From Bloody Fights to Brilliant Minds, Hero Fiennes-Tiffin and Zine Tseng on How 'Young Sherlock' Rebuilds a Legend - INTERVIEW

Watching Sherlock Holmes come of age is rarely gentle. In Young Sherlock, the Prime Video series that reimagines the detective before he becomes a legend, the bruises come early and often, long before the brilliance fully settles in.

"I take a lot of punches to the nose," Hero Fiennes-Tiffin said with a laugh during an interview with The Latin Times. "There was lots of bloody makeup stuck up my nose for all those fight scenes."

Fiennes-Tiffin stars as a teenage Sherlock Holmes, still impulsive, still physical, and very far from the controlled, cerebral figure audiences associate with the name. Directed by Guy Ritchie, Young Sherlock leans heavily into action, a choice that initially surprised even its lead.

"I knew there would be action," Fiennes-Tiffin said. "But maybe I expected a little bit less than that." Still, he was quick to defend the approach. "I don't love action when it isn't earned or deserved or done well," he added. "Anyone who might be put off by the fact that there's a lot of action in this, trust me, it's done in a fun, original way."

That balance between physical chaos and emerging intellect defines this version of Sherlock. As Fiennes Tiffin put it later in the conversation, "He's still young, so he's a brawler. But the brain is getting big and big and big."

Sharing the screen with him is Zine Tseng, who plays Princess Gulun Shou'an, described in the series as a Chinese princess, an Oxford scholar, and a skilled martial artist. For Tseng, the role required months of preparation and physical training.

"I already knew that she was going to be stunt heavy," Tseng said in the interview. "I was an amateur in practicing kung fu, not knowing that I would be stepping into this world. Then I had to start earlier for months to train myself for the stunt part. Painful."

Tseng's character becomes a counterbalance to Sherlock, not just physically but intellectually. During the interview, she praised his approach to the role in strikingly personal terms.

"He's really smart, intelligent," she said. "He can knit all the ideas into one perfect, clear thought. That is very precious for actors." Fiennes-Tiffin, visibly embarrassed, joked that he might start bringing Tseng to future meetings. But her point landed. This Sherlock is defined as much by thought as by force, even if that thought is still forming.

The family dynamics behind the scenes add another layer. Joseph Fiennes plays Sherlock's father in the series, and he is also Hero Fiennes-Tiffin's uncle in real life. The overlap between fiction and reality deepened the pressure.

"I went from self-belief back down to zero," Fiennes-Tiffin said, recalling the experience of working alongside him. "I thought, I have to prove I'm even half decent."

That tension mirrors the show's emotional core. Young Sherlock presents a version of Holmes who is still shaped by others, by authority, by failure, and by consequence. It stands apart from previous interpretations, from Benedict Cumberbatch's hyper-controlled modern detective to Robert Downey Jr.'s confident, fully formed action hero.

Guy Ritchie's earlier Sherlock films focused on a man who already knew who he was. This series is about discovery, friction, and becoming.

Even the lighter moments point to that contrast between old and new. When the conversation drifted toward TikTok, conspiracy theories, and social media rabbit holes, the cast joked about how a modern Sherlock might never leave his house.

"I don't have TikTok," Fiennes Tiffin said. "But I do use Instagram, and I scroll on that sometimes. It's powerful, the way it draws you in." Tseng admitted she has fallen into her own digital mysteries. "I'm so drawn to astrology mysteries and unsolved city crimes," she said. "I listen to them going to bed."

Those moments of humor underline what Young Sherlock is ultimately doing. It is not trying to replace the legend. It is trying to explain him.

Young Sherlock premiered this week in Prime Video, with audiences meeting a detective who bleeds before he deduces, who fights before he calculates, and whose brilliance is still very much under construction.

As Tseng put it simply, "People think physicality and intelligence are at odds. Here, they learn from each other."

That, more than anything, may be how this series rebuilds a legend.