Life’s pretty hard when you’re a hot guy, just ask Theo James. Before he was kicking back at an Italian resort on The White Lotus, he was fighting for his life and smooching girls in Divergent. The actor – who made a surprisingly explicit entrance in the latest season of The White Lotus – wasn’t pleased with the roles he was offered after starring in the film series as he found them all “pretty fucking boring”.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, James said he felt typecast following his breakthrough role in the teen dystopian series as Tobias “Four” Eaton. “Careers are funny. They take you in directions that you try to control, but life is uncontrollable, as we know,” he said.
He continued, “You do a certain type of film and you sign contracts where you are beholden to those roles for a certain period of time and people see you in a certain light that you have to wrestle your way out of. That is a hundred percent the case with actors—and it was definitely the case with me.”
James portrayed his character in three movies, opposite Shailene Woodley, winning four Teen Choice Awards over the two years, including one for his big smooch with Woodley. The movie franchise came with a fervent fanbase as it was based on a bestselling novel series, but eventually fizzled out with its third installment, Allegiant.
Considered a box office flop, the movie accumulated a mere $179.2 million worldwide, despite its high production cost of $110–142 million. The colossal failure almost led Woodley to quit acting, and consequently, ended the series.
James starred in an array of projects following the trilogy, including the action thriller How It Ends, the crime drama Lying and Stealing, and a variety of animated projects. However, James told Vanity Fair that he chose to step out of the spotlight, at the time, to avoid starring in projects similar to Divergent – which he referred to as “those types of films”.
He claimed, “I didn’t have the fluidity to move in the directions that I wanted,” adding that he was being typecast in “pretty fucking boring” roles.
Want to catch James play a totally new type of guy? New episodes of The White Lotus premiere Sundays at 9PM on HBO and HBO Max.
