His Hunger Games face is teen-familiar, but this year, Sam Claflin matures on screen in the long-awaited film version of bestseller Me Before You. It’s been the making of him, he tells Kate Wills.

When Sam Claflin arrives at the hotel in south-west London for our interview & shoot, it’s a bit of a Clark Kent moment. I was expecting the perma-tanned, super-buff, trident-toting Finnick Odair from The Hunger Games (yes, I am a 31-year-old teenage girl). So when a pale, scruffy-haired, bookish-looking man shuffles in, wearing round tortoiseshell glasses and sporting a battered Mulberry satchel, I almost don’t recognise him. He orders a coffee and looks – like most new fathers – utterly exhausted. Claflin and his wife, Luther star Laura Haddock, had their first child, a son, six weeks before we meet, and today is the first time he’s left the baby bubble.He’s already beaming about fatherhood – “I’m already missing him” – and despite being “at that point of tiredness where your eyes hurt”, is unfailingly polite and charming. He chats with the photographer about Norwich FC and the last series of Catastrophe, makes a fuss of a passing Pekingese puppy and endears everyone on set with tales of nappy-changing woes (the words “uncontrollable hose pipe” feature). The Superman-style disguise could come in handy. This year, Claflin is set to make the transition from teen star to household name. He’s already got blockbusters under his belt: he landed a part in the fourth Pirates Of The Caribbean  film almost straight out of drama school, then there was The Hunger Games (it grossed $2.3 billion, you might have heard of it), and Snow White And The Huntsman (last month he popped up in the sequel). He’s mastered the romcom, opposite Lily Collins in Love, Rosie, and won critical acclaim for The Riot Club. But his new role, as a suicidal paraplegic in the adaptation of Jojo Moyes’ bestseller Me Before You is a departure from anything he’s done before.

“A part like Will Traynor is a dream,” he says, his actor’s RP occasionally veering into the flat ‘a’s of the Norfolk broads, “It was the most eye-opening experience and I feel like going through the experience has changed me. I know it sounds very clichéd & naive but I am now very aware when pavements aren’t level and curbs are too high or ramps aren’t available.”

Just as Eddie Redmayne faced critisism for what detractors called “crippling up” to play Stephen Hawking, the question of whether able-bodied actors should play disabled parts has been levied at Claflin, too. “Someone on Twitter said how angry they were that I was cast instead of a disabled actor and I hear that point, I do,” he says, sounding genuinely concerned. “Of course there are parts of the novel, and our film, where Will is able-bodied and that would’ve been more difficult for someone who wasn’t able-bodied to portray. But there needs to be more opportunities for people of other colours, races or physical abilities. It’s not that white, able-bodied men are stealing everyone’s parts, it’s that the scriptwriters need to write other stories. I would if I could, but I can’t!”

Claflin lost three and a half stone of his Hunger Games bulk to play Will. For four months he followed a 500-calorie-a-day diet and worked out three times a day. “I drove myself into the ground,” he says. But the transformation was more than just physical. “There was a point just before filming where I was in a similar place to Will emotionally and mentally. By no means am I saying I know what being a paraplegic is like, but I was depressed and low on energy and in great pain for completely opposite reasons. I wasn’t in the mood to do anything, which is how Will is at the beginning of the movie.”

If you’ve read the book, you’ll know that in Me Before You Will petitions his parents to take him to Dignitas, the Swiss assisted-suicide clinic. “I wasn’t aware of assisted suicide clinics before I was cast,” admits Claflin, “I wanted to do a bit of research and delved quite deeply and darkly into that world. The Terry Pratchett documentary about it was mind-blowing.” Although he refuses to be drawn on his own views about this controversial subject – “My honest opinion, honestly, is…everyone has a different opinion” – he hints that he believes in the right to die with dignity. “Humans have freedom of thought and freedom of speech…so why are we taking that away from people?”

Claflin spent four months rehearsing with Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke, who plays Will’s carer and love interest, Louisa. He also developed a rapport with the book’s author Jojo Moyes. “Sam is a sweetheart,” she tells me over email. “He is also the nicest-smelling man I’ve ever met. So much so that I and a couple of the female crew members would sneak up to him on set and inhale him.”

