by Louise Ford
Chapter Three
LOST IN LONDON
It was a big risk, considering that he had come nowhere near winning the Channel 4 show Model Behaviour, but it looked like he might have to go with his back-up plan after all. As soon as Jamie arrived in London, it was obvious he was out of his depth. Despite coming from a wealthy family, the wannabe actor was adamant that he was going to support himself, whatever the consequences. However, with no drama school offer and no proper job to speak of, the move to London started to look like a massive disaster. The first six months, in Jamie’s own words, were ‘rough’.
On arriving in the capital, the wide-eyed youngster rented a flat in Hackney, East London. Although now a relatively trendy part of London with millionaire loft rooms and swanky town houses, back in the late 1990s it was still an undesirable place to live, with high levels of unemployment, soaring crime rates and cheap housing.
His newly found accommodation was the polar opposite of the sprawling detached house back home in Northern Ireland, with its generous living space and a well-stocked kitchen. The flat, located on a seedy council estate, was grim and the cooking facilities were basic. Having little cash to his name, Jamie refused to splash out on essentials so furniture was sparse and provisions almost non-existent. ‘For some reason, despite the fact it’s so cheap, I felt like I couldn’t even afford a kettle,’ he admitted, ‘to make tea I’d just leave the hot tap running for ages until I got it scalding.’
Just as one might expect of wannabe actors in Hollywood waiting for their first movie role, Jamie became a barman in Knightsbridge, a swanky district of the capital that is home to millionaires and socialites. Although it earned him a wage, working in a pub was soul-destroying and it soon started to look as though Jamie was losing a grip on what he’d set out to do. For starters he was knocking back pints most nights and, due to lack of exercise and poor diet, he lost a stone in weight. Speaking of his first six months in London, Jamie recalled, ‘I drank too much and didn’t get my act together. I worked in a pub in Knightsbridge for six months, crying every night.’
Years of playing rugby and football at school meant that he arrived in London bulked up and healthy, but a gym pass was out of the question in his current situation. ‘I lost a stone, not consciously,’ he explained. ‘When I was playing rugby I was in the gym the whole time. In London I just didn’t go to the gym as much, at all actually, so I just naturally weakened.’
Jamie had to face up to the reality that acting wasn’t going to happen straightaway; Select modelling agency, however, were more than happy to give him a go. A trickle of jobs followed over a few months, consisting of catalogue work and striking cheesy poses for the pre-teen magazine market.
In 2002 he also went to Milan to try his hand at the runway, but the trip to the fashion capital turned out to be a flop. What the agency may not have known before he arrived in the stylish Italian city was that Jamie had a very unusual walk which made him wholly unsuitable for presenting clothes along a catwalk. ‘I’m not very good at walking which is weird, I know, because it’s one of the first things you do,’ he told talk show host Graham Norton many years later, explaining how he’d always walked on his tiptoes and was ‘quite bouncy’. ‘When I was signed up as the face of a big fashion house and they saw me walk, opening their show on the catwalk was immediately written out of the contract […] it was that bad,’ he said later.
Therefore, it looked initially like modelling wasn’t Jamie’s forte either and he was already disgruntled with his career choice. ‘I have no interest in being a model and I don’t consider myself a model,’ he said a few years later. ‘I went to Milan in 2002 to do runway and I didn’t get any work. I just got bitten by mosquitoes.’
His father seemed pretty unimpressed with his career choice too. ‘It wasn’t exactly what my dad expected of me. A lot of his mates thought it was embarrassing that I was having my picture taken for money. I’d grown up playing a lot of rugby and they all probably thought it was a wee bit nancy boyish,’ Jamie commented.
Jim was also taken aback by the state in which he found his son after insisting he pop over one day to watch the rugby while visiting the capital. He arrived at his modest flat in East London only to discover that Jamie had a useless black-and-white TV with a rolling picture. ‘The picture kept flickering. I sat with my dad, with a cup of tea I’d made from a rusty, hot tap watching this pathetic excuse for a telly. He just looked at me and said, “Son you can’t live like this,” put his foot down and helped me get out of that situation.’
