‘Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool’: Jamie Bell Reveals How He Fell In Love With This ‘Extraordinary’ Story

‘Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool’: Jamie Bell Reveals How He Fell In Love With This ‘Extraordinary’ Story

Jamie Bell knew very little about Peter Turner’s story before starring in ‘Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool,’ and in this EXCLUSIVE clip from the movie’s DVD, he dishes on how and why he decided to take the role.

The three-time BAFTA-nominated film, Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool, is out on digital and DVD as of April 24, and HollywoodLife has an EXCLUSIVE look at star, Jamie Bell, discussing his role in a special DVD featurette. Jamie stars as Peter Turner in the movie, which is based on the real Peter Turner’s own memoir. “I knew very little about it other than Annette [Bening]’s involvement [in the film], and I went along to do a little reading with Annette at [producer] Barbara [Broccoli]’s house and [director] Paul [McGuigan] was there,” Jamie explains. “We jus read a couple scenes from the script. I looked up and Barbara Broccoli was crying.”

After Barbara heard the reading, she gave Jamie her own copy of Peter’s book, which offered the actor a greater understanding of the story. “I found it extraordinary,” he admits. “I never read anything like that. I had so much more appreciation for the script. Pretty much the movie is 98 percent — maybe even more — true. It actually happened. I found this book just lovely and wonderful. It was so generous to me and so accepting of me. That, in a way, made it even worse because I really didn’t want to let [Peter] down. So I applied all the pressure to myself. But he was so generous and so gracious to step back from it and let me take authorship over his story.”

Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool tells the story of a young actor (Turner) who falls in love with 1950s film star, Gloria Grahame (portrayed by Annette in the movie). Along with this Q&A, which also features Annette, Paul and Peter, the DVD includes a “performance and conversation” with Elvis Costello, who crafted the song for the movie, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the music video for “You Shouldn’t Look At Me That Way,” footage of Annette reflecting on Gloria Grahame and commentary from Paul, Barbara and Peter.