NEW YORK -- You may have seen Rupert Friend in Pride & Prejudice or in The Boy In The Striped Pajamas.

Or you might have seen him in the tabloids with Keira Knightley.

Friend and Knightley, the bright young things of British cinema, have been a couple since they met filming Pride & Prejudice.

Friend is currently promoting Cheri, a May-September love story in which he co-stars with Michelle Pfeiffer, and in person he is so like Knightley that it's as if they are the male and female versions of the same person, all pronounced cheekbones and plummy vowels.

Cheri is set in Paris at the turn of the last century, and Friend is wonderfully louche as the dissolute son of a courtesan (Kathy Bates). He takes up with his mother's old rival, Lea de Lonval (Pfeiffer), who is decades older. It's sort of a lark at first, their relationship, but then it turns into a love story.

Friend, 27, studied ballet for the role.

"I wanted Cheri to have the physical grace of a ballerina. I had this image the first time I read the script of a tom cat lying on a hot brick wall, lazing in the sun until anything got too near. Then -- chhrowr! -- he'd just kill it. I had this thing of laziness combined with danger, a kind of dangerous grace I wanted to imbue Cheri with."

Working with Michelle Pfeiffer was a bit intimidating, he admits, "Because you're aware of this enormous body of work. You can sense the weight and skill of what she brings to work. She's a generous and professional actor, and she was aware that it was going to be hard for me, a big role and a tricky role, and she was incredibly supportive."

And their sex scenes? (We knew you'd want to know, gentle reader.)

"A sex scene is exactly the same as any other scene," says Friend. "You have to believe you are someone else, and if you can do that, then you can believe that you want what they want, and then you're half-way there."

Friend, who was born in Oxfordshire, trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London and rose quickly through the ranks. He was named Most Promising Newcomer at the British Independent Film awards in 2005 for his work opposite Johnny Depp in The Libertine, and "Outstanding New Talent" at the Satellite Awards in 2005 for his work in Mrs. Palfrey At The Claremont.

Friend's other films include Pride & Prejudice, Outlaw, The Moon and The Stars, Jolene and The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. Among his upcoming films is The Young Victoria, playing Prince Albert opposite Emily Blunt as the Queen; that film is directed by Canadian Jean-Marc Vallee, famous for his hit film C.R.A.Z.Y.

The son of a lawyer and an art historian, Friend made a careful choice to become an actor.

He says, "I got frightened when I was very young by the notion that this big decision was creeping up on me and all my peers, which was that you were going to have to select something to do for the rest of your life ... And I didn't like school at all, and the idea of choosing one thing do do, even at university, was abhorrent to me.

"Looking around for a career, and one that would constantly and challenge and surprise me, the only one that came up on top was acting, as I knew I'd get to experience what it was like to be many different people within my lifespan. That's how it started ... it was the idea of experiencing what it's like to be other people. That shape-shifting thing."

The key to what he does, says the actor, "Is to keep your imagination open and active."

Finally, asked what he thinks the moral of Cheri might be, Friend says, "I've been puzzling over it for two years. I hope it's ambiguous. That's one of the things I enjoy in films -- when it's not all tied up in a bow at the end, but you're left to draw your own conclusions."

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