It was indeed hard for Jim to see his one and only son live in such squalor, particularly when he had seen him just a few years before go through such a hard time after losing his mother. Knowing that Lorna would also have wanted to see their youngest in a safer environment, Jim insisted on helping him out financially so that he could find a flat in a better area of the city.
His show of faith paid off. With his father’s backing, Jamie started to work increasingly harder and heading along a path which would ultimately lead to his true calling of being an actor. Select weren’t going to give up on him either and they were about to land him the contract of a lifetime. Unbeknownst to him, and just around the corner, Jamie was to enjoy a lifestyle that he never imagined possible. He was to be one of the most famous male models on the planet, jetting from Paris to London and New York for a range of high-profile campaigns which would see him spotted on billboards in far-flung places he’d never even visited.
For the time being, he had settled into a comfortable flat in West London under the guidance of his caring father, and life was looking a lot more positive. Jamie was still desperate to be an actor but that would have to wait for a few years yet. ‘I’d always wanted to act but the modelling contracts came more easily.’
Jamie’s lucky break happened when he caught the eye of fashion photographer Bruce Weber. Famous for shooting brands like Versace and editorials for magazines including Vogue, the snapper also undertook a great deal of catalogue work for high street brands. And when Jamie posed for American store Abercrombie & Fitch in 2001, he fitted Weber’s all-American aesthetic of photographing models with a rosy glow. Dressed in long-sleeved T-shirt and brown cord jacket with his soft features framed beneath brown curled locks, Jamie possessed everything that Weber loved to capture through the lens. ‘I like to feature men and women who are really healthy,’ he once said, admitting that young models with eating disorders upset him.
Although slight in frame, Jamie was athletic and strong, and therefore fitted the bill perfectly. His Irish charm and modesty would also have been a hit with Weber, who not long before meeting Jamie had kicked supermodel Cindy Crawford off a shoot for being rude. He had sent the ‘face of Revlon’ home in tears after she upset his team working on a campaign for the make-up brand. ‘She was so rude to everyone, not to me, but to the whole crew, that I didn’t really go for that,’ he told the Huffington Post.
The stunning model – who was being photographed on location at a boxing gym in Los Angeles with a group of old boxers – apparently told the shoot’s art director, ‘Why is Bruce photographing those old boxers when he should be photographing me? My make-up is ready.’ Weber was so taken aback by her attitude that he told Crawford, who ended her contract with Revlon in 2001, to go home. ‘She’s the only model I ever sent back,’ he added.
For Jamie, therefore, it was something of a coup to have turned Weber’s head and although he didn’t revel in the idea of modelling – and never really would – he was in awe of the man who could teach him everything he needed to know about the competitive and notoriously bitchy fashion industry.
Weber was down to earth and kind, and it was clear that he, in turn, was impressed by the young fresh-faced model. ‘He is a total legend. I’m not sure I know much about fashion now, but I certainly didn’t years ago – but I knew who he was,’ Jamie told The Scotsman. ‘We got on very well, so for the first couple of years I pretty much only worked with him, which, loo
king back, is kind of ridiculous and amazing. He is incredible. He is very softly spoken and so kind and a master of his craft as well.’
Jamie, meanwhile, was becoming master of his own craft, and posing and pouting for the camera came to him astonishingly easily. He was also popular with the crew, as he wasn’t a diva – quite simply he didn’t believe the hype and he was there to do a job. Besides, he still couldn’t believe that he was good-looking enough to be paid simply for just staring down the lens of the camera.
What did make the job fun, though, was the eccentric and creative people he would meet throughout his new career. Indeed, it was on his first ever major campaign with Weber at the helm that he came across a very interesting person. Single and alone in London, a pretty young actress was about to sweep him off his feet; it was to be a major turning point in both his professional and personal life – and the humble, straightforward world he’d known for the past twenty-one years would never be the same again.
