‘I wish I’d enjoyed my fame a bit more’: Jim Sturgess on regrets, romance and the art of the mix tape | Television & radio

Like all good love tales, this one begins with an opportunity assembly and ends with a reunion. It was 2008, pre-Hardy and Hiddleston, post-Bale and Grant; Jim Sturgess was a rising star and the newest good-looking younger Brit to interrupt Hollywood. Having landed the lead position in on line casino thriller 21, Sturgess wanted a love curiosity: cue a slew of chemistry assessments with a roll name of gorgeous younger girls, a course of Sturgess remembers now as “essentially the most uncovered blind date you might ever probably put your self by way of, with 5 producers watching you from afar”.Kate Bosworth acquired the position, however one actor lingered in Sturgess’s thoughts: an effervescent Australian known as Teresa Palmer. “While you do these chemistry assessments, they put you thru it, so we spent the entire day collectively,” Sturgess says. “I used to be actually hoping she was going to get the half, as a result of we acquired on very well. She’s Australian, I’m English, and we have been each in Hollywood going, ‘The place the hell are we?’”Palmer didn’t get the half, however Sturgess by no means forgot her. And, virtually 20 years later, Sturgess and Palmer have been reunited – for Combine Tape, a wistful romantic drama about two individuals who reunite after 20 years aside.Informed in 4 one-hour episodes (you’ll want it was a lot, for much longer), Combine Tape follows two youngsters, Dan and Alison, as they woo one another with letters and blend tapes in Nineteen Eighties Sheffield (which suggests we get some superb needle drops: the Jesus and Mary Chain, the Remedy, Pleasure Division). Guileless younger Dan (Rory Walton-Smith) is totally smitten, however Alison (Florence Hunt) is guarded, desperately making an attempt to cover her troublesome household life at dwelling. When she instantly disappears – for causes revealed a lot later – Dan is totally heartbroken.‘I by no means forgot her’ … Sturgess with Teresa Palmer in Combine Tape. {Photograph}: BBC/SuboticaSturgess, now 47, performs grownup Dan: a music journalist who by no means left his dwelling city and, regardless of being married, by no means actually moved on from his old flame. When he discovers Alison (Palmer) is now a bestselling writer residing in Sydney, he sends her a buddy request on-line. Letters and cassettes are swapped for Fb messages and Spotify playlists, however the emotions stay the identical.Palmer tells me Sturgess is “the kindest, warmest, coolest, most easy actor I’ve ever labored with. And that dude actually has nice style in music,” she provides. “He’s that character – he’s the actual deal.” Earlier than filming even started, Sturgess and Palmer have been sending one another playlists, with Sturgess placing her on to UK rappers like Kano, Dizzee Rascal, Ocean Knowledge, Little Simz. “It was identical to the present,” he says. “Twenty-odd years later, we have been reconnecting.”In his 20s, Sturgess made his identify because the romantic lead within the Beatles musical movie Throughout the Universe and reverse Anne Hathaway in One Day, however he has spent the previous few years in roles that require weapons and working – suppose Laborious Solar and Geostorm. However Sturgess is made for this work, along with his crinkly eyed smile and smooth eyes. Final 12 months was all about “rodent boyfriends” – properly, you possibly can take your Mike Faist, as a result of Sturgess is the OG rodent boyfriend, with a face notably fitted to craving.“I’ve been engaged on my craving,” he laughs. “I’m truly very drawn to romance tales, extra in order I grow old. They’re simply so human – it’s actually two folks navigating their emotions and their feelings, which is actually lovely and fascinating.”Combine tapes have been a “huge, huge half” of how Sturgess wooed women. “It really works!” he laughs. “A mixture tape was a very huge deal again then! That was why I used to be so drawn to younger Daniel – I used to be that man!” As a young person, he was obsessive about US hip-hop and guitar bands from Northern England; he vividly remembers listening to the Stone Roses on his Walkman whereas delivering newspapers. “That’s what’s so lovely about Combine Tape – it’s about that interval while you first fall in love, while you first hear music,” he says. “Your receptors are simply so vast open and every part is so necessary to you. And that’s why, when folks ask you what your favorite band is, you’ll most likely say what your favorite band was while you have been 16.”Estates of want … Sturgess with Cara Delevingne within the spectacular field workplace flop London Fields. {Photograph}: Steffan Hill/Head