Jamie Bell`s Mum Interviewed by the Evening Gazette brings back some memories
I came across this interview with Jamie Bell`s mum in the Evening Gazette today on the Gazette`s web site.
Although the article does not mention Jamie`s connection with Stagecoach, I was also invited to the 18th birthday party that his headmaster Mr Youlden talks about. I was sitting at the party with Jamie`s junior school headmaster, George Barber. That is where I had first been in contact with Jamie, when he was a pupil at Prior`s Mill School in Billingham, where I taught for 13 years, before setting up Stagecoach in Yarm. Jamie became one of our original students from those early days in 1997. Jamie left us in the summer of 1998 just as I heard of auditions for a new film that was to be made about a boy who loved to dance. Although he had left us, and I therefore strictly should not have done, I rang his mum and told her to take Jamie up to these auditions. The next I knew was about 5 months and several high-profile casting trawls across the N.E. later, Jamie`s mum rang to say that after multiple call-backs Jamie had been offered the lead role. Although I was obviously very thrilled for Jamie and his mum, I had no inkling (did anyone?) that the film would be such an iconic one - leading to a BAFTA for best actor at the age of 14 years for Jamie and an assured acting career into adulthood - magical!
I was very proud when Jamie began his birthday speech, before cutting the cake, by saying, “Before I start I would like to thank someone who is here, without whom I would not have had the success that I have had”. I was looking around expecting his mum or his dance school teacher to be pointed out - but he meant me - which blew me away! The evening continued to be special when the “Billy Elliot” film`s director Stephen Daldry, who has had a star-studded career in film AND theatre direction, came across with his baby to chat.
The first photo in the article of Jamie and his mum also brought back happy memories, because it was taken at the multiplex cinema at Teesside Park where the “Billy Elliot” film got its own first local film premiere and I got an invite. My abiding memory of watching the film is the wonderful transforming quality of Jamie`s smile on the big screen. I couldn`t watch the film properly for thinking “I know that boy, isn`t he doing a good job”. Happy Days!