A foundation in dance is not a bad thing for an actor. Back in the day, at New York City’s Neighborhood Playhouse, the likes of Gregory Peck, Eli Wallach, Joanne Woodward, and Marian Seldes took classes from America’s high priestess of modern dance, Martha Graham. “The body says what words cannot,” Graham decreed, and she was right. Case in point: Jamie Bell. As a dance-trained youngster, he leapt to stardom with his role in the 2000 film Billy Elliot, poignant as the shy boy with jug ears who loves to dance. He won that year’s BAFTA Award for best actor—at 14!

Shortly thereafter, young Bell met with Steven Spielberg, who was planning to make a live-action movie based on the beloved Belgian comic-book series “The Adventures of Tintin.” Although the project didn’t move forward, Bell did, working on other movies with major filmmakers—Peter Jackson, Clint Eastwood, and Spielberg among them. And then The Adventures of Tintin caught up with Bell. Spielberg and Jackson came together and decided the film should be animated, using performance-capture technology as part of the process. Bell was called to New Zealand to have a go at the new technology, and was again offered the role. “The character’s a very physical one,” he says. “So because of my dance background there was something about that kind of expression in me that I think they were looking for.”

Meanwhile, in the live-action thriller Man on a Ledge, to be released a month after Tintin, look for the dance moves Bell throws into the mix. He has not outgrown Billy—or those charming ears.

Source: Vanity Fair

GQ.com: What’s small talk with Steven Spielberg like?
Jamie Bell: I was so nervous to reveal how much of a fanboy I am in case he started thinking, “Oh my God, we’ve cast a maniac.” So it’s only been recently, hanging out with Steven and doing all the press that I’ve been able to go, “Dude, that decision in Hook when he does this thing…” But I held my tongue for the longest time.

You’ve described Tintin as “Hitchcockian”. Which of his films does it resemble most?
Strangers On A Train or The 39 Steps. Lots of people looking over their shoulders in very low lighting, revealing bits of information and ending up dead.

What’s the strangest gift you’ve ever got from a fan?
I’ve got lots of weird illustrations of me from Japanese fans. I also got a dead moth. [Pause] Which actually might be more of a threat than a present.

What’s your top style tip for autumn?
For me, I’m a small chap and I like jackets to fit real tight. If you’re taller you can go for looser stuff. When I wear jackets I like to pop the collar up on them – I think more guys should do that. It changes it from a very formal [look] to more of a sports thing.

Having screen-tested for Spider-man, what superhero role would you like to have a crack at next?
Considering I failed at the first one, I don’t know. I’ve never felt particularly connected to Peter Parker, [so] I felt like they made the right decision. I actually can’t wait to see the movie – I think it’s going to be great. My favourite superhero is obviously Batman because he’s the sexiest. But I can’t imagine myself as Batman…

What’s the first thing you do when you get back from LA?
I miss my friends and stuff, doing the things we used to do. But it’s really important that I’m over there. I just flew into Newcastle the other day, and the first thing I said was, “I’m getting Greggs. I don’t even care, man – I want a Cornish pasty and I want it now.”

What’s the best way to impress a woman?
Buy her flowers? Take her home on the weekend to meet your mother? No. Let’s cut to the primal – be good in the sack. [Slaps thighs] Have an understanding of what’s going on down there and have fun, awesome sex.

What’s the question you hate being asked?
If I hear “What was it like working with Steven Spielberg?” one more time, I might jump out of that window. “Do you miss England?” is really annoying. The third one is “How did you avoid the pitfalls of being a child actor?” I don’t even know what that means. Do child stars hit pitfalls? That’s such a stereotypical thing to say. I know lot of actors who have started off as kids and I feel it’s really unfair.

What should no man have in his wardrobe?
Crocs. It’s just not on.

What do people still get wrong about you?
They think I’m a nice guy. [grins]

Who, in your opinion, is overrated?
There’s a really funny joke there but I don’t know what it is. Probably me, actually.

What film do you consider particularly stylish?
Definitely Drive. Even just the promotion and marketing on that movie is awesome. [Mimics the pitch] “It’s a cool stunt-guy action movie and let’s make the font look like Dirty Dancing.” You’re going to get women through the door. Well, I mean, you’re going to get women through the door anyway with Gosling…

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
What’s the best penis I’ve ever seen?

