Bridgerton star Jamie Beamish: 'People ask me when is Regé-Jean coming to Waterford?'
The Waterford native starred as Nigel in the season of Bridgerton.
He may have played an aristocrat in one of the most talked about TV shows of recent years but one could never accuse Jamie Beamish of having notions. His Waterford accent remains proud and strong as he chats to me on Zoom from Calgary in Canada where he is on his final day of quarantine before beginning work on a new television series. Beamish is sporting a healthy beard and a friendly smile — he couldn’t look less like ‘nasty’ Nigel Berbrooke in Bridgerton, the loathsome and unwanted suitor to the show’s heroine, Daphne Bridgerton, played by Phoebe Dynevor.
Bridgerton, created by US television powerhouse Shonda Rhimes, became an instant phenomenon when it screened to a locked-down global audience on Netflix on Christmas Day — it recently received 12 Emmy nominations. For Beamish, who is based mainly in London but was spending time at home in Waterford, it was a surreal experience.
“I was sitting at home in my childhood bedroom watching the cast and crew screening of episode one about five days before Christmas, and Shonda Rhimes is giving a speech, thinking this is absolutely bonkers. Then it all blew up. Christmas Day, my phone nearly melted when people started watching it,” he says. “It was a great distraction from lockdown.”
Working on Bridgerton was a happy and rewarding experience for Beamish, and one he is sorry not to be repeating, as Nigel doesn’t make an appearance in the second season, which is currently filming.
“It was just a gem of a part. In the first season, there was a real sense of family around it, it was completely magic. You pinch yourself because those kind of gigs don’t come around often. I didn’t think it was going to explode the way it did, we were just all there, having a great time, marvelling at all these amazing sets and costumes. You can have a really good buzz on a gig and it comes out and nobody watches it. This one though, the whole world watched it.”
There were many breakout stars in Bridgerton, not least fellow Irish actor Nicola Coughlan, but the one that people ask him about the most is Regé-Jean Page who sent hearts all over the world pounding as the sexy Duke of Hastings.
“Yeah, I’m cool by association,” laughs Beamish. “The number of people who talk to me about Regé-Jean, asking me what’s the story, when is he coming to Waterford and down to the Munster Bar [legendary theatrical watering hole] for a few beers. What a lovely guy, he is so down to earth and a gorgeous human being, he’s off being a movie star now.”
Beamish has a busy few months lined up, as when he wraps on filming in Canada, he will be reprising his role of Ciaran (photo shop worker and aunt Sarah’s love interest) in the third season of Derry Girls. He will also be taking up the position of first artist-in-residence at the Theatre Royal in Waterford, a role that is very close to his heart given that he made his first stage appearance there.
“I was blown away when Mary Boland [Theatre Royal manager] approached me about the artist-in-residence role. It is a huge deal. I first stood on stage in 1992 in a production of Chicago by Stage Fright musical society at the Theatre Royal. I immediately felt that I belonged there, around these people and this place and an audience coming in every night and watching, it was completely addictive. I was in every thing I could be from then on. It feels like a homecoming but also me being able to give back something.”
The stage was his first love but in recent years, Beamish has been working more in film and television. He says he has also benefited from a Bridgerton bounce, including his role in the TV series he is currently filming in Canada, which is being kept under wraps for now.
“I’m a theatre bunny, which is why I’m so excited about the residency, it’s brilliant because that is what I love and I miss it when I’m not part of it. I’ve worked with the RSC, the National Theatre, I played Iago in Othello at the Globe. As a younger actor, TV and film wasn’t on my radar as much. It was all theatre and I was loving every bit of it. Now it has switched to the other way around.
"Moving into TV and film over the past few years, it has happened as I’ve gotten older, I’m 45 now….a casting director said to me a few years ago, ‘you’ve grown into your face’. Nigel was such a plum role — it has put me on people’s radar, which is great.”
Beamish is also looking forward to being back on set of another TV phenomenon, Derry Girls. He has a long-standing connection with writer and creator Lisa McGee, having starred in her previous Channel 4 show, London Irish.
“We loved London Irish, the script was genius but it didn’t catch, for whatever reason. Then Derry Girls opened and it was a phenomenon, an instant classic. I watched the first couple episodes of the second season at a public screening at BAFTA, and to feel the love in the room, it was kind of extraordinary. I’m just buzzing that I’m coming back. When you are in a hit like that, you come up smelling of roses. Everybody talks to me about it at auditions.”
Treading the boards again in his hometown is another prospect he is excited about.
“I am being given the keys to the theatre, to use the space how I want to create something. I have ideas about what I want to do, the play I want to create and put together, it is going to be about Waterford…I am also going to be engaging with transition year students, leaving them observe and learn about the process of putting a piece of theatre together.”
Beamish, who completed a degree in music at WIT before going on to study drama, will also pass on his skills as a sound designer and composer to the next generation of theatre-makers.
“I’m not a teacher, I tried teaching in my fourth year in WIT and I found I wasn’t very good,” he says. “But I think what I can do is pass something on, let people see what goes into this and allow them decide if this is for them. I don’t think there are many actors and theatre makers at career days — this is my opportunity to be able to show it in situ rather than just talk about it. Waterford has always had that strong theatrical tradition and to promote that, especially coming out of the pandemic, it is really going to be great.”
- www.theatreroyal.ie