Although he’ll happily upload videos of him and Laura rap-syncing to Iggy Azalea and snaps of his cockapoo Rosie, don’t expect shots of Sam Junior any time soon. “We’re purposely shying away from posting any pictures of the baby,” he says, unwilling to even divulge his son’s name. “I don’t want to force my child into a world that he may or may not wish to go into. he might want to be a banker and change his surname for all I know.” It’s  fairly uncommon these days for anyone to be married with children in their twenties, let alone movie stars, but Claflin was keen to settle down. “The day I met Laura I knew I wanted to marry her, so it didn’t feel like we were rushing it,” he says. After meeting his future wife in an audition forMy Week With Marilyn, Sam called his agent and told him he’d met the girl he wanted to marry. The next day they had a chance encounter on the tube (you couldn’t make it up!), and months later, Haddock got in touch with Claflin on Facebook (“she definitely pursued me”). They married in 2013, and from the dreamy look in his eyes when he talks about her, to the “Hi, sweetie” when she calls during our shoot, they’re clearly very much in love. For Claflin, having children was “written in the stars”. “As a kid, I loved playing with dolls, did work experience in a playschool and my mum was a child-minder, so I’ve grown up around kids”. Yet nothing could prepare him for having his own. “Someone described it to my wife as ‘the best shock in the world’ – I think that’s fitting.” He says fatherhood has given him a “new-found admiration” for his parents and “anyone who’s been through it – it’s really hard!”

When we meet, Laura has been pictured on the red carpet for the first time since giving birth, and a certain website has commented on her “svelte post-baby body”. Does he feel protective of her? “I do, and I think she’s probably more paranoid about it than she needs to be. No-one should be expected to snap back into shape but I don’t think she has anything to worry about. Laura looks amazing. She is amazing.”

Claflin also knows what it is like to have his body scrutinised. “Me and Laura were on holiday and we were papped on the beach and we thought ‘Who gives a crap about us?’ But I started reading the comments underneath the photos and they were really negative like ‘You say he’s buff? Look at him, he’s fat.’ Unfortunately, in the industry we work in, it’s expected, but I don’t go walking down the street telling people they’re fat and ugly. People should be kinder. I am a normal person – I have feelings! I constantly worry about how I look because I think the standard amongst other actors is so high. Take Zac Efron for example. He’s about my age, we were both nominated for best shirtless scene and I’d vote for him! He keeps that up all the time. That’s one hell of a life choice. I couldn’t do it. I despise the gym. I’ll do it for work if I need to, but if I don’t need to then I’d rather have a pint or a burger with my mates.”

Claflin turns 30 next month, so just about remembers life pre-internet (“You’d call a mate on your landline and his mum would say ‘He’s out somewhere’ so you’d take your bike and find him”) and laments the role that social media can play in making or breaking an actor. “Being famous now is how many followers you have on Instagram and I think that’s quite sad,” he says. “So many people I know work so hard and save up a lifetime of money to go to drama school or university, and then when they get round to auditioning for a part, it goes to the daughter or son of so-and-so. I think that’s my working class roots – when you see someone from privilege walk into a job which you know someone else strived for, it’s infuriating.”

One of four boys, Claflin grew up in Norwich with his dad, a finance officer, and his mum, a classroom assistant at his school, the local comp. Sam was captain of the football team, until injury forced him to try acting. “I was a loud mouth,” he says. “I was 5ft 2in and had a shaved head, earring and gold necklace.  I wore a lot of Kappa.” He credits his family for keeping him grounded. His mum sorts all his fan mail and makes him reply to every letter. “I remember the first time I saw the amount, I said, ‘Can’t you sign my signature?’ and she said, ‘Don’t be so ungrateful! People have spent days…look at the artwork on this one!’”

Soon he’ll start shooting My Cousin Rachel with Rachel Weisz, an adaptation of the Daphne du Maurier story by Notting Hill director Roger Michell. With Claflin’s floppy hair, dimples and self deprecating wit, it’s not a stretch to see him become the next Hugh Grant. But he says he’d much prefer a career like Christian Bale’s. “He physically transforms from part to part,” he says. “No-one really knows what ‘Christian Bale looks like and I like hiding behind a role and getting lost in a character. I love the process of losing weight or gaining weight or growing a craggy beard.” In fact, he cultivated an impressive pencil moustache (“that was all me!”) for his role in 1940’s set comedy Their Finest Hour And A Half, out later this year, co-starring Gemma Arterton and Bill Nighy.

As our time comes to an end, Claflin casually lets slip that he’s doing a half marathon later that day. “Well, my friend was doing one,” he explains, reluctantly. “So I said I’d train with him, and now I’m doing it, too.” Dad bod or no dad bod, he is definitely still a more-than-a-bit Superman.

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To say Sam Claflin’s star is rising seems woefully inadequate; rocketing would be a more appropriate term. Certainly there has been nothing steady about the actor’s career path to date. Just months out of LAMDA he was notching up parts in prestigious TV shows, chasing this up with scene stealing roles in Hollywood blockbusters like Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Snow White and the Huntsman. Claflin, 29, isn’t someone who’s about to rely on a megawatt smile and ‘nice guy’ reputation to keep stoking his career, however, if you’ve seen his turn in The Riot Club you’ll know he’s not afraid to do nasty. 

It’s Claflin’s recurring role as the chiseled Finnick Odair in The Hunger Games series, however, which has really positioned him teetering on the edge of superstar status (just a cursory glance at the comments on his Instagram shows you the kind of mega-fandom a role like this will get you; ‘My future husband’, ‘You’re so cute’, ‘Love you so much’, the ubiquitous heart-eyes emojis). And yet despite Claflin’s very not normal career, he himself has somehow remained resolutely normal, preferring nights in with his wife or at the football with old mates, to party hopping and red carpets. In fact, he seems faintly bewildered by the whole fame thing, insisting in typically understated fashion that he’s not interesting enough to warrant that attention. What him in something and you’ll most likely disagree with him on that. Claflin exudes that indefinable, yet utterly unmistakable X-factor, which tells you maybe he won’t be able to dodge that attention for much longer. I spoke with him from Berlin on the eve of the world premier of the final Hunger Games installment, Mockingjay Part 2.

LAJ: It must be an exciting time for you right now.

SC: Yeah, more than anything it’s just good to see everybody again, because we finished filming about a year and a half ago and then promoted Mockingjay Part 1 last November, so it’s been a long year without seeing everyone everyday.

LAJ: How does it feel to revisit the Hunger Games after all this time? I get the impression it’s quite a fun set.

SC: You know what, the actual process of filming itself was incredible, a lot of fun – probably too much fun at times! But at the same time we all worked pretty hard. When we came back last November for Mockingjay Part 1, the premier and press stuff for that, it was like revisiting old friendships. So many of them live in LA so I don’t get to see them or hang out that much. It’s been nice to see everyone and catch up, reminisce and remind ourselves of what we did a year and a half ago. And I’m excited for everyone to see it.

LAJ: Do you tend to stay in touch with people after filming? I imagine it to be a very transient existence.

SC: I do but what I quickly realized after my first job is that every other actor goes on to another job immediately afterwards and meets their new family. You know what I mean? It’s weird. We try to keep in touch but it’s difficult because everyone has so much other things going on in their lives. I have my home life, my wife, my dog, all my friends and my family in London that I barely ever get to see when I’m away filming so I spend my life trying to catch up with what I’ve missed.

LAJ: What do you miss most about London?

SC: Hanging out with loved ones really. It’s just catching up, talking; that to me is priceless. You can’t put a price on sitting at home watching crap TV with your wife! It’s a rarity, but something that I cherish.

LAJ: You’ve been involved in huge franchises and yet you’ve not become Daily Mail fodder. Is that a conscious effort or just something that happens to have eluded you?

SC: My theory about that is I’m not looking for fame. There are so many people, as you call it the ‘Daily Mail fodder’ for example, who are seeking fame who will choose to do reality TV in order to get a higher profile and educate the masses about what they’re doing from day to day, whereas I like to keep my personal life personal. My career is absolutely a platform to enjoy but that’s not who I am. Who I am is who I am behind closed doors. I’d hate to think that loads of people would be judging me on what cereal I buy. I don’t think my life is interesting enough for the Daily Mail to be bothered either.

LAJ: Well they seem bothered by some pretty boring stuff. It’s at best boring and at worst really very intrusive.

SC: Well, I find it hard to believe the amount of times you see that X and Y are obviously dating because they’re having dinner with each other. It’s incredible to me that people actually swallow that information and, as I say, ‘judge’ people on it. That is unfortunately one of the costs, one of the downsides to what we do. I’m lucky, though, I feel like I haven’t found myself damaged in any way.

LAJ: Do you feel famous? Do you feel the fame – or perhaps success is a better word – has changed you in any way? Even if it’s just affording stuff.

