James Norton has a reputation for being one of the nicest guys in showbiz. Sadly, he’s in danger of wrecking his halo.
The actor, currently starring in the dramas The House of Guinness on Netflix and King & Conqueror on BBC1, has some pet peeves to share.
He took a swipe at the modern trend for leading actors to take an executive producer credit. Often it can be a way of justifying paying the big names more money.
He wouldn’t name names, but his co-star Sarah Lancashire had this honour on crime drama Happy Valley, and Robson Green did on Grantchester, too.
Norton said: ‘I have to say this is a pet peeve. You see a lot of actors who say they are executive producers. When you see actors with ‘executive producer’, they are not.
‘It is often used as a ‘shiny title’. When I have done shows that I have an executive producer credit on, I have produced them. I am not disparaging those who haven’t, but they have not done a single f****** thing.
‘Their agent has negotiated with the production when they are doing their deal saying, ‘Can we get executive producer?’ Maybe they have read a draft…there are different degrees I am sure.’
He breaks off and jokes: ‘I am a vicious backstabber.’
James Norton, who stars in the Netflix series House of Guinness, has hit out at a number of the actors he has worked with
Norton was an executive producer on King & Conqueror, as well as starring in it
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Well, James… you said it!
He also hates to be pigeonholed as ‘posh’, which he has said before gets on his nerves. ‘People like to pigeonhole and this country likes to pigeonhole when it comes to class and race which is a really frustrating thing,’ he says.
‘There is a trap as an actor where you sound and look a certain way and they say, ‘Okay, you must be this so we will repeat that over and over again’.’
He thinks his role as murderous Tommy Lee Royce in Happy Valley saved him from the fate of playing floppy-haired nice boys forever. ‘The Happy Valley thing for me was so important, as it allowed me to disrupt the pigeonhole that I would have more likely ended up in if I had not been in that role.’
Since then, Norton has shown even more remarkable range by founding his own production company, Rabbit Track Pictures. He has executive produced three dramas, Rogue Agent in 2022, Playing Nice and King & Conqueror this year.
He was famously very close to Robson Green when they worked together on Grantchester and said in an interview at the time he left: ‘It’s no secret that Robson and I are very good friends. I have so much love and respect for that man.’
Of his last episodes before leaving the show, he added: ‘The relationship Sidney and Geordie had was largely informed by that. And so when you have two very good friends having a version of a goodbye, both Robson and James and Geordie and Sidney were all in this big emotional self-indulgent mess. It was very sad, but very easy to act because it felt very true to the reality of the situation.’
It’s less clear how close he is to Sarah Lancashire, although he was very close to many other actors in the cast of Happy Valley.
Robson Green’s friendship with Norton has not made him immune from his criticism
Norton’s Happy Valley co-star Sarah Lancashire took an executive producer credit on the show
Some viewers have had issues with Norton’s Irish accent on The House of Guinness, in which he plays foreman Sean Rafferty, but the actor, who read theology at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, says: ‘If there is an accent I will do the accent all day and try and stay in that. The sound of a voice does take you into a person very quickly. I do carry a person by the virtue of his voice.
He told The Graham Norton Show on Friday that he was ‘terrified of getting it wrong’ and added: ‘I worked really hard on it – I didn’t want to be held to account. My problem was getting out of the accent because I loved the character so much.’
Future plans will involve a return to theatre. He was nominated for an Olivier Award for his powerful performance in the gruelling adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life in 2023.
He commented: ‘I want to keep that conversation alive. It is annoyingly difficult. I am fortunate to have the shows I have. You have to carve out time for theatre so far in advance. I really need it and I want it so much. It is a powerful thing.
‘The show I am in at the moment, you have five cameras on you so they can cut a bad performance [to look good]. I love film, I do, but you are always protected by the fact that you can go again.
‘In theatre you have to rely on your craft and you feel so nourished by it.’
He adds of acting: ‘It is the best job in the world. Sometimes I think my job is ridiculous. My sister is a doctor, while I am running down a hill going ‘Charge!’.’
Again, James… no arguments.
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