No! Actually, what is the best penis you’ve ever seen?
[Collapses into laughter] That is a good question. The best piece of advice I ever received was “Don’t f*** your publicist.” Russell Crowe told me that. It’s probably a smart move. [Both of his publicists are now in the room, attempting to bring the interview to a close] No! It’s GQ!

What skill should every man have?
Skill? You know what I’m going to say. A man should have a good understanding of a vagina. He should be good at oral sex. On a woman.

You do realise you’ve got another publicist standing right behind you?
I don’t care. A skill a man should have? Making fires and pleasing a woman. In the vaginal area.

What’s your drink of choice?
I’ve always loved those Yazoo banana milkshakes. Alcoholic drink depends on what mood you’re in, doesn’t it? Absinthe does make the heart grow fonder.

What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever bought?
Bought? [hesitates, deliberates, looks concerned] This is going to end up on Google. God… [desperately tries to think of an alternative] Er, no, that’s lame. No, I can’t, no way, no, seriously, because then the Google alert: “Bell buys…” I don’t know, I buy crazy s*** all the time. I wish I had all these amazingly cool answers. Do you think actors sometimes just make it up to sound awesome?

Probably.
I wish I was good at that.

Source

“I lost my mind at 15,” says Bell of his hype-induced meltdown. He went back to school and managed to finish his GCSEs. But, “I’d been shown a world where there were no boundaries, where everyone gave me all the power. And I was like, ‘This is great!’ Then that was gone. But I was like, ‘Yeah, but I still want that.’ I’d lost my humble, very quiet, introverted sensibilities which I think I definitely had as a kid. And I…” Became a brat?

“Yeah, I became a little a——-,” he smiles. “And, you know, you’re a 15-year-old kid so it’s your world. And I was a b—— at 16! But still, looking back on it now, it was worry­ing because it is very persuasive, and you have all these grown-ups who it seems are encouraging it. And that’s unhealthy.” But unlike so many child stars before him, Bell’s spin-out was short-lived.

His mother, his manager and Stephen Daldry, the Billy Elliot director who became the mentor and father figure that Bell had never had, helped steer him right. (Bell has never had contact with his father, who left before he was born.) He chose parts in a few indie films, and turned down parts in American teen movies, “which focused on me as a kid. I wanted to still be a kid, but I came from the north east of England. I didn’t really sympathise or empathise with those kinds of characters.” And so he quietly got on with building a decent career as an actor. The rampaging ego retreated.

Since then he’s had a busy, buzzy career working with edgy(ish) directors such as Carey Fukunaga (in last month’s Jane Eyre), Kevin MacDonald (in spring’s The Eagle), David Mackenzie (in 2007’s Hallam Foe) and Thomas Vinterberg (in 2005’s Dear Wendy) as well as marquee names like Clint Eastwood (Flags of our Fathers) and Peter Jackson (King Kong). But he is still, to many cinemagoers, That Kid Who Was In Billy Elliot. So when, a couple of years ago, he was asked to call to try out for the lead in a blockbusting superhero franchise, he thought he’d be a fool to say no.

Even though “I never really sympathised with Peter Parker,” Bell agreed to audition for the title role in director Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man.

“Well, no, I definitely sympathise with him,” Bell hastily corrects himself. He’s still only 25, yet having made his award-winning acting debut 11 years ago, he’s Hollywood-savvy enough to know he should never rule himself out of any role or character or idea of a character. “But I’ve just never seen myself as Peter Parker,” he says. “I’ve always been more of a Batman person.

“But, you know, it is the biggest franchise in Hollywood for a young male actor. When you’ve got Sony [the Spider-Man studio] saying, ‘We really want you to come and screen test,’ of course you’re gonna do it — it’s a very flattering position to be in. Especially when you consider the other people that are also doing it.” One of those other people auditioning was Andrew Garfield, the fellow Brit (although he’s American-born) acclaimed and famed for his role in The Social Network. Bell and Garfield — who is the “nicest guy” — “had a great time” in what Bell calls “Spidey school: a great exercise, a great workout, learning all these fight routines.

