| Sexy shy and dating a saint
Jonny Lee Miller found fame with Trainspotting, but somehow
his career failed to ignite. Now he's back with a new stage
play, a Hollywood film, and a celebrity girlfriend - Natalie
Appleton from All Saints.
It's eight months now since Jonny Lee Miller started dating
pop chick/fashion babe Natalie Appleton from super-cool girl
group All Saints. But it's probably only recently that the
consequences of being half of what is now officially 'Britain's
Coolest Couple' are beginning to sink in. However, the small,
surprisingly shy star of Trainspotting and Plunkett and Macleane
has suffered the ignominy of being warned to get away from
Appleton by over-protective bouncers, and, when he demurred,
of being physically removed from his beloved's side, because
they presumed he was just another fresh-faced fan.
The attentions of fans and the paparazzi mean that eating
out together has become so difficult (far, far worse than
the simple celebrity he enjoyed, or endured, after Trainspotting)
that these days, more often than not, he and Appleton decide
just to stay in. 'Your security gets infringed upon,' he mumbles
meekly
What about nuisance phone calls at home, things like that?
He thinks about this for a second, then laughs sheepishly
'Actually, that happens to her,' he admits, blushing at his
presumption. 'I just happen to be in the house. It's not happening
to me at all!' He mimics the scene of two celebrities, bickering,
'They're not calling you, darling! They're terrorising me.'
If this imagined scenario appeals to Jonny Lee Miller, it
is possibly the one aspect of his current, albeit surrogate,
celebrity that does. His profile these days is that of the
hip, happening young actor who shot - or shot up - to fame
as part of the Trainspotting gang, the 'Cool Britannia' Britpack,
and the in-vogue Primrose Hill Mafia. Meeting him, though,
you can't help feeling that he has been miscast for the role
as a big noise in the big city.
On paper, he has all the right credentials. He was brilliant
(unrecognisable, in fact) in Trainspotting, as the smarmy,
archly stylish, drug-pushing pimp called Sick Boy - he of
the 'obshesshive Sean Connery fixashion'. His personal CV
too, lives up to his billing as Boy About Town. He has been
romantically linked with Anna Friel and Kate Moss, and he
is famously part of the Natural Nylon film company, along
with friends Ewan McGregor, Jude Law and Sadie Frost, who
are to the current London party scene what Mick Jagger, Terence
Stamp and David Bailey were to the Sixties. He even has one
highly glamorous, tempestuous failed marriage behind him -
to Hollywood wildchild Angelina Jolie, daughter of Jon Voight,
whom he met while making the Hollywood movie Hackers.
His three years in America have contributed to the Lee Miller
mystique, which you can't help thinking he's developing. While
he was there, he took up skydiving ('which, makes you realise
why birds sing'), Aikido and acquired several tattoos (including
a rat on his forearm). In interviews about that time, his
ex-wife, describing their relationship as 'pretty wild', alluded
to sado-masochism
None of which seems to relate to the subdued figure sitting
unnoticed in the foyer of Kilburns Tricycle Theatre in north-west
London, where he is performing in Paul Corcoran's debut play,
Four Nights in Knaresborough - a sort of Reservoir Dogs meets
Murder in the Cathedral affair about four hoodlums on the
run.
Looking like a bookish, fresh-faced schoolboy in his thick
NHS- style glasses and baggy blue Adidas, track-suit, and
carrying a cute little backpack, on first impressions Lee
Miller seems to be introverted to the point of chronic insecurity,
with none of the cocky confidence displayed by the likes of
Law and McGregor. The constant comparison with McGregor must
indeed prove particularly irksome. Both actors made their
film debuts in Trainspotting, and for a while were similarly
high profile, but their career paths then diverged. McGregor
has since made many movies; Lee Miller only six. Two of these
(Complicity, and the Miramax adaptation of Mansfield Park)
have yet to be released, leaving only Plunkett and Macleane
(opposite fellow trainspotter Carlyle), Afterglow, Hackers,
and Regeneration to add to his credits and then, while McGregor
has through his penchant for films involving nude scenes,
and for talking about his Willy in interviews, Lee miller
is happier to keep his clothes on.
'I haven't done any of those, no. Not likely to happen,'
he mutters nervously as if I might be about to try to make
him "I've had a problem With nude scenes. Afraid the whole
idea of large quantities of people seeing you naked really.
Disturbing. I had to do one for Complicity which is coming
out next year. I was shit scared, man, terrified."
Lee Miller seems so Withdrawn in person that you can't help
thinking that his role in Regeneration, as a First World soldier
rendered mute by trauma qualifies as something of a busman's
holiday. Similarly the nagging thought that the persona you
get when you when you meet Lee miller is exactly that - a
persona, a role he plays for the media - is hard to get rid
off.
Now 26, he seems determined to present himself as a sweet
natured, shy boy who would any day prefer to be regarded as
'simple' than 'complicated'. He retreats from the question
of any kind. of self -analysis as if it's going to bite him.
