Rupert Friend proves he's more than Keira's ex

After spending almost five years playing second fame fiddle to girlfriend Keira Knightley, British actor Rupert Friend is finally shaking off the KK association and finding Hollywood pretty receptive to his many talents - which he has showcased in all their cheek boned glory in the likes of The Libertine and Pride and Prejudice.

Having made his name in Europe thanks to his, in turns, stiff-upper-lipped and laid-back performances, in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Jean-Marc Vallée's The Young Victoria and opposite Michelle Pfeifer in Stephen Frears's Chéri, Rupert's well aware that he's a bit of an outsider when it comes to Tinseltown - largely due to the absence of a heart-throb status-inducing role, such as Edward Cullen did for Robert Pattinson.

"If I'm in LA, it's all ‘Brits in Hollywood'," he explains. "There are all these little gangs, and as soon as I get even an inkling that I might get invited to join them, I run away."

Out of his comfort zone

And although it might not be winning him any NBFs in Hollywood, it's Rupert's independent streak that's been credited as the reason for his versatility. Add to the mix the fact that he has no fixed address, doesn't own a TV or radio, and lacks the need for personal security blankets, and he's able to fully inhabit characters outside his comfort zone. "Routine is not comforting to me," he says. "I find it quite unsettling if I'm doing the same thing that I did yesterday".

Calling himself a late starter, he insists, "[I] was about to setoff sailing around the world when I heard I'd got into drama school. Everyone else there had grown up singing and dancing, where as I was the opposite."

And it was a childhood spent in rural Oxfordshire that drove him - "I grew up in the countryside in the middle of nowhere and got out as soon as I could," he says, citing Indiana Jones as one of his main inspirations to act, as it was watching The Last Crusade that turned him on to the idea of movie character as art. An inspiration that led him to the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.

Fresh out of drama school, Rupert was off to a dream start, landing the role of Downs opposite Johnny Depp in The Libertine - a role for which he was handed the Outstanding New Talent gong at the 2005 Satellite Awards, and nominated for the Most Promising Newcomer award at the British Independent Film Awards.

"He's a real man"

And despite following up that cinematic coup with the roguish role of Mr Wickham in Pride and Prejudice, Rupert remembers the subsequent years as a struggle, revealing, "In every one of those years, without fail, I was unemployed for six months."

Media-wise, Rupert eschews a publicist and protects his personal life, insisting he's more comfortable "talking about the films, rather than where I buy my socks or whatever".

And, although Keira may be a hard act to follow, the 29-year-old boasts an impressive female following, with his Young Victoria co-star Emily Blunt calling him "[the very] definition of a real man".

Your On-Screen Friend

Where have you seen that pretty face before...?

• 2004 The Libertine: Starring as Billy Downs, a young friend of Johnny Depp, in his first foray onto the big screen.
• 2005 Pride & Prejudice: In full-on rogue duty as the villainous Mr Wickham.
• 2008 The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: Embraced the unsympathetic part of the menacing Nazi officer, Lieutenant Kurt Kotler.
• 2009 The Young Victoria: Stiff upper lips all round as the young Prince Albert.
• 2010 Steve: Rupert stepped behind the camera to direct this short film starring Colin Firth and Keira Knightley.
• 2011 5 days in August: Dodging bullets alongside Val Kilmer and Andy Garcia as an embattled journo.