James Norton
James Norton
James Geoffrey Ian Nortonis an English actor. He is best known for roles in the British TV series Happy Valley, Grantchester and War & Peace. For his role as ex-convict Tommy Lee Royce in Happy Valley, Norton was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2015...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionTV Actor
Date of Birth18 July 1985
CityLondon, England
character trying spend-time
You really try to work the character out and spend time in the headspace of the character. That's what I did.
falling-in-love military war
There's so much going on in Andrei [Bolkonsky]. He's wrangling with these big existential conundrums, and he tries out different routes to fulfillment. He tries falling in love, that doesn't work. He goes to war and searches for military glory, that doesn't work. He does the quiet life of a farmer. He's always active. That's what I loved about him, he's always looking, searching. He's really inquisitive.
thinking people want
As an actor, I think most people have a tendency to want to demonstrate that they can act, they can emote.
war russia peace-war
Being in Russia filming War & Peace...filming War & Peace alone is an extraordinary experience, but to be out there was just magical.
optimistic thinking guy
I'm quite a smiley guy, I have my moments, but I think I'm generally of a relatively optimistic nature.
characters compare fantasy next remote shocking
If you compare the violence in 'Happy Valley' to the violence in something like 'Game of Thrones,' it's nothing. But it is shocking because it's so real and grounded. The characters could live next door to you - they're not in a remote fantasy world.
distant great
For any actor, it's a great privilege to play a character that is very distant from yourself.
buying convinced fit men problem senseless sold stop time vintage
For a long time I had a vintage stall, where I sold men's vintage clothing, and my girlfriend was convinced it was just to do with a problem I had where I just couldn't stop buying senseless clothes, even if they didn't fit me.
When I got into drama school, that's when I knew that I could safely say that I wanted to be a professional actor.
age grew life until
I grew up in the countryside, so I had quite a feral life up until the age of about fourteen.
'Happy Valley' has really changed things for me.
behind callous interests lots people reasons truth
I think the mistake lots of people make when it comes to a psychopath is that they completely write off their actions as cruel, callous and completely calculated, but actually, the truth is that they have interests and reasons behind their actions.
I wanted to do a degree in something I was interested in before going into acting.
art religion rooted secular
We live in secular world now, but most of our art and culture is rooted in religion.