| 13th September 2007 07:43 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
James Jagger: 'My name is more of a curse'
13/09/2007
Telepraph.co.uk
With his acting debut, James Jagger ... son of Rolling Stone Mick ... has scored his first hit. He talks to Bryony Gordon
Ask James Jagger if he has the same snake hips as his father, and his big brown eyes roll humorously to the heavens.
"I get that all the time. And the answer is no. I'm not the biggest hip-wiggler. I actually feel quite self-conscious when I'm dancing.
"I have to be wasted to want to gyrate my hips in a similar fashion to my dad."
He pats his skinny jeans and shakes his head for effect. "Nah, not for me."
There is another way in which the 22-year-old differs quite drastically from his parents, and that is in the acting department.
And if you've sat through Mick Jagger's painful role in the 1970s crime film Performance or Jerry Hall's wooden attempt at theatre in The Graduate eight years ago - an appearance most notable for the moment she slipped out of Mrs Robinson's dress - then you will know that this is no bad thing.
Earlier this month, the lesser-spotted Jagger stepped out of the considerable shadow cast by his parents, his older sister (the model Lizzie) and his half-sister (Jade, a jewellery designer who parties a lot) to claim some glory of his own with his acting debut in Lone Star and Pvt Wars, James McLure's double bill of American war comedies.
News that the progeny of a rock star was to go into acting caused a few raised eyebrows: oh please, not another Peaches Geldof or Nicole Ritchie, trading off their father's name.
But to the considerable surprise of many, Jagger Junior has turned out to have some talent of his own. And quite a bit of it, too. Warm and amusing, James is also very bright with a nice line in self-deprecation (he jokes that he doesn't have a TV because "I'm too busy playing Rachmaninoff on my harpsichord") and has written a novella about an opium dealer during the Industrial Revolution ("but I have a feeling that might be one that only I get to see").
As for his first stage appearance, nobody was more surprised by the glowing notices than Jagger himself. "I have always thought my surname was more of a curse than a blessing," he says, when we meet in a graveyard opposite the small pub theatre in Islington where he is currently treading the boards. "I thought they'd slate me regardless of what I did because of who my dad is. So I was shocked when I got good reviews. Especially as I thought I'd done a poor performance."
If he is a brat for having grown up with one of the country's most famous couples - he calls himself Mick and Jerry's "bastard child", because they were never actually properly married - then he does not show it. "If you were to compare us with the stereotype of a family, with a rock star for a dad and a supermodel for a mother, then you'd think we were pretty normal."
He doesn't feel he was affected by his parents' "divorce" eight years ago, after Mick fathered a child with the Brazilian model Luciana Morad. "We are still a very close family," he says. "We spend Christmas together. We get together and exchange gifts on our birthdays." Such is this closeness that Mick still lives next door to Jerry in Richmond; James flew the nest a year ago and now lives in Bloomsbury.
He shows me the text message his father sent him after coming to see him in the play. It reads: "You were great. Great reviews. Lots of love Dad."
"You know what dads are like," says James. "No kisses. He's not a flowery dad. Mum was a bit more full-on with her appraisal, but then mothers are like that. They love you unconditionally. She went on and on about how much she liked it when she came to see it, and then she called me up today to say it again. I'm like: 'You better stop that now, because I am walking down the street blushing and you're embarrassing me.' "
Jagger Junior didn't originally plan to be an actor. When he was a child, he wanted to be an astronaut. "But that waned when I was about 12 and found out what you have to do to become one. Do you know that they have to have spinal taps?" And so, Jagger set his heart on the next best thing - a career in science. "It was my strongest subject. I got a place to read biochemistry at Loughborough, which has a pretty good science school, and my dad was dead set on me going. But I thought I'd end up wasting a lot of time and money and drinking too much."
He was an exemplary student during his GCSEs. He got 5A*s, 5As, a B and a C - the C being in drama. "But I decided to take it for A-level to prove I could do it." He also took biology, chemistry and politics, but didn't do so well. "By then, I had a girlfriend who was a year older than me and on her gap year, so that wasn't terribly helpful. It was a pretty sour time in my life."