Chapter Four
KISSING KEIRA
The chemistry was unmistakable. Jamie walked onto the set of his first ever professional photo campaign on that steamy New York day in August 2003 and there stood Keira Knightley. The pair had been hired by exclusive jewellers Asprey for their new collection – he, as the hot model with chiselled good looks who was meant to be drooled over – and Keira, the Hollywood starlet touted as the next big thing.
The stunning eighteen-year-old, who already had a string of blockbusters to her name, including Pirates of the Caribbean and Love Actually, had been signed up by the royal jewellers to put some sparkle back into their fortunes after it lost £12 million the year before … and she didn’t fail to dazzle. Voted the most desirable woman in Britain by Tatler magazine a few weeks previously, and predicted to be bigger than ‘Catherine Zeta-Jones and Kate Winslet put together’, Jamie would have been forgiven for expecting his campaign co-star to be something of a diva.
Thankfully, and to Jamie’s surprise, the young actress was remarkably down to earth and up for a laugh. Additionally, the pretty teenager provided a welcome distraction as Jamie set foot on his first major modelling assignment which under any circumstances would be intimidating, as this campaign was a massive deal. ‘As soon as Jamie walked into Select’s office his career just sky rocketed. His first job was huge, the kind of contract that most wannabe models dream of landing a few years down the line. Not only was it Asprey, but it was for legend Bruce Weber.
‘Jamie models effortlessly, he was incredibly natural in front of the camera from day one, there’s not a hint of nerves,’ an industry source revealed.
Despite his composure, the location itself – Westbury House, a sprawling, lavish mansion in Long Island, New York – was intimidating enough, let alone the team of professionals who greeted him. Bruce Weber was taking photographs while a number of famous actors and socialites had been hired for the campaign, including Oscar-winning actor Joseph Fiennes.
Jamie wasn’t the only handsome male model to be employed for the job but there was something about this fresh-faced clothes horse that must have caught Keira’s eye – and it was probably his laid-back attitude to the job. In reality, since Jamie went into modelling as a means of becoming an actor, right from the start he found it easy not to take the job too seriously – that and the fact that he knew he had more to offer than just a pretty face. ‘I generally don’t like admitting, “I’m a model.” I find that a lot of people have preconceptions – they think that you’re going to be dim or vain. I’m just a guy who did modelling for a job. I actually came to London to join drama school,’ he said.
Keira, already an established actor, was also at the start of her career. Just out of school, the pretty star seemed happy-go-lucky and, although ambitious, she was clearly still in the mindset of just ‘seeing what happens’. This particular shoot was no exception and Keira claimed the real draw of being in the advert was getting her hands on some seriously expensive jewels rather than what it would do for her already enviable profile. ‘I’m such a sucker for diamonds,’ she admitted in an interview during the campaign. ‘They’re beautiful. I’m single at the moment and happy to stay that way for a long time, but if a man were to buy me diamonds I might change my mind.’
The singleton’s laid-back attitude towards dating also appealed to Jamie and, as they hung out, not only was it obvious that they physically desired each other, they were seriously hitting it off in the personality stakes too. Like Keira, chronically shy Jamie wasn’t obsessed with all the trappings of fame and its red carpet appearances and showbiz parties; instead, they had a shared passion for home-made cooking, nights in with their close-knit families and shopping for nick-nacks in charity shops.
Other men may have been intimidated by Keira’s beauty and status but Jamie was in his element in the ‘controlled environment’ that the photographer’s film set afforded him and he found it easy to laugh and flirt with the actress. ‘I would have way more chance with someone who is deemed to be really beautiful – like a model or an actress – than I would with a normal girl in the street,’ he said later. ‘When I meet girls like that it’s a very controlled environment or we’re working together. In the real world when you’re just out with your mates in a bar I wouldn’t know what to do.’
After the shoot, the pair exchanged numbers and had plenty enough in common to keep in contact. As well as swapping stories about life in the fast lane, since they were both being inundated with job offers, Jamie admitted to Keira that he held a lifelong ambition to be an actor like her. So she put Jamie in touch with her high-powered agent Lindy King at London’s PFD agency, who she was sure would put him on the right track.
