David Nicholls’ romantic novel One Day became an overnight fan favourite when it was first released in 2009 and is now being rediscovered by a new audience thanks to Netflix’s adaptation.
The series – starring Leo Woodall and Ambika Mod – has scored an impressive 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and dubbed the ‘most bingeable show of the year’ by the Daily Mail’s TV critic Claudia Connell.
But while Leo Woodall is enjoying a career boost for his portrayal as ‘pampered Southern toff’ Dexter Mayhew, the 2011 film adaptation had the exact opposite effect for actor Jim Sturgess.
Before bagging the leading man role opposite Anne Hathaway, the actor, now 45, was an up-and-coming star who had had small roles in TV shows such as Touch of Frost and The Other Boleyn Girl.
Pictured: Jim Sturgess and Anne Hathaway in the critically panned adaptation of One Day, which hit screens in 2011
Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall appear in the new Netflix adaptation of One Day, which landed on the streaming platform earlier this month
But what should have been a career-defining role for the star didn’t quite pan out as he may have hoped as the film was met with a series of particularly damning reviews.
At the time, Time magazine dubbed the film ‘disjoined’ – saying that ‘characters that Nicholls brought so cunningly to life in the book feel rushed through a timeline, tied to an agenda’.
Meanwhile, the New York Post took aim at Jim Sturgess and Anne Hathaway’s lack of on-screen chemistry – before others dubbed the American actress’ Yorkshire accent a ‘Hollywood stinker’.
Following on from this, Jim went on to star in the 2012 adaptation of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, which also divided audiences.
Most recently, Jim appeared in the 2022 rom-com Alone Together with Katie Holmes, which was given a 30% rating by Rotten Tomatoes users.
Here FEMAIL takes a look back at Jim Sturgess’ career following the fall-out from One Day – and how he’s deliberately shied away from the spotlight since.
Dubbed the ‘new Hugh Grant’
In 2010, it was announced that little-known actor Jim Sturgess had been cast as Dexter Mayhew in a film adaptation, which had a reported budget of $15m.
Pictured: Jim Sturgess seen in 2019. Following One Day, the actor was dubbed the ‘new Hugh Grant’
Pictured: Jim Sturgess – who is now a musician – opposite David Jason in A Touch of Frost in March 2003
Speaking to The Telegraph at the time, Jim – who starred in the Beatles-inspired movie Across the Universe beforehand – admitted that he hadn’t read the book when he had his first audition.
He said: ‘I didn’t really think about it at all when we were making the film.
‘It’s only now that people keep asking me how it feels to play such a well-known and loved character that I’m starting to think, “S***, I hope I’ve been all right!”‘
Looking back on the casting process, Jim told The Patriot Ledger in 2011: ‘It was weird. I was about three-quarters of the way through the book, just enjoying the read, like anybody else. I was really immersed in the story, then suddenly I got the call saying I got the part, and it just totally ruined the last quarter of the book for me. I said, “Oh, God, now I guess I’m going to be this guy.”‘
Entertainment Weekly’s Emily Exton wrote at the time: ‘Jim Sturgess is certainly dreamy enough to play the handsome but daft Dexter Mayhew whose it’s-not-my-fault-everyone-loves-me outlook on life can be maddening yet adorable (maddeningly adorable?) all at once.’
Although Jim’s casting didn’t raise eyebrows, the announcement that Brooklyn-born Anne Hathaway would be playing Yorkshire lass Emma Morley was met with a wave of criticismfrom fans of the book.
One reader wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: ‘Anne Hathaway as Emma? Really? Did anyone actually read the descriptions of the character? Anne Hathaway is not it. Horrible choice.’
Pictured: Jim Sturgess and Anne Hathaway in the 2011 movie One Day, which was adapted from David Nicholls’ book
When it was announced Anne Hathaway had been cast in the film, one fan fumed: ‘Anne Hathaway as Emma? Really? Did anyone actually read the descriptions of the character? Anne Hathaway is not it. Horrible choice.’
Hitting back at the critics, the Hollywood actress said: ‘‘This is one of the world’s great love stories. It’s what you say to your man —not how you say it’.
Director Lone Scherfig told The Guardian ahead of the film’s release: ‘It’s definitely a warmer interpretation of Emma because Emma is more provincial and shy and sometimes overcompensating.
‘Anne is a very warm actress. She has the warmth of Elizabeth Taylor or Judy Garland … I love Emma as she is in the book, obviously, but I also love Anne Hathaway’s version of her.’
When it hit screens in August 2011, One Day was a moderate success and pulled in $59m – but the reception from critics was particularly damning.
The Observer’s Philip French dubbed it ‘thin, superficial and sentimental’ and said the casting of Anne Hathway was ‘disastrous’.
The critic wrote: ‘Her accent is all over the map. The best that can be said is that she sometimes resembles the youthful Maureen Lipman, herself from Yorkshire, at times bespectacled and possessed of fine comic timing, but who here appears to be rehearsing her repertoire of regional accents.’
Pictured: Jim Sturgess at the premiere of Across the Universe in 2010, which was the biggest role before One Day
Pictured: Actors Jim Sturgess and Anne Hathaway at the premiere of One Day in New York in 2011
What’s more, Time Out said the love story had been ‘filleted’ for the big screen and called Anne’s accent ‘too wayward to convince’.
The Hollywood Reporter was particularly gushing of Jim Sturgess’ performance – saying the actor had ‘staked his claim as the new Hugh Grant only without the fussy mannerisms’.
It read: ‘Sturgess can now play any number of charming Englishmen with any number of weaknesses and flaws that women easily forgive.’
