Why I traded celebrity for waiting tables (And yes, folks, it really is the naked truth...)
He was the party boy and Fair City star who shocked the nation with his saucy clinch on the cover of the RTÉ Guide. Now Jamie Belton has a different role...
IN MID-2004, Jamie Belton shocked the nation when he was pictured in a nude clinch on the cover of the RTÉ Guide to promote a fictional Mrs Robinson-style on-screen romance.
The switchboards of both the magazine and the station were swamped with calls of protest from angry members of the public within hours of it going on sale. Marian Finucane’s Radio One morning chat show fielded a flood of angry callers.
Some 14 years on, I wonder how many of those outraged — or impressed — callers would recognise him now.
Sallow in complexion with slicked-back jet-black hair and a blue sports coat with a dandy pocket handkerchief, Jamie is supervising every move in the new Ivy Dawson Street brasserie. And he looks to be taking the muchanticipated opening week in his stride.
Of course, Jamie is no stranger to either high pressure situations or the limelight. During his stint as womaniser Ross O’Rourke in Fair City, he was part of one of the show’s most controversial storylines, in which he seduced his schoolteacher.
Alongside his then girlfriend, Cork singer Carol Anthony — who has been in a relationship with exfootballer Ian Rush for about five years — Jamie was part of one of the hottest media couples in Celtic tiger Ireland. They opened restaurants and attended movie premieres — in short, they were media darlings.
But beneath the smiles and the champagne, things didn’t feel right to the promising actor and he admits the feeling of having to be constantly ‘on’ made him uncomfortable.
‘I found being part of a celebrity couple difficult,’ he says this week, his voice slightly strained from days of talking.
‘It was very nice to be a mediumsized fish in a small pond but I know now it’s not what I wanted.
‘I have friends who wanted it but it certainly wasn’t for me. I realised I didn’t particularly enjoy the attention. It’s hard to explain — I didn’t mind people knowing who I was or what I did but the reason they knew me mattered. I didn’t like the perception of being a Z-list couple, which is what I saw.’
He admits that while it didn’t fully suit him, there were parts of it he enjoyed before the bubble burst.
‘It was fun and we got to do cool and amazing things,’ he says. ‘We were very happy for a time but I just wasn’t for that world. What I enjoyed was the interaction with people and the plaudits were great — having people come up to you and telling you they like what you do is great. That’s the good side.
‘But I wasn’t mad about going to openings and premieres. I remember doing the Meteor Awards and being on stage thinking, this is really weird. But then you have the cool part where you end up sitting beside Snow Patrol.
‘It was perfect for my 20s but as they came to an end, I realised I just didn’t want that any more.’
Jamie left Fair City and moved to London to escape the media glare in Dublin. He signed with a big Britishbased agent and decided to give acting a real go.
‘Acting was working for me, very much so,’ he says. ‘After Fair City, which I really enjoyed, I got an agent in London called Curtis Brown. They are extremely big and high-profile and I arrived in London and got a flat in Paddington. Almost immediately I got a call from my agent, they had an audition for me in the BBC for the next day for Casualty and Holby City. Before the audition was over, they told me I had the job.
‘I walked out the door thinking I was ten feet tall, thinking I had arrived and I was going to be a movie star in a week.’
But when Jamie went to work, the stark realisation of what actually happened on set was a far cry from the high-octane shooting he had envisaged in his own head.
‘It was a £1million big-budget special with both shows and I was playing this great part as the protagonist,’ he says of how he was looking forward to it.
‘Then I went to set at 6am and I sat in a trailer for ten hours. At one point I was playing hopscotch with 45year-old bored actors.
‘That went on for six weeks and then we eventually got it done and it was great, I really enjoyed it. But it just got me questioning my future, I left feeling unfulfilled. But I kept going for auditions and kept getting them. I did plays and an ITV show and I even did a Welsh show where I was the only person that spoke English.
‘So I was working away but I realised it wasn’t what I thought it would be. It wasn’t as rewarding. There was a lot of praise and attention but I didn’t feel like I was doing anything to deserve that praise.’
But London is an expensive master and Jamie kept booking gigs to pay the rent.
When he hit upon the fallow months he did what many jobbing actors do and worked as a waiter in order to supplement his income. It was then that he realised his calling in life might be on dining room floors instead of treading the boards.
