You have reached Jim-Sturgess.com, a growing resource for the talented British actor known from his work in the films Across the Universe, The Other Boleyn Girl and 21. Up next is Crossing Over due out August 22 (US). Here we will keep you up to date with all the latest news, media downloads and information. Bookmark us and check back often for the latest on Jim Sturgess!
With a breakout role embodying a character inspired by a Beatles song, Hollywood was bound to take notice of Jim Sturgess.
Jim burst on the scene last fall in Julie Taymor’s Across the Universe, playing Jude, a young English man who travels to America in hopes of finding his estranged father. Jim wowed audiences in this powerful musical love story set in the tumultuous 1960s. He belted out classic Beatles songs and won the heart of the character Lucy, played by Evan Rachel Wood.
Jim would travel back to old England for his next role in The Other Boleyn Girl, playing opposite Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman and Eric Bana.
Jim Sturgess has become a hot commodity in Hollywood these days. After the big musical hit Across the Universe, he’s joined up with Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth in Columbia Pictures’ 21!
Next, he’s rumored to be reuniting with Universe director Julie Taymor for a turn on Broadway in Spider-man the Musical.
At the 21 junket this week in Las Vegas, Sturgess talked about the project a bit to the IESB during an interview that included 21 co-stars Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth.
IESB: Jim, rumors are rampant that you will be working with Julie Taymor again in Spider-man the Musical…
Ben Campbell in the new movie 21 is just a quiet MIT undergraduate until Las Vegas flash and the adrenaline rush of high-stakes betting ignite his fast-living alter-ego.
To make the character work, “he just had to be completely mild in every kind of way,” said Jim Sturgess, the 26-year-old British actor who plays the part. The challenge was to portray Ben as “straight-down-the line” yet definitely “not a nerd.”
“If it was going to be some Revenge of the Nerd kind of movie, it wasn’t going to interest me,” Sturgess explained while in Boston for the movie’s local premiere. “But it’s about a real kid and a real situation.”
A few weeks ago, I sat down with the charming Jim Sturgess, the up and coming 26 year old British actor best know for his role as Jude in the Beatles musical, Across the Universe. In the upcoming film 21, (based on the book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich) Mr. Sturgess plays Ben Campbell, an MIT student who uses his math acumen to win millions playing blackjack in Vegas. During our conversation, Mr. Sturgess talked about what it was like playing a character who is based on a real life MIT alum, Jeffrey Ma ’94, filming in Las Vegas, and working with Kevin Spacey. Below is an excerpt:
The Tech: Are you happy with the final results of the film?
Jim Sturgess: Yeah, definitely. I saw it a while ago. When you’re making the film you have no concept of how kind of visual it’s going to look. Especially in the scenes when we’re playing cards and all that kind of stuff. While we were shooting those scenes it was fairly kind of tedious kind of work; pushing chips and flipping cards and all that kind of stuff. And then when you see the film you see how dramatic it looks. It was a shock to all of us, I think. The director [Robert Luketic] kept saying just trust me, trust me, it’s going to look great … stuff that you kind of don’t like doing as much. Actually you want to do the kind of big shouting scenes or all the meaty scenes or whatever. But we kind of stuck with it and I think it paid off.
Here is a nice interview from Cinematical. Jim talks about 21 and also discusses a little bit about Julie Taymore and his upcoming film Crossing Over!
On Julie Taymor
“She really found me at a point where I needed to be found.”
In 21, which hits theaters tomorrow, Jim Sturgess plays Ben Campbell, an M.I.T. student who’s recruited into a group of Vegas card counters by a fellow student. In fact, the entire group is made up of students and its leader, Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey), also happens to be a professor at the University. The fact-based film was inspired by the book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich, and most of what you will see in 21 really happened — with certain faces, places, names and events changed to fit a more Hollywood-ized mold. Directed by Robert Luketic, 21 also stars Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne, Aaron Yoo and Liza Lapira.
21 (2008) 
