Jim Sturgess, the charming 28-year-old British-bred actor known for his work in “Across the Universe” and the fact-based thriller “Fifty Dead Men Walking” hitting theaters on Friday, Aug. 21, says he’s still living down the day he caused a traffic snarl on the Mass. Ave. bridge.“I was speaking with a few local people last night and they were telling me how that pissed them off,” he jokes, referring to the stunning opening sequence of the made-in-Boston flick “21" where he literally closed down the bridge while riding a bicycle from Boston to Cambridge.
“Boston was the perfect antidote to the sheen and excess of Las Vegas,” he says, referring to his stint filming scenes as the card-counting prodigy Ben Campbell for “21” during the spring of 2007. “Here you can drink a real pint and unwind.”
In “Fifty Dead Men Walking,” Sturgess plays Martin McGartland, an Irish Republican Army turncoat who is recruited by the British Police to spy on the IRA in 1980s West Belfast. The title refers to the 50 Englishmen the real McGartland saved from IRA executions.
When asked if he noticed any parallels with his character in “21” and the quick-witted hustler in “Fifty Dead Men Walking,” Sturgess admits that both roles feature a father-like character
—Kevin Spacey in “21” and Ben Kingsley in “Fifty Dead Men Walking”—luring the young protagonist to the dark side.“I didn’t really make the connection while filming,” he tells Loaded Gun Boston in a sit-down interview. “But if you think about it, both Martin and Ben are just trying to find a way to survive.”
Sturgess, a bit bleary-eyed the day after unveiling his latest flick to the masses at an advanced screening at the Somerville Theatre on Tuesday, Aug. 18, says he spent a month in Belfast prior to filming to prepare for the role and, more importantly, nail down Martin’s accent.
“It’s a hard accent to put your mouth around, but I had some time to prepare,” he says, adding that he joined a gym with fellow actor Kevin Zegers and successfully passed among the locals as a working-class Catholic lad. “I had a month before we started filming and I ended up staying in accent throughout the whole process.”
Sturgess also spent time with former members of the IRA, and found his preconceptions challenged. “We listened to the politics and there are so many points of view. These characters had to survive in this massive grey area. It’s set in such a harsh reality. As far as politically and socially, I was personally pulled all over the place … and Martin was as well.”
When asked about the pre-Oscar buzz surrounding his performance in “Fifty Dead Men Walking,” Sturgess shrugs off the hype. “I don’t think of it too much. It’s a small indie film and it’s important to me that it gets the recognition it deserves. So far, it was one of the best films I’ve done."
"Fifty Dead Men Walking," directed by Kari Skogland and starring Sturgess, Kingsley and Rose McGowan, hits the Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge on Friday, Aug. 21.
Posts
