James Nelson-Joyce won Best Actor at the Florence International Film Festival in 2024 and has certainly made a name for himself on the big screen in roles such as ‘Jack Jack’ in Guy Ritchie’s, The Covenant, Barney in A Town Called Malice and more recently, Edward ‘Treacle’ Goodson in Stephen Knight’s, A Thousand Blows. However, Joyce’s start in the acting trade didn’t come via a traditional route.
Born in the late 1980’s to a working-class family in Liverpool, Joyce left school without GCSE qualifications and would later discover that he was dyslexic. Thankfully, someone picked up on his untapped talent and give him a push in the right direction. Joyce explained. “I wasn’t a bad kid, I was just a bit of a cheeky, class clown. I fancied my English teacher and to get her attention in class, I used to put different accents on. She saw something in me and said, ‘Why don’t you do this speaking and listening exam.’ I replied, ‘What’s that?’ She said, ‘We chose four people from the year to do a monologue. You go into the room, do the monologue and it will go towards X amount of your grades.’ I said, ‘Sound.’
“I did the monologue about this young lad telling a story of him growing up all his life with his dog. Then his dog’s died and when he comes home from school, there’s the dog’s bowl, ball, lead and dog bed, which are all still in the house. He’s basically a young lad trying to come to terms with his first loss in life.
“So, I learn this monologue, go into this room with an examiner, do the monologue and when I finish it, she’s all upset. She was an older lady and I went over and said, ‘Ahhh, come here,’ and gave her a cuddle. She said, ‘I lost my dog 18 months ago and I’ve still got the dog’s bed, lead, ball and all that gear.’ I said, ‘I’m so sorry to hear that,’ then left after and thought nothing of it.
“About a month or two later I’m walking down the corridor, bunking a lesson, messing around with my mates and the head of English, who was quite a scary creature came out of her room and shouts, ‘Joyce,’ and I said, ‘I’m on me way to lesson, Miss!,’ and she said, ‘No. Come in here.’ I thought, ‘I’m in the shit.’
“I’ve gone into her room and she put this thing in front of me and I said, ‘What’s that?’ She said, ‘You’ve just been given the highest mark ever in the North West for this speaking and listening exam,’ and I’d forgotten all about it. I said, ‘Okay, great.’
“Then, when the school didn’t want me back, the English teacher said, ‘What are you going to do now?’ I said, ‘I don’t know.’ She said, ‘I think you should be an actor,’ and advised me to go this community college. I went to the college and it all kind of stemmed from there.”
Joyce took part in a British Vintage Boxing (BVB) photoshoot at Pellicci’s café in 2023, alongside fellow actor Max Beesley, ex pro boxer Charlie Duffield and Director of Boxing at StormLDN boxing gym, Lonyo Engele. (click to see the photoshoot) https://shorturl.at/xSRFL
It’s fair to say, Joyce certainly looked the part, but was sport and fitness always a part of his life? “I’ve always loved sport; I’ve just never been any good at it! I wanted to be a footballer, but I wasn’t good enough, would have loved to have been a boxer, but same story and even tried my hand at Brazilian Jiujitsu at one point. That’s what they say actors are – frustrated sportspeople. For my mental health more than anything, I love going to football, going to the boxing gym, seeing the lads. It’s more than just the exercise.”
A Thousand Blows has been incredibly popular. It’s a fictionalised drama based on real characters and events. Hezekiah Moscow, played by Malachi Kirby, has dreams of becoming a lion tamer but ends up in the world of bare-knuckle boxing. After locking horns with notoriously vicious Sugar Goodson, Moscow enters the early world of gloved boxing as a form of escapism and also proving his own self worth.
It’s a great story, but how long did it take for the script to pique Joyce’s interest? “It was a bit of a mad one. I was on the phone to Stephen Graham, who had just phoned me on an off chance, and he said, ‘I think this thing with Stephen Knight (creator of Peaky Blinders) is going to come off. It’s about these two brothers who are bare knuckle boxers.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, great.’ Then he said, ‘I’ll call you back in a bit.’
“My dad then asked, ‘What was that about?’ and I replied, ‘It was Stephen Graham talking about some script written by Stephen Knight about brothers who were bare knuckle boxers or something.’
“Then about six months later Stephen Graham calls and says, ‘You’re going to get an audition.’ I said, ‘Sound.’ They sent me through the first episode and I just went, ‘This is a bit of me. Definitely.’
“I had to do a self-tape and then another, then I went in for a chemistry reading with Stephen. To be honest, I love history and this in particular with the history of boxing, plus working with Stephen Graham, who’s my favourite actor, was a no-brainer. I just knew I wanted to do this one.
“The beauty of it was, the story was about two brothers who are in an age and time where people didn’t talk about their feelings and the big bond you see is through boxing. I know the Smith brothers (Paul, Liam, Stepehen, Callum) in Liverpool and it made me think about conversations I’d had with them.
In the series, Treacle has to turn around to his brother, Sugar (played by Graham) and say, ‘You haven’t got it anymore.’ The Smiths are all so close and they say the hardest thing about boxing is watching your brothers box, not necessarily getting in there yourself. I thought I could bring something to the character, especially having that relationship with Stephen Graham, that no one else could bring.”
Brothers Treacle and Sugar are both Cockneys being played by Liverpudlians. Using a boxing parallel, Joyce explained how difficult it was to make the switch in accents. “I had to really work hard at it. You have to train your mouth and get those sounds. Some people are very good at accents and I’m not saying I’m not, but I liken it to a boxing training camp where you have to work very hard at it over a long period of time.”
A Thousand Blows provides some great fight scenes. Joyce explained the fitness and research needed to immerse himself into a vintage bare-knuckle boxing role. “When I was reading up on the times of the late 1800’s, a lot of people were malnourished and times were tough in London. Treacle and Sugar came through the workhouse, so for me, I was thinking, ‘Treacle’s fit, he’s in shape, he’s not poor, but he’s not rich and he’s working class. There’s a few things I could relate to with the character. For me, it wasn’t about bulking up or looking like a boxer at the time, but when I turned up on set and I see Malachi, Stephen and Francis all built like walls, I thought, ‘I should have fucking bulked up!’
“In terms of the training, it was fantastic. Due to the story being set back 140 years ago, we were lucky that Disney built us this old Victorian gym with heavy bags, speed bags and a ring, and we also had a coach who came in and taught us the old, very stiff upright style of boxing. Stuff like throwing from your hip, using the corkscrew jab, that sort of stuff. The footwork and everything was so different to modern day boxing, which added so much authenticity. It was fantastic.
“Something else which made it successful, was how close the acting team were. The camaraderie was brilliant. I take my hat off to the producers and everyone in that cast and crew, who were just like a big family. We were working together for about 10 or 11 months and it was like a little community on there.”
Would Joyce fancy a bit of the bare-knuckle gig after this series? Joyce laughs and quickly adds, “No chance!’
BVB indulged in a few rapid-fire questions to take the interview over the line.
BVB: Who was the funniest person on set?
JNJ: Stephen Graham.
BVB: Most naturally gifted on screen boxer?
JNJ: Guess who! Stephen Graham.
BVB: Who wins in an arm wrestle between you and Stephen Graham?
JNJ: Stephen Graham!
BVB: If you could spar three rounds with any boxer from any era, who would it be?
JNJ: My favourite fighter of all time is Mike Tyson, but I do love Lomachenko. I’ve never seen a boxer like him. How would it pan out with them? Mike would have me on the floor in about three seconds and I’d never be able to get close to Loma.
BVB: Thanks for your time, James.
JNJ: My sincere pleasure.
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