“Then we were at this dinner — and this was right before [the casting] got announced — and a salt shaker fell off the table. And Andrew and I both instinctively went like this” — Bell shoots out his arm in a web-slinging, catch-a-falling-child move — “and there was a look in both our eyes: ‘We’ve been to Spidey school too long…’”

In the end Garfield got the part; Spider-Man swings into cinemas in July next year, and Garfield’s life will never be the same again. But Bell understands, and claims not to be bothered. “I think they made a great decision. He’s a really great actor. And I’m really excited about the movie.”

When this kind of thing happens — when Actor X is chosen over Actor Y — do studio bosses ever bother to tell the loser why he’s not The One? Bell thinks for a minute. Is it impolitic to reveal such behind-the-velvet-curtain machinations? “Well, it’s just like, eh,” he eventually stutters. “No, they never usually do that. Marc sent me a very nice email and was really thankful for all the work I’d done. But I think it’s just simple — when the studio heads and producers and directors sit down, they see something and go, ‘That’s the version of the movie we want to make.’ They didn’t want to make my version — totally fine,” he shrugs, slapping his thigh. “I have no issue with that.” Ultimately, he concludes, “you can’t really be analytical of the decision-making process. You just can’t. You have to move on.” Luckily, Bell had something great to move on to.

The youngster from Teesside is now the living embodiment of another boy-adventurer, one even more storied than Peter Parker: Tintin. And Bell’s new cinematic collaborators are every bit as famous as the character, if not more so: Steven Spielberg, the most successful populist film-maker ever, and Peter Jackson, helmsman of the box-office-busting Lord of the Rings trilogy and forthcoming Hobbit two-parter.

The Adventures of Tintin is directed by Spielberg and produced by Jackson. Responsibility for adapting the adventures of Hergé’s heroic Belgian cub reporter to the big screen 80 years after his first print appearance fell to a triumvirate of multitasking British writers: Steven Moffat (now showrunner on Doctor Who), Edgar Wright (director of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim Versus the World) and Joe Cornish (radio personality director of Attack the Block). They based their script on an amalgamation of three Tintin books: The Crab With the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure.

The cast is equally weighty and inspired. Daniel Craig is villainous Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine, Andy Serkis is Captain Haddock, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are Thomson and Thompson, and some brilliant computerised jiggery-pokery “is” Snowy the trusty terrier. But Bell is obviously front and centre.

Much of the filming took place over eight weeks in a California studio almost three years ago, while animation and effects teams in Los Angeles and New Zealand spent 18 months working on 1,240 camera shots. But such are the groundbreaking technicalities of this new kind of film-making process that The Adventures of Tintin was still being worked on mere weeks before its worldwide premiere.

It takes a long time to digitally conjure up Saharan deserts, boiling oceans and nameless middle-European cities at some indeterminate point in the mid-20th century. Judging by the footage I was shown, one thing was clear: this Tintin doesn’t stint on old-fashioned adventure. And it’s set in 1940, in Nazi-occupied Belgium, which, says Bell, “helps us make the film much more of a film noir, makes it more of a Hitchcock thriller versus just a kids’ action film”.

The director and Bell first talked about him playing Tintin a decade ago. Back then the idea was for a completely live action film, with Stephen Daldry behind the camera. But Bell is glad that didn’t work out, for in The Adventures of Tintin — at this point, it’s planned as a three-film series — he gets to be a franchise superhero no one will recognise. For the young actor intent on maintaining some semblance of a normal life, what could be better than “a 3D animated film driven by motion-capture performances”.

Come again? “The world, everything that you’re really looking at [in the film], is manufactured. Nothing is real,” explains Bell. Using the same technology that brought the Lord of the Rings character Gollum to life, Bell and co act out their scenes wearing suits and facial sensors that record their movements, and this is used to animate the characters. Thus we see Tintin in his familiar form, blond, bequiffed and snub-nosed. Maybe over the course of the whole film it will be obvious that it is Bell in the lead role. But on a brief viewing the actor is, literally, lost in the role. “The movie is driven by characters that are performance-capture — and by actors.”

