From Winter Issue 60
Glass Man speaks to British actor James Norton about his childhood love of acting, how he’s determined to avoid typecasting, and his latest role as a producer
In the back of a black cab in Soho, James Norton breathes a sigh of relief that he managed to escape the chilly downpour pencilled in for that November afternoon. Sat with him is his trusted bicycle. “I’m a stubborn cyclist,” he confesses with a rueful smile. “So this is a rare treat taking a taxi.”
Despite rushing between meetings, fittings and press encounters like this, the originality of this London landmark is not lost on him. You’d think that someone drenched in praise with both BAFTA and Olivier nominations attached to their name, an expanding resumé across TV, film and stage, as well as the mighty Bond rumour machine humming his name, that the 39-year-old actor may not care too much for the apparently mundane. But that’s not the case.
He’s refreshingly grounded, almost disarmingly charming, and is quick to tell me he loves a Lime bike, too.
Photographer: Elliott Morgan
Born in London to teachers, his family swiftly moved to North Yorkshire to settle into a more idyllic way of life. Somewhere between the hustle of the capital and the pastoral calm of the undulating Howardian Hills, the seeds of performance took root. “I had the acting bug from the age of like four,” he recalls, still unsure of how he came to find this hobby.
“I was the kid who forced his friends to make little plays in the bay window of our house. I would make costumes, write the programmes, direct and act in it. I think my friends were more into climbing a tree and just wanted me to chill out.” As Norton got older, weekend pilgrimages to the cinema followed and summers were spent cementing his burgeoning love of storytelling at Livewire, a youth theatre company.
“My childhood in the countryside was very innocent,” he outlines with a soft nostalgia. “I loved it until I was about 13 and then I realised that there was a party happening and I wasn’t invited.” That realisation, paired with secondary education spent at a Catholic boarding school run by monks, made for a moody teenage chapter. However, he decided not to resist the cloistered world around him for too long.
“I got really into religion, which is a bizarre thing to get into when you’re 14,” he admits. “We were praying three times a day and, when you’re a confused teenager not having the best time, a structure like that brings a lot of comfort. I had felt what it was like to be seduced into a love affair with faith.”
Photographer: Elliott Morgan
It’s hardly surprising to learn that Norton studied theology at Cambridge University. His fascination with the different pillars, structures and rituals of belief seemed almost preordained. Yet, while his intellectual curiosity was firmly anchored in academia, the idea of veering off didn’t cross his mind.
“I probably never even thought of it as plausible,” he says. Although he kept to the curriculum, he still managed to feed his creative appetite by doing two to three plays a term at The Marlowe Society and ADC Theatre club, even taking four productions to Edinburgh Fringe. “I was also this country boy who was suddenly in Cambridge, this tiny town – but for me it was this sprawling metropolis. I couldn’t believe my luck.” In between lectures, club nights and endless rehearsals, Norton’s path took a pivotal turn when he got into a relationship with a cinephile who helped him realign his vision.
“She was the one person who said to me that I should apply to drama school. I didn’t even know it was an option. So had I not gone to university, I don’t think I would be an actor,” he asserts. “Those years at Cambridge were so important for me, both in terms of confidence and just being introduced to that stepping stone into the professional world.”
Photographer: Elliott Morgan
Six months shy of graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2010, Norton made the bold move to drop out and accept his first role as a main cast member of Posh at the Royal Court Theatre. What followed was a steady ascent: standout performances on stage that paved the way to smaller TV roles before his seismic breakout as the lead in the BBC’s Happy Valley drama series in 2014.
Portraying Tommy Lee Royce, a convicted felon whose offences included everything from kidnapping to rape, Norton delivered a chilling performance over three seasons in 10 years. The programme hooked the nation as an average of 8.1 million viewers tuned in to watch him, cementing his transformation from a young, unknown actor into a household name.
But I wondered how he felt after the final credits played. “There’s always a risk about typecasting,” begins Norton. “I was very keen after Happy Valley ended to not play a psychopath. For me, it’s all about learning, new experiences and putting yourself out of your comfort zone. As soon as you know how to do one thing, it becomes familiar and comfortable. Lots of people will do a soap opera for their whole lives – that’s fine but it’s just not for me.”
Photographer: Elliott Morgan
Norton was adamant on a metamorphosis. His agents, he says, gave him their unwavering support, turning down financially beneficial projects to ensure he could stay true to his wish of being known for versatility.
“But I did definitely have a fear that this is as good as it’s going to get. The work was so special in that last season [of Happy Valley], especially when you’ve built up a memory bank for a character and you feel really empowered. The job comes easier as it’s familiar,” he says reflectively.
“Certainly that last scene with Sarah Lancashire [the police sergeant, who tracks Royce down] was, and still is, the most exciting day I’ve ever spent on a film set. I remember sitting opposite her over that kitchen table and obviously I’m thinking about my part as Tommy and trying to keep in his head space. But there’s also a part of me going ‘I’m going head to head with one of the country’s best actors in their best form’. You can’t help but go ‘this is fucking insane’.”
Returning to the stage in 2023 was incremental in eschewing any idea of what’s next. Starring as Jude St Francis in the theatrical adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life, Norton took on his most challenging role to date, a complex character marked by immense trauma.
