually. The first time we watched it, she looked over to me and went, “Told you you shouldn’t have done the voice.” But it’s the 1920s! You have to sound like that. And she goes, “No, it’s too much.” And actually, I have softened it. She’s very honest, and that’s a good thing.

What has it been to hear Outlander fans react to the new show?

It’s bigger in the States than it is in the U.K., so I was living in blind ignorance — happy ignorance, I suppose. Now I’m finding it quite stressful because I know a lot of people are going to watch it.

How do you feel about social media?

I don’t think I’d be on it if I wasn’t an actor, but we’re sort of expected to have it these days. I follow a lot of cooking accounts. That’s sort of what I use it for. And the occasional stalk of an ex.

Besides the necklace, what was Cher like?

Just great. So fun. One night, we were staying in a posh hotel in London, and the fire alarm goes off at 3 a.m. So we all go out looking like sh*t, and there’s Cher in full makeup, full glam, the most incredible sort of fancy dressing gown. She just looked stunning.

We had so many icons. It was one of those pinch-yourself films and set on a beautiful island. Once I’ve done this — the wet and cold thing — I’d quite like a nice TV show like Mamma Mia again.