James Norton on ‘House of Guiness,’ ‘Playing Nice’ and ‘King & Conqueror’

James Norton has a solo trip to Japan booked for mid-January, but the actor can’t seem to get the time away from work.

“I keep having to delay the flights,” the British star confesses to The Hollywood Reporter. At the time of writing, he is shooting House of Guinness, a new Netflix series from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight detailing the birth of the Irish stout empire. “It’s Steven firing on all cylinders,” Norton teases about the tightly-under-wraps show. “He’s having the time of his life. You can tell he’s loved writing it because it’s just so fun and powerful. It’s sexy and smoky. Even in the [script], you can taste the soot and the beer and the sweat.”

Norton plays Guinness factory foreman Sean Rafferty, who splits his time between the depths of the brewery and high-society Dublin (“I beat up all the men and have sex with all the women, basically.”) But, he adds, it was only when the rhythmic music of a hip-hop artist was put to the show’s gritty teaser trailer did the cast come to understand what shape the program was taking: “It was like, ‘Oh, that’s the show we’re making! Okay!’” the star says. “It’s fucking fun.”

Most audiences in the U.K. will know Norton as the perpetually terrifying Tommy Lee Royce opposite Sarah Lancashire in Sally Wainwright’s BAFTA-winning hit Happy Valley. Before that, he was the dashing and devoted clergyman Sidney Chambers in ITV‘s detective drama Grantchester. That’s right — he can do both: “Sidney was the most lovely, adorable, sweet man, and then seeing Tommy Lee Royce, I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is so jarring,’” he says, not a shred of Royce’s unnerving personality discernible.

U.S. audiences, however, might recognize the 39-year-old as Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky in 2016’s War & Peace, as single parent John in father-son drama Nowhere Special (2020) or as John Brooke in Greta Gerwig‘s critically acclaimed Little Women (2019). “I guess the big, shiny role I remember landing was Little Women,” Norton recalls. “That cast was just insane. Timothee [Chalamet] and Emma [Watson], Florence [Pugh]… Meryl fucking Streep! So I remember thinking, ‘How the hell have I ended up here?’”

“But the big punctuation marks are often the ones which creep up on you,” he continues. “Happy Valley, Grantchester — taking the lead in a procedural drama and then this big, pulpy show which grabbed attention and [was] one of those water cooler shows — having them juxtaposed definitely helped me identify myself as an actor who wanted to go on those risky journeys. It’s often in hindsight that you realize how important a job was.”

Now, Norton is a seasoned star of both screen and stage. He and Kitty Kaletsky co-founded London-based production company Rabbit Track Pictures (we’ll get onto that) and last year, he took on the lead role in the West End adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life, which he describes as the hardest thing he’s ever done: “It took me into insanity. I had to give everything over to it in order to do it justice. And during it, everyone was like, ‘Take a break, you need to go and look after yourself’… And then Joy came along in the last month of my run.”

Joy, which was released in U.K. theaters on Nov. 15 and is now airing on Netflix, follows the scientists who worked tirelessly — and against those who deemed their aim “unnatural” — to make the world’s first-ever IVF baby. A script by Jack Thorne, direction by Ben Taylor and performances from Norton, Thomasin McKenzie and Bill Nighy create a kind of magic that can’t often be captured in historical dramas.

“I love that you say [magic],” Norton begins. “Because often, you do a movie and you go, ‘I really hope that you are able to experience the sort of harmony which we felt on set.’ And sometimes you use it as a line and there was no harmony on set. [Laughs.] You’re like, [widens eyes] ‘It was such a good time…’ No, I’m lucky. I’ve never been on any horrific, disastrous jobs. But there’s some times where you really form meaningful relationships, and other times it’s more of a job. Joy, I can say, hand on heart, was one of those [meaningful] jobs. Particularly the three of us, Bill and Thomasin, we got on so well.”

He adds: “I loved making it. I was wondering, am I allowed to cry at my own movies? Quietly, I had a little cry.”

Norton portrays Robert Edwards in the film, a trailblazing scientist who was, in the 1960s and ’70s, controversially attempting to make babies outside of the womb. “It’s a rare treat to play someone who’s just defined by their goodness and their selflessness,” he says of the late physiologist. “It was a very special film and the whole set was imbued with that energy. But also because I think Jack and Ben both have IVF kids, [so] there was this very profound poignancy and gratitude around the science. They’d go home to their little babies, and they would be like, ‘Thank God for IVF.’”

The actor has no children of his own yet but is, as THR likes to point out, portraying many a fatherly figure onscreen recently: “It’s probably my age. My business partner [Kaletsky] has coined my new casting bracket as ‘Sad Dad’, which I thought was quite apt.”

On Sunday, Jan. 5, Norton’s next “Sad Dad” era premiered in the form of four-part ITV drama Playing Nice, produced by Rabbit Track, in which his character Pete and wife Maddie (Niamh Algar) discover their child was swapped with another couple’s at birth. Based on the book by J.P. Delaney, Norton says it happens more often than you’d think.