“I made no secret that I kind of hated the experience because it was so intense,” he says openly. “I don’t become Jude for three months and wake up and go back to James. There are certain ways in which roles can take over your life. I naively thought I could play his terror and pain every day, sometimes for eight hours a day on stage and be fine. My body was storing that sensory memory and I didn’t realise it was going to all come out. There were a couple of times where I would start crying and couldn’t stop for an hour. I wasn’t upset, I was watching myself cry someone else’s tears as I just needed to get rid of them. Purge them.”
So how does he reflect on the experience a year on? “The weird thing is now I want to do it again. It’s like being a marathon runner, you just want to do another one after,” he continues. “But I knew it was important and it felt important. I really felt like all the work I’d done was really worthwhile. It was having an important effect on people.”
Photographer: Elliott Morgan
To counteract the tortuous experience, Norton, despite being told to take time off, “just couldn’t say no” to Joy. The Netflix film sees him star alongside Bill Nighy and Thomasin McKenzie, portraying the ground-breaking journey of nurse Jean Purdy (McKenzie), scientist Robert Edwards (Norton) and obstetrician Patrick Steptoe (Nighy) as they pioneer IVF in the 1960s and ‘70s. Deliberately shedding any preconceptions, the actor pivoted from heavy, brooding characters that have defined much of his career into one that reignited his flame of telling untold stories.
“Unlike Tommy and Jude where you’re grappling with the shadow of a dark life of a character, Bob was a really pleasant headspace to enter into every day.” The script itself masterfully balances the hopeful ambition of scientific advancement with the intense backlash from the media, public, and church – an emotional tug-of-war that gives the story both depth and urgency.
Now, against the backdrop of the most recent US election in which women’s reproductive rights came to the helm, this film has come at a poignant time. “Joy has been in development for 10 years, so it was never meant to coincide – that is purely coincidental,” says Norton.
“I think it’s such an important film to remind us both to cherish and be grateful for these incredibly important scientific advancements and to protect them at all costs in a time when they are feeling very threatened and fragile; to pay testament to those people, those shoulders on which they stand on, the shoulders of scientists and women who made emotional and physical sacrifices. Let’s not take them for granted and let’s fight to protect them. It’s an important reminder of women’s right of reproductive choice and hopefully this film will be a positive catalyst for conversation.”
It would seem that Norton is predisposed to never wanting to press the pause button. His new venture is Rabbit Track Pictures, a production company founded by himself and Kitty Kaletsky. “I started to feel frustrated at the amount of creative contribution and control I had over the roles I was playing. I wanted to be involved in more of the discussions,” he explains.
“I love my job as an actor but you do get this false sense of importance, like ‘I’m an artist telling this story’. But I realised I was wearing the clothes which were chosen by someone else, saying lines written by someone else, in the tone that was decided for me. So when the opportunity came about I took it, and when the seed investment was offered I took it.”
Photographer: Elliott Morgan
The first project on its roster is an ITVX thriller series based on JP Delaney’s novel, Playing Nice, about two couples discovering that their children were swapped at birth. With this being the first time he had to balance being in front and behind the camera, it came far easier to him than expected. “I was worried initially when I went on to set that I hadn’t done the work I usually do. You usually spend time meditating over a role and being in their head,” he explains.
“I realised as soon as we started shooting I had been in this guy’s head for four years. I had done way more work on Pete [one of the fathers in the baby mix-up] because I had created him with other people and actually felt more empowered than I had done in previous roles.”
By looking at the arc of his career, this seems less like a turning point and more of an evolution, elevating him into the rarefied realms of those balancing craft with creation. For many, such transitions can feel like uncharted waters, but for Norton it’s instinctive.
“I love being in a room and sitting with the development executives, script editors and writers, building a world. It feels like what we were doing as kids, but with structure. You’re suddenly not sitting improvising a den, you have the ability to build a castle,” he says gleefully. Named after the path he used to go as a child to run around and play, Rabbit Track has alchemised into a reality spurred on by someone keen to never give up storytelling. “Acting is just a continuation of my childhood. You play make believe and I just didn’t ever stop doing that.”
With the boundaries between play and profession seamlessly eroding, Norton stands as a testament to how creativity thrives when imagination meets conviction and castles are built from more than just bricks.
by Imogen Clark
Photographer: Elliott Morgan
Stylist: Harry Clements
Grooming: Carlos Ferraz using JILLIAN DEMPSEY
Photography assistant: Jack Blanco
Talent: James Norton
Look 1: Soft 24/7 bag, Iced Sea Automatic Date, both MONTBLANC, Coat DUNHILL, Shirt GANT, Tie, trousers FAVOURBROOK, Shoes HERMÈS
Look 2: Star Legacy watch (James’ own) MONTBLANC, Jacket MR P at MR PORTER, Shirt, bow tie FAVOURBROOK
Look 3: Star Legacy watch (James’ own) MONTBLANC, Coat BURBERRY, Shirt LORO PIANA, Tie STYLIST’S OWN
Look 4: Iced Sea Automatic Date MONTBLANC, Coat DUNHILL, Shirt GANT, Tie, trousers FAVOURBROOK
Look 5: Sartorial Envelope pouch MONTBLANC,Shirt MR P. at MR PORTER
Look 6: Iced Sea Automatic Date MONTBLANC, Suit GIORGIO ARMANI, Top STYLIST’S OWN, Shoes LORO PIANA