So is it an animated film or a motion-capture film? “Well,” he exhales, “it kind of falls in the middle of those two.” Or, as Spielberg puts it, “Every single human being represented in Tintin is an actor giving a full performance — an emotional performance, a villainous performance — and that all shines through the digital make-up. We watched Hergé’s characters be reborn as living beings, expressing feelings and displaying souls, and the effect was startling.”

These days Bell lives in LA, whence he relocated three years ago after a short stint in New York. Over the course of our interview his accent reverts to his Teesside roots. But with a few American roles under his belt, he’s developed something of a transatlantic twang. In Tintin he has another voice still — a light, breathless, very English gasp. How did he arrive at that? “Steven said he loved my own voice, which is kind of a wise voice but wasn’t soft around the edges, and still had a bit of bite to it. So he wanted to lose as much as [possible from] my regional sound and just maintain the energetic yet wise and still not too… I don’t know… divisive on a socio-economic scale!”

Is that why his Tintin sounds so posh? “Right, right, right,” he says hurriedly. “I was just pleased that he didn’t say, ‘So he’s gonna speak with an American accent,’ ’cause if they’d have done that, that would have been really hard to commit to. That would have been really absurd. And I had always wanted to drop in merde or something when he gets something wrong,” he smiles. “But Tintin is the beacon of excellence, so he doesn’t really swear.”

With his face lightly fuzzed by stubble, his eyes framed by cool, black-rimmed reading glasses, and a hefty book of Hungarian photography under his arm, the Jamie Bell who sits down in the central London hotel suite this early autumn morning certainly looks more grown-up than he is in the popular imagination. “Jamie is not Billy Elliot any more by any means,” says Simon Pegg, “but he’s still got that boyish frame.”

He’s a calm and relaxed conversationalist, although such is his youth — or his hot-property status — that his manager spends the duration of our interview loitering in the lavatory, listening in. Yes, the actor who used to date actress Evan Rachel Wood is currently in a relationship. No, we won’t be talking about her identity, or profession.

But Bell is happy to discuss his love of Radiohead (he listens to them while “night-biking” in Santa Monica, plays guitar and, as a hobby, performs covers with a friend in LA); his games of football with Charlie Hunnam (the Queer as Folk star, another Hollywood transplant from the English North East); how living in LA is more a practical, work-orientated decision than anything else; and about his enthusiasm for photography — he has aspirations to write and direct, and finds narrative inspiration in pre- and post-war European reportage imagery.

Photography, he says, is “a good way of stimulating the brain”. Pointing at a photograph in his coffee-table book captioned “Citroën car strike, 1940, France”, he’s overcome with Tintin-ish enthusiasm. “What a great setting for a movie. Which of this crowd of people shouting at the foreman do I want to follow as a character? What’s his relationship with his parents or with his girlfriend? Is he gonna cross the picket line?”

Recently he and his friend the Irish actor Cillian Murphy — with whom he’s just made the thriller Retreat — were talking about themselves (actors tend to do that). Who are you? What are you defined as? Bell couldn’t for the life of him pigeonhole the star of Batman Begins, Breakfast on Pluto and The Wind that Shakes the Barley. But Murphy had Bell pegged. “Well, you’re an orphan.”

“And I was like, ‘Oh my God!’” gasps Bell. “Look back, I don’t think I’ve played one role where I have both parents. The Eagle — mum and dad murdered. Jane Eyre — father just died, they’re in mourning. Dear Wendy — his father dies and he doesn’t have a mother, raised by a nanny. King Kong — there’s no back story to that character. Undertow — no mother, and also father gets murdered. Deathwatch — ah, if he did, they’re probably terrible parents.

“Hallam Foe — big dead mum,” he says of the Edinburgh-set Oedipal drama. “Nicholas Nickleby — dead parents, brutalised and given away. And Tintin — no parents, never mentioned in any book.” He laughs ruefully. “That’s my pigeonhole. But there’s something about that. There is some weird signature. I don’t mind the continuity of that idea.”

With his own father entirely absent from his life, Jamie Bell understands why he’s offered these roles. And why he might be good at them, “I get it. I know what that is. So I think I can bring something to [these type of roles] that’s a little bit more personal and maybe a little bit more educated in that way.”

