The midfielder’s successful stint as a child actor means he is unlikely to suffer stage fright at Manchester United in the Carabao Cup. He is determined to make his name as a footballer after leaving Tottenham

“I was at Leyton Orient from the age of seven to 12, and then I stopped playing football … because I had other interests,” Will Miller says, breaking into laughter. He is halfway through recalling how the lure of a trip to Madagascar, while in South Africa more than a decade ago, prompted him to swap football for film sets and led to him successfully auditioning for the role of Oliver Twist in the BBC’s adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel.

Miller’s story is absorbing and he speaks candidly over an hour in which the unassuming Burton Albion midfielder makes fascinating company, as he discusses working alongside Tom Hardy, getting cold feet about a Martin Scorsese film, learning off Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane at Tottenham Hotspur, and looking forward to the next chapter of the Brewers’ “incredible” journey.

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Next up for Burton is a trip to Manchester United on Wednesday. The year these teams last met, in the FA Cup in 2006, Miller accrued his first television credit, as Pieter Beijerinck, in a documentary drama, Krakatoa, directed by his father, Sam, whose family were on location in Durban. “There was a part for a young boy and the young boy couldn’t do it for some reason, so my dad was like: ‘I need you to do it.’ I was like: ‘I can’t, no way. I don’t want to do that, I am not interested in that.’ But he said: ‘If you do it, you will get to go to Madagascar’, because they were shooting there for a week, so I was like: ‘Cool, I will do it.’”

Miller’s mother, Janine Wood, is an actress who has starred in The Bill and The Inbetweeners. When Miller returned home to Hackney, a friend of hers encouraged him to go to an open audition for Oliver Twist. “I was not too conscious of myself or what could be,” Miller says. “I was not like: ‘I have got to get this part.’ It just happened and it was just a very natural process. I can’t really remember my feelings towards it but I remember I just had the decision that I could either do this or I do football. And I thought that opportunity was ridiculous. I never saw that, never envisaged it, and I never really even wanted it.”

He got through seven auditions and beat off competition from around 700 others to land the role, in which he starred alongside Timothy Spall and Rob Brydon after three months of filming. “I remember meeting just the best people. I had some really good relationships and good times with people. Tom Hardy played Bill Sykes and I really looked up to him. But everyone in the crew was great. I was so fortunate to be involved in that experience – it was incredible.”

Then an agent came along – and more roles followed: Runaway, a TV series and a film called The Kid – “a really interesting project to work on”. Then came more movie auditions, including Hugo and X-Men, but after two years of acting he sought a return to football. Miller, who attended Stoke Newington secondary school in north-east London, was missing a lot of lessons, as well as his friends.

“I always thought to myself: ‘Obviously acting is always a possibility no matter what age you are but football’s not’, and I really want to pursue that. It was a big decision because I think I was actually getting to a point where I was becoming really quite established, and I was starting to get auditions for good roles and stuff.

“I remember going up for the Martin Scorsese film Hugo. My dad was like: ‘This is a Martin Scorsese film, you have to do this.’ But my parents were so supportive, they did not try to stop me at all and if anything they probably pushed me harder to pursue what I really wanted to pursue. They come to every game they can.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Will Miller in action for Burton during last season’s loan spell. Leaving Spurs was difficult but he says: ‘It’s stepping into the big boy world – this is it now.’ Photograph: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images

Miller joined Tottenham’s development centre at the age of 14 and two years later signed a contract eight months into a year’s trial. “I think I got it because they were unsure on me basically,” he smiles. He was a regular fixture in the Spurs youth sides but his first real taste of senior football came on loan at Burton last season. A permanent return and linking back up with the manager, Nigel Clough, on deadline day this summer was a “no-brainer” but it is clear Miller loved every minute of his grounding at Tottenham.

He speaks of his respect for Mauricio Pochettino – whose “morals and standards are so high” – and is choked at the mention of the “incredible” Ugo Ehiogu, the club’s former under-23s coach, who died in April. In terms of players, he cites Eriksen, Ben Davies and Kane as standout influences on his career. “How can you not learn from those kind of players in that situation?” Miller says.

