Trivia

• Has been described as a cross between Colin Firth and a thinking woman’s Robert Pattinson.

• His father died when James was six years old.

• His sister Charlotte also attended Christ’s Hospital (BaA 1987-1994)

• He took A-levels in French, German and Maths and thought he might study languages in university

• No history of acting in his family

• The day he graduated from LAMDA, he left his diploma on a No. 22 London bus on his way home

• He once received a script intended for another Mr. Darcy, Colin Firth

• He is a huge Star Wars fan

• Does not like to watch horror films because it would make him jump & scream and he can’t sleep for days afterwards. Prefers to laugh or to be moved to tears than be terrified

• The first horror film he ever watched while growing up was The Exorcist when he accidentally saw parts of it. After watching The Shining, he hasn’t been good with horror films.

• The first time he saw Psycho was when he about 13 over at a friend’s house and it was on late television. He wanted to stop watching and his friend sat on him so he couldn’t leave the room and forced him watch. While preparing for Hitchcock, he couldn’t bring himself to watch it all over again. He watched only bits of it repeatedly for research

• Is open to the paranormal but doesn’t believe in ghosts. The night his grandmother was dying, he woke in the middle of the night and felt her presence in his room saying `Don`t worry. Everything is going to be fine. It`s all going to work out` then fell back to sleep. When he was woken by his mother, she told him his grandmother had passed on around 5 am.

• It was James` smash hit revival of Edward II which prompted Kenneth Branagh`s return to the Sheffield Stage on Richard III after a 10 year absence

• Theatre is enticing, but he prefers film, but is open to a great play

• Have met Prince Charles and Prince Edward, as in standing in a line-up, shaking hands and saying hello.

• His great-grandfather took the surrender of the Germans on Guernsey

• His great grandparents are Irish and he still has relatives living in Dublin

• First kiss: when he was 12 years old with Louise Jerome

• There was a girl in his teens he would have given up everything for

• Dated Lucy Punch for a few years after working with her in Come Together (2001)

• While having no current girlfriend at the moment, is a veteran of several long term relationships

• Most romantic date: “Venice, a bridge, the grand canal and a full moon”

• In interviews, will talk openly about his work, but nothing about his private life or love life

• Though witty, open and charming during interviews, will give no clue as to whom he might be offscreen. Has been described as “equal parts talent, pointed handsomeness and mystery..”

• Loved watching movies when he was child because it make him safe to feel emotions. He said he comes from a family that didn’t express particular feelings

• Used to smoke but not anymore

• Enjoyed working on Rebel Heart because he got to “kiss girls, fire guns and let off bombs”

• In Hitchcock, recreated a scene in Psycho with Scarlet that wasn’t filmed.

  • “In the scene that we were shooting, were rehearsing Psycho so we had the Psycho scripts in our hand and the scene where they sit down and have a sandwich together was where it was open at and we started reading it out loud together as Janet Leigh and Tony Perkins.”

• Got kissed by Joseph Fiennes for Edward II (hated it, gave him stubble rash), Brian Conley kissed him at the end of the interview, so James decided to carry him off stage; Ben Whishaw for Cloud Atlas (very nice!)

• Skills he has learned for his roles:

  • swordfighting (Sherlock)

  • learned to play a bagpipe song IEnjoy Sporting with My Brown Haired Lass in 6 weeks

  • clay pigeon shooting (was told he was a good shot!)

  • A Dancing to the Stars dance sequence with lifts and twirls (W.E.), but it was cut

  • Greek dancing (Flight of the Swan)

  • rigging, sails, how to fire a pistol, more swordfighting (M&C)

• Can jet ski, ride horses, play the banjo. He claims that he can’t sing.

• His idea of an ideal vacation: horseback riding through the Andes

• Favourite activities: reading, writing, hanging out with friends and family (adores his cousin’s 4 kids), tennis (enthusiastic more than talented, he claims), skiing (skis like a devil said an observer), likes long dim sum lunches on Sundays, sushi dinners

• Has a special park in London where he likes to walk to think

• Likes doing up his flat in London, but is hopeless at DIY, luckily has a cousin who is good at it

• Unfavourite activities: gym (would rather play sports)

• Has had laser eye surgery, so he no longer wears glasses

• Sometimes his mum visits him on the set on location, but only to places like Indonesia, not Romania

• Julian Ovenden visited him on the set of Master and Commander in Mexicohe but in between hotel and set, Julian kept getting stopped and fined for nothing by the Mexican police

• Favorite music: Gorillaz, Jimi Hendrix but he enjoys many different kinds of music

• Favourite authors: Martin Amis (Amis’ Money), George MacDonald Fraser (Flashman series)

• Will read anything except except angry, violent horrible books. He likes challenging novels that uses lots of metaphors in a satirical manner

• Does not: watch himself on the screen or read reviews

• Doesn’t read reviews because to believe the good ones, you’d have to believe the bad ones and he doesn’t want to read the bad ones

• Hasn’t seen himself on screen for years, apart from Cloud Atlas

• Does not google himself “down that road madness lies”

• Has actor friends but they don’t sit around discussing acting

• Finds comedies harder to do than dramas: “Comedy is one of those things that wakes me up at 3am going, 'Oh God, why didn't I just do that?' That seems to haunt me more than shooting very intense dramas." 

• Didn’t drop his American accent for the 16 days filming In Their Skin so some of the crew had no idea they had a British actor on their set

• Likes things in life that relax rather than stress him; doesn’t care for politics

• Was happy to be bald for Cloud Atlas as he always dreamed of shaving his head.

• Used David Attenborough to channel old Sixsmith in Cloud Atlas

• Injuries at work:

  • For stunt scene on POW which involved falling down a bank, he sprained his ankle badly that he had to be taken to the hospital, but redid the stunt the next day

  • Landed on a chair and broke a rib in In Their Skin but kept going as they only had a day and a half left to shoot . After wrapping up, James flew back to London immediately to be the best man at Julian Ovenden’s wedding

• Has written 3 screenplays for feature films: a father/son drama-comedy, a treasure-hunt adventure and a romantic comedy in the style of Richard Curtis

• Hopes to produce a gritty drama that someone else has written

• Lives like a nomad moving from place to place to shoot and promote a film

• When he’s not working as an actor, James keeps a simple life, pay his bills and gets up late, spending time with family who do not follow his big success and re-connecting with old friends

• Current television shows he is watching: Breaking Bad, Homeland, Mad Men, Walking Dead & Game of Thrones

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