Next on his schedule is Filth, an adaptation of the scabrous Irvine Welsh novel about a necrotically corrupt Edinburgh policeman. James McAvoy is the lead, Bell his sidekick. If he was fixed in cinemagoers’ imagination as Hergé’s boy detective, playing a bent detective might be too much of a leap.

On every level, then, him as Tintin is perfect casting.

“The anonymity with it is amazing,” he nods. “I don’t think many people can say they’ve been the lead in a Spielberg film and still been able to live their normal life that they had before. You still maintain your mystery.

“That’s a huge part of it for me, that you can literally hide behind this puppet. Also, it means that it is completely immersive — it is a character, instead of an actor playing Tintin. I’m really immersed in it. I’m really gone. Which,” Bell beams, “is great.”

‘The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn’ is released on October 26

Source

Billy Elliot (2000)
What made this coming-of-age drama feel so fresh was not just the refreshingly unobvious mix of topics, but the deftness with which they were brought together. The devastating Miners’ Strike of 1984 is the backdrop, but in the foreground is an 11 year-old boy who wants to learn ballet. The problems he faces are immense: money, class (even if that’s just a little overegged in the audition scene) and his town’s complete lack of experience with boys who like ballet. Teacher Mrs Wilkinson (Julie Walters) finds herself almost having to translate between the ballet and miners’ worlds. In the end, though, the mutual bafflement between Billy and his gruff father, and the real love that is revealed underneath, are the key to making this soar even higher than those final jetes.

Metro recently sat down with Jamie Bell for an interview about him avoiding the gym and getting into shape for his new film The Eagle by walking his dog.

Jamie Bell: The only physical exercise I do is walk the dog

Billy Elliott‘s child star Jamie Bell talks to Metro about avoiding the gym and getting into shape for his new film The Eagle by walking his dog.

A big pair of black-rimmed spectacles enters the hotel room. Somewhere behind them is a small, mild-mannered Jamie Bell. Seemingly dressed in grey school trousers, Bell flaunts a ‘geek chic’ exterior that gives no hint of the butched up bod he unleashes in The Eagle.

It’s a swords’n’sandals adventure set in Roman England that’s causing this one-time skinny unknown who beat 2,000 hopefuls to play ballet wonderboy Billy Elliot to be re-labeled as Billingham’s answer to Gladiator. So, how does it feel to be the new Russell Crowe?

‘Erm, I’m not really that at all, to be honest,’ says Bell, protectively shuffling his scuffed high tops on to the coffee table in front of him, ‘There was no trainer or on-set gym happening.

‘We wanted to try to be as authentic as possible and my character, Esca, is a slave.

‘If we bulked him up, it would look completely ridiculous – particularly on me, because I’m a tiny guy.’

Come on, Bell, those biceps don’t grow on trees. ‘I’m so not a keep fit person,’ he insists.

Continue reading…

And many thanks to Philip for linking me to the article.

This interview The Observer did was Jamie Bell was released earlier this week. Jamie Bell talks about his upcoming productions, his stint in New York, and life in Los Angeles.

Jamie Bell interview: This boy’s life

At 14, Jamie Bell beat 2,000 hopefuls to play Billy Elliot. A decade later, the boy from Billingham has 16 films under his belt and has worked with Clint Eastwood and Peter Jackson. But this summer he stars in Steven Spielberg’s Tintin – which is where, he says, the whole incredible adventure began

In a low-lit rum bar in a fashionably shabby corner of West Hollywood, Jamie Bell recalls the first time he saw a film in a cinema. “It was Jurassic Park,” he says. “I was eight years old and I was terrified because, you know – dinosaurs! They’re real!” He tells a good story. Plenty of animation. And the louder he gets the more Geordie his accent. “At the end, the credits said: ‘Directed by Steven Spielberg’ and I thought: ‘OK, I’m going to remember that name. Because he’s done something to me here, something important.’”

