It’s a sunny spring day in central London, and actor James Norton is sitting in the offices of his production company, which is situated on vibrant Carnaby Street. He’s talking about some recent adventures, which include running the London Marathon for charity, trekking in Uganda to see mountain gorillas and hiking across the Pyrenees. “I’m not an adrenaline junkie,” he laughs, “but I definitely seek challenges which scare me and put me out of my comfort zone.”

In recent years, this sentiment has very much translated into Norton’s work, where he’s taken on roles that push him to extremes. Take last year’s BBC hit drama, King & Conqueror, a show about the 1066 Norman Conquest in England. As well as starring in the show, he also produced it via his company, Rabbit Track Pictures. On set, he’d be simultaneously rehearsing his lines while also having conversations with teams about budgets and set logistics, spinning many plates.

 At virtually the same time, he starred in and produced another British show, the emotive ITV family drama Playing Nice. He admits now he struggled at times to balance the two. “It was a fucking head fuck,” he laughs, “but we got through the other side of it.” After that, he began filming almost immediately on last year’s Netflix smash, House of Guinness—another role that took him out of his comfort zone, playing Rafferty, a Dublin native and fierce protector of the Guinness family empire. 

“Playing a hardened gangster character was already a bit of a push for me,” he smiles, saying he is about as far away from his character in real life as he can imagine. “With characters like Rafferty, people give you a wide berth. In most of my life, people don’t give me a wide berth,” he laughs. “When I walk up and down Carnaby Street, I don’t feel like I have that same force field as he does.”

It’s all made for a “breathless” few years, Norton says, and he admits that sometimes it was a little overwhelming. “I feel like there was a time, maybe a couple of years ago, when I didn’t have my work-life balance very well. But sometimes it isn’t really your choice. If a lot of very intense work comes along all at once, then inevitably you sometimes just have to get on with it and just put your head down.”  

Being from a family of medics who still reside in Yorkshire, where he grew up, Norton knows a thing or two about having a tireless work ethic. It’s also obvious he loves his work, his beautiful game, and couldn’t imagine doing anything else. “Sometimes I’m like ‘Fuck, my life is mad.’ But I’m very lucky; it is beautiful…and I’m very thankful.” He talks with passion about his work, frequently smiling, like when he explains how midway through filming King & Conqueror, he learned he’d landed a leading role in the new season of Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon, on screens this June.

It was a stroke of luck, he says, that his co-star on that show turned out to be Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who played Jaime Lannister in the original Thrones series. “I was on set with him when I was made aware I would be joining the Thrones world. I was able to talk to him about it and get his advice, which was really reassuring.” Norton says he “wasn’t familiar” initially with the Thrones universe, having missed it the first time around while filming back-to-back series himself. “I’d missed the boat early with it, but then I went and watched it all.” He lights up talking about the universe and how thrilled he is to be joining it. “It really made me want to bring my A-game to the table.”

Norton says he “doesn’t think people will expect” what they see from his new character, Lord Ormund Hightower, saying viewers “are not going to be disappointed” by him. “There’s certainly action to be had,” he smiles, careful about just what he can reveal. “I think Ryan Condal, the showrunner, gave me something delicious as an actor with Ormund…he’s very unpredictable, and I don’t think there’s a character that’s like him. I think he will raise eyebrows, entertain, and shock—I mean, all of it. He’s got a lot going on.”

He says he’s still in awe of being a part of the show. “It’s big and bold…this series offers a lot in terms of just scale and ambition, in terms of set pieces.” It’s also his first big foray into a universe on the scale of Thrones, something that’s new for him. “I’ve never been in something so adored and loved with a deep loyal following,” he reflects. “I’ve seen the scale and love that people have for it, the commitment and the fans, and the global reach it has…so it was like ‘Okay, we have to get this right!’”

Norton has a rich history of playing villains—not least in his break-out role as Tommy Lee Royce in BBC’s Happy Valley—a role that made him a household name in the UK. Is Ormund another? “I think the beauty of the show is that it’s difficult to talk about him in those stock hero-villain terms,” he explains. “I think Ormund, in line with what Thrones has done from the very beginning—he sits in the messy middle,” he says. “I think it will be up for interpretation where he fits on the spectrum of hero to villain.”

Norton has played many complex characters throughout his career that frequently interrogate male behaviors, from toxic masculinity to patriarchy and men’s mental health. “The roles that I’ve played have explored different facets of masculinity and provoked certain questions,” he adds, saying it’s something he is pleased his work can do.

“I’m really happy if any of my work is a catalyst for a constructive and meaningful conversation around something like masculinity and the way men should conduct themselves or have in the past,” he continues. “It means a lot when something that I’ve done has been a positive contribution to a complicated conversation about masculinity. It’s about choosing roles that are interesting and nuanced and are by their nature, seeking answers, seeking their place in the world, and through that organically comes conversations around things like masculinity.”

