A Deeper Shade of James
Source: Ingenue Summer 2004By Jessica Hundley
The successful star of the X-Men movies takes his shades off and let's us have a closer look in upcoming movies The Notebook and Heights
James Marsden is from Oklahoma and no amount of Hollywood grind is going to take the South out of him. Oklahoma has wide blue skies and an easy-going attitude; it's the land of the gentleman cowboy. After numerous films and ten years in L.A., Marsden still reflects the feel of his home state, retaining an air of boyish adventure mixed with family man stability. He has a house, a wife, a three-year-old son, and a film career that's been slow and steady in its evolution. He also has a mischievous sense of humor and a healthy disdain for celebrity trappings.
"This is the kind of business, where, when you're doing well, everyone tells you you're wonderful, even if you're not," he explains, sitting in the corner booth of a Hollywood coffee shop. "The best thing to do is to believe what you think yourself and not go by what people say."
Marsden grew up in the small town of Stillwater and spent his youth watching films and playing the role of the class clown.
"I was always a ham," he remembers. "I was in drama, and I liked getting up on stage. I didn't know if I was good at at or nor, but everyone else seemed to think I was."
For Marsden this was enough encouragement to quit college and head west, arriving in Los Angeles in 1993.
"I packed my bags and took off," he remembers, taking a slow sip of coffee. "It's funny because in Oklahoma it would be more reasonable to say you were going to be an astronaut than to tell them you're going to L.A. to act." Marsden grins.
"You tell them that, and they just kind of look at their watches and say 'I'll see you back here in Oklahoma in two months.' But that just kind of fueled me more. I was like, 'Goddamn it, I'm just going to go and do it.'"
Marsden's friends may have been dubious, but his family gave encouragement. "My father said, "I'll support you for one year. If it doesn't work out, come back and finish school,'" he recalls. "That was more scary to me then leaving, the thought of having to go back. Basically, I made it work because no matter what I had to make it work. You know what I mean? You create this rock solid confidence with that kind of attitude. You look ahead to see where you're going, and for me there were no visuals that included getting a degree in agriculture. What inspired me the most at he beginning was to get the hell out of Oklahoma."
Marsden landed in L.A. with the advantage of youth, naiveté, and a few well-placed family friends. Among the latter were an established casting director and a dedicated manager, both of whom set about transforming Marsden from country boy to working actor.
"There was help and a lot of luck combined with sheer determination," admits Marsden. "I had this raw confidence that I'm actually trying to get back. It came from this excitement about being in movies. I had a very simple attitude where I was like, 'That looks like fun.' It was all mimicry at first. 'I'm just going to act like Tom Cruise in this scene. I'm just going to do what he does.' Not originality at all." He laughs.