Inspired by his new historical movie The Uprising, I’ve just asked Jamie Bell if he was taught about the Peasants’ Revolt in school. It’s maybe the worst question to ask someone who became incredibly famous at the age of 14. “I don’t think I was taught about it,” he says. “But at a certain point I just wasn’t in school. And certainly if I was taught about it, I was not paying attention.” He had other stuff going on, I suppose.
It’s been 26 years since Billy Elliot, yet Bell retains the boyish insouciance that made him a star at the turn of the millennium. For playing the County Durham miner’s son who discovers himself through dance, Bell became the youngest Best Actor Bafta winner in history, then he bounced off to America. Which explains why he’s video calling today from his home in Westchester County, New York – which he shares with his American wife, the actor Kate Mara – and why his accent has a touch of the mid-Atlantic to it. He can’t do his ts anymore, so “incremental” becomes “incremennal”, “representing” becomes “repre-zenning”. Bell, 40 now, is wearing a cosy blue sweater and what the internet might term “slutty little glasses”, and getting conspiratorial about the British education system.
