James Norton On Why He Couldn't Possibly Turn Down His New Goosebump-Inducing Netflix Film 'Joy'
During his West End run in A Little Life last year, James Norton’s friends suggested he should take a break when it wrapped. ‘You need to go and decompress, go and sit on a beach or up a hill or something,’ they told him. No wonder. As Jude St Francis in Ivo van Hove’s adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara’s devastating, brutal bestseller, Norton put himself through the mental, emotional and physical wringer every single day – for months.
So, yes, a break would have been smart. ‘But then,’ he laughs, ‘this job came along and it’s called Joy. Talk about a walloping big sign that a change might be as good as a rest. Norton called his agent and told her: ‘More than ever in my life I need a f*cking break, and I can’t say "no" to this.’ He started shooting less than a week after A Little Life wrapped.
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Joy tells the story of the inception of IVF and the birth of the first ‘test-tube baby’ in 1978. Norton plays scientist Robert Edwards who, together with nurse and embryologist Jean Purdy (Thomasin McKenzie) and surgeon Patrick Steptoe (Bill Nighy), embarks on an exhaustive decade-long journey to make it happen. ‘The sacrifices they made and their perseverance and dogmatic commitment to this cause leads to millions of lives.’
It is the kind of abrupt professional gearshift that has made Norton, a man who could so easily have forged a nice career as a charming English heartthrob, impossible to categorise. ‘I always want to try and keep myself and other people guessing what the next step will be,’ he says, on a Zoom call from his London home. When we finish talking, he’ll be dashing off to Manchester where he’s filming costume drama The House of Guinness.
Joy is set in the 1960s and 70s but feels like a particularly pertinent piece for now, given the dismantling of reproductive rights in the US (there is a moment in the film where one character talks about giving women ‘every choice’). ‘[Joy is] an elegant and effective way of encouraging a conversation around women’s rights and free choice. It’s a kind and one-layer-removed version of the conversation, which can be enjoyed by everyone and will hopefully provoke the right kind of conversation. It comes from a good place, this movie,’ he says.
Norton inhabits a nuanced masculinity. His physicality is coupled with an emotional openness and vulnerability. He swims in cold water every day (‘it brings me a sort of peace and stabilises my physical and mental state and wellbeing’) and tries to get ‘a big dose of space’ as often as possible. He ushered in the new year at a retreat after an exhausting and ‘complicated’ period, and the day before we speak he returned from five days trekking solo in the Pyrenees. He didn’t take a tent and slept outside. ‘It was an extreme sort of check out of life for a few days.’
His pace shows no sign of slowing. There is an ITV psychological thriller Playing Nice coming soon, about two couples who discover their children were swapped at birth, and later King & Conquerer, in which Norton plays the 11th-century king Harold of Wessex – both projects produced through his production company Rabbit Track Pictures. ‘I’m aware of how lucky I am,’ he says.
Norton’s gratitude extends to all the other stuff that comes with the work, even the publicity and red carpets. He enjoys collaborating with his stylist Rose Forde to choose looks, much like roles, that will surprise people. ‘You can sniff at it and say, “It’s not my job, it’s not why I went into this industry in the first place”,’ he says of the promotional parts of his job. ‘But I think it’s a little sad if you can’t find enjoyment in that, because it’s so fun.’
Norton has something else to dress up for: next year he will turn 40. He’s not sure how he feels about that. ‘I guess these punctuation marks when it comes to age are arbitrary, really. So much of my life has been completely surprising. Some of it’s wonderful, and some of the stuff I wanted hasn’t happened – but maybe will,’ he says. ‘I would love a family, and I don’t have kids yet; that’s something that I thought I would probably have had by now.’
It’s nice to know that even James Norton – smart, successful, handsome, outwardly a beacon of Having It All – has those moments wondering if he did it right. ‘Of course!’ he says, crediting ‘a great therapist and great people around me’ with quietening those voices.
‘Sometimes I feel a pressure to get in line. I think a lot of people do,’ he says. ‘If everyone is conforming to a certain routine of life, and you’re not quite on that same path, then of course you’re going to ask: “Why have I not kept up?” It’s a totally valid question, but I don’t think it should be attached to a qualitative judgement. Don’t torture yourself with regret. Regret is a very sad and painful thing to carry with you. I think I’m good at looking forward and feeling hopeful.’ Besides, he adds, ‘I feel like I’ve made good choices. I’m happy and proud of where I am.’
‘Joy’ is on Netflix from 15 November.
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