James Norton: ‘I’m the go-to when it comes to nice guys who turn out to be an absolute prick’
The actor on coming face to face with his mortality for his latest film, the joy of acting evil and how he learned to slow down
By Kaleem Aftab
July 9 2021
In Uberto Pasolini’s Nowhere Special, James Norton plays a window cleaner called John, who is trying to find the perfect home and guardians for his three-year-old son, who will have no one to care for him after his father dies from a terminal illness. It is a change of pace for Britain’s most sought-after actor, not least because it is a low-budget indie film that doesn’t rely on his looks.
“This is the kind of work I definitely want to be doing more of,” he says. “The purity of the experience was wonderful, because there was nowhere to hide. There were no big toys or stunts and special effects. It’s just you and this kid, the camera and a very beautiful, simple script.”
The Lambeth-born actor found the experience “profound” on a more personal level, too. “I was confronting my own mortality, thinking about death, something you don’t often do but should do, and then talking about it with a child who was learning about what it is to die.”
John is the kind of risky role that only an actor who wants to change their profile, and is full of confidence, takes on. “I didn’t take any persuading at all,” says Norton. “Uberto, who wrote, directed and produced it, had seen me do bits and pieces before and, sweetly, he had me in mind for the role because I think he wanted an actor to play against the inherent drama of the subject matter, which is so charged. He wanted the performance to be very understated, behind the eyes and nuanced.”
This kind of acting comes naturally to him, he explains. “The piece of direction I get most from directors is, ‘Can we have a little bit more?’”
The son of teachers, Norton studied theology at Cambridge, where he got a first and acted in university theatre productions. As soon as he turned professional, he got noticed, as part of the original cast of Posh at the Royal Court in 2010 and making the most of a small role in the Lone Scherfig film An Education.
Over the past four years, he has played a banker in the hit television series McMafia, filmed his final episodes as vicar and amateur sleuth Sidney Chambers in Grantchester, starred as a Welsh journalist in 1930s Ukraine in Agnieszka Holland’s Mr Jones, played handsome tutor John Brooke in Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, and osteopath Stephen Ward in The Trial of Christine Keeler.
Nowhere Special has a particular resonance with the times, says Norton. “Even if you have been lucky enough not to have a first- or second-degree connection with a victim of Covid, you still had that moment of pause where your life stopped, and you’ve had to contemplate. I definitely feel my relationship with the way I live has changed because of this film coupled with lockdown.”
That change has involved slowing down. “Two or three years ago, I think I was living a quite blinkered, very fast [life], addicted to the pace of it all, not stopping to take stock. The benefit of lockdown was that there was nowhere else I had to be. I just had to be here in my flat, and I really was grateful for that.”
.jpg)
It is not the first time in his adult life he has been forced to make changes to protect his health, having been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in his early twenties. “That really was the most important thing in my life. It was the moment when I went, ‘Oh shit, I’m not invincible: my body has a flaw.’ It’s weird, isn’t it, the punctuation marks that force you to take stock?”
Lockdown also allowed him to get his personal life running as smoothly as his career and he spent the first one in his flat with his girlfriend and fellow actor Imogen Poots. “She and I had never really had a prolonged period of time throughout our whole relationship where we were able to just be with each other in a calm, quiet environment and live a happy domestic idyll. We cooked good food, drank good wine, sat in the garden and read our books.
“It was an important part of our journey. Maybe it will be the making of us, who knows? It’s definitely a time I really cherish.” Poots then got a job in the US. “She’s been there since January. I’m very excited about her coming back.”
During the second lockdown, he formed a bubble with his parents, and his sister, who lives down the road with her two young boys. “And that was special as well, spending two-and-a-half months with my parents and little sister. We actually got on really well. I didn’t have one argument with them. They have obviously grown up a lot.”
Looking ahead, he sees directing in his future. He enjoyed the collaborative aspects of working on a small independent film. Of bigger budget productions, he says: “If the movie is one massive canvas, your contribution is one little brushstroke. You don’t get as much creative contribution as you perhaps might like, and then it’s misleading, as you’re the one who sells it – you’re the shop window, going out there and taking all the glory.”
‘Happy, domestic idyll’: James Norton with Imogen Poots (Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images)
His respect for script development has grown as he has dedicated more time to his company, Rabbit Track Pictures, which he started with producer Kitty Kaletsky. They have just gone into production on their first film, Freegard, which they have been working on for over four years. Julian Barratt and Gemma Arterton star alongside Norton’s lead as conman Robert Freegard.
“He persuaded a group of people that he was an undercover agent for MI5 in the 90s and noughties. He would extort their money through coercion rather than force. He did this for about 10 years. He had kids with one of them and was a proper monster.”
Why would he want to play such an evil person?
“Isn’t that the intoxicating part of being human – investigating the stuff you’re not? If I were telling stories about myself, it would be as boring as hell. Sometimes you want to tell stories about the fringes of society.” A prime example is the aristocratic owner of a sex club that he played in The Nevers, Joss Whedon’s recent Sky drama.
“Then again, I also like the stories about characters like [Nowhere Special’s] John, who is unremarkable. But I think I play loads of sociopaths. I seem to be the go-to guy when it comes to roles about nice guys who turn out to be an absolute prick.”