SC: I have a house and I have a car and I have a little more money in the bank than I was used to when I was 17, but at the same time my ideals are the same and the way I live my life is exactly the same. I still have the same family and friends but maybe the clothes that I buy are a little nicer than the clothes I used to buy back then. I personally don’t see myself at all as famous or as interesting. I do a job that I thoroughly enjoy and hopefully people will continue to watch the sort of films that I take part in, but I’ve been quite fortunate in that I manage to keep myself to myself; I’m very rarely accosted in the street and I still get public transport all the time. It’s one of those things where I feel like I’ve got away with it really – but I don’t know why I wouldn’t! I’ve also lived vicariously through the Jennifer Lawrences of the world, the Jonny Depps and the Kristen Stewarts, and seen how they don’t choose the fame side of it either but that can be something that comes with the job. You can’t prepare for that or expect that, it’s just one of those things that happens to some people and some people it doesn’t; Daniel Day Lewis, for example, one of the most incredible actors of our generations, manages to live a peaceful and quiet life, out of the press.

LAJ: I do wonder if there’s a certain double standard in terms of gender. You mentioned a couple of women who’ve suffered terrible invasions of privacy.

SC: I definitely think generally it’s harder for women. I have a wife and I’ve witnessed the kind of scrutiny that a lot of women have to deal with. Even young girls having to aspire to a certain look or a certain way of living, I think that’s wrong. I turn up to an event in a blue suit which is nearly identical to the blue suit I wore the week before – in fact I could wear the same suit and change the tie and it would be fine. But if a girl even dreamt of wearing the same dress twice, such a faux pas! I don’t understand why women have to go through hours and hours and hours of hair and makeup and potentially still get it ‘wrong’ when nobody really cares about the blokes. That’s where a lot of the inequality lies I think, in how people judge each other.

LAJ: To go back to the Hunger Games, one of the things that’s great about it is it’s got a kick-ass female lead. I think that’s really important.

SC: Role models come in every shape and form nowadays because we have so many platforms to speak from. Katniss Everdeen is a reluctant hero, she’s someone who doesn’t know what she believes in or who she is but the moment she does there’s a fire in her belly. I think that’s one of the most important messages of the Hunger Games: be who you want to be. Everyone should be entitled to their own opinion, their own vision [of what a role model is].

LAJ: Who were your role models growing up?

SC: My career path and dreams and goals changed drastically at the age of 16. I always wanted to be a footballer through my childhood, so David Beckham or Darren Eadie from Norwich City, they were my idols. Then I decided I wanted to be an actor, and my knowledge of film was pretty lacking at the time so I wanted to be Robin Williams or Al Pacino or Robert De Niro, one of those guys. Whereas now, honestly people who inspire me now are the Jennifer Lawrences of the world, people who are even younger than me but still are able to speak truly, speak from the heart and be honest about what it is that they want to fight for, or what they believe in. They’re not afraid of people judging them. I think that’s something we battle with every day unfortunately.

LAJ: What advice would you give now to your younger self when he started out acting?

SC: I’ve definitely grown in confidence but I’ve always been quite an insecure person, quite afraid and paranoid about what people think. It is one of those things where I wish I had a little bit more self-confidence. I’m sometimes afraid to speak up if I’m unhappy. I think for me, it would be to fight my fight and say what I believe in. At times I’ve always wanted to be perceived as the ‘nice guy’ but you realize that not everybody’s always going to like you, or everything you do, every decision you make. Your identity is changing, you feel like a chameleon because you want me to be like this and you want me to be like that. Now I feel like I’ve found who I am, my identity, and I’m going to go with that.

LAJ: So how on earth do you cope with things like the fan backlash when you were cast in Hunger Games? I feel like if I think someone gives me a funny look on the bus it can ruin my day!

SC: I think it’s how you take that negativity and what you do with it. For me, I read a few blogs, a few messages regarding my casting that were pretty negative, very negative; I was completely the wrong guy, people were upset that Zac Efron didn’t get the part! What I quickly realized was that every single fan had a different idea of who they thought was perfect for Finnick. I didn’t look like the Finnick in the books, but the magic of movies is that I can dye my hair, get a fake tan, go to the gym for a couple of months and change what I look like. There was obviously a quality I had that the director and the producers agreed upon and said, “that’s our guy”. What those negative comments did was spur me on to work harder and prove them wrong. All I can do at the end of the day is try my hardest. I would never ever see myself as a heartthrob; I’m just a guy with a job.

LAJ: Your life must have been gym and protein at that time.

SC: Basically! I was pretty dull. One of my good qualities is that I’m very, very determined; once I start something I have to see it through. The Hunger Games was the first time when I really realized my true drive. The great thing was we were in the middle of Atlanta where none of my family or friends from home were, so I had no distractions. I literally had the gym and protein to keep me company.

LAJ: Do you still go to football with your friends?