Initially, his parents were annoyed with him. "But they're also very understanding. My older sister, Lizzie, dropped out of school after her GCSEs, so I think they were just glad that I actually did A-levels."
Whatever the truth of his late teens, he discovered a passion for acting. "I had quite a vibrant drama teacher and I was like, hmmm, I'm actually really enjoying this drama malarkey, so I might make a wholehearted effort with it."
When he left school, he did a short acting course in Cambridge, before leaving for New York to "pansy around" and attend the Lee Strasberg drama school ("a nightmare") before going to study with Susan Batson, who trained Nicole Kidman and George Clooney. He liked her a lot, but doesn't have much time for the drama-school system. "It's a trite world of failed actors and makes you conscious about things that, if you're half decent, should come naturally."
Jagger rejects suggestions that he landed his current role thanks to his name. "I'd hate to get a job because of it and get really irritated when people pay attention to it, especially my contemporaries," he says. "I mean, it's not like I'm in the chorus of Joseph," a subtle dig, perhaps, at Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne's daughter, Kelly, who is providing a celebrity presence in the West End musical Chicago.
If anything, he thinks that being a Jagger makes casting him more of a risk. "In the past few years, where I've had directors give me the hairy eyeball, I've had my confidence knocked. I am trying to pay my dues - you have to earn respect in this industry. You set yourself up if you try and be showy because if you do one bad job, your career is over."
With his impressive debut performance, Jagger has gone a long way to earning that respect. Now his task is to prove that he can go on as long as his father.
'Lone Star' and 'Pvt Wars' are at the King's Head Theatre (115 Upper Street, London N1 1QN. 020 7226 1916; www.kingsheadtheatre.org) until September 23
[Edited by Ten Thousand Motels] |
| 13th September 2007 08:03 AM |
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| LadyJane |
Compared to most of today's "celebutantes", the Stones seem to have done a pretty damn good job of raising their kids.
Nice read, TTM
LJ. |
| 13th September 2007 08:43 AM |
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| Factory Girl |
James comes off very level headed, perhaps too much so.
Thank you, Tensy for a great read.  |
| 13th September 2007 02:04 PM |
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| texile |
he seems like a nice kid.....
and smart.
yes, a far cry from LA's 'sons-and daughters-of' brigade.
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| 13th September 2007 03:04 PM |
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| gimmekeef |
He's just ridin daddys coat tails...Lets see if he's got a "Freejack" in him! |
| 13th September 2007 03:19 PM |
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| gypsy |
Seems like an intelligent young man. Very likeable. |
| 13th September 2007 03:30 PM |
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| mrhipfl |
quote:
LadyJane wrote:
Compared to most of today's "celebutantes", the Stones seem to have done a pretty damn good job of raising their kids.
Yup. As far as I know, there's never been a "scandal" of any type concerning the kids. |
| 14th September 2007 02:55 AM |
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| corgi37 |
Apart from minor drug hassles by Jade & Serafina. you never hear a peep out of Marlon.
Maybe the next career move for the Stones is a parenting guide. |
| 14th September 2007 06:25 AM |
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| gotdablouse |
Definitely the brains in the family! Sounds like the reasonable Mick of the recent years...or the Mick from the LSE! |
| 14th September 2007 07:26 AM |
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| Bitch |
Thanks TTM! I was wondering how James was, there aren't many interviews with him as the main focus. He seems nice, very clear headed and intelligent. I wish him success in his acting career! |
| 14th September 2007 10:47 AM |
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| AlexKx |
Since when did Ron Wood's children drinking and drugging become normal or be accepted as having raised your children right? What are you all on? |
| 14th September 2007 03:40 PM |
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| texile |
quote:
gotdablouse wrote:
or the Mick from the LSE!
that's what i see -
the cardigan/lse mick....
maybe mick if he hadn't become a rock star. |
| 14th September 2007 03:51 PM |
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| Retrolove |
Does anyone have a picture of his son? |
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