Finding Emily’s Spike Fearn could be the Gen Z Hugh Grant. He’s trying not to pay attention to it

‘I don’t want to be uploading pictures of my spaghetti, you know? I just want to act and have the work speak for itself’ - (Juankr)

I’m definitely in, like, a lot of the movie,” Spike Fearn says, shrugging. He’s front and centre of the poster, I tell him. “Yeah,” he nods. “That’s pretty strange. I’d never really thought about being on a poster before.”

I don’t mean to panic Fearn, a 25-year-old from Coalville in Leicestershire who’s about to become a very big deal, but the film industry has a tendency to make stars out of the dudes in romantic comedies. Hugh Grant did Four Weddings. Heath Ledger did 10 Things I Hate About You. Even Aaron Taylor-Johnson has Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging in his back pocket. Fearn has a film out called Finding Emily, a fizzy Gen Z romcom in which he flails, charms, sings, and sports a floppy Gallagher Brother haircut. You can practically hear the teenage girls swooning. And the follow-up offers rolling in.