"Golden Boy" Theo James on Accents & Police Ride-Alongs

Hey, my name is Theo James, and, uh, I'm doing the accent because I feel like I should, but it's getting really ah, fucking frustrating in my mouth. That sounds weird in itself, so we probably should take that out as well. Uh! That's much better. I like that accent better. Perfect. Not really. It's not so stupid.

You could be a Dutch porn star or something. Oh! You have a New York accent in it. And did you go to a dialect coach?

I did, yeah. I did. I did. Cuz the thing is about getting an accent for a British guy, obviously, you have to make sure it's it's so natural that you never think about it. But I actually found in New York, honestly, in bars, I would shout across the bar like, "Hello mate, could I get a beer?" And he'd blank me completely. So, I'd have to use the accent. Cuz then he'd be like, "Alright, this guy's not a douchebag."

Yeah. Now, I always wanted to have a British accent. So, can you teach me like if I would be like, "Thank you for coming to Young Hollywood." Is that good?

No, it's bad. Uh, it's okay. It's okay. I mean, if if you were mildly disabled, maybe.

Oh, it's okay. No. All right. So then, how do I like say thank you?

Actually, that wasn't that bad. The only thing I say Young was uh, I suppose so so say it again.

Sorry, no. No, I don't want to. Now, I have a little bit of a complex. No. Uh, what was the phrase again?

Thank you for coming to Young Hollywood. Yeah. So, "Thank you for coming to Young Hollywood." So yeah, try try it again.

Okay. "Thank you for coming to Young Hollywood."

Yeah, yeah. I'd say that's good.

I know that you did quite a few ride-alongs with the New York City cops to kind of get into character.

I hung out with this guy called Wendell. He was this really cool like 50-year-old, uh, cold case first first grade detective. And he basically said, "Put a suit on and kind of just stay in the background and try and pretend to be a detective." So, I did that in my first week. And obviously, I had massive English gimp to start with. And I tried to say as little as possible. And we, you know, he was interviewing this this guy who I think was definitely on something. And, uh, and I was kind of standing in the background just trying to look tough. And he was like, "Who's this guy?" And obviously, I tried to say nothing. He said, "Aren't you a bit young to be a detective?" And all I could think of is going, "I am young." And I thought that sounded cool. But then his reaction was like, "What? I don't understand that." Yeah. So, I didn't really get away with it.

Yeah. We are asking you some golden questions that your fans would like to know. Were you a golden boy or a bad boy growing up?

Um, I was probably more towards the bad boy. I made some uh, some not great decisions.

Okay. We won't talk about those. Let's just leave it right there. What other Hollywood golden boys do you look up to?

Ah, yes. Um, I'd say my I Michael Fassbender's a bit of an I think he's uh, my brother we he's like he always says, "What's Fassie B up to?" As if I know him. I don't know him. I've never met him. But, uh,

When you meet him, can you can you just say that?

Yes. "Fassie B, what's up?" "What's up, brother?" He's like, "Who who is this freak?"

All right. Now, if you had a golden pass to attend any concert, who would it be? Is this dead or alive?

Either or. I I I love I have an obsession with Hendrix. I'd love to see Hendrix.

Yeah. If you had a golden ticket to travel anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I would love to go this sounds pretentious but I'd love to go to Bhutan cuz apparently there's this really cool this cool like, "the Tiger Temple." And you go and you trek and you see see some cool stuff.

That doesn't sound pretentious at all. Okay. Sounds awesome. Sounds awesome. What's your golden rule?

Keep your mouth shut. But I don't always abide by it.

Oh obviously. So far in your career, what has been your golden moment?

My golden moment. Mm. I'd say my funniest moment was I did my first job. One of my first jobs was for a BBC drama. And, uh, I remember I got the part. I hadn't read the whole script. And I read the uh, opening section of the script. And it had me it had it was like a love scene. And they had the girl her legs are like this. And it described it in detail. And then it said, "The camera zooms in as he climaxes." And I remember thinking, "Oh, God. What have I, uh, what have I signed up to here?"

This is going to be great.

Yeah.

In the future, what would you like to be your ultimate golden moment?

I would like to be trendy and be be in all the magazines. Get wasted with Clooney at at the afterparty and be high-fiving and talking about life. That's the ultimate golden moment for any actor.

For any actor. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Well, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That was good. I feel like it's more of with an F. The thank you. The thank you. Thank you, mate. You know, it's a bit more kind of on the cockney, so.

Okay. So more More with the TH.