On the eve of the highly anticipated movie If I stay( review here), adaptation of the novel written by Gayle Forman) release, we met Jamie Blackley to talk about his character, Adam, and much more.

Jamie arrives with a check shirt and a pair of ankle boots worn on the tip.

Adam is part of a rock band and Jamie doesn’t hesitate to tell us about the audition … that’s not really been brilliant …. “The scariest part of the audition? There is no scary part…the all thing was scary. The first song I chose was Money (That’s What I Want) and the result was very bad. By the second performance, One Day Like This instead, went much better.”

About the rock soul of his character Jamie confesses: “None of the costumes is mine, and unfortunately, I couldn’t bring home any of them. I was never able to take anything from the sets, actually.  But the costumes were awesome …it’s crazy, in the first idea Adam was wearing also a wig…it’s terrific.”

A transformation for a 21 years boy who find himself  to play a 17 years old teenager: “I shaved 7 times a week, worse than James Van Der Beek on Dawson’s Creek”.

But the changes for the English rising star are not finished … Adam, in fact, is an American and Jamie had to work so well on the accent: “I’m still working, I just finished a movie by Woody Allen, the title, for now is still Untitled Woody Allen Project (alongside Emma Stone and Joaquin Phoenix, ed.) so I’m still working on and with it but I’m not going around pretending to be American, it would be crazy.”

Speaking with Jamie also discover that the songs that are part of the soundtrack were chosen from among the hundreds coming from many bands to the production company: “I can’t write songs but I’d  like to have written Girl From the North Country and Me from The 1975. In the band with me also Ian Curtis, John Lennon and Bob Dylan.”

Speaking of the reasons that led him to choose a career as an actor, Jamie reveals: “ I can’t remember the moment I decided it. It came slowly…I was at college and, one day, I didn’t want to be in college anymore. The best thing to be an actor, for me, it’s that it is a hobby for me and I can see different places; but when I’m far from home I really miss my football team (Crystal Palace, ed.) and a good plate of Spaghetti alla Bolognese.”

His favorite line from If I Stay is Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you but he thinks that Adam says many really romantic things…and “ this is a problem for the boys who have the girl in the audience because they expect to hear them speak in the same way. But my favorite scene is the argument between Adam and  Mia”.

The actor who inspire him is Joaquin Phoenix. “ I just think he’s so interesting and he’s done so much cool stuff. He’s in the Woody movie with me, so just to meet him was amazing. I just think he’s brilliant and he’s never predictable, he’s always keeping you guessing. I had so many questions for him but I just let him lead the conversation. It was extraordinary.”  

And about working with Chloe (Grace Moretz, ed.) he said: “ The kisses are always weird, not only when your screen partner is much younger (or older) than you because you’re kissing a stranger and because they are no natural …it’s all ok I go right you go left…It’d be easier if right and left were on the script. But I met her for the first time at the chemistry reading and I was shaking.”

Rejections? “You are allowed to be disappointed for a little bit and carry on.”

Jamie Blackley  will be soon on the big screen also in Kids In Love alongside to Will Poulter, Jack Fox and Cara Delevingne.

If I stay, now showing.