JJ (John Joseph) Feild

After then playing Richard in Six Degrees of Separation, on stage, at the Sheffield Crucible in 2000, JJ then returned to television, where he played Frank Cheeryble in Nicholas Nickleby for Company Television.

This led to playing Richard, the forgotten disturbed son, in Stephen Poliakoff’s acclaimed drama Perfect Strangers for the BBC, starring alongside an amazing cast, including Michael Gambon, Lindsay Duncan, Claire Skinner, Matthew Macfadyen and Toby Stephens.

The response from this led to JJ being cast as the younger version of Michael Caine's character, Jack Dodds, in the film Last Orders. A remarkable ensemble piece, directed by Fred Schepisi, the cast included Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Tom Courtney, David Hemmings and Ray Winston. After great response from the London Film Festival, it was released in January 2002. Michael Caine gave JJ many great pointers and delighted him by describing him on Film 2001 as, "A lovely guy who not only is a great actor but better looking than me so therefore a good double".

Also in 2001, before the filming for Last Orders started, JJ auditioned in the US for Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story for CBS. He then spent two months acting in front of a very charismatic blue screen with Matthew Modine, Vanessa Redgrave, Mia Sara and Sir Richard Attenborough. Dressed in a very green costume he played the original 'Jack'.

In 2002, JJ went jumping off submarines into the North Atlantic in K19: The Widowmaker, playing the shaky Andrei Pritoola alongside Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. From the freezing seas, JJ flew to Malaysia to play his first lead role in Kristian Levring's The Intended. Losing 21 pounds and taking dialect lessons for a northern accent, JJ played Hamish, a surveyor stranded on a trading post in the rainforest, with his lover Sarah, played by Janet McTeer. The star cast also included Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker. For his part, JJ admitted that he was quite nervous about joining such an auspicious cast, and had nothing but praise for his co-star McTeer. "Janet's a brilliant actress and very generous," he said, "and because she co-wrote this story she was remarkably easy to work with. She knows exactly what's going on."

The next 3 years of JJ's career were spent with avant garde film director Peter Greenaway, making a trilogy of films called the The Tulse Luper Suitcases. Of working with Peter Greenaway, JJ said " To work with somebody who's got such a wealth of knowledge and ideas and imagination, for such newcomers like myself, it's fascinating." The trilogy remains part of an ongoing multi-media project.

2004 saw JJ appear in a short film Moving On, shown at the Edinburgh Film Festival and also guest star in a double episode of popular BBC television series Waking The Dead. He also headed to Egypt in the early spring of 2004 to play Simon Doyle, in a luxurious television remake of Agatha Christie's Death On The Nile, "bringing credibilty to a role more layered than first appears" (DVD review).

A trip to South Africa followed, to play a drunken Lieutenant Deverel in To The Ends Of The Earth , filmed on location for the BBC. A 3 part nautical drama, it charted a perilous sea voyage from England to Australia in the early nineteenth century, with yet another amazing ensemble cast including Sam Neil and Charles Dance.

JJ was then cast as Bobby Goldman, a New York Jew, in the film O Jerusalem. Filmed on location in Rhodes, Greece, the film tells the remarkable story of the birth of Israel from the point of view of 2 friends, one Arab and one Jewish. This powerful and moving film was released in France in October 2006 and released in the US in October 2007.

On return to the UK, in 2006, JJ continued with quality period dramas for television, with the BBC's The Secret Life Of Mrs Beeton , bringing charm and sympathy to the character of Sam Beeton, husband of the tragic Isabella.

Staying with the BBC, JJ then filmed adaptations of Philip Pullman novels, The Ruby In The Smoke and The Shadow in the North. Filmed back to back, JJ played photographic artiste Fred Garland in both, opposite Billie Piper as Sally Lockheart. The Ruby In The North was screened in the UK at the end of 2006, and The Shadow In The North in December 2007.

The director of The Secret Life Of Mrs Beeton, Jon Jones, was so impressed with JJ, he cast him as Henry Tilney opposite Felicity Jones as Catherine Moreland, in the high profile, ITV Jane Austen season adaptation of Northanger Abbey. Said JJ, "I've worked with Jon Jones before (on The Secret Life of Mrs Beeton) so he already knew how to put up with me! I have to say, Jon is by far and away one of the best television directors I've ever worked with. I was so flattered to be asked to do this because, as an actor, I think the best compliment you can receive is to be asked back by the same director. And to be asked back within six months was beyond my expectations."

Although JJ told an interviewer that there's no way he could live in the 18th Century where the Jane Austen adaptation is set - because he's far too badly behaved. JJ said: "I'd be thrown out of that society in a minute. I'd be kicked out for lewd behaviour before I'd even got to the bar. I seem to do a lot of costume dramas. Northanger Abbey was my fourth of the year. I did three Victorian ones and then Regency. Sometimes it can be easier to play something which is so alien to yourself, although you do get odd costumes, which pinch in very strange places. And lots of frilly sleeves which get in your lunch! The costume department got very bored of me coming back from lunch with my frilly sleeves covered in ketchup!"

JJ's iconic portrayal of Henry Tilney, screened in March 2007, proceeded to set many an internet chat room and forum buzzing. But JJ says he wont be doing period drama for quite a while at least," I'm very conscious that in Britain I'm constantly doing costume dramas, and I don't where that came from because I don't even see myself as a... I've done that for a while, and it'll be a while before I put breeches on again, unless something fantastic comes along."

JJ completed filming on three productions in 2007. The first, a live action manga film called Blood: The Last Vampire. "Apparently when the writer wrote the screenplay he had me in mind, and I can't think what, you know... They saw Jane Austen and thought 'Manga!".

The second was a British production of the acclaimed stage play, Telstar, where JJ plays 60's singer Heinz Burt, complete with very blonde hair, alongside a stellar cast from stage and screen.

His last film project of 2007 Goal! 3, must have been an easy role to accept for an actor who lists one of his guilty pleasures as, visiting Arsenal.com. JJ did add that he will never really feel guilty about this though. (Variety 2007 ). All three films are due for release in 2009.

JJ made his West End stage debut in February 2008, cast as twin brothers in a revival of 1950's set comedy Ring Round The Moon, appearing at the the Playhouse Theatre, London. “It has been a relearning process for me, but I was really relieved that the training I had had meant that it wasn’t alien at all. It’s like that cliché about riding a bike again—there was nothing that I had to learn from scratch, it was rather about honing that part of my technique again and like training a muscle again. I’ve loved falling back into it. I can honestly say that I feel I am in exactly where I want to be at this point in my career and my life.”

Telstar received its world premier at the BFI Film festival in October 2008 but awaits release in 2009. JJ finishes 2008 again on stage, this time at the Royal Court theatre, in the new play The Pride, which opened to wonderful reviews in November 2008.

Information taken from interviews over the years, most recently this one with Mark Shenton.