From Liverpool with love as Jamie and Annette light up the screen
JAMIE BELL recalls driving to the Hollywood home of producer Barbara Broccoli to meet Annette Bening, to see whether he and the fourtime Oscar- nominated actress shared that elusive thing: chemistry. Bening had already been signed to portray Gloria Grahame, a one-time silver-screen femme fatale. And Bell was being summoned to see what he could do with the part of Peter Turner: a young actor from Merseyside who had a romance with the much older Grahame.
Later, Turner would write an affectionate memoir about their time together called Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool, which has been made into a movie to be released later this month.
‘When I got there, I found out that Barbara had known
Peter and Gloria when they were dating. We basically did a couple of scenes together, and by this time Barbara was already crying. And that was that,’ Bell said.
he got the part. And it’s the best performance he has given since he pirouetted into our lives as Billy elliot 17 years ago.
Bell and Bening do indeed have remarkable chemistry in Paul McGuigan’s bittersweet movie, which shows how Turner met Grahame, and took her home to meet his family in liverpool. When Grahame falls ill, Turner’s mother (who is played by Julie Walters) cares for her.
Bell said that early on he, Bening and the director had a conversation about what the love scenes would entail.
‘There are intimate moments, and we each discussed “What are
you comfortable with?” We talked, and there was never a version where we’d disagree. There had to be a solidarity between us, other- wise it becomes uncomfortable. And i was already intimidated — and very daunted — before filming even started. So i’m glad that side of it was sorted.’
daunted? ‘ This is Annette Bening! She’s a titan when it comes to acting.’
love scenes apart, there were other challenges, too. ‘People say that getting Peter’s liverpool accent must have been easy for me, because “you’re both from the north”,’ the Teesside-born actor told me. ‘Firstly, the accents sound nothing alike at all! And we’re separated by many miles.
‘But i get it. he’s a working kid from a working- class family. it’s very easy to bring all of that stuff to this role. i’ve lived it.’
he laughs and adds: ‘i mean, i haven’t lived it for a while. But it’s part of my dnA.’
Bell, now 31, has lived in lA since he was 17. ‘There was no guarantee that after Billy elliot i would make it. Just because you do something people liked 17 years ago doesn’t mean you’re given a free pass to do anything at all.’
But he has thrived and prospered in the most notoriously fickle of industries.
‘Sometimes i pinch myself,’ said Bell of his chosen profession. ‘i still get starstruck when i meet, say, Julie Andrews. i still remember travelling to dance classes above a launderette in Middlesbrough. it seems a long time ago, but i haven’t forgotten.’