An Interview with Jamie Bamber from ‘Signora Volpe’

Jamie Bamber is an accomplished actor that has appeared in a bevy of movies and shows on the silver and small screen, and he’s even been part of some iconic franchises, such as Battlestar Galactica. Currently Jamie stars as Adam Haines in the Acorn TV series Signora Volpe, and we here at NTG had the opportunity to speak with Jamie about acting and his new role.
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John Betancourt: Let’s talk a little bit about what it was that got you into acting in the first place?

Jamie Bamber: Well, I guess when you get right down to it, it's my mom's fault. Because she had been an actor herself, trained, married my dad who was an American and had already had a family. So, she put her acting career on hold to raise his kids and then have her own. But what she did do is when we were in Paris, we lived in Paris for about five years from when I was two to seven, she started a theater group at the American cathedral for the ex-pat American community in Paris, and she directed, wrote adapted, plays, one of which was The Wizard of Oz. And for some reason, she thought it was a good idea to cast me as the Wicked Witch of the West. I greened up and cackled and the rest, as they say, is kind of history. It's really strange, because I'm not sure… had it not been for that little sort of, you know, intervention in my life at that early stage, that acting would had been something that really would have occurred to me. So, who knows? I don't know if that's true or not. But that's certainly where the spark started. She, she started it, and, and then it just was something I did as a hobby through school and enjoyed it very much. And turned into more than a hobby eventually.

John Betancourt: What was it that attracted you to the role of Adam?

Jamie Bamber: Several different things like happens on many jobs. One was the chance to work with Emilia Fox, again. I worked with her years ago when I was just starting out. And I guess she had a bit more experience than I had with her part in The Scarlet Pimpernel together with Richard E. Grant, way back in 1998, I want to say. We got on really well. I guess we kind of lost touch over the years. So, it was a chance to catch up with her. And then I am a massive Italo-phile. I studied French and Italian at University. I'd never done a day's filming in Italy, although I've taught theater productions there as a student. And, yes, it was a chance to go to Rome and Umbria. You know, it was right after lockdown. So, it was a release really from all of the pent up, life that we've been living to get a chance to go over there. And then I really enjoyed what the character Adam, had in the stories, in the sense this, this sort of you know, he's the only one that really sees her, the whole of her, they've had this relationship, they've been married, they know each other really well. And yet, they're still in a relationship. So, there was that twisted element to exes who are still sort of somewhat together in some capacity and working together and the betrayal, through work that he… he pulls. So, each scene that they had together has got this real bite to it. And yet there's some charm and some flirtation as well. So, it was the mix of all those things, it was a chance to catch up with many, a chance to work in Italy and a chance to play this, this character in these scenes with the Sylvia Fox character.

John Betancourt: Those are good reasons and judging from what the show showcases… I’m sure it was very difficult to go to work every single day in that gorgeous environment.

Jamie Bamber: I’ve never been to Rome without any tourists before. It was quite something to see the Trevi Fountain empty at 10 o'clock in the morning.

John Betancourt: Oh wow, that is amazing. Now… something I noticed that I really appreciated, was how well fleshed out and connected your character is to Sylvia at the start of the series. I’m wondering how you as an actor, brought that to life? Because it was so impactful.

Jamie Bamber: Well, I haven't actually seen the show yet. So you know, there's always I have to sort of wade in generally because you don't quite know what makes the final cut and what doesn't but on the page and what we shot, it's kind of in the deep end you know, you see this couple, they’re intimate and then he shows up at work and you don’t expect that and then you find out that they're not actually married anymore. And they're kind of dating as exes. So, there was a lot to get, get your teeth into. Plus, you know, I've got to commend Emilia, you know, she's great to work with, and we hadn't seen each other in a decade, you know, we were good friends, when we were starting out as actors, and then our paths took different journeys, I spent a lot of time in US and Canada, and then in France, I've been abroad a lot. So, we hadn't seen each other, but there was a little bit of, you know, there's a rapport there that we were able to, sort of tap into. So, that's all part of the fun, but really, I’ve got to thank the writers. They've created this character that's got a relationship with this woman on so many different levels, and they're so conflicted on so many different levels. And that stuff, you know, there's texture there, right on the page, and you just have to, meet those words in the situation head on. And yeah, it's, it's what we do, it's fun when it's that layered.

John Betancourt: Now speaking of Adam, he is an incredibly complex and layered character. One that can be so loving toward Sylvia one minute, and so focused on business the next. How did you as an actor slip into the mindset of playing someone that can just… flip the switch the way that he does?

Jamie Bamber: Well, what they do for a living, you know, they're in the world of intelligence, it's about getting what you need, out of any situation. And you use social means, you use professional means or sometimes you use whatever is at hand to enable you to extract what you need from any particular relationship or any particular situation. And I guess what you see with Adam, and to some extent, Sylvia, is that, you know, they have a certain ease , on the surface, what seems to be a charm, and an ability to connect with people. And yet, there's also something else going on, underneath, they can be quite ruthless with the skills that they have, and the way that they interact with people. And, you know, they both go into every conversation they have with each other with their eyes wide open as there's the full range of tricks that they can use on each other, which is why they don't need to hide from each other so much, you know, they can reveal those things. And it's not such a shock.