With everything going their way career-wise, the pair’s relationship strengthened, hindered only by the fact that it was a long-distance affair. Jamie was sent to New York, where he continued to carve out his modelling career, while Keira flew back to London where she still lived with her parents in a three-bedroom terrace house in Teddington. However, she wasn’t back home for long before she had landed the role of Guinevere in big-budget movie King Arthur and was jetting to Ireland for the start of filming.
The pair kept in contact over the phone and promised to meet up whenever possible. Those close to the couple, and Keira’s parents in particular, were thrilled about the developing romance. Her TV actor father Will and playwright mother Sharman Macdonald warmed to the mild-mannered doctor’s son who appeared to share their daughter’s work ethic and down-to-earth nature. ‘Jamie isn’t interested in being in the limelight, he’s not chasing Keira’s fame, if anything that would put him off,’ a friend told a magazine, continuing:
‘When someone like Keira goes out with a guy, you always look at the boyfriend and wonder if they are in it for their own gain. Not Jamie, he is extremely successful in what he does and shy about it. They are an excellent match.’
However, not everyone was happy. When Keira broke the news to her ex-boyfriend Del Synnott in October, he was mortified. She had dumped him a few months earlier after two years together and in November the distraught twenty-five-year-old actor was rushed to hospital following a suspected overdose. A wave of gossip broke out in the media and amongst his friends that, heartbroken, he had gone on a bender which had ended in disaster, although his family hotly denied the speculation.
Keira had fallen for the Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels star in 2001 on the set of the US TV movie Princess of Thieves and while she had found it relatively easy to get over their split by throwing herself into work, the actor had taken it hard. ‘It was different for Del,’ a friend explained. ‘Del is not working at the moment and had too much time to brood on the whole affair. He got really low.’
Keira evidently still had some residual feelings – or guilt – for Del and rushed to the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, north London, to stay with him overnight. Under such tense circumstances, Jamie’s relationship with the star took a natural back seat. ‘Keira was mortified when she found out wh
at had happened to Del. She rushed to his bedside and stayed all night. When we heard he was in hospital we all assumed the worst because he has been so upset about breaking up from Keira,’ a friend told the News of the World newspaper. ‘She has insisted that she have a break from Jamie until everything is sorted out.’
Her mother Sharman was also concerned about her daughter’s ex-lover and admitted, ‘We are in constant touch with the Synnott family. Del is being taken care of by his family and is well.’
Jamie, meanwhile, was still in New York and was having something of his own wake-up call after discovering – to his horror – that thanks to his links to Keira he had become boldface tabloid fodder overnight. It was the first time the model’s life had been thrown under the media microscope and he hated every second of it. His agents told him not to talk about Keira and to pass on any queries to them. As a result, their phones were ringing off the hook, as journalists wanted to know every detail about the new man in Keira Knightley’s life, and even Jamie’s family and friends were also being approached for slices of gossip.
The handsome model returned to his family home in Northern Ireland to hide from the press and spend time with his level-headed father Jim and ever-supportive family. Those who knew the carefree twenty-one-year-old were shocked by the sudden and intense public scrutiny into his life and were worried about how his fiercely private family would cope. ‘We had thought the whole relationship was off,’ a close family friend admitted. ‘The whole matter has come as a bit of a shock to Jamie and his family. I don’t think he imagined he’d be thrown into the limelight like this.’
And while Keira was denying she had ever dated Jamie, branding the idea as ‘rubbish’, the model didn’t appear to be doing so well at keeping schtum and mistakenly admitted to a newspaper that they were still an item. Although the media novice had followed instructions, telling a journalist that they should contact his agent if they wanted any information, he had confirmed his relationship with Keira in doing so. ‘Basically my agency have said if anyone calls me I have to forward all calls onto them,’ he told The People newspaper. Stressing he couldn’t say any more about his girlfriend, he added, ‘I can’t. I’m really sorry I can’t.’
