Growing up in the London suburbs, Mr Harris Dickinson didn’t think that acting was a job that would be available to him. He didn’t know any actors, let alone any from the suburbs, and thought he’d like to be behind the camera. “I grew up making films and writing sketches,” he says. “I thought I’d be a cameraman, if anything.” But slowly, as a member of the National Youth Theatre, he caught the acting bug. “I sort of battled with the idea of being an actor,” he says. “I didn’t think I was a performer. I was sort of embarrassed about it until I talked to people who’d seen me in plays and realised I could affect people. And I really liked that feeling.”

Next month sees him take his first bone fide lead role, as Conrad, protégé to the Duke of Oxford in The King’s Man, which finally makes its way into cinemas after a lengthy pandemic-induced delay. The third instalment of the Kingsman series, The King’s Man is a prequel, chronicling the genesis of the independent secret service agency that operates out of a Saville Row tailors, the eponymous Kingsman. That iconic London location was the inspiration behind Kingsman, a collection of luxury menswear and accessories exclusive to MR PORTER, launched in 2015 to coincide with the first of Mr Matthew Vaughn’s blockbuster spy movie franchise and which has continued to flourish since.

Kingsman the label may be designed with real men in mind, but the latest film very much lives in its own, fantasy world of dapper gentleman spies. Set in the 1900s, Mr Ralph Fiennes plays the Duke of Oxford, while various industry power-houses make up the rest of the cast (Messrs Stanley Tucci, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Charles Dance, Rhys Ifans and Ms Gemma Arterton make appearances).

Dickinson takes it all in his stride. “It does feel surreal because I’m young and I am just starting out,” he says. “It definitely feels like a privilege being in a film with such industry titans. I am absorbing what they are doing, but also I know I have to be present in the scene. It’s an incredible way to learn to work with people who are established and acclaimed.”

His character Conrad has both wide-eyed naivety and extreme deftness with a weapon, which comes in handy when he’s trying to stop an ensemble of the worst tyrants and criminal masterminds from plotting a war that could destroy humanity. Dickinson plays him with an air of emotional maturity and sensitivity, something he himself exudes by the bucket.

He also has a small part in The Souvenir Part II, the sequel to Ms Joanna Hogg’s incredible and delicate biography The Souvenir, alongside Ms Tilda Swinton, Mr Richard Ayoade and Mr Charlie Heaton, where he plays Pete, a budding actor. The film due to be released early in the new year.

Also for 2022, he stars alongside Ms Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People) in the much acclaimed book adaptation Where The Crawdads Sing. It’s a slow return to business as usual for Dickinson, someone who’s always had acting in his future.

As a child, Mr Dickinson would sit in the family kitchen and observe, a key trait in the art of acting. “If you’re detached at any point from the individual narrative, or from your own reality, I don’t know if you can be an actor or a storyteller,” he says.

His hairdresser mum would always have a houseful of people and his family have always been supportive and encouraging. His dad is a social worker and his mum a hairdresser. “My mum wanted to be an actress,” he says. “She almost went to drama school, but was encouraged away from it because it posed a financial threat, which I totally understand.”

A couple of years ago, Dickinson took his parents to the Gotham Awards in New York. “They didn’t really know the films there, because they were mostly independent titles,” he says. “But we got quite drunk together and Nicole Kidman was there. They were really excited about that.”

Although in person Dickinson might seem shy and careful, on screen his is a powerful presence. He transforms himself for every role – in 2017’s Beach Rats, he played Frankie, a young south-Brooklynite trying to understand his sexuality all while displaying the peacocking heater signals of his peer group. He fills the role with pitch-perfectness – indeed it is hard to believe that until that point, he’d only been to New York once. For the audition.

For Trust, the 2018 series about the Getty dynasty, directed by Mr Danny Boyle, he lost two stone to play the mischievous and troubled Mr Jean Paul Getty III. And for 2019’s Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil, he transformed himself in the opposite direction to play the dashing Prince Phillip. The film stars Mses Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning. “It was an epic world of a different proportion,” he says.

Although Dickinson had been on enough sets to know what he was doing by this point, he had never worked with a Hollywood icon of Jolie’s proportion, but he managed to deal with it with a very typical English grounded-ness. “I had to suppress any excitement and just get through it. You can’t be a fan boy, otherwise you are consumed by excitement and your performance is shit. You have to hold it down.”

Between The King’s Man and The Souvenir Part II, Dickinson has been enjoying his time off; something he values. Unlike many people his age, his Instagram isn’t filled with endless selfies – he takes his film camera with him and his feed is filled with the people and places he encounters, from nice ladies in a cafe in New Orleans, to stills from a short film he’s directed. He is vocal – just enough – with news stories he supports, such as homelessness and the Grenfell inquiry.

“I’m not massively active on social media because I think there are other ways of making change and affecting change,” he says. Rather than just idly retweeting things he’s seen, he’d rather work to educate people about society and positive change. “I do think it’s important to use your platform from an educated point of view.”

Does he find social media a positive thing, then? “It’s often helpful, but it can be harmful, too. Instagram can be a breeding ground for toxic bullshit.”

It makes sense that he has found acting as a place for his voice to be heard. It is powerful after all, a way of finding yourself while you find the nuances of a character. “Acting helped me find confidence and come out of my shell,” Dickinson concedes. “It helps you gain perspective and insight into other people’s struggles, and that in turn, makes you empathetic. Does that sound pretentious?”

Coming from anyone else’s mouth it might, but with his soft, confident, honest energy, one can only answer no.