JAMES FLETCHER
When New Zealand actor James Bailey Fletcher was cast as a sexy gay stoner in webseries Whatever This Is, he had no idea it would lead to the thrill of becoming a viral .gif. Interview by Luke Devine.
DNA: Do Americans have any idea about New Zealand? James Baily Fletcher: A lot of the time I can make up stuff about New Zealand and people will believe it. I tell them we don’t have the Internet; that Hobbits are real. You would be surprised at how many people think Hobbits are real. They think it’s just a giant rainforest that we all live in, with sheep. What do you miss most about home? My cat. I have a really cool cat. He’s so photogenic and his markings are really unique. He looks like a little cow. He had cancer in his ears so we had to shave them down. He is this little panda cow cat. How did you become involved with Whatever This Is? Originally Adam [Goldberg, the show’s creator] heard about me through a mutual friend and they were looking for me to play a very small role. Due to scheduling conflicts I couldn’t do it. Which was a good thing in the end because I was asked to audition for the role of Liam. One of your scenes features a kiss between Liam and Ari (Dylan Marron) after they get stoned. Were you smoking real joints? It was tea. The really hard thing was Dylan and I had to inhale that. It took a lot of time and I swallowed a lot of tea but we got it in the end. Had you had a screen kiss before? Yeah. This one was annoying though because you’ve got smoke and there’s tea in your mouth and it’s gross and you’re trying not to stand on people’s toes so it’s really difficult. Actors have it hard. You did some performing back home in New Zealand. What were you working on? I was in Spartacus for one episode. They wanted me to have facial hair and I was trying to do two other feature films at the same time where I was clean-shaven. That was kind of hard, but we did it.
On his screen his kiss with Dylan Marron:
You’ve got smoke and there’s tea in your mouth and it’s gross and you’re trying not to stand on people’s toes so it’s really difficult. Actors have it hard.
What are the differences between shooting in New Zealand and shooting in New York? The Whatever This Is team is, without a doubt, the nicest and most professional crew that I’ve ever worked with. I will probably never find a more family-like unit. The entire time I never heard a voice raised. I never saw any tension. No one gossiped about anyone else. These are good people. They aren’t good people on other projects? I’ve definitely worked on some projects, I’m not going to say which ones, where you go: What the fuck? Get your shit together. This isn’t high school. This is a job. And that’s what I loved about this. I would hang out with these guys. Are the actors like their characters? The actor most like the character is Madeline Wise, who plays Lisa. I didn’t work on any scenes with her, but I met her at the premieres and she’s just got this beautiful young soul to her. It’s happy and vibrant and that’s just how she is on the show, and hers is one of the most relatable characters in my opinion. Relatable how? I watch her and I’m like, “that’s kinda me”. I do say those things. I was in Chipotle the other day and said, “I’m so fucking hungry,” then I looked at the person and asked, “how many times a day do you hear ‘I’m so fucking hungry?’” The woman just smiled and continued making my burrito and I’m like, I’m really weird. That person does not wanna be hearing this shit. Do you think that’s a cultural thing? It is. I just want to talk to people and I know there’s that boundary people have where they’re like, “I’m working and you’re a customer and we can’t have these conversations,” and I think it’s fun to play with that. What kind of roles do you most want to do? Biopics. I would love to play a real person: watch footage of them, read their journals and discover who they were and try and replicate them in a movie. That would be the coolest thing. Leonardo DiCaprio did that with J Edgar Hoover. Meryl Streep did it with Margaret Thatcher in Iron Lady. That’s so interesting to take a real person and become them. Who is your celebrity crush? I am in love with Jennifer Lawrence. In every interview she is such a delight to watch. My favourite footage of her is when she had just won the Oscar and she goes backstage to be interviewed by the press and she’s talking so fast and says, “I’m so sorry, I had a shot before I walked on.” This is the kind of people I like. I admire that she’s just herself. Now, about that Tumblr .gif of you. Were you excited? I’m an avid Tumblr user. It’s full of cat and Jennifer Lawrence lovers who really understand me. So when a friend of mine sent me the link I shed a tear and whispered to myself, “You’ve made it, James. You’ve been gif ’d.”