John Betancourt: Out of curiosity, how much research did you do regarding the spy business to prepare for this role?

Jamie Bamber: I don't think I did much particular reading or research and it's by business, I suppose. I've been researching this all my life. And I really enjoy, you know, John le Carré, I really enjoy by literature, by movies, I love the, you know, the political, with a small p, the intrigue of the Cold War. And, you know, all those Len Deighton stories, The Ipcress File, all the stuff that I've grown up with, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and you know, that kind of very soft… there’s James Bond on one end of the scale, which is all the all the bangs and all the fireworks. And then on the other end is the very sort of banal work of espionage that really fascinates me. Just the holding your ear to the ground, keeping relationships open. And they're much more sort of civil servant’s sort of aspects of it. So, I guess, my sort of extracurricular reading and my movie going and my binge watching does tend to focus on spy stuff. So, whilst I don’t… no… I know a few people who work in that sort of world, they would never tell me if they were spies. But you know, I know they work for the government. I know they work abroad. And so, you know, you generally have conversations over dinner with people that I was at university with, but I wouldn't say that any of its overt research. It's kind of passive research.

John Betancourt: Now this is definitely one of the more unique spy dramas out there, what did you personally find to be unique about this series?

Jamie Bamber: Well, it's not really a spy drama. It's a hybrid of what happens, I guess, when someone who has been a spy, embarks on a different avenue in life and finds they can't quite slough off the carapace of their former existence. And there's obviously something that Sylvia has become that she may not altogether like, and she finds herself being a kind of… sort of spy for hire in the Umbrian hills, despite, you know, leaving that world behind. And then of course her ex-husband descends on the scene and makes it very difficult for her to entirely shuffle off the stage of international intelligence. So yeah, it was for me that what made it unique was the kind of very mellow Italian, I guess, sort of everydayness of it. You know, this isn't the usual backdrop for spy films, you know, the great bridge crossings and soft meetings in parks with newspapers and handing over of information. This is all very sunny blue sky, Umbrian hills and Roman streets and people's families just trying to get by in a local community, where Sylvia’s sister, played by Tara Fitzgerald, wonderfully, has been living for years, and she's just going there for a break and can't leave her skills at home, you know, she has to apply them to even the local pig that's gone missing. So, you know, there's a sense of humor to it. And that's really what I responded to is the humor that's involved in the whole thing.

John Betancourt: You bring up a good point there regarding Adam and his desire to reconnect and ask more of Sylvia, which speaks a bit to him searching for something. What would you say Adam is searching for ultimately?

Jamie Bamber: Well, he wants, he wants everything. He's been married to Sylvia, that marriage for whatever reason, we never really discuss it hasn't worked. And yet they've fallen back into a relationship. And then he out maneuvers her at work and doesn't keep her abreast of a certain situation in which she's very connected to, she's got assets in a particular country. And he, he's sort of maneuvered such that she can't even warn these assets that their situation is about to change. So, he has done something that he knows is going to harm their relationship. But I guess he's ambitious, career minded. And he's sort of willing to make that sacrifice to cut her out of the loop. I suppose he doesn't quite realize the way she's going to spiral out and go to Italy and, you know, move off the grid as it were, but you don't really know what Adam’s motivation is. But she's still useful to him. So, when something turns up in Rome, he uses her. And she can't help herself. There's that sense that, you know, it takes one to know one, he knows her better than anybody else. And that that gives them a connection that despite her, her newfound contentment in the Umbrian hills, she can't quite shake off this influence that he has and what he has over her and who knows, you know, where that takes her from that?

John Betancourt: Last question I have for you today, what is it you are most proud of when it comes to your time on this series?

Jamie Bamber: Oh, what am I most proud of? Well, I made some, some great friendships with the two directors involved, Dudi and Mark, and we had some great times off-set, it was lovely to have that time, you know, in Italy. And, you know, you take two things away from jobs. And those things can be personal relationships with other fellow professionals that you've collaborated with, or they can be, you know, the work. I haven't actually seen the show yet. So, it's sort of a bit rich for me to say that I'm really proud of it. But the bits that I've seen in posts and ADR and stuff, it's the relationship with Emilia’s character that that really is the be all and end all of this character for me. And there was a scene at the end in the third episode, which I did see a little bit of, where she's confronted with her Carabinieri bow made by Giovanni Crifiera, who I met just that day, and her ex-husband and there's a little triangle of, shall we say, wry enjoyment on Adam's part, and I was sort of proud of that. There was a bit of improvisation thrown in there. And I got the director to laugh and, you know, I look forward to seeing that scene in there. But you know, and I look forward, hopefully maybe to you know, exploring these characters going forward. That would be fun, because I feel that they that there's an interesting little push and pull that has been established between those three.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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