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Oliver James: how he dodged the boy band bullet and is on his way
Interview, March, 2003 by Scott Lyle Cohen
Sometimes when it rains it pours. Just ask Oliver James. A London-based actor existing below the radar, last spring he got a call from 19 Entertainment, the production company run by Simon Fuller (the Spice Girls, TV's American Idol). "They were putting a group together," James explains. "Singing wasn't what I wanted to be doing, but I Wasn't going to ignore the opportunity." Recording a demo with the band, James told his acting agents he'd be unavailable to audition. "Two hours later they rang and said, 'We have this audition..."'In a few days he began shooting What a Girl Wants, due out next month, playing the love interest to star Amanda Bynes.
James's character may be an aspiring musk cian, but the 22-year-old's no one-trick pony. In his feature debut he's got wit and confidence to spare. Still, he's at his best when singing, performing over the course of the movie original tracks, ballads by Sinatra and Satchmo, and James Brown's "Get Up Offa That Thing." "I have a fairly soulful voice," James explains, "but an English dude singing the Godfather of Soul? Thankfully, they have all those wonderful editing tools nowadays."
Scott Lyle Cohen is Interview's Senior Editor. Above: Oliver James wears clothes by J. LINDEBERG. Styling: JOY SANTA TERESA. Grooming: LUIS BAUTISTA. For fashion and photo details see page 189. Photographer: RICHARD KOEK.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
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