James Anthony Sturgess (born 16 May 1978) is an English actor and singer-songwriter. His first major role was as Jude in the musical romance drama film Across the Universe (2007). He played the male lead role of Ben Campbell in 21 (2008), Gavin Kossef in Crossing Over (2009), The Way Back (2010), and co-starred in the epic science fiction film Cloud Atlas (2012).
Other credits include Stonehearst Asylum (2014), Kidnapping Freddy Heineken and London Fields (both in 2015), Close to the Enemy and Feed the Beast (both in 2016), Geostorm (2017), JT LeRoy (2018), Berlin, I Love You (2019), The Other Me and Alone Together (both in 2022). He also voiced Soren in Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010) and starred in One Day (2011) opposite Anne Hathaway.
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Early and personal life
Sturgess was born in Wandsworth, London, but grew up in Farnham, Surrey, where he attended Frensham Heights School. He spent most of his youth skateboarding, and listening to hip-hop. He started his first band when he was about 15 years old, playing gigs in and around his local area. His first acting experience came in a local theatre group, after a successful audition for a part in a play.
Sturgess moved to Manchester to attend the University of Salford, graduating in 1999 with an HND in Media and Performance. After graduating, he moved to London and worked in a shop selling trainers, whilst seeking acting work and writing music.
On 30 July 2019, Sturgess married theatre producer Dina Mousawi in Italy. Their son was born in 2020.
Acting career
In 2007, he was cast in Julie Taymor's musical Across the Universe, portraying Jude Feeny, a young man who travels to the US amid the raging throes of the late 1960s and falls in love with a sheltered American teenager, Lucy, played by Evan Rachel Wood. In 2008, he appeared in the historical drama The Other Boleyn Girl, in the supporting role of George Boleyn opposite Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, and Eric Bana. He also played the male lead role of Ben Campbell in a film about five MIT students who, by counting cards, take Las Vegas casinos co-starring Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne, in 21.
In 2009, he played Gavin Kossef in Crossing Over, appearing with Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, and Ashley Judd. Set in Los Angeles, the story revolves around immigrants from different countries and backgrounds who share a common bond: they are all desperately trying to gain legal-immigrant status. Also in 2009, he starred as Martin McGartland in Kari Skogland's Fifty Dead Men Walking, alongside Ben Kingsley.
Heartless, a film directed by Philip Ridley, premiered on 31 August 2009 at the London FrightFest Film Festival, a popular horror film festival. Sturgess appears as Jamie Morgan, a young man whose life has always been blighted by the large, heart-shaped port wine birthmark on his face and sells his soul to the devil. Sturgess won the Best Actor Award at the 2010 Fantasporto Film Festival for his role.
In 2010, Sturgess starred in the film The Way Back, directed by Peter Weir and based on a true story. The character Sturgess plays is based on Sławomir Rawicz, a young Polish officer who escaped from a Russian gulag during World War II. Also in 2010, he did voice-over work based on the children's book series Guardians of Ga'Hoole by Kathryn Lasky, in which he voiced Soren, the main protagonist of director Zack Snyder's 3-D animated feature film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.
In May 2010, Sturgess signed on to appear in One Day, based on the novel of the same title by David Nicholls) with Anne Hathaway. He played the role of Dexter Mayhew. The novel, about two students who meet on 15 July 1988, follows them on every 15 July for the next 20 years. Directed by Lone Scherfig, filming was completed on 17 September 2010. Also during 2010, he filmed Upside Down. Filming was completed in May 2010 in Montreal, and as of early 2013 a limited international release was planned. Described as a "sci-fi romance", the film is the second full-length feature from writer and director Juan Diego Solanas. It was originally slated for release in 2011, A third film project in 2010 was Promised Land, to be directed by Michael Winterbottom and, according to Variety, would "recount the lead up to the 1948 partition of Palestine and the subsequent creation of the state of Israel". Sturgess was to star as a British officer hunting down the extremist Jewish factions. The film was put on hiatus and later got cancelled because funding could not be secured.
Music career
Sturgess has been writing and performing his own music since the age of 15. He has appeared in the London music scene for many years in bands such as Saint Faith, and Dilated Spies. He has also written music for some of his films, including two tracks that he wrote and performed for Crossing Over, and he collaborated with director Philip Ridley on three tracks that appeared in the film Heartless. Mickey O'Brien, his ex-girlfriend and member of La Roux, was the composer of the trailer track "Panic And Magic" and Sturgess provided the vocals.
In 2016, he released five exclusive demos with his band Tragic Toys, to raise funds for a friend with an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis. The music for these demos were written by O'Brien and Sturgess provided the vocals.