Journalists posing such standard questions as 'What sort of
actor do you see yourself as?' have been met with a blunt
'Caucasian'
Four Nights in Knaresborough is the first play he has done
for five years, and, like a wilfully difficult child, he insists
that he can't remember the last one he did. "I get the order
mixed up,' he says slowly 'It could have been 'Entertaining
Mr Sloane'… Yeah, that's what my dad reckons" He claims that
he 'doesn't really go to the theatre,' then reveals that he
can at least remember the last play he saw 'Tis a pity she's
a whore!' he announces proudly before adding hesitantly that
'it was, um, last week"
Perhaps because of such evasion he has been accused of being
cold aloof, arrogant - pretty much like Sick Boy, in fact,
or the officer in Regeneration - which are, incidentally,
his best performances. 'Jonny is elusive, kind and baffling,'
his friend Sadie Frost adjudged when she was interviewed about
him in Minx magazine.
Jake Scott, who directed Plunkett and Macleane, concurred:
'He put a lot of himself into Plunkett [a 13th-century highwayman].
The part required a mercurial character, someone who seemed
to have it in their nature to change, to be irreverent, rebellious,
slightly 'up yours'. But at the same time, gallant and with
real charm. A bit of a double-edged sword... It takes a long
time to get to know him.'
Acting is, indubitably, in his blood. His father, Alan Miller,
was a stage actor who worked in production at the BBC, and
his great-grandfather was a music hall performer. Most famously
of all, and "most handily for the Sean Connery 'impershonashions'
in Trainspotting, his grandfather, Bernard Lee, played M in
the first 12 Bond films. Rather suavely, he slips effortlessly
into describing how he told Connery this when they met at
the BAFTAs. 'He said: "Ahh, yesshhhh. Most intereshting,"'
Jonny grins, enjoying himself at last.
Despite his rather naive Cockney wide-boy-isms, Lee Miller
grew up in Kingston upon Thames, leaving Tiffins Boys School
at 16 'to get a job in a cafe' before accepting acting as
his fate. At 17, he was ushering at London's Drury Lane Theatre,
and auditioning for "bits of telly'' during the day (He popped
up in series such as 'Goodbye Cruel World, Between the Lines
and Prime Suspect III).
Ewan McGregor tells the story of the time he came down from
Scotland to audition for RADA when he was 17, only to be told
'Ah well, you've got a few years of auditioning ahead of you
yet.' 'Excuse me. I don't bloody well think so!' McGregor
said, as cocky then as he is now
'Nah, I wasn't like that,' mutters Lee Miller, sounding like
a bashful child, almost overwhelmed by the experience of even
hearing about someone with so much swagger. 'I'd have probably
said, "Yeah! You're right!" Then I'd have thought of something
really smart or really tough to say later.'
In a way, the path that their careers have taken reflect
the differing characters he, McGregor and Robert Carlyle played
in Trainspotting like Sick Boy's, his has been much cooler
and less showy. After Trainspotting; he went to Hollywood
to make Hackers and became almost a recluse, hiding from the
hype over here while McGregor and Carlyle cleaned up. 'Trainspotting
opened a lot of doors' he says but most of them were only
offering variations of Sick Boy. Unlike Sick Boy, he spent
most of his time just saying no.
In March 1996, he married the flamboyant Jolie (only 20 at
the time). Until her recent success in movies such as Gia
and Pushing Tin, she was most renowned for salacious interviews
in which she talked of her appetite 'for every type of drug
there is', her proclivities for S&M and lesbian sex games,
and antics such as drawing lee Miller's name on a white silk
shirt in her own blood. "She can be a little crazy, but she's
mellowed quite a bit" he says, perhaps disappointedly. The
fact that he walked up the aisle wearing all black leather
is rather tame by comparison with his wife given the way he
is today now seems positively depraved. They drifted apart,
he says partly because Jolie wanted to move to New York, while
he wanted to move back to London because he missed things
like the Nine O'clock News and red buses'
The experience means Hollywood 'is not an ambition anymore',
although it strikes you that even the couple of films he has
done over there seem almost determinedly low-key. He admits
that, although he has auditioned for a few blockbusters (Batman
and Robin and Star Wars among them), 'In retrospect, I'm quite
glad I didn't get them; I wouldn't like having my face on
a packet of crisps.' He says he'd 'think twice' about taking
the play Four Nights… into a bigger West End theatre.
The prospect of greater fame makes him so anxious he is already
weighing up the way he gets to work. 'It only takes a couple
of people to make the Tube journey awk-ward. I'm only three
stops on the Tube, so by the time anyone susses anything out,
I'm getting out anyway' he declares, politely ignoring the
fact that I didn't recognise him at all when I arrived. (I
saw a couple of people who mistook him for the boy who plays
Steve MacDonald in Coronation Street. Or possibly thought
he could have been a really handsome version of Frank Skinner.)
