If you don’t know Lennie James’s name, you will probably know his face. With a career dating back to the early 1990s, he's played Sol in Guy Ritchie film Snatch, DCI Gates in Line of Duty and, more recently, Nelly in the homegrown drama he wrote, Save Me. But it’s the American series The Walking Dead that has established James as a household name. Despite being a star of one of the most-watched shows in the world, the actor prefers to shy away from the spotlight.
“I hate being called a celebrity,” he says. “That’s not me being holier than thou or bigger than it. It’s just not something I strive for. I’m not interested in people knowing me.”
This ethos boils down to a professionalism that could be mistaken for brusqueness – James has a refreshing commitment to turning up and getting the job done. I meet the sprightly 52-year-old in a sparse backroom at the Edinburgh TV Festival and it’s clear the same applies to his interviews. “If I’m not up for answering a question, I won’t,” he tells me, with the hint of a wink.
James knows being associated with “one of the biggest television shows of all time” may put him in that dreaded celebrity bracket. He has been involved with The Walking Dead since its first episode – though his role has grown exponentially over the years. His character, Morgan Jones, appeared just three times in the first five seasons, but in 2013, he became a series regular. When James made the jump to the show’s spin-off, Fear the Walking Dead, it was as its lead. But he had doubts about the move.
“When I was deciding whether or not to say yes to the crossover, I was like: ‘There’s really no point doing this outside of the gimmick.’ Because once the press had died down on that, my job was still to play the guy. If I’ve had conversations with the writers, it has mostly been to call them on the s*** they created. That’s the only challenge I put to them.”
The Walking Dead has been praised for raising the bar for diversity in TV, and James’s presence makes him one of the most prominent black actors working in both the US and UK. I wonder how on-screen representation varies between the two countries – a subject James has been hesitant to discuss in the past. Today, he’s more outspoken.
“It’s sometimes difficult to answer questions like that because whatever I say has to go through your understanding of what you think I’m saying,” he says. “But the crumbs you’re fighting for in the UK are much smaller than what they are in America. You can be Will Smith, knocking through the glass ceiling and still be having conversations about representation – even though you’re a bankable actor whose name on a film means everybody goes to see it. A lot of that can be to do with a conversation white people should be having with themselves and not having with us. They need to ask themselves why they're still having this f***ing conversation in 2018.”
He continues: “I was just speaking to somebody whose job is now to work with film and television companies about their diverse representation. Why, in nearly 2020, is it necessary for a black woman to have an official post in teaching white folk how to let black people through the door?”
He believes that this political correctness – reported in the media as progressive – is shameful.
“I don’t do firsts anymore,” he says. “People talk about it in a sense that it should be celebrated, and my first thought is, ‘You should be ashamed. It’s 2018 and this is the first?’ Forget about it.”
James could be hinting at the reports calling for Bond star Daniel Craig to be succeeded by a black actor – something former contender Idris Elba stated may be more about “just wanting to have a black guy play James Bond” than hiring someone for their talents. James could be the perfect shout: he’s British, steely and used to playing characters nifty with a weapon. But would he pick up the baton should MGM come calling? He brushes off the suggestion.
“I’m too old,” he says. “If you’re gonna come after Daniel, you need to go to the next generation. I’d much rather be a Bond baddie.”
Becoming an actor wasn’t a childhood dream for James. “Like all boys, certainly of my generation, I wanted to play football,” he says. “But I couldn’t because my brother was better than me so I went and played rugby.” He was later lured to his first acting audition... by a girl he fancied.
“Lisa was auditioning for a musical that was going to take her away for all of our summer holidays, so I followed her in,” he recalls. “I phoned my brother and said: ‘What song shall I sing for all of these white people?’” James laughs. “The director gave me a part and that’s where I started. She didn’t even get in.”
It’s thanks to Lisa, then, that he’s now a US television poster boy. After roles in short-lived dramas Jericho (2006) and Jed Mercurio’s Critical (2015), he has finally found long-term leading man status as part of The Walking Dead universe, the following of which surprises him endlessly. He recalls meeting a fan who uses episodes of the zombie drama to “scare” soldiers out of PTSD. Another time, he discovered a staff member working at the show’s annual convention teaches neuroscience at UCLA. Can the series' success be explained? (Its ninth season is set to begin in October with the spin-off's fifth run confirmed to return in 2019).
“I think you can try and analyse it, but I don’t think you could repeat it. Usually, these things last for 10 years at the most. But their plan isn’t about it ending; it’s about it growing. So I don’t know how long it can go on for. I’m just staggered that I’m still hanging around.”
James, while happy to be a part of the zombie universe for the long haul, is just relieved he’s in the show at this stage of his life – not when he was fresh out of drama school.
“I’m glad it happened to me at the age I am and not when I was younger,” he says. “It’s a lot of fun, but this is not the definition of all of me. I know that I was a working actor before all this happened and I’ll be a working actor after. I raised my kids. I paid my mortgage – I’m alright.”
Fear the Walking Dead concludes its fourth season on 1 October at 2am with an exclusive repeat for BT customers at 9pm. The Walking Dead season 8 is available on Blu-ray™ and DVD now
