Harry Styles wants people to "focus" on the "good things" in the world.

The Big Issue cover featuring Harry Styles

The Big Issue cover featuring Harry Styles

The 23-year-old musician admits that the world can look "negative" if people choose to focus on those elements, but has encouraged people to look at the world with a degree of optimism and notice the "good people doing a lot of good things".

When asked about his view on the current and often negative political climate, the 'Sign of the Times' hitmaker said: "It's easy to see it that way but I think you can focus on either side. There is a lot of bad stuff that happens in the world right now. If you choose to focus simply on the negative then obviously it appears much more that way. But there are a lot of good people doing a lot of good things as well."

And the One Direction star - who is gearing up for the release of World War II movie 'Dunkirk' which features his acting debut - insists that telling historical stories is "really important", as it helps people learn more about how humanity got to where it is today.

He added: "All of history is why we are where we are. And I think when you can tell a part of that, a part that is often overlooked, it's important to do that rather than focusing on the end chapter, which obviously seems much more significant. But a lot of things happened to get to those places, so I think focusing on a very important set of events in history and telling that part of the story is really important."

Despite 'Dunkirk' - which was directed by Christopher Nolan and also stars Tom Hardy - being his first experience on a feature film set, the 'Sweet Creature' singer found the production "amazing" to work on.

Speaking to The Big Issue magazine, Harry said: "It's hard to know what to expect walking into an environment like that and it was amazing. The first surprising thing was the scale of the production. You walk on set the first day and get taken aback by everything.

"[Nolan] never makes you feel like you have to try too hard. He wants it to be like you're saying stuff for the first time and doing stuff for the first time - because you are. In terms of first-day memories, we finished one shot and he said, 'congrats on your first close-up'. It was good."

Harry Styles' interview is featured in the new issue of The Big Issue magazine, available from Monday, July 17.