“I started the pre-season with the first team which was great, because their training was ridiculous and you are surrounded by incredible players. Of course in my head I said: ‘OK, I am going to give it everything, I need to make my mark, I’m 21 and it’s now or never.’ I thought I did well in pre-season and then went to America and didn’t play. That was disappointing and kind of from there I was like: ‘I need to start thinking about moving elsewhere because it’s probably not going to happen.’

“It was difficult [to leave] but I felt like it was the right thing to do. It’s strange because last season I was here [at Burton] but I was on loan so it was like: ‘I’ve got Tottenham to go back to’, almost as like a safety net. But now it’s stepping into the big boy world – this is it now. The under-23s especially; it’s like your university, and now I’m leaving that and stepping out. It’s a good feeling and it’s how you grow.”

One of his favourite things about being a child actor was meeting so many colourful characters. He absolutely loathed, and still loathes, watching himself on screen, though. “I hated watching myself, I couldn’t do it,” he says. “It is cringy, it is cringy. It’s strange; it doesn’t feel like me. It was such a different lifestyle and time.” On the day of this interview, Liam Boyce, the striker Burton signed from Ross County for a club record £500,000 this summer (but is ruled out for the season with a knee injury), requested to see Oliver in action. Miller is used to getting some stick from team-mates, who poke fun at video clips.

“I never really wanted people to find out,” he says. “I mean, obviously they were going to find out but I don’t want to be known as the boy that done acting, you know. When you come into a different profession, you want to be known for that, you want to be known as the football player. Not: ‘Oh yeah, he was Oliver Twist.’ I always felt that was a big thing for me.

“ I definitely don’t want to be known as Oliver Twist but Will Miller who plays football. And in any profession, say if I was to go back into acting, I would want to be known as Will Miller the actor, not Will Miller who used to play football. I think that’s natural.” Some more acting? “I am not ruling it out,” Miller says, grinning, “But I really don’t know if I can still act.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Burton’s chairman, Ben Robinson, is hoping to get Sir Alex Ferguson to sign a bottle of wine on Wednesday. Photograph: Fabio De Paola/The Guardian

Miller, 21, speaks glowingly of the personal touch at Burton, a family-run club whose average gate is 5,200 and who are punching above their weight in the Championship. The chairman, Ben Robinson, who turns 72 on Friday, has been involved for 33 years, across two spells, and has sacked only one manager, Paul Peschisolido. “This is a nice friendly, family club that cares about people,” Robinson, whose financial services business sits on Burton’s High Street, says. “And through it all we have smiled. When you have been involved a long time, you are able to cope with the highs and lows and that’s what you need to do in this game.”

Robinson’s daughter, Fleur, is the commercial director. His son, Ben, doubles up as the bar manager and a sort of player liaison. And his partner of 25 years also helps on the corporate side on a match day. Sir Alex Ferguson opened the Brewers’ £7.4m Pirelli Stadium on 14 November 2005, alongside Clough’s mother, Barbara, and Dominic Sandivasci, the chairman of Pirelli, and Robinson is hoping to catch Ferguson on Wednesday. He plans to get him to sign a commemorative bottle of wine, from when United won the FA Cup in 1990, that was given to him by Barry Adcock, a financial director at Burton in the 70s. “I’m hoping to get Sir Alex to sign it and then auction it off,” Robinson says.

As for Clough, his older brother, Simon, is the chief scout and unearthed Jackson Irvine, who left for Hull City for a club record fee of around £2m this summer. The squad, who include no fewer than six former Derby County players, train at nearby St George’s Park, the Football Association’s 330-acre national football site. Other notable quirks include the role of the assistant manager, Gary Crosby, who scarcely attends Burton games and instead assesses upcoming opposition, so the first-team coach, Andy Garner, is Clough’s sidekick in the dugout.

Robinson insists his manager, not Antonio Conte, should have been – “without question” – voted the LMA manager of the year last season for keeping Burton afloat in the Championship, given his limited resources and the league’s smallest budget. The last time United and Burton met, in a tie which went to a replay, Robinson received emails from Cambodia and Argentina and says those two “phenomenal” matches really put Burton upon Trent and the town’s football club on the map. Rubbing shoulders against United again really will be David v Goliath stuff. “We would struggle to beat Manchester United’s second team – that’s the reality of it.”