Jamie Bell has come a long way from the ballet-dancing kid Billy Elliot. He’s married, lives in LA, and is a favourite of Hollywood casting directors. This month, he stars in Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, an early awards season contender

Photography by CHARLIE GRAY

Styled by GARETH SCOURFIELD

Interview by DAN MASOLIVER

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050 thejackalmagazine.com t’s so difficult, because he feels unplaceable accent; a long-term resident of Eastwood and Cary Fukunaga, among others This page White cotton like family. Losing him would be LA with an A-list wife and a cohort of – hardly the credits list of a jobbing actor. ‘Trott’ top with blue striped f**king catastrophic,’ says Jamie Hollywood pals, yet gregarious, unguarded ‘But basically, a world was given to him, bib, £135; navy wool ‘Clancy’ ‘I coat with gold buttons, £995, Bell solemnly, staring into the and grounded; a child star who won a BAFTA doors were opened for him,’ he continues. by Kent and Curwen. Steel middle distance. ‘I wouldn’t know who I am or aged 14, but who at no point showed the ‘I mean, very similar to me. I’d never been on and leather strap Navitimer what my name is any more.’ The conversation merest hint of going off the rails. Quite the a plane before I made my first film, and after watch, £6,590, by Breitling has taken a dark turn as the 31-year-old opposite, as Bell has matured into a credible that I was on a f**king plane every week, Facing page Navy melton contemplates a future without one of the most actor working with some of the finest talent. seeing these amazing places and getting to wool bomber jacket with important people in his life: Arsène Wenger. Case in point: his latest movie, Film Stars meet these fascinating people. I certainly shearling detachable collar, Yes, that Arsène Wenger, the long-time Don’t Die in Liverpool. Bell was cast by Bond remembered what that felt like. I’ve definitely £575, by Private White V.C. Arsenal FC manager. Bell, the Billingham- producer Barbara Broccoli for the lead, Peter felt like that person in the middle of the room born lad who pliéed his way into the nation’s Turner, a struggling Scouse actor who enters going, “Y’alright, I’m from Billingham, yeah, hearts as the ballet-dancing child star of Billy into an unlikely romance with a much older what’s goin’ on?” And how people think you’re Elliot, is an avid Arsenal supporter, watching woman – the faded black-and-white film star just the cutest little thing in the room. It’s a games live from his Los Angeles home. ‘My Gloria Grahame (Annette Bening). Adapted fascinating experience.’ wife’s always like, “Are you seriously getting from a memoir of the same name by Peter Some 17 years ago, Bell was plucked from up at 4.30am to watch a football game?”’ he Turner, the film is at times tender, at times obscurity and, practically overnight, elevated says, imitating a groggy Kate Mara – she of funny, and at others devastating. It’s a film to full-blown global stardom, thanks to his House of Cards fame. ‘The time zones are a with ‘awards season’ written all over it. touching portrayal of Billy Elliot. Despite pain, but I hate watching it pre-recorded.’ Playing a young actor from the north of everything that he’s done since, from Tintin This is typical Bell. Which is to say, entirely England, displaced across the pond and to spanking Charlotte Gainsbourg’s exposed atypical. While the angelic face of his ballet- surrounded by stars, did Bell empathise with derrière in Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac, dancing boyhood remains (albeit adorned his character’s situation? ‘For sure. First of all, that little ballet-dancing boy follows him with a touch more designer stubble), Bell is a he’s a jobbing actor. Pretty similar… ish,’ says around like a shadow, haunting his every stereotype-confounding contradiction: born Bell sheepishly. After all, this is a man who’s interview. That, surely, must grate. and bred in County Durham, a fervent Arsenal been hand-picked to star in films by Steven ‘Until you do something [else] as iconic as fan, with a soft, quasi-Californian, mostly Spielberg, Lars von Trier, Peter Jackson, Clint that, that’s your cross to bear,’ he says. ‘Or your shiny medal to wear – whichever way you want to look at it. [Billy Elliot] is a universal story. You could be in South Korea and it means the same thing as it does to someone who watches it in Newcastle. It profoundly resonates on a deep emotional level with people, which means it sticks with them for ever. So I can’t imagine ever sitting down to conduct an interview with someone where it’s not mentioned. How could it not be?’ Bell laughs, and it’s clear that for him, Billy Elliot is more ‘medal’ than ‘cross’. ‘An actor’s lucky if they get one of those [roles]. Ever. The idea of having two…’ Mouth agape and palms to the ceiling, he trails off in disbelief. He’s • right: the only way he could shake off the Billy UNTIL I DO SOMETHING ELSE AS ICONIC AS BILLY ELLIOT Elliot epithet would be to embody an even more iconic part. IT’S MY CROSS TO BEAR – OR MY SHINY MEDAL TO WEAR But with projects on the go, including his • debut on the other side of the camera – as executive producer on next year’s Teen Spirit – as well as filming the Tintin sequel, the future is looking really rather bright for this understated, arguably underrated star. Now that he’s spent more time living in Los Angeles than in Billingham, and more time as a successful actor than as an aspiring dancer, isn’t it time we all stopped seeing Jamie Bell as this little boy done good? ‘But that’s what it is. You can’t deny it,’ he says, batting away my assertion that perhaps these days he’s more Santa Monica than Stockton-on-Tees. ‘I think part of the reason I’ve managed to get this far is that idea of, “But he’s just a working-class kid from the North, give him a job”,’ he laughs, adopting a mock-pitying voice. ‘“Give him a break.” To shake that narrative, I think, is almost impossible. But I wouldn’t want to.’ Jamie Bell plays Peter Turner in Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, directed by Paul McGuigan, in cinemas from 17 November

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