When Theo James signed on for the Netflix spinoff of his 2019 film, Guy Ritchie's “The Gentlemen,” he knew the Netflix series would be action-packed: His character, Eddie Horniman, a British Army captain, He arrives home to discover that he has inherited his aristocratic family's historic 15,000-acre estate, the title of 13th Duke of Halstead, and… surprise! – a hidden cannabis farm run by gangsters. He also knew he wanted to shake things up by playing Cameron Sullivan, the charismatic rogue of a hedge fund brother on HBO's “The White Lotus” and the role for which he's best known here.
“Cameron was larger than life, Americana, outward energy,” James says. “Eddie is the complete opposite: incredibly controlled, he chooses his words incredibly wisely and very British. He thinks before he speaks and is always evaluating the landscape.” Eddie also gave James, who was born in Oxford, England, and studied philosophy at the University of Nottingham but has played many American citizens, a chance to set the record straight. “When I meet people and they realize I'm not American, they're not only disappointed because of my accent, but also because I'm not full of energy and I don't tell people to go fuck themselves,” he said. he says he. “I'm actually quite shy and gentle.”
Describe where Eddie comes from.
He is part of this family for whom he feels relative distaste. But in reality what he represents is the dying power of the British aristocracy. At the height of British power, they held all the cards, they held the judiciary, they held the landmass, they were the most powerful. But in this modern world, who are the most powerful? The up-and-comers, the people starting from scratch, whether Silicon Valley or criminals. [Eddie’s] uncorrupted by death or violence or something as simple as that. It is realizing that your family lineage has lost its power. And now the only way to have power is through the dark arts.
So does it challenge your worldview?
In a fun and comical way, it's kind of like Corleone's story, although you'd never compare it to [“The Godfather”], one of the best movies of all time. It's the idea of a guy coming back to his property and finding anarchy at home and also anarchy at home, and what those two things mean.
There's an indebted agent of chaos brother, an imprisoned criminal mastermind, and a billionaire meth dealer. He describes a typical day on a Guy Ritchie set.
Guy likes to have a skeleton script. He likes beginnings and endings, entrances and exits. Basically, you realize that they are the foundation of a story and that all the things in between will be defined that day. I didn't know how true that was, but it's totally true. You walk in and say, “Okay, how are we going to approach this? Let’s throw this piece of shit out the window.” I'm a bit of a control freak. So leave that aside? That took some trust.
Theo James plays a British army captain called home when his aristocratic father dies in “The Gentlemen.”
(Cristobal Rafael / Netflix)
How long did it take Ritchie to get used to the style?
I'm still getting used to it. [Laughs]
What did he want you to understand about the very rich?
He was very interested in removing our understanding of certain tropes around aristocracy and class guilt. It's a very small and specific group and he wanted to accept it instead of judging it. I'll be honest, I initially brought my own middle-class chip on British structural class systems to it. To me, contracted wealth feels like something that should be dissolved. But interestingly, the conversations with Guy were: “Don't judge the character from your own position. You have to be free of any judgment about the class. So I love being an aristocrat and I love being rich.”
Did you learn anything about the rituals of the aristocracy that surprised you?
The idea of formality at breakfast I thought was perhaps a relic of the past. AND [Ritchie] He said, “No, not really.” Breakfast in an aristocratic family, even if it is coke-snorting wild dogs, is still an element of ritual that everyone respects.
“I thought there were royals and some barons with meaningless titles, but actually there are still aristocrats who are very much alive and well in the United Kingdom,” Theo James says he learned while starring in “The Gentlemen.”
(Shayan Asgharnia / For The Times)
His father, a business consultant, is also a wine expert. How would you rate Eddie's father's prized collection?
There is the understanding of wine culture and then there are the hyper-rich fighting over the most expensive wine. And I think it's more about what “The Gentlemen” is doing. The most expensive and unique bottle, not necessarily the best bottle of wine.
Part of “The Gentlemen” was filmed at Badminton House in Gloucestershire, England. Did you ask the owner, the Duke of Beaufort, about life in his century-old mansion?
No. I didn't want to talk to anyone. I think I just wanted [receive] a check, then frowned as we were murdering people outside his front window. Again, I find The deconstruction of class is interesting. This [estate] Passed down from generation to generation, this family still owns large tracts of Wales. That's fascinating. In my naivety I thought that had disappeared. I thought there were royals and some barons with meaningless titles, but in reality there are still aristocrats who are very much alive and well in the UK.