SC: Yeah we just went to the NFL game at Wembley. I hang out with my mates and share my experiences with them as much as possible. At the London premier of the Hunger Games this week, all my friends and family will come. It’s a little tradition we have.

LAJ: Speaking of being likeable, you played an absolute monster in The Riot Club. Congratulations on being utterly vile…

SC: Good! It’s the only time I cheer if someone calls me that.

LAJ: Do you think there’s a certain level of privilege that dominates the world you’re in? Maybe it’s in anything creative, it’s easier if you have money to fall back on.

SC: I think for me, honestly, money opens opportunities. I grew up in Norwich, went to a reasonably rough school, had a very, very thick Norfolk accent until I was 18 and started doing youth theatre. I got more heavily involved in that and noticed that actually a lot of the friends I knew in the youth theatre didn’t really have the Norfolk accent even though the youth theatre was based there, so I kind of started to get rid of it. I went to drama school and I’m an amalgamation of all my friends’ different accents, a bit of Norfolk, very posh when I need to, actually the truth is I am from nothing really. The preconception is that the better-educated people do succeed. I have a lot of friends from that world in the industry, and I don’t feel like it changes anyone, but I’ve had very different life experiences. I’ve found actually is that most characters I get asked to read for are more upper class elite, but that’s totally not where I’m from. It’s a tough question because I feel like one way or another I’m going to tread on someone’s toes, I think it’s obvious to the world that there aren’t as many opportunities [for people with less money], because education is so expensive, especially drama school. I was on a scholarship but at the same time I was working as a care-taker as my drama school to pay my way, whereas someone who comes from money doesn’t have to do that, they can focus all their attention on the education and not have to worry about when the paycheck’s coming in or what they’re going to eat for dinner. Comfort, I suppose, is the difference.

LAJ: Did you have a backup plan?

SC: Yeah, I always wanted to go into teaching. I always liked the idea – which is why I got into acting – of inspiring people. My mum was a classroom assistant at my old high school and she always said, “If you can change one child, one mind a year, it makes the whole job worth it”. That always appealed to me. Now I’m an actor, I’m fortunate enough to receive letters from fans that me and my mum sit and read through. [It’s amazing to hear that] I have inspired certain people, especially at my old school for instance, they’re like “Oh my god I can’t believe you’re in movies!” because that was me when I was younger, it was a dream so far-fetched that I never even imagined I could be doing movies.

LAJ: Do you feel that you’re at a stage now where you’ll always get work or do you ever think “Oh shit I might not ever get that again”?

SC: I only called my agents the other day because I just literally finished another job a couple of weeks ago and I have a few things potentially in the pipeline for next year but nothing’s 100% set in stone. It’s something to constantly worry about! [Laughs] Where I’m at in my career at the moment I feel like I’m between a rock and a hard place. I feel like I’m trying to move forward and play even more interesting roles, but all those parts go to people who are already trustworthy – the Eddie Redmaynes, the Andrew Garfields, the Robert Pattinsons – people who can sell films. Whereas I’m still, in a sense, untested. It’s difficult definitely because the parts that do inspire me will then go to someone better than me.

LAJ: I’m not sure if it’s ‘better’ so much as redefining how people see you. I mean, look at Sienna Miller, she’s totally repackaged herself. Half of the battle is getting other people to see you in a different way.

SC: That’s exactly right. I think that’s what I’ve been trying to do, like with The Riot Club, showing I can be nasty; with Love, Rosie, I can be goofy. I’ve just done a film called Me Before You where I play a quadriplegic, it’s got a much more serious tone, but at the same time it’s a light drama that deals with some very important issues. I feel myself opening up and growing as an actor and a person.

LAJ: So fulfillment for you is about variety?

SC: I just want to challenge myself, that’s all I ever want to do. I’d like to have the opportunity to prove to other people – and myself – that I can do it, to play different characters. I don’t want to rock the same haircut and look exactly the same and play the same character in different movies. The career of someone like Christian Bale, who physically transforms for each role, you feel like you don’t know who Christian Bale is because every role that he does is so, so different, you don’t feel like he brings any of himself to those parts. It’s just this completely transformed character he comes up with. That’s what I’m trying to achieve.

LAJ: I’m sure you will. So now you’re on tour with the Hunger Games premieres. How long will that go on for?

SC: About three weeks. The premier in Berlin, then London, then Los Angeles, then New York, then I’m briefly in Miami and then I’m back for Christmas.

LAJ: I’ll look out for you wearing your same blue suit! At least you can pack light.

SC: [Laughs]. Yeah, exactly!

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