Douglas Booth: the new boy at Burberry

Douglas Booth is one of the new crop of willowy boys appearing opposite Emma Watson in the latest Burberry campaign. In a selection of cashmere snoods and camel peacoats, he posed for Mario Testino a few bridges upriver from today's ES shoot.

Burberry's creative director Christopher Bailey calls him 'an exceptionally talented young guy who we feel is going to be a huge star. He has a really modern British look and style... he's also down-to-earth and a pleasure to be around.'

Douglas is off there later to get fitted for a suit for Bulgari's 125th birthday party and the London Film Festival. 'Being a Burberry boy, you get looked after very well,' he says. The LFF might seem a surprising event for a young male model to attend, but for Douglas, modelling is just as minor a sideline as it is for Emma Watson.

The 17-year-old is currently working on projects by Oscar winners Julian Fellowes and Tony and Ridley Scott. As a result, comparisons with Twilight star Robert Pattinson are already being made. 'If someone came along and said, "Take this pill and you'll be as famous as Robert Pattinson," I wouldn't say no, but I'd think about it first. It's a lovely place to be but it's also scary. He's commanding double-digit millions after just a couple of big movies. The whole of the teenage girl population, including my girlfriend and my sister and all their friends, is captivated by him. I'm sure he captivates lots of boys as well.'

Douglas may find that his own exotic looks (thanks to a half-Spanish, half-Dutch mother and English father) are no less captivating to a young female audience. 'In my first audition someone said I looked Burmese,' he comments. His mother is an artist, his father works in shipping for Citigroup, and his 18-year-old sister is also an artist.

Douglas grew up in Greenwich and Blackheath, before moving to Sevenoaks. By the age of 13 he was appearing in National Youth Music Theatre productions, where 'I was told it was better if I stopped playing rugby because if I ended up with a crushed face or cauliflower ears it wouldn't be great for my long-term career'.

At 15, he signed with Curtis Brown (Robert Pattinson and Dev Patel's agent) and after GCSEs at Lingfield Notre Dame school near Sevenoaks, he moved to a nearby sixthform college for its drama department. Two months later he quit his AS levels in drama, media studies and English literature to act.

He commutes to Budapest every few weeks to film The Pillars of the Earth, a new $50 million Ken Follett TV saga about the building of a medieval cathedral. Produced by Ridley and Tony Scott, it stars Donald Sutherland, Rufus Sewell and Hayley Atwell. Douglas plays the reluctant crown prince, Eustace. 'He's a bit rubbish, a bit of a wuss, but it's a good character. He's quite tragic really.'

Last week at the London Film Festival Douglas made his big-screen debut in From Time to Time, a ghost story that jumps between 1944 and 1809, written and directed by Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) and starring Maggie Smith and Dominic West. 'When I walked into the audition I saw Alex Pettyfer walking out and I thought, "He's more famous, why would they ever pick me?" ' They did, though, and Douglas plays Sefton, a young boy in the 1809 subplot who befriends the lead character on his time travels. 'You don't see films like it any more; they're all like Transformers with loads of effects, but this reminds me of The Secret Garden or The Railway Children.'

His girlfriend of three years frequently visits him onset. 'She bunked off work and came to the studios. We were in the trailer when she called in sick and Dominic West was in the background going, "Nurse, nurse, help me." He's a big joker.'