“I never really thought I’d get anywhere, to be honest,” says Cosmo Jarvis. It’s almost laughable. Ever since the British-raised actor starred with a then-unknown Florence Pugh in 2015’s period drama Lady Macbeth, his career has accelerated with unstoppable force. After playing the lead in the Emmy-winning Disney+ show Shōgun, he’s just featured opposite Robert De Niro in gangster pic The Alto Knights. Now he’s part of the ensemble for Warfare, a grueling but gripping Iraq War drama co-directed by Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Civil War).
Today holed up in London’s plush Corinthia Hotel, Jarvis has just wrapped Guy Ritchie’s new drama Wife & Dog alongside Benedict Cumberbatch and is about to join forces with Christopher Nolan for his epic take on Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey. It’s a project so bound by secrecy, Jarvis repeats “can’t talk about it” three times when asked how excited he is. Oh, and there’s the little matter of Shōgun Season 2 to squeeze onto his increasingly busy dance card. But the 35-year-old is taking it all in his stride. “It’s all learning on the job and trying to strive in some way,” he says. “There’s always more to do.”
Born in New Jersey – his father is British, his mother Armenian-American – Cosmo Jarvis was raised in Devon, where industry connections were non-existent. Early on, he fashioned himself as an alt-indie singer-songwriter, a period of his life he now calls “ancient history”. Despite releasing albums including 2011’s Is The World Strange Or Am I Strange?, it was a means to an end. “I only used music really as a way to get out of Plymouth and knock on agent’s doors. We don’t have any acting and filming infrastructure down in Devon.”
All that knocking paid dividends. Playing broken-down, damaged men in acclaimed films like Calm With Horses and It Is In Us All, Jarvis soon began to carve out a reputation as an actor of considerable intensity and charisma. Not that he wants to hear it. “Don’t tell me good things,” he says, half-joking. “When people get told good things, they stagnate and they become assholes.” Like a young De Niro, he also became known for staying in character. “That’s what happens if you don’t go to drama school, mate,” he mutters.
In the case of Warfare, it offered a reunion between Jarvis and Garland, who cast the actor in “a tiny, tiny role” for his 2018 film Annihilation alongside Natalie Portman. “The part was cut from the movie. Fair play, it happens,” shrugs Jarvis. “Even though it was a very small role, he [Garland] was there in the audition for that and he was really, like he is, very honest and very direct and approachable. Then years went by, and he met me, and he explained about Warfare, and he said, ‘Do you remember me?’ And I said, ‘Of course I do’.”
When Jarvis heard about Warfare, he was hooked, especially given Garland’s co-writer/director was Ray Mendoza. A former U.S. Navy SEAL, Mendoza’s experiences during the second Gulf War would form the basis for Warfare. Set in 2006 in Ramadi, Iraq, the film is a real-time take on a horrifying incident when Mendoza and his fellow soldiers came under fire from Al Qaeda insurgents. Cosmo Jarvis plays Elliott Miller, a sniper whose legs are left shredded by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device).
Mendoza, who worked with Garland as a military advisor on his controversial 2024 film Civil War, wanted to make the film in part because Miller has no memory of the entire incident. “He remembers nothing at all,” says Jarvis. “But by being there [on the set], his presence was just essential in terms of the whole process.” The result is one of the most authentic combat movies of the modern era, from precise military manoeuvres to the unerring sound design that mixes ear-shattering screams, explosions and gunfire.
While Warfare is very much an ensemble (Will Poulter, Charles Melton, Joseph Quinn and Kit Connor also feature), it’s a lightyear in tone from Jarvis’ elegant breakout, Shōgun. Adapted from the novel by James Clavell, the show won a history-making 18 Emmys. So how did it feel to head up such a critical success? “I mean, I’m certainly grateful for the employment, as I am for any employment. Yeah, it’s good. I’m happy for everybody involved in the show and glad that what they made was well received, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of it.”
Cosmo Jarvis, whose answers are frequently punctuated with long pauses, is reluctant to reveal too much about the forthcoming second season. “All I know is that the people who are responsible for making it are working very hard to make something, and that’s about all I know, really.” But is he pumped to reprise his character, John Blackthorne, the English navigator who crosses swords in feudal Japan? “I haven’t really thought about it, to be honest. I can’t even imagine what they may come up with.” So they don’t give you any subtle hints? “I don’t ask.”
Even projects in the public domain, Jarvis agonises over discussing. Like The Alto Knights, which sees him play Vincent Gigante, a hit-man working for De Niro’s real-life mobster Vito Genovese. Put simply, Genovese bickering with Gigante as they drive cross-country, is one of the most pleasurable scenes in cinema this year. How did he find De Niro? “Well, it was an honour to work alongside him. I find it quite difficult to talk about stuff like that. It was just great to be a part of, and it was great to watch somebody that I am so familiar with since my youth.”
Whether Cosmo Jarvis will ever quite hit the heights of De Niro is a matter for another day. But like his former co-star, he treats the work with the upmost seriousness, gaining spectacular results. No wonder he’s so tightly wound. “I find it very difficult to do anything except for what I’m doing at any given moment,” he says. “I find it quite difficult to plan ahead. Because I find that a lot of the time the work can be all-consuming…in a good way though.” His career plan? “See what happens, I suppose. Just keep plugging away.” It’s worked pretty well so far.
‘Warfare’ is in cinemas from April 18