Two years ago Jamie Bell was just another schoolboy in the north of England, attending lessons and playing with his friends. What a difference a couple of years makes.
The BAFTA award-winning star of Billy Elliot, has struck up a touching friendship with the film’s director, Stephen Daldry, and is a regular visitor to the 41-year-old’s country house in Hertfordshire, 250 miles from his family home in the Teeside town of Billingham.
Jamie’s mother, Eileen, and the 16-year-old actor’s father split up before their son was born, and Eileen points to the fact that there was no father figure in her son's life until he met the director.
“Stephen has become the dad Jamie was always looking for,” she says. “It is obviously more than the usual relationship between a director and star. It’s good that he can pick who he wants as a father, normally you can’t pick – you get what you’re given. But Jamie had a chance to pick someone and he picked Stephen.”
Like Madonna, Jamie is embracing the rural lifestyle and is learning to shoot. Stephen has given the boy a shotgun, as well as one of the US army jeeps used in the film Saving Private Ryan. The two are also keen tennis players.
The director and his protégé have kept a video diary of their relationship, which is to be shown on BBC2 on November 6. In it, Stephen says: “It’s hard to describe the relationship with Jamie. Because of the age he was when we made the film you have some sort of parental role anyway, whether you pursue it or not. I’ve loved it. I get the film and I get the kid – it’s great. He doesn’t have a Dad, and playing the role of Dad is hugely enjoyable.”
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
