Sofia Carson only ever had one actor in mind for Jamie, the enigmatic and charming other half to her character Anna in the romance My Oxford Year. “I always knew it would be Corey Mylchreest,” she says. Carson, known for Purple Hearts, Carry-On, and The Life List, also executive produces the film. “The moment he walked into the room and we started reading the script, we transformed into Anna and Jamie. Instantly.”

My Oxford Year follows Anna, an ambitious girl from Queens, New York City, who comes to Oxford University in the UK for a year-long poetry class before starting a grueling role at Goldman Sachs back in Manhattan. When she meets Jamie, a fellow student-turned-unexpected teaching assistant, the two embark on an epic romance that leads her to question her structured life plan. 

Their relationship is anything but straightforward, starting with their bumpy meet-cute. The two collide in a greasy chip shop –– moments after he accidentally drenched her on the sidewalk by speeding through a puddle in his vintage car. Anna, dripping wet, is stumbling through her fish and chips order as Jamie rushes into the shop and crouches on the linoleum floor, hiding from a past fling as she walks down the street looking for him. 

With Mylchreest and Carson, the characters’ chemistry is instantly undeniable, which makes sense given how quickly the actors found their rhythm. During Mylchreest’s audition, director Iain Morris (The Inbetweeners) asked the two to improvise before jumping into the scenes they’d prepared. “Developing [Jamie and Anna’s] relationship wasn’t about discussing it loads,” says Mylchreest, known for his turn as the young King George in Shonda Rhimes’s Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. “It was much more about being playful, impulsive, and present with the other person.” Part of why he and Carson could take such an instinctive approach was because of how much they trusted each other and respected the work. “Corey was a true partner in this experience,” adds Carson. “He approached Jamie with the same responsibility as I approached Anna. We were committed to diving heart and soul into bringing these characters to life, and we enjoyed every second of doing it together.”

Soon after meeting, Jamie and Anna become inseparable but insist on keeping things fun, as Anna has to return home to New York in a year, and Jamie is reticent when it comes to relationships. Anna quickly discovers why: He’s been diagnosed with an incurable genetic disease that claimed his older brother not long ago.  Jamie has decided to forgo any more treatment in order to live his final days fully –– just as the poetry he adores instructs him to. This is against the wishes of parents, played by Dougray Scott and Catherine McCormack.

The role of Jamie would be a heavy one, a tricky balancing act for even the most veteran of actors. So it’s hard to believe, based on Mylchreest’s deft performance, that it’s actually his first part in a movie ever. “Corey was just a dream to work with,” says Morris. “I couldn’t believe it was his first feature film he’d done.” 

As Jamie, Mylchreest walks a thin line between heartbreaking and hilarious, dashing and daffy, wise and mischievous. “We all were very excited about him getting cast, but never in my wildest imagination did I think he would be as versatile and charismatic as he is,” says Marty Bowen, the Temple Hill producer behind Twilight and The Fault in Our Stars. “It starts with his ability to take the piss out of himself. When a guy looks as good as he does and yet is as funny as he is, it’s such a staggering and lethal combination. I love the expression, ‘It’s hard to be funny with six-pack abs.’ Not for Corey. It’s his ability to be goofy and awkward and not know how to deal with the embarrassment of riches that he has as a man that I find charming.”

Bowen’s fellow Temple Hill producer Laura Quicksilver agrees, pointing to Corey’s range as the reason he’s so successful in the role of Jamie. “There are so many layers to Corey as an actor. He’s thoughtful in his process and gives so much to the craft and to the characters,” she says. “He is so versatile; he’s romantic and you fall in love with him, but he really made us laugh.” 

His charm is hard to pin down. “Corey could either be the next Brad Pitt or the next James Bond,” says Bowen, before Quicksilver quickly adds, “Or the next Hugh Grant?”

Mylchreest attributes the balance in his performance to a sense of humor that is distinctively English. “It’s this ability to keep your head up high and joke about really sad things, which is such an inherent part of who Jamie is, the landscape of his family and the country,” he says. “It’s in the culture to make light of and brush off the deep stuff that’s going on.” Morris, who is also English, agrees: “Obviously, heavy things happen in the film. But the film’s about living. It’s not about dying. It’s about saying, ‘While I’m here, let me live, please.’ Humor is a huge part of that — it’s a huge part of being alive.”

Mylchreest also points to the setting as part of what helped him find his character. “Iain said something beautiful: ‘Oxford is an incredibly old establishment. But at the time of it being built up until now and every year in between, it has been built for young people to do what young people do, which is get drunk, be silly, live, love,’ ” says Mylchreest. “Hosting revelry, that’s their purpose.” Getting to film on location helped the actor capture that spirit, “Oxford is the heartbeat of the film, and a big part of Jamie, and what he loves and lives for. So it was special to be able to actually be there on the streets, being a part of Magdalen College.”

After Jamie opens up to Anna about his disease, the two set out to make the most of their time together: drunkenly devouring late-night kebabs, singing bad Coldplay karaoke, and sharing countless steamy moments in the rare book library. “The best bits of life are always the messiest, which is the message of the film, or the message of Anna’s year in Oxford,” says Mylchreest. “She has some plans, and they don't necessarily go ahead, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.” 

According to 27-year-old Mylchreest, this joyous spirit was mirrored offscreen as well: “There was a lot of Chappell Roan dancing. I remember being quite taken aback by everyone, because they were all in a cacophony all the time. The moments where we were all together were really nice.” And when it came to his character’s obsession with kebabs, Mylchreest didn’t have to look far, as that’s also his favorite late-night snack. “He ate, without exaggeration, I think six of them,” laughs Carson, even though both actors confirmed the delicious-looking kebabs were a moment of movie magic and that the offerings were actually cold and dry.

“Some of the most meaningful things in your life are momentary. Making the film, for example, was two months of my life, and I loved it,” Mylchreest says, reflecting on his experience.  “I met so many beautiful people, and I got to say some lovely, funny, and sad words. I got to visit amazing places. That was only two months of my life.”

Watch My Oxford Year on Netflix now.