Gear Movies/AllstarSturgess had a hand in selecting the music utilized in Combine Tape and even taught Walton-Smith and Hunt methods to make combine tapes on cassette: “It blew their minds. They have been like, ‘That is an artwork type. And it is a lot of labor!’” he laughs. “I used to be explaining to them the way you couldn’t simply get the music off the web – you needed to personal it, all of your combine tapes got here from what was in your assortment. They couldn’t consider it.”Director Lucy Gaffy let Sturgess in on the audition course of for younger Dan; they picked Walton-Smith, an entire newcomer who will probably be in every part quickly. “There was an actual gentleness to Rory that among the different actors didn’t deliver,” says Sturgess. “He’s acquired that pure Northern swagger and allure to him. And it was his first job! He was so vast open and determined to be taught. Fantastically inquisitive. He was good. I’m actually pleased with what he’s accomplished.”When Sturgess was his age, he was too afraid to ask for assist: “I used to be dropped in on the deep finish.” He by no means formally skilled as an actor, however he acquired the bug as a six-year-old when he was solid in a manufacturing of Wind within the Willows. “I used to be not superb at college. I struggled to pay attention … I used to be barely tarnished with the naughty brush. However I simply took to [acting]. I nonetheless keep in mind the sense of neighborhood, of constructing one thing collectively – which I nonetheless crave now.”Sturgess with Anne Hathaway in One Day. {Photograph}: Focus Options/Sportsphoto/AllstarWhen he was solid reverse Evan Rachel Wooden in Throughout the Universe, Sturgess was propelled to worldwide stardom. “I didn’t actually know what I used to be doing. I used to be only a child from England, enjoying in bands – and instantly this film factor occurred. Every thing modified fairly shortly. I didn’t actually perceive methods to navigate myself by way of all that. I didn’t have anyone guiding me. I’d be invited to those huge events, however I’d all the time not go. It was a bit scary, it feels a bit mad.”Over time, he’s been within the superb (Cloud Atlas), the worthy of reappraisal (Throughout the Universe – “I really feel like if it got here out now, it might need accomplished all proper,” Sturgess muses), and the very dangerous (London Fields, a spectacular field workplace flop overshadowed by the following tawdry trial between his co-stars, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard). He’s handed on some huge alternatives (enjoying Spider-Man on Broadway) and stated sure to a lot smaller components that made him pleased. If something, he’s discovered to concentrate on the expertise of constructing one thing, moderately than the reception: “It’s such a rollercoaster experience … In case your finish objective is simply to have it’s properly acquired and get all of the admiration that may include that, you’re going to fall over quite a bit. You’re going to journey your self up. Whether it is properly acquired, that’s the icing on the cake. I don’t actually learn evaluations. I simply don’t. I’m not making an attempt to cover from them or something. I’m simply by no means that . If I learn a nasty one, I’ll most likely agree, ? Truthful sufficient!”‘My face was plastered throughout Vegas’ … Sturgess with Kate Bosworth within the 2008 on line casino thriller 21. {Photograph}: Columbia/Sportsphoto/AllstarAt the premiere for that on line casino movie 21, which was held in Las Vegas, he remembers his face was plastered throughout billboards on the Strip, on the blackjack tables on the resort and even on his room key. What’s his relationship with fame now? “It’s simpler,” he says. “I used to be undoubtedly extra well-known once I was youthful and, generally, I want I’d loved it a bit extra. However I shied away from fame quite a bit. I had it at an arm’s size. And, wanting again, I feel I’d have gotten extra out of it if I opened myself as much as it and embraced it, if I wasn’t fairly so cautious of all of it.” Now, he’s recognised “simply sufficient that I’m fairly flattered when it occurs”.Nowadays, Sturgess is performing music beneath the moniker King Curious and his subsequent movie will probably be 4 Youngsters Stroll Right into a Financial institution, alongside Liam Neeson and – you guessed it– Teresa Palmer, who performs his girlfriend once more. Is that this what they’re doing now, a la Fred and Ginger, Kate and Leo, Hanks and Ryan? Sturgess laughs. “In the event you might simply discover any person you bought on with and stored making relationship films … properly, I’d be down!” Combine Tape is on BBC Two and iPlayer within the UK. Combine Tape is on Binge in Australia