Corey Mylchreest, the actor who never wanted to be famous

Before playing the tormented King George III in the successful miniseries Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (2023), Corey Mylchreest, 27, had already made his Netflix debut, even if it had taken place to little fanfare. It consisted of a three-second cameo in the first episode of The Sandman back in 2022, in which he played Adonis.

“Best two lines ever delivered on screen,” as his mother characterized her son’s brief appearance, according to her son’s Instagram post — he now has 2.3 followers — in regards to the debut of the series based on the Neil Gaiman’s great comic.

Mylchreest can joke about the hardly transcendent role now, because he’s far from anonymous these days. Nine months later, in May 2023, the Bridgerton prequel, based on the youthful story of Queen Charlotte, premiered, and the British actor — starring alongside India Amarteifio — experienced firsthand what the Netflix phenomenon truly means.

“Nothing can really prepare you for that. Although I did try to mentally prepare, but it turns out that’s called anxiety! It was scary but exciting,” he recalled about that moment of sudden and staggering fame in a 2024 interview with People — an exchange that took place for its Sexiest Man Alive issue.

Mylchreest is one those people who always wanted to be an actor, but who never wanted to be famous. He studied the craft beginning at an early age, and like any good aspiring British actor, had done several amateur Shakespeare theater productions by the time he was in his twenties, including Romeo and Juliet (in which he played Tybalt), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (as Demetrius), and King Lear (as Edmund).

Even so, he never wanted to be a mega-star, according to what he told People, and possesses more humble ambitions, like “scuba dive, I want to get my driving license, I want to bungee jump, and skydive.”

“I remember saying this when I was 12: ‘I never want to be famous but I want to be famous enough so that I will at one point in my life be invited to play a charity match at Anfield [the Liverpool stadium]’ because I was in love with Steven Gerrard,” he continued. “That would be my life finished. I would also like to travel and hopefully I’ll feel cemented enough in the industry that I can take some time off and travel properly.”

Recently, the actor has been seen in Paris, Milan and Florence attending fashion runway shows, perhaps a sign that he’s being courted by major brands, though he has yet to be recruited by any for an ad campaign.

He is also demonstrating that his success isn’t limited to a single character. August 1 marked the Netflix debut of My Oxford Year, a romantic drama based on the novel by Julia May Whelan replete with a kissing scene in the rain, which quickly became one of the most-watched programs on the platform and began trending on social media.

The film follows Anna — played by Sofia Carson — a U.S. student who moves to the United Kingdom and (attention: spoiler) falls in love with Jamie — played by Mylchreest — who is secretly battling illness.

In Queen Charlotte, he played another man struggling with a health condition in George III, who suffered from porphyria, which caused him to have psychotic episodes. “As a man, never in your life are you really taught that it is all good for you to experience emotion on that level and cry in such an uncontrollable way,” he said in a recent interview with Cosmopolitan about his experience embodying these characters.

“It’s quite easy to do like, one tear and be stoic and all strong about it, but to really let yourself go is difficult. It’s important for me to still strive towards that. I mean, it’s not why I do it, but hopefully it’s doing something positive to show that men can be vulnerable,” he explained.

After all that intensity, he has indicated his openness to dipping into other genres. He said that he is a fan of Harry Potter — “I’m in Gryffindor, according to Pottermore, though I really want to be in Ravenclaw” — in an interview with Esquire in February, where he dropped an offer to form part of that magical universe. “It’d be such a dream to play... [whispers] Sirius Black. But that would mean stepping into Gary Oldman’s shoes, and I’m not quite sure I’d want to do that any time soon.”

Mylchreest also confessed to having grown up reading comic — “more so Marvel, less so DC” — and is leaving the door open to playing a character that hails from that world. “The dream as a kid is to play Spider-Man, but I don’t think that’s right for me. People have said Cyclops before — I would love to do that. That feels like the most straight and narrow I could do. People have also said Gambit — that would be so cool,” he said, weighing in on the X-Men mutants.

The actor also made it clear who he would love to be directed by: “Christopher Nolan is my dream director. I grew up on his Batman films.”

With no rest to digest and savor the tremendous reception of My Oxford Year, Mylchreest is already promoting his latest Netflix project. That’s the series Hostage, a political thriller that premiered on August 21 and follows a kidnapping and blackmail plot during the French president’s visit to the United Kingdom. He plays the leader’s stepson, and finally got to unleash his desire for a little action and a change of pace, tonally.

“I think it would be good to play a bit of a prick. I think I’ve done quite a lot of soft boys now,” he joked in Cosmopolitan. “Someone that’s not nice, I think would be fun. Also, I’ve dipped into comedy now and I would like to do more with that.”

If he hadn’t gone into acting, he would have wanted to study history. It may seem like too staid of a prospect, but in fact, he told People that the idea came from Indiana Jones. Or perhaps he would have dedicated himself to his other great love, soccer, and become a coach. “Maybe when I have kids, I can coach them. Born at the same hospital as David Beckham, same part of London, that’s the closest I get,” he told the magazine.

He doesn’t speak much about his private life, but has a girlfriend who he mentions in interviews without revealing her identity. That paramour is said to be British actress Hannah Holland, with whom he was seen at Wimbledon last year. Apparently, they recently moved into a house in London near the neighborhood he grew up in, and between shootings, watch Love Island. He told Esquire that he wished he could say that he watched the movie The Brutalist — but that he hasn’t had the four hours to spare.

It’s perhaps that longing for more free time led him to answer, when asked by People what privileges he would enjoy if he were king, “enforce the four-day week.” Time and a season ticket to Anfield, what more could one ask? “And maybe a meet and greet with the whole [Liverpool] team, or I could just be a Liverpool player. Actually that’s what I would do, I would just play for Liverpool and nobody could say no,” he said.

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