His discomfiture in public must make going out with a member
of All saints something of an ordeal. Then again, the couple
have been gadding about town, picking up things such as Elle
magazines 'Britain's Coolest Couple' award in their stride.
'That was really funny!" he smiles, sweetly. 'Its true though
- if I'd have known we were going to win I probably wouldn't
have gone! Nat was going 'cos All Saints were getting an award.
I thought "Yeah, okay go along and look after her", and we
******* won!'
Just fancy, they beat Jude Law and Sadie Frost.
'It's terrible', he jokes, 'I've lost a really good friend
now, ha, ha ha'
There are few things, of course, which the media love more
than two celebrities together, and next year their fame seems
guaranteed to escalate, especially as Miramax are touting
Mansfield Park as the next Shakespeare in Love. Natalie is
also set for movie-star status in the All Saints film, Honest,
which, perhaps inevitably, required her to do a few love scenes
- another cross for Jonny to bear.
'Yeah, I'm a jealousy freak. No, I deal with things very
well,' he laughs, sounding as if he obviously doesn't. 'But
it's nothing at the end of the day. I got wound up over nothing.
Horribly wound up. I know she's great and I know that I trust
her. You have to know as well, that it's really not an enjoyable
experience. Nah, she's the best,' he mumbles nervously 'We'
re going to get a tattoo together.'
Still, he is not quite comfortable about it. "Actors are
meant to be a bit saucy aren't they?' he says, looking trou-bled
by the reminder 'Let it all hang out for "the craft".'
But it works both ways, of course. In Plunkett and Macleane',
he had to kiss Liv Tyler- which is nice work if you can get
it. Not that Jonny enjoyed it of course. "I honestly can't
remember it!' he laughs I'd just been punched in the face
by Bobby [Robert Carlyle] and my face had swelled up. He was
supposed to stage punch me and he punched full on. He didn't
knock me out, I hasten to add" he stresses, and seemingly
relishing the idea of this appearing in print, goes on to
say eagerly: 'He hits like a girl!'
This is the first and only time he becomes so animated or
engaging that he finally does become the Jack the lad/Charming
boy about town, everyone seems to want him to be. But, immediately
he blows it, almost visi-bly deflating and quietly adding:
'...not that, er, girls can't hit of course. No. They can.'
The thought of which suddenly reminds him that he 'really
must be going'. Natalie - celebrity rolling pin in hand- is
waiting. 'I was supposed to be home 20 minutes ago, 'cos Nat's
got to go out at eight o'clock.'
Have the gilded couple talked of marriage? 'Oh, I don't know
about that' he said as he made for the door. 'Never say never.'
He sinks his drink, puts his back-pack on and gets going,
looking as tough and as confident as Linus in a Snoopy cartoon.
Somehow, though, it's not entirely convincing. Besides the
assurance of his performances in Trainspotting and Plunkett
and Macleane, the whole Natural Nylon set-up seems too dynamic
and slick to accommodate anyone so fragile, though Sadie Frost
has said: 'Jonny's the one that makes it all tick.'
He seems to want to keep the Action Man side of himself private.
Besides the skydiving and Aikido, he runs two half-marathons
a week. He says of skydiving: 'If you jump out of an aeroplane,
you're gonna die. You will die. If you panic, you will die.
The buzz is then executing the procedures to prevent your
death, using your equipment properly. If you jump at 10,000
feet, you've got about 30 seconds before you need to pull
your chord, and then you've got about another 10 seconds before
it'll be too late.'
Then there was his passing comment on a photo-grapher for
Heat magazine, who snapped Natalie's daughter, Rachel, crying
after a fall 'I was livid. She's seven. If I'd have seen him,
I'd have panelled him for being a nonce.'
Add to this the stories of his days in LA- the tattoos, the
pet snake and the sex goddess ex-wife - and a differ-ent picture
begins to emerge.
This could, of course, have been a phase, his way of reacting
against the 'beautiful English boy' reviews he got, for Regeneration.
Or perhaps Jolie was too much for him and he's just withdrawn
into himself in shock, as a defence. He has admitted he 'was
nuts about her' when they first met making Hackers, while
she is forever saying: 'I always fall in love while I'm working
on a film.'
James Purefoy his co-star in Mansfield Park, is not the only
one to regard Lee Miller as 'the most talented actor in this
country under 30'. 'He has the deepest, dark-est reserve you
can possibly imagine,' Purefoy says, and, again, you wouldn't
be surprised if his Little Boy Lost routine is an act, just
a means of coping with interviews, saving his energies and
psychological complexities for his work or his private life.
We can't all be Ewan McGregor.
Somehow though, you don't doubt that, what with the upward
arc his career is taking, and the ambitions of the production
company, whether it's on Natalie's arm or in his own right,
Jonny Lee Miller, with his talent and quiet determination,
is going to blaze his way to the top in the end. 'I do enjoy
it, yeah,' he says. 'I love it. I'm just, you know, a bit
of a tortoise.'
But sometimes, it's the quiet ones you really have to watch.
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