Jupiter Ascending star Douglas Booth on charm, leading roles and looking good

Douglas Booth says he feared being handsome could hinder his career - and discussed its perils with Jude Law.

The actor, 22, whose recent films include The Riot Club and Noah, plays a charming playboy in sci-fi epic Jupiter Ascending.

He discussed the pitfalls of beauty with Law - 20 years his senior - who says he has happily embraced getting older as people now focus on his acting rather than his looks.

“Jude said, ‘Don’t worry, they will be obsessed with it for a minute then they will forget about it’,” Booth revealed.

“Not that I’m comparing myself to them but Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp - all these people were beautiful young men who were just thought of in that way and objectified in that way and ultimately they have worked their way out of it. People get used to what you look like.”

Booth said he was conscious his looks sometimes led him to be deemed “too leading man”. But the point of Jupiter Ascending is that he, Mila Kunis and Eddie Redmayne - cast as intergalactic royals with the ability to regenerate - are supposed to look devastatingly beautiful.

“Ultimately I’m not really worried about it at all,” he said. “I hope my work will out.”

And - good looks aside - charm “comes for free”. “I would hope I was raised polite and charming.”

The film stars Kunis as Jupiter Jones, a cleaner on Earth unaware that she has powerful relatives - Booth and Redmayne - in a far-flung galaxy who view her as a threat.

Booth said he wanted to take the role because directors Lana and Andy Wachowski, who were behind The Matrix, are among his favourite film-makers. “Everything has become dictated by re-makes or comic strips but they are some of the only people who still have the guts to go out there and create their own world,” he said.

Working with Redmayne - Bafta and Oscar-nominated for The Theory Of Everything - was also a bonus, as the pair have known each other since starring in TV series The Pillars Of The Earth. Jupiter Ascending’s “great British cast” also includes Tim Pigott-Smith, Sean Bean and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Although not everyone would like the results, Booth said, all he wants to do is “exciting and interesting” work. It could be difficult because “we’re very sensitive creatures - we do what we do because we can emotionally open our hearts”.

“But you have to just crack on. Being 22, I’m just up for trying everything.”

Jupiter Ascending is in cinemas today.