There was definitely a significant moment in time in the early 2010s that was dominated by YA misadventures, both in books and on the screen. After the world collectively moved on from vampires and werewolves, the next wave of popular tropes arrived: brooding teenage boys in dystopian sci-fi movies. And what a time it was!
Before Theo James was nonchalantly bearing all in front of Aubrey Plaza, he was acting alongside Shailene Woodley in the Divergent series, a popular book franchise turned movie series. James played Woodley’s love interest for three of the films, though after a slight box office flop, the planned fourth film was axed. Even though they never got to finish out the series, James was not mad about it!
Speaking with Vanity Fair, James said that it’s hard to be attached to certain projects for so long, as it often leaves actors to become typecast as their most popular role. “You do a certain type of film and you sign contracts where you are beholden to those roles for a certain period of time and people see you in a certain light that you have to wrestle your way out of,” James explained. “That is a hundred percent the case with actors — and it was definitely the case with me.” The Divergent series was a moderate hit, though it never took off the way The Hunger Games and other popular franchises did.
Even though the final film was scrapped, James had trouble breaking out of that love interest box over the next few years. “I felt I didn’t have the fluidity to move in the directions that I wanted. You’re very much in a certain type of role — and those roles can be pretty f*****g boring.”
After all of the “boring” roles (sorry to The Time Traveler’s Wife), James was eventually cast as the much too overconfident Cameron in season two of The White Lotus, who doesn’t mind getting aggressively naked all of the time. And if that’s the type of role that James wants, then it will be the type he gets!
