British actor James Norton continues his takeover of film, TV and stage with a slew of new projects currently available and coming soon, as well as his past BAFTA, British Independent Film Award and Olivier Award-nominated work.
Last year, Cohen Media Group released Uberto Pasolini’s indie gem Nowhere Special, which boasted an incredibly nuanced, emotionally devastating performance by Norton of a terminally ill father who must deal with his own mortality and find a way to say goodbye to his son and find him a good home.
His current cinematic release, Ex Husbands, written and directed by Noah Pritzker, is a wonderfully quirky comedy about a father (Griffin Dunne) and his two semi-estranged sons (Norton and Miles Heizer) and their romantic entanglements. Norton’s character, Nick, is supposed to be getting married and his younger brother has arranged a Mexican bachelor getaway celebration, but Nick and his fiancé have actually broken up. Norton brings a poignant and understated sorrow to his character, in a film that allows the audience to shade in a lot of coloring.
Last October, he starred as biologist Dr. Robert Edwards, in the Netflix film, Joy, the true story of the long-fought process that led to the world’s first in vitro fertilization, aka test tube baby Louise Brown.
He is currently the lead in the 4-part ITVX series from Studio Canal, Playing Nice, which he also executive produced.
And coming soon to TV/Streaming is the BBC Studios/CBS drama series, King and Conqueror with Norton as the 11th Century British monarch, Harold Godwinson opposite Game of Thrones’ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as William the Conqueror. Norton is also a producer on the project, the first to depict the Battle of Hastings in a major medium. In addition, he’s a part of the Netflix historical drama, House of Guinness.
For the big screen, he is currently filming Guy Ritchie’s Wife & Dog, opposite Benedict Cumberbatch, Rosamund Pike, Anthony Hopkins and Cosmo Jarvis, set to open later this year.
And he was just cast in Season Three of HBO’s hit series, House of the Dragon.
His other film credits include Ama Asante’s Belle (2013) Ron Howard’s Rush (2013), Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner (2014), Joel Hopkins’ Hampstead (2017), Agnieszka Holland’s stirring Mr. Jones (2019), Greta Gerwig’s Oscar-winning Little Women (2019), Adam Patterson & Declan Lawn’s Rogue Agent (2022) and Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Bob Marley: One Love (2023).
James Norton’s TV work includes, Happy Valley (BAFTA nomination), Grantchester, McMafia, and War and Peace, opposite Lily James and Jessie Buckley as well as the HBO series The Nevers, which has achieved cult status since premiering in 2021.
The thesp’s West End stage debut was in the original cast of Laura Wade’s Posh in 2010, which was later adapted for the screen as The Riot Club. A year later he played Captain Stanhope in a revival of R.C. Sherriff’s Journey’s End (Laurence Olivier originated that role in 1928) as well as Geoffrey in a revival of James Goldman’s The Lion in Winter.
His most recent London stage endeavor was his most demanding, Ivo van Hove’s sprawling adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara’s best-selling novel, A Little Life, which ran from March-August of 2023. Norton embodied the damaged character of Jude St. Francis, a physically and mentally afflicted attorney who suffered terrible abuse in his early life. The audience is taken on a 3-hour and 40-minute odyssey of unrelenting trauma. Having attended one of the final performances in London, I can attest to the fact that Norton’s work was so authentic and audacious—one of the greatest performances I’ve seen onstage. Still hoping that some intrepid producer(s) will have the balls to bring it to NYC, if only for a limited run.
Ex-Husbands is currently playing in U.S. theaters.
The Contending had the pleasure of chatting with James Norton about his eclectic and extraordinary work.