‘I would get booked for six weeks and then I would get two months off, so I had these periods where I had no work or money coming in,’ he says. ‘I was in London and bored out of my mind — I had become single having just broken up with my girlfriend.
‘So I went back to working in restaurants and realised how much I enjoyed it.
‘Before long I got promoted. Around the same time, I got sent for a Diet Coke commercial by my agent. I said to him, “I’m not going to go. There are going to be 200 other guys there who are bigger than me and in better shape than me and I just don’t want to do an ad, I want to act.”
‘The agency was not very happy with that and that forced me to look at my life. I decided that I didn’t really want to do it any more.’
From that moment, Jamie devoted his time to restaurants, learning what he could about front of house, happy to be the man serving celebrities rather than being one. However, he admits that he sometimes wonders what might have been.
‘I come from an amazing group in Trinity with Ruth Negga, Rory Keenan, Alan Leech and Mark Huberman, who have all gone on to phenomenal success,’ he says of the big screen, small screen and stage stars. ‘It has taken a while but I didn’t have the patience for that. I’m not going to lie, I do get a pang every now and again.
‘I stay up and watch the Oscars every year and it’s extra special when you see Ruth going down the red carpet. I think I vicariously live through them. It’s wonderful seeing them so successful but I’m also really happy with what I do.’
In 2008, Jamie decided that he had gleaned as much experience as he could from London and moved back to Dublin where he landed the maître’d job at the award-winning Restaurant 41 in private club Residence.
‘It was a small restaurant but people seemed to enjoy it and how I interacted with them,’ Jamie says smiling. ‘So it came to the point where I decided it was going to be like the acting — if I was going to do it, I wanted to be the best at it.’
From there, Jamie landed a senior role with Dylan McGrath’s group Prime Steak. He quickly rose within
I was on stage at the Meteor Awards just thinking this is really weird
There was a lot of praise but I didn’t feel like I deserved it
If I was going to do it, I wanted to be the best at it
the organisation and says all the experience he gained from the restaurateur was invaluable.
‘It’s not just his taste, it’s his eye for detail,’ he says. ‘That’s what I learned from him especially — not to miss the little things that you pass by 100 times.’
Now, in the Ivy Dawson Street, Jamie is the man in charge of the little things. He admits that the Ivy Collection was the only group that could have taken him away from McGrath’s company.
‘I flew over to the Ivy City Garden in London, which is one of the most beautiful restaurants, and I met the directors. I walked in and I got very nervous because this was something incredibly special. But when I sat down with them, I realised they were the most humble people I had ever met — all of the directors have been general managers or chefs and worked hard all their lives.’
He spent five months in London learning and garnering every bit of protocol and information from his fellow managers in order to ensure he could hit the ground running.
It put a lot of strain on the shoulders of his wife Ruth, who was working and looking after their two children.
‘I have a young family and the reason I can take this role on is all down to my wife Ruth,’ he admits. ‘I initially spent five months away learning the ropes. The requirement was eight weeks, but it’s a brand that has been around for 100 years so I stayed on longer because I wanted more information and wanted to understand the ethos of what the Ivy is.
‘That took me away from my wife and kids, which was a big ask considering my wife works full-time. So we had a lot of people helping out, grandparents and everything. But they all saw the bigger picture and it’s incredible for me that they did it.
‘Had Ruth said no then I wouldn’t have done it, there’s no question about that. But we know each other well enough that she knew I wanted it badly.
‘Since we opened I’ve been here a lot but we make it work. For the next few weeks, I’m away morning, noon and night but it won’t be forever and I see the kids in the morning and the middle of the night when they come into the bed to wake me up! It has been a hell of a few weeks but my family has been so understanding. Ruth has every right to be annoyed but she has been incredible.’
So does this one-time celebrity have any problem serving the well-known Irish faces he used to party with?
‘When I’m working, I don’t notice the person,’ he says. ‘I don’t differentiate between men, women or celebrities. Now, I’m not going to lie, if Blake Lively walks in I might be a bit flushed but no, I don’t really mind.
‘I’m more into the people I know who have been dining with me for years and like what I do — I will be more interested in the repeat customers than a famous face.
‘I love spending time with people. It really doesn’t matter to me who anyone is.’
And if anyone recognises him from that RTÉ Guide cover, he’ll be hoping they feel the same way...