Sixteen years later, it’s happening again. In July, Bell plays the title role in Spielberg’s latest, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of The Unicorn. It’s one of four movies that Bell has coming out in 2011, a bumper year for the 24-year-old actor. First up is The Eagle, a swords-and-sandals adventure adapted from Rosemary Sutcliff’s classic historical novel. And then comes Tintin, one of the most popular comic strips of the century, realised with innovative motion-capture technology by the world’s most famous director. “If you told that kid watching those dinosaurs: ‘You’re going to be working with that man…’” He shakes his head. “It’s just incredible. A massive milestone. It has monumental connections.”

Continue reading…

Additionally, thanks to Philip, I have added scans of Jamie’s article in March 13th’s issue of The Observer. Unfortunately, the text is unreadable, so if you have better scans, please share with us by emailing me.

Other than that, thank you for visiting! Remember, you can follow Jamie Bell Online on Twitter or “Like” us on Facebook!

Here is another great interview, but this time Jamie is interviewed by NYMag!

The Eagle’s Jamie Bell on Tintin, Scary Horses, and Almost Landing Spider-Man

Jamie Bell hasn’t been seen in a movie since 2008, but he’s about to make up for that with a vengeance. This Friday, he stars in Kevin Macdonald’s The Eagle, where he plays a second century slave accompanying his Roman master (Channing Tatum) on an adventure into the Scottish highlands, and he’ll then appear in Jane Eyre, the thriller Retreat, and Steven Spielberg’s highly anticipated The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, where he plays the beloved comic-strip character via motion capture. All this, and he just wrapped the Sam Worthington drama Man on a Ledge, too. “I know, it’s too much,” he laughed during a sit-down with Vulture, where he discussed the hardship of making ‘The Eagle’, Spielberg’s foray into new technology, and the recent British superhero boom.

Click here for the full interview…

More recent news of Mr Bell have been rare as of late, but Philip has linked me to an article which I haven’t seen yet! It’s from last year during the Defiance promotion period and is accompanied with a photo that may interest the fans.

It’s nine years since Billy Elliott. Are you getting £1 million a movie yet?
Maybe. But I can’t discuss my salary with you!

We’re writing down ‘yes’. What’s the biggest paycheque you’ve ever had?
They’re all different. And let me tell you, playing a perverted kid who wants to have sex with his mother in Hallam Foe doesn’t pay.

You should have said you get £5 million per film to set a marker for future work.
Like I’m Shia LaBeouf? I’m afraid he’s in a league of his own.

But isn’t he only doing so well because he’s mates with Steven Spielberg?
Well, that is useful. But one can’t deny he’s good at commanding audiences in big movies.

Source: FHM.com

Thanks to Ted for the link to IFTN‘s article on Jane Eyre‘s production status:

Production will commence shortly on the set of Jane Eyre. The new interpretation of the Charlotte Brontë novel from ‘Sin Nombre’ director Cary Fukunaga will see Irish actor Michael Fassbender take on the role of the ominous Mr. Rochester opposite Mia Wasikowska, Judi Dench and Jamie Bell.

Cameras will start rolling on the film’s set on Monday, March 22nd and the shoot will last for eight weeks. The film will shoot on location in London and Derbyshire. The film is a co-production between BBC Films, Focus Features and Ruby Films and is expected to be released in early 2011.

Source: IFTN

Thanks to Philip for the link, it appears that The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn has a release date confirmed:

According to Box Office Mojo the official release date for Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn in North America is December 23rd 2011, which also happens to be my birthday. Tintin will be released in countries such as Sweden, Netherlands and Germany in October 2011 as Tintin is rather popular in that part of the world. To date the graphic novel series has sold over 200 million copies worldwide and most of those sales were in Europe, so the studios (Sony/Paramount) have the right strategy even if the US has to wait an extra 2 months for it.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn stars Daniel Craig, Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and will be using the same performance-capture technology James Cameron used for Avatar, so expect a visual treat.

Source: Filmonic.com

If you’re not too sure what to expect, from another interview with LA Times, Steven Spielberg had said:

So though Jamie Bell will be digitally made to look exactly like Hergé’s classic renderings of Tintin, it will be Jamie Bell’s complete physical and emotional performance. (…) If Tintin makes you feel something, it’s Jamie Bell’s soul you’re sensing.

Click here for full article.