THEO JAMES

Traveling in time might seem like a blessing to many people but for Henry Detamble, it’s most definitely a curse.

One moment he could be making breakfast and the next he’d be naked at a hoedown in 1973. He’d have no control over it and it would often come without warning.

It was no picnic for the actor playing him, Theo James, in “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” the sixepisode drama series based on the novel by Audrey Niffenegger that airs Sundays on HBO. With all the shifting around in timelines combined with the customary scenes being shot out of order made it difficult for the actor to keep his place in the story.

“There were days when we could be shooting one year in the beginning of the day,” the former “Divergent” star explains, “and an entirely different year at a different age at the end of the day. So it was a head f... to put it lightly. But you know, in a way, it was good because you made sure you kept on top of exactly where you’re going and where you’re coming from.”

Another challenge for the British actor was the accent. He’d done American accents before but never opposite a fellow Brit who is also playing an American, as he does here with Rose Leslie as his wife Clare. So to safeguard against mistakes in diction, James would stay in character for an entire shooting day, off camera as well as on.

“I stay in it because I have to,” he explains. “I find I’m a natural mumbler, and I need to exercise my mouth, and I need to be in the character a little bit from ... the beginning of the day. But Rose is much better, and she can just slip in and out of it like that.”

Birth name: Theodore Peter James Kinnaird Taptiklis

Birth date: Dec. 16, 1984

Birthplace: Oxford, England

Family ties: He and wife Ruth Kearney, an Irish actress, have one child

Television credits include: “A Passionate Woman,” “Downton Abbey,” “Golden Boy,” “The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance,” “The Witcher,” “Castlevania,” “Sanditon,” “The White Lotus”

Movie credits: “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” (2010), “The Inbetweeners” (2011), “Underworld: Awakening” (2012), “Divergent” (2014), “Insurgent” (2015), “The Benefactor” (2015), “War on Everyone” (2016), “Allegiant” (2016), “The Secret Scripture” (2016), “Underworld: Blood Wars” (2016), “Backstabbing for Beginners” (2018), “Zoe” (2018), “How It Ends” (2018), “Lying and Stealing” (2019), “Archive” (2020)

Hidden talents: Plays guitar, saxophone, piano and harmonica