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!
Ben Mezrich’s page-turning nonfiction book Bringing Down the House tells the story of six MIT students who card-counted their way to millions in Vegas. Now it’s a Hollywood movie, 21, starring Jim Sturgess as blackjack team ace Ben Campbell, which opens today. (Campbell is based on Jeff Ma, who in the book is named Kevin Lewis. Yeah, it’s kinda confusing.)
What got you interested in 21?
When I first read the script I had no idea it was based on true events, so I viewed it as just a good script and a great story. Then the minute I was told it really happened, when I was told these guys went to Vegas and pulled this thing off, I was immediately more intrigued.
Jim Sturgess is on the brink of stardom. He has top billing on a big-budget film opening today, 21, while appearing in a smaller role in another film currently in wide release, the period drama The Other Boleyn Girl. He was named one of Entertainment Weekly’s “30 Under 30″ actors just last month.
The 26-year-old English actor is quick to point out he’s no overnight success, but he notes that when success starts happening, it starts happening pretty fast. “It comes in a big tidal wave,” he says in an interview in the District earlier this month. But “I didn’t just fall out of bed and someone gave me the opportunity to be in a film,” he quickly adds. “It’s a process that’s gone on all my life, really.”
Check out a few reviews from 21 if interested, the first batch of reviews I saw weren’t the greated, but some more have been released with the release of the film and some people seem to really enjoy the film. Here some I have selected, particularly complimentary of Jim’s performance.
From: MTV
Jim Sturgess, the young English actor most recently seen in The Other Boleyn Girl and Across the Universe, here deploying an American accent that might draw an approvingly cocked brow from Hugh Laurie himself, has the unusual ability to project contemplation and reticence as star qualities, and his quiet magnetism anchors the movie.
Spacey is also one of the movie’s producers, and it was he who picked Sturgess to star in it. This might be an intergenerational salute from one idiosyncratic actor to another — although Sturgess, if only because of his attractively tousled appeal, would seem likely to have a larger career as a romantic lead lying ahead of him. Like Spacey, though, he has serious technical skills as well, and his performance here is aces.
It’s the ultimate dream of anyone who’s ever set foot in a casino — win fast, win big, win the “Rain Man” suite, win the girl of your dreams, win enough to bring down the house.
For the real-life players behind 21, a new film that centers on a group of M.I.T. card-counting grifters, it was a dream that became reality.
“A group of M.I.T. math geniuses come to Las Vegas and get the keys to this rock-and-roll lifestyle,” director Robert Luletic explained. “There was a fantasy element to it that I couldn’t help but be attracted to.”
Fantasy, sure — if your fantasy is to find the hardest way possible to make an easy living.
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) 