What’s more, Jim Sturgess – who was dating La Roux’s pianist Mickey O’Brien at the time – has always defended his co-star. In his 2011 interview with The Telegraph, the actor said he felt ‘connected and bound’ to Anne.
He added: ‘I would always wish I was doing a scene with Anne. When it was an Emma and Dex day I felt good about it.’
Over 10 years later, he has still insisted that he is a ‘stickler for accents’ in film and didn’t have a problem with Anne’s portrayal of Emma.
He told The Independent in 2021: ‘If someone does a bad one, I can’t watch the film. But I never felt anything like that while working with Anne at all.
Pictured: Jim Sturgess and Katie Holmes in the 2022 rom-com Alone Together, which was set in the pandemic
‘I think what happened was that she got a bad rep in America for her ‘bad English accent’, because people don’t know about a Yorkshire accent in America.
‘I’ve had friends in America say it’s the worst English accent they’ve ever heard, but I didn’t think it was fair.’
In an interview with Seventeen magazine in 2011, Anne said: ‘The thing about the accent that was really important for me to get was that it evolved over the course of the film because as you get older your voice changes, the way you speak can change.
‘I’ve met a lot of people from Yorkshire, and when they left the area or moved to London, their accent changed. You can meet 10 different people from Yorkshire, and they have completely different accents.’
Disappointing follow-up while Anne’s career skyrockets
After One Day, Jim Sturgess already had another huge Hollywood blockbuster lined up and appeared as Adam Ewing in the epic sci-fi Cloud Atlas opposite Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Hugh Grant.
The film had a budget of $100m but only grossed $27m, which Sturgess later admitted was disappointing.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor said: ‘It was a shame to me that maybe American audiences didn’t pick it up so much. It wasn’t a surprise, but it was a shame.
Pictured: Jim Sturgess playing Adam Ewing in Cloud Atlas, which was a box office flop. The star later said the reception had been ‘disappointing’
Jim Sturgess pictured in the drama Close to the Enemy, which only ran for one season back in 2016
‘It was a shame that people didn’t even get to have an opinion. It didn’t really get kind of distributed in a way that people were even able to know it was on, I guess.’
In contrast, Jim’s One Day co-star put the lacklustre reception behind her and went on to appear in The Dark Knight Rises and Les Miserables, which she won Best Supporting Actress for.
Stepping into supporting roles
Following the muted reception to Cloud Atlas, Jim appeared in a supporting role in the 2012 film Spike Island, opposite Game of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke.
He also appeared alongside Ray Winstone in the 2012 film Ashes about a son grappling with with father’s Alzheimer’s. However, it only has a 14% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Between 2012-2018, Jim averaged about two film or TV appearances a year. Over the past decade, he’s slowly stepped into more supporting roles.
In 2019, he bagged a role in the ensemble movie Berlin, I Love You – which was labelled a ’empty, boring flop’ by The Observer. Later that year, Jim married his screenwriter and theatre producer wife Dina Mousawi.
Two years later, he stepped into a leading man role once again when he appeared in The Other Me – about a architect who has an eye disease which enables him to see people’s real motives.
Jim Sturgess and his wife Dina Mousawi attend the Vanity Fair Rising Star Party in January 2024
In a particularly damning review, Variety called the film a ‘muddled mirror of self-examination’ and referenced how Jim has has the ‘ill luck’ of appearing in other ‘fantastical misfires’ including Upside Down and Stonehearst Asylum.
Jim has since admitted that he has found fame overwhelming at times and deliberately shied away from it.
Recalling the press tour for 21 in 2008, the star told The Independent: ‘I was driving down the strip and seeing my face on all these giant billboards. I checked into a hotel and all the blackjack tables had my face on them, and the room key had my face on it – it was a lot.
In 2022, Jim appeared opposite Katie Holmes in the rom-com Alone Together – about two strangers who end up in the same New York rental during lockdown.
Although The Hollywood Reporter deemed it ‘superficial’ in places, the critic said it came to a ‘felicitously, sweetly and satisfyingly moving’ conclusion.
However, Variety wasn’t so gushing – and said the drama ‘should have stayed in quarantine’.
Drastic Career Change
Later this year, Jim Sturgess will be releasing his debut album under his stage name ‘King Curious’
Following Alone Together, it appears Jim has taken a break from acting and is now focusing on a career in music.
Going by the stage name ‘King Curious’, Jim’s debut album is set to be released later in 2024 – but he has shared some singles with his 282 YouTube subscribers.
In a handful of interviews with small music magazines, which make no mention of his best-known role in One Day, Jim explained how he has always had an interest in music.
Speaking to Flanelle magazine, Jim detailed how he discovered his love for performing in school.
He said: ‘At a very young age, the local theatre in my town went to local schools to cast a load of kids to be in a professional production of Wind In The Willows. We were all auditioned and I was one of the kids, along with many others, that got picked to be a mouse or rat or whatever. And that was a huge moment for me. I connected profoundly.
‘I was engaged and stimulated, and I cared deeply about it. It was fun and challenging and hard work and the feeling of being a small part of something bigger is, to this day, what I love most about it. All the classroom anxiety was lifted, and I felt free to burn off all that energy. And I was good at it. And that felt good. So I wanted more.’
In an interview with Dek Magazine last December, Jim said that he been part of bands since the age of 15.
Discussing his song Common Sense for the Animal, Jim said: ‘I’d always wanted to write a song about London but couldn’t really find a way in. So one night I sat on top of a night bus and just watched a Friday night unfold.
‘I scribbled down what I saw and what I felt and the song kind of wrote itself. It’s a kind of weird, twisted love letter to my neighbourhood, I suppose.’