Esquire Magazine
Style: Jim Sturgess
"Lucky Jim" – By Amy Raphael
Across The Universe confirmed Jim Sturgess as one of Britain's hottest young talents. Now, with Hollywood's A-list on speed dial, and four major films on the horizon, the actor's star is rising fast.
For someone who claims to lack social skills, Jim Sturgess has an impressive number of beautiful women on speed dial. "I often chat to Natalie [Portman] and Kate [Bosworth]," he says, smiling a little bashfully as he reels off the Hollywood A-list names, "but I’m closet to Evan [Rachel Wood]. I feel bound to her for life."
Sturgess, a baby-faced 26 and tall for an actor – 6 ft. if he straightens his back, though mostly he prefers to slouch – has been acting professionally since the age of 12, but excitement only started to build around him last year, after he took his first leading role opposite Evan Rachel Wood in Across The Universe, Julie Taymor's magical mystery tour through the Sixties. The part required him to sing a series of Beatles tracks live, and so admirably did he acquit himself that the director has already invited him to audition for her next project, Spider-Man: The Musical on Broadway.
"I did a workshop with Evan, Bono and The Edge," says the British-born performer, when we meet in London's Soho Hotel. "I'd worked with Bono a bit on Across The Universe, but having him as my backing singer on one of the Spider-Man songs was one of the highlights of my life so far. We even performed a rough outline of the play to Marvel Comics... it's going to be amazing. Whether or not I'll be Peter Parker is not yet decided – the play certainly won't happen for a year or so, and then it'll be a question of timing and other commitments."
It might seem self-important for such a relative newcomer to be already hedging his bets, but there really are few windows available in his diary; in 2008 alone, he will be appearing in four major movies. Just now he's in tights and a codpiece in The Other Boleyn Girl, playing George, brother of Anne and Mary: "There’s a near love scene with my dear sister, but no full-on sex," he says, although it's not clear whether he's referring to Portman or Scarlett Johansson. "Fantastic costumes though!" Later in the year he pops up in Crossing OverCrash-like tale of immigrants struggling to achieve legal status in Los Angeles, starring Harrison Ford, Sean Penn, Ray Liotta: "I didn’t actually get to act with any of them, but I did meet Penn, who's a hero") and then takes a co-starring role in Kari Skogland's Man On the Run (set during The Troubles and starring Ben Kingsley and Rose McGowan: "I had to get the accent just right; I think it's easier for me because I've got a good musical ear").
First up though, is 21, in which Sturgess takes the lead in the true story of six MIT students who became experts in card counting and won millions playing blackjack in Las Vegas casinos. Co-produced by and co-starring Kevin Spacey (as the charming but steely MIT professor who tutors the super-smart maths students to card count at extraordinary speed). 21 is a bright, brash, loud and immensely watchable film. Spacey followed the story for years before making it into a film: friends in Boston tipped him off about the students around 2000, but he could never find any evidence. So he was nothing short of ecstatic when Ben Mezrich's book, Bringing Down The House: How Six Students Took Vegas For Millions, was published in 2002. Spacey immediately flew Mezrich to Los Angeles and bought the rights. For one reason and another, it's taken six years to reach the screen.
Sturgess had never been to Las Vegas before and, shortly after the start of the six-week shoot, found himself feeling disillusioned with the city. "Once you get over the gambling and the clubs and you’ve caught a few magic shows, you’re done. I found Vegas quite depressing. We were living and working in the Planet Hollywood Casino – we'd be up at 6am and there’d be people still there from the night before, totally cut. It didn’t make sense to me. It actually freaked me out."
None of the actors were any good at maths – including Spacey, who told me that he didn’t have a clue how to count so rapidly, and ended up with lots of headaches on set – nor did they have any experience of real gambling. "The first few times I joined a table, I had to 'fess up and say: 'I’m English, I don’t know what I’m doing," admits Sturgess, laughing.
Spacey, who is excited by young actors, says that it's always fun to work with those who are at the beginning of their careers. "Jim has a quality that happily doesn't come up as arrogance. It was an interesting challenge for him to play a character who falls halfway through the film, who has to make a moral choice. He’s going forward now and it’s good to see the movies he’s choosing, as they're not necessarily mainstream. He embraces an independent spirit, and it’s good to see."
Appearing alongside Spacey is a huge leap for Sturgess, who, until quite recently, was only to be seen in single episodes of Heartbeat, Judge John Deed and A Touch Of Frost. His first love was music – he did a media performance course at Salford University just to study in a hometown of his beloved Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Oasis; He was in a band called Dilated Spies for a while and continues to write music – and he still dresses like an indie kid, in battered white All Stars, black drainpipes, an inside-out blue T-shirt and a dark blue cardigan. (Sturgess is one of those guys who wears a cardigan well.) That musical grounding stood him in good stead for the singing element of Across The Universe, and although 21 is in a different league, Sturgess is doing his best to keep his cool. "Funnily enough, I don't get nervous about the acting. I've been on set in a compromising position with a beautiful girl, and it's all fine, but then they call lunch and... I'm like, 'Shit, I've got to sit down and make conversation.' I've got better at dealing with my shyness, but you have to when you keep getting put in ridiculous situations. It's sink or swim."
AS this is the last interview of the day, and he is a little hoarse from talking to foreign journalists all day, Sturgess suggests raiding the mini-bar. Rather disappointingly, he selects a mineral water for himself, which he says he is drinking "as a nervous habit". For an actor about to have his moment, Sturgess seems genuinely in control. "I used to go out and get drunk when I shouldn't – I came from a naughty place. But then I started to think about it: I enjoy work more than anything else. It makes me happy, makes the most sense to me. I was bored of going out and getting drunk all the time. It will always be a part of my life, and I don't see why it has to stop, but at the same time I'm starting to realize that I have a responsibility to turn up on set without a hangover – I've done it and it's hell. I'd rather be in a good place. So I focus on my job, get my head down and then, the minute it's over, I can have a well-deserved drink. It's bloody perfect.”
The question that has been buzzing around among the foreign journalists all afternoon is a simple one: is Jim Sturgess the new James McAvoy? I put this to him and he grimaces, then laughs. "So James McAvoy is out already? Jesus! The poor guy has only just arrived. And he’s only a couple of years older than me. I dunno. It doesn't mean anything to me. All I can say is that there's a group of actors from Britain doing interesting work and we're getting recognized in Hollywood."
Sturgess now hangs out with Evan Rachel Wood if he's in LA or she's in London. I wonder if her boyfriend Marilyn Manson ever picks up the phone when they're making their social arrangements. "No, but he’s often in the background, shouting at me. He's a great guy, very bright, very funny. I love hanging out with them both. They'll hate me for saying this, but they're a really cute couple. Great fun to be around. They inspire each other creatively and it's really good to see." If Sturgess's long-term girlfriend Mickey, who plays keyboards with electro disco artist Ali Love, is around, they make up a foursome and talk endlessly about music. There's no doubt in his mind that she enjoys his new-found fame and he insists his head won't be turned by celebrity: "I'm slightly sickened by that side of things. I really can't see why I'd suddenly change."
Would he swap living in London for Hollywood? "No. I don’t think so. Not at this point in my life. I'm only just starting out, for God’s sake."
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HEARTLESS 
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THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL