Jim Sturgess Goes Up Against the House
Actor Jim Sturgess on his new movie, playing a casino cheater in "21."
March 25, 2008— -- He'd never been to Vegas and he'd never played blackjack. Gambling meant "the horse races and the dog track … and fruit machines (slots)," and Vegas was an "iconic place" of casinos and indulgence.
But for 26-year-old British actor Jim Sturgess, the role of Ben Campbell, an MIT student who hustles casinos for hundreds of thousands of dollars, in the movie "21," was something he couldn't pass up. The newcomer sat down with Rolling Stone's Peter Travers on "Popcorn" on ABC News Now to discuss his new film and the age-old temptations of Sin City.
The movie, opening Friday, March 28, is based on Ben Mezrich's best-selling book, "Bringing Down the House," the true story of a group of MIT students who did just that — won big at a number of Las Vegas casinos, lived the high life and then... got busted for it.
To prepare for the role, Sturgess and the rest of the cast (which includes Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth) took to the Las Vegas lifestyle. So much so, in fact, that living there for a month and a half took its toll on the young actors.
"We burnt our candles at both ends," said Sturgess. "The reality we were living as young people in Vegas for the first time and experiencing all it had to offer — the line between reality and work blurred.''
To keep the hard-partying cast on track, director Robert Luktic imposed three rules, Sturgess said. "One: be on time. Two: don't look like s***. Three: I don't want to know what you did last night."
Sturgess was in the court of Henry VIII and an entirely different world of decadence, shooting "The Other Boleyn Girl" when the call came to audition for "21."
"I was really stuck out in the middle of nowhere, in some old castle somewhere in rural England,'' Sturgess said. "I had to run around and find someone with a camcorder and film myself and put myself on tape.''
He sent away the tape and thought that would be the end of it.
"I really didn't expect anything was going to come of it," he said.
To read Peter Travers' Rolling Stone Review of "21," please click here.
