Balance November 2017 - 25

T H E B I G I N T E RV I E W

giving the kind of experience you wanted as a kid and
probably failing all over the place and just keeping
going, doing the best you can.'
Slight in body - he's of medium build and 5ft 7ins
tall - in person, Jamie is funny, engaging and, like
most of us, disheartened by US politics and parenting
in an age of global terrorism.
'F****ing hell, yeah. It's miserable,' he says. 'You're
constantly doing everything you can to make them
safe while realising that, eventually, you're going
to have to go' - he pushes out his arms, palms
first - '"there you go, out into the big, wide world"
and there's nothing you can do about it. It's the
devastating thing about being a parent.'

FANTASTIC FORM
Jamie recently married for a second time. He and
House of Cards actor Kate Mara, 34, who he met on the
set of 2015 movie Fantastic Four, announced the news
on their respective social media accounts, with Jamie
sharing a hazy picture of him and his new wife kissing
with the words: 'Me & Mrs B'. Kate uploaded the same
picture to her account and wrote: 'Nuptials.'
He smiles at the suggestion that having another
child might dispel the eventual devastation of his
first born one day flying the nest. 'Yeah, I'll just have
another one,' he says. 'That will solve all the issues.'
Jamie's father walked out on his mum, Eileen,
before he was born and the pair have subsequently
never had a relationship. In Film Stars Don't Die In
Liverpool there is a poignant scene where Jamie's
character, Peter, shares a beer with his on-screen
father, a reality Jamie has never experienced.
'I guess I have a version in my brain of what a dad
and a kid drinking in a pub is, so I went to that place,'
says Jamie. So, in the absence of his father, who was
his male role model growing up?
'Comedians,' he answers, his dialect a quirky
amalgamation of North East meets California.
'Every time, if I'm on location by myself or
miserable or grumpy, I always watch those British TV
shows. Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Rowan Atkinson,
John Cleese. They feel like they're my family. I
watched them constantly on VHS when I was eight
years old. I felt connected to them then and I still do.'
Much has been made of the fact that Jamie has
form when it comes to playing characters with
absent parents - you begin to wonder whether
not having a relationship with his own father has
affected the roles he chooses.

IDENTITY

FRIENDS

EGO

STAYING
GROUNDED

'It gives you a drive,' he says. 'I didn't really have a
strong sense of identity as a kid or know who I was.
I'm sure there's this thing that is about identity and
going "Who am I, who am I?" and it pushes you.'
Unlike his child-star contemporaries who plunged
off the rails in their teenage years, Jamie has avoided
the pitfalls of drugs and drink. 'Maybe I am very
boring!,' he laughs, crediting his team, namely his agent
and friend of 17 years Vanessa Pereira, for keeping his
'ego in check' and guiding him down the right path.
'From an early age my opinion mattered,' says Jamie.
'When I had something to say, film makers would ask
me questions and I'm sure I've had some really stupid
ideas, and sounded like an idiot, but I was always given
a place at the table and I appreciated that.'
While admitting that he 'always kind of looks for
approval,' Jamie remains remarkably untouched
by his years in the Hollywood rat race. He's lived in
America for 14 years - first in New York and now in LA.
Jamie shakes his head when asked if he feels pressure
to visit the gym all the time. 'I do if the role requires it,
but no. I enjoy jogging. There's a reservoir very close to
where I live, so I run around it once and then I'm done.'
Does he still dance? 'I do enjoy it. I don't do any
classes. I just do it around, whenever. It happens daily.'

GOLDEN EYE
Last year, Jamie was touted as being lined up to fill
Daniel Craig's shoes as James Bond. But would he
like the role? 'If the question is, would I work with
[Bond producer] Barbara Broccoli again, I'd do it in
a heartbeat,' he says. 'She's a fantastic producer and
what she does for the British film industry is amazing.
'She and the BFI are investing £12million in trying
to pump more diversity and opportunity into the
British film industry, so in that regard, sure,' he
says, referring to the UK Film Skills Task Force, a
recruitment drive devised by Barbara and Amanda
Nevill, chief executive of the BFI, to provide 10,000
people with jobs in the film industry.
But with Daniel Craig only making one more Bond
movie, could Jamie confirm whether he's going to be
the next Bond? 'Absolutely not,' he says.
To be fair, there's plenty on his plate, namely coproducing a pop musical spin on Cinderella called
Teen Spirit, starring Elle Fanning, which is being
directed by Max Minghella and funded by the team
behind La La Land. There's also talk of a TV version of
his 2008 feature film Jumper.
Work-hungry, passionate and as grounded as they
come, whether his latest film lands him an Oscar
nomination or not, you sense the future is bound to
be as exciting for Jamie as his past. B
Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool (cert 15) opens at
cinemas nationwide on 17 November

November 2017 BA LA NCE

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Balance November 2017