“Your child is my child, my child is yours,” he says. “How do you navigate that dilemma, especially when the guidelines are very, very vague? Younger than two, [experts] suggest that they switch the kids back, because this does weirdly happen — more than you think — across the world.”

He continues: “Older than three, they suggest that you leave them where they are, because it’s too dangerous and [they could be] potentially psychologically damaged if switched back. So it’s just like, ‘What the fuck do we do?’ What’s your relationship with that other couple? It just immediately sparked my curiosity around the human struggle.”

Has it been odd transitioning from actor to producer, especially in projects he also stars in? “Kitty and I have been led by our tastes,” he says of the direction for Rabbit Track (fondly named after the place of adventure burrowed at the bottom of Norton’s childhood garden.) “At the beginning, everyone kept asking us, like, ‘What’s your creative mandate?’ When you’re just starting out, it’s really hard to find a pithy one liner.”

But Norton gets totally honest about Rabbit Track’s business model: “There is no strategy. We’ve got loads on our slate. We just go for things we love and so when we pitch for them, the enthusiasm is genuine. And writers like J.P. Delaney, who we pitched for, we were up against big studios who had lots more money than us. We partnered with StudioCanal and,” he adds, full of praise for his business partner, “Kitty’s a genius. She’s such a good producer and I’ve learned so much from her. We wouldn’t be anywhere without her and I just owe her so much. The company is so much based on her brilliance.”

Kaletsky, previously of Number 9 Films, Archery Pictures and Black Bear Pictures, lived for four years in L.A., running Oscar-winning Black Bear’s TV department. With Rabbit Track, she and Norton (also executive producers) have recently wrapped the eight-episode King & Conqueror, produced by The Development Partnership, Shepherd Content, RVK Studios and CBS Studios, in association with the BBC.

The period drama — arriving on our screens this year — is written by Michael Robert Johnson, with the opening episode directed by Baltasar Kormáku. It follows Norton as Harold, Earl of Wessex, and Game of Thrones alum Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as William, Duke of Normandy, through the clash that defined the future of a country — and a continent — for 1000 years. Two men, destined to meet at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and two allies with no design on the British throne who found themselves forced by circumstance and personal obsession into a war for possession of its crown.

“It’s the biggest piece of history in our country, and it’s never been told,” Norton says of the century-old conflict. This show was six years in the making. “We’ve got a really fucking great show, and we’re really excited to share it. It’s been a long process.”

Is there any behind-the-scenes perspective on the making of King & Conqueror that the actor-producer is willing to divulge? “It was terrifying,” he admits. “Kitty and I had such imposter syndrome walking onto that set and going, ‘How the fuck have we created this world?’ Ed Clark, Michael Johnson, the writer, they had been sitting on this idea for many, many years, and then they brought it to me before [Rabbit Track] existed.”

He continues: “Kitty came on board and she basically provided the momentum needed to get it made. And suddenly we were on a set with Juliet Stevenson, Eddie Marsan and Baltasar Kormáku directing. We’ve got huge studio builds with massive French castles and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. It was nuts… But we kept our cool.”

A deeply personal story is not sacrificed for high-budget grandeur, Norton adds. “William and Harold met many times and became friends. You’ve got this horrible tragedy at the heart of it, where at some point in their friendship, they looked at each other and realized that because of the world and the way Europe was being carved up, these two friends would end up on a battlefield and one of them would have to die.”

It’s quite the diverse mix for Rabbit Track Pictures so far. “It’s character-driven, prestige drama,” Norton says, seemingly figuring out his summary of their tastes in talking about it. “This is going to sound waffly, but it’s relationships, parents, children [and] how complicated, nuanced, interesting individuals relate. That’s what interests us the most.”

Let it be known that Norton and Kaletsky are not opposed to film opportunities — quite the opposite. Despite their focus on TV, Rabbit Track is also involved in four movies. “When Kitty and I get given a book or an idea, one of the very first conversations we have is: Is it going to be TV or film?” he says. “The truth is, we have about four movies and we love our films. One of them is getting quite close.”

“But financially and commercially, the money is in TV,” he adds. “It’s much, much easier to get a TV show made and we need to put money in the bank in order to maintain our overheads and keep the lights on. So generally, we want to make more TV.”

It’s hard not to wonder about Norton’s self-assessment of his career so far with so many buzzy projects — shows and films — on the horizon. After all, he currently sits in the comfortable space between U.K. stardom and Hollywood recognition. The question, he says, has prompted an urge to do exactly that: James Norton needs to take stock. And what about that trip to Japan?

“When you’re in the work, it’s hard to see the wood from the trees,” he says. “You’re just on that wonderful rush and that adventure and it carries you with it. But all actors and anyone in the creative industry need to live a bit and breathe. I haven’t been doing enough living. Perhaps, come January, I’m going to focus more on [Rabbit Track] and take a break. I’m very lucky, I’m not complaining about being busy because it’s been an amazing run, but it has been intense.

“So, yeah, the trip to Japan. See my mum and dad up in North Yorkshire. Go hiking a lot — I love walking. A bit of space.” Like a true workaholic, he adds: “Having said that, every time you say you’re going to take a break, that’s when your agents come along with the dream job…”

Playing Nice is now available to stream on ITVX.