Jack Huston

Forget family pedigree - it's leading-man looks and talent to match that has this actor's star on the rise.as Gill Pringle discovers.

The late, great director John Huston is his grandfather, and actors Anjelica and Danny Huston are his aunt and uncle. Yet it was talent and determination, not his notable pedigree, that landed British actor Jack Huston the starring role in upcoming Roman epic Ben-Hur. Based on Lew Wallace’s novel Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ, Timur Bekmambetov’s new Ben-Hur marks the sixth retelling of the timeless tale of revenge and redemption (although you probably know the 1959 Charlton Heston version best – it won a record breaking 11 Oscars).

Huston, 33, realises there’s a lot of expectation resting on his broad shoulders, which are clad in a leather motorbike jacket when we meet in a West Hollywood hotel. Standing 183 cm tall, with thick black hair, piercing green eyes and a stubbled chin, he’s a head-turner on the brink of leading-man status. If there’s an air of familiarity about him, that’s because he played Jack Kerouac to Daniel Radcliffe’s Allen Ginsberg in Kill Your Darlings, a slippery mobster opposite Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle and George Wickham in Pride And Prejudice And Zombies. He had a small role in The Twilight Saga, too, and starred in four seasons of HBO’s acclaimed drama Boardwalk Empire. Yet Ben-Hur marks his first bona-fide leading role, his moment in the sun.