Much of Norton’s work indeed provokes conversation, like his 2023 theatre role as Jude in A Little Life—a stage adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara’s tragic novel about abuse and trauma. Norton would be on stage, frequently naked, for almost four hours in a play dealing with themes of gut-wrenching abuse and self-harm—something he did while also managing his Type 1 Diabetes, which requires regular medication.

“I don’t really know what could compare to it,” he says of the work, which he relays was physically and mentally draining. “I was really proud of it; it changed me. I definitely felt for a lot of the rehearsal process, and even into the previews I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m capable of this,’ but I proved to myself that I could,” he says. 

What he learned most from the experience, he thinks, is that laying yourself bare (literally and metaphorically in this case) leads to more meaningful work, with audiences connecting with him in ways he’d never experienced before. “You [strip naked] every night for five months, and I tell you, your relationship with nudity changes radically,” he laughs. “It was a literal stripping and in a more metaphorical way—skinned, exposed in every sense.”

This was most evident when audience members would come to the stage door every night after the show to share their own stories of trauma with Norton. “They were people who had survived abuse…when they came to the stage door, they were in tears,” he continues. “Most of the night I had people sobbing, telling me their story. And some of them were so personal and troubling, and every night, I’d go and meet those people, and I would listen to their story and hold their hand, and they would be shaking, and they just wanted to say, ‘Thank you for Jude.’ Some of them had been through hell, and the book, the play, really helped them.”

He says the play led him to learn a lot about himself too, not least after it led to him unpacking some trauma in his own life too, around bullying he experienced as a child. “With my therapist, I was going to places which I never expected to,” he explains. “It really asked a lot of me, but I was also able to learn about myself through it…It was the most humbling experience I’ve ever had. I fucking loved it and now I’m like, ‘What can I do next?’ I want to do something which is as scary, meaningful, and profound. Maybe A Little Life will be my peak. I will be very proud of it forever.”

Another role he’s proud of that he’s working on currently is playing manager Brian Epstein in Sam Mendes’ epic four-film biography about The Beatles. Across the interconnected films about the Fab Four’s life, Norton will appear alongside Paul Mescal, Harris Dickinson, Barry Keoghan, and Joseph Quinn, who play Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison, respectively. Norton appears in all four as their beloved manager, who died at just 32 following an overdose. 

“There is a huge responsibility and awareness around how monumental and kind of one-off the opportunity is [to do this],” Norton says of the project. “Paul McCartney is around occasionally on set, as is Ringo. I doubt there’ll be another Beatles biopic of this scale—particularly with the original Beatles still here. I think everyone is aware of the fact this has never been done before, and the music has not been licensed before. Particularly for the boys, it’s a lot on their shoulders, but despite that, it’s really interesting how playful the set feels. I think it’s a testament to Sam and the guys and the producers that one is not at the expense of the other. There’s due respect and reverence for the task, but also playfulness and fun.”

Norton turned 40 last year and says it allowed him time to reflect on his near 20 years in the industry. He lists roles in Happy Valley and Grantchester—where he played a detective-sleuthing Reverend—as being pivotal in his development as an actor. “I feel like everything kind of happened when it felt like it should happen,” he explains. “I don’t think I ever bypassed any of the ladder rungs…I don’t envy those young actors or anyone who’s sort of suddenly thrust into this crazy position where you get like massive exposure all at once. Grantchester and Happy Valley happened at the right time, at the right speed.

“I felt challenged, and I’ve been putting myself out of my comfort zone, but not in a way where I felt like I was doing bad work or I wasn’t ready. It also meant I was able to enjoy and savour every triumph.”

No doubt there will be more triumphs on the way, not least another film coming out from director Guy Ritchie, Wife and Dog. But he says he’s also making time for some “sacred” time off with his family and friends too. Whatever comes next, he says he will always try to push himself in the beautiful game of acting. 

“I think the more you do a job, the better you are at protecting yourself from the challenge that the job poses. We are, by nature, quite a lazy species, and if there is a more convenient route through something, we’ll take it. But I have to resist that by choosing work which forces me to confront myself and challenge myself,” he laughs, “and scares me.” 

Photographed by Juankr

Styled by Tanja Martin

Written by Elizabeth Aubrey 

Grooming: Petra Sellge at The Wall Group 

Hair for Models: Sofia Sjoo

Makeup for Models: Grace Hatcher 

Casting Director: Remi Felipe

Models: Josh Embleton at Twelve Management, Greeta Rei at Nevs Models, Ololade Ibrahim at Nevs Models

Prop Stylist: Elza Zeneli

Flaunt Film: Pietro Birindelli

Tailoring: Harriet Rose Feldman

Styling Assistant: Elena Garcia and Martí

Location: Broadwick Soho

‍