Jamie Blackley plays a young rocker in “If I Stay.”
Credit: Getty Images
Say hello to Jamie Blackley, the young British actor who plays the rocker boyfriend trying to coax Chloe Grace Moretz out of a coma in YA hit “If I Stay.” Blackley, 23, has been letting his tastes lead him to projects like “Snow White and the Huntsman,” “If I Stay” and an as-yet-untitled upcoming Woody Allen film, so why shouldn’t he trust his instincts?
You’re are a musician yourself, right?
Yeah, I’ve played the guitar since I was 12 — just very kind of basically, and never in bands or anything, just kind of by myself. It was just in the build-up to this that I had a few lessons back at home in London just to get to know the songs as well as I could. And then we had a bunch of band rehearsals once we actually got to Vancouver.
How did it feel pretending to be a guy in a band, then?
Oh, it felt amazing. It was so much fun, it was brilliant. Those were the most fun scenes for me to do, all those club scenes. All these people being asked to jump up and down and pretend that they like you, it was pretty fun.
It’s not always like that in reality.
No, no. Definitely not.
How was it developing your chemistry with Chloe?
She’s just easy to get along with. We just messed around the entire time, really, and had fun with it. I can’t imagine doing it with someone you absolutely hate — that would’ve been difficult. But she’s just a normal kid and I’m a normal guy, and we just got on with it and had fun, really.
Jamie Blackley gets close with Chloe Grace Moretz in “If I Go.”
Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
How’ve you handled the progression of career so far?
It feels like I’m slowly kind of learning as I go, really. I still have to go in there and audition and do the best job that I can and hope that the stuff that I like people want to hire me for. That’s what I’m carrying on doing right now. My kind of policy is if I do stuff that I would enjoy going to the cinema to watch, then wherever that takes me I’ll just go with it. I’m going to try to, anyway.
And that’s taken you to working with Woody Allen, which isn’t too shabby.
I’ve literally just finished that. It was amazing fun, really great fun. I’m not allowed to say anything about what it’s about, but all I can say is that all of the cast is super-great and it was really exciting to work with those kind of people and to work with Woody as well. It was brilliant.
And that’s something you’d go see in theaters?
Oh my god, yes. Well actually, I’m not allowed to see a full script, so I don’t really know if it’s something that I’d want to go and see in the theater, but it’s his movie so I’m sure that it definitely will be.
Follow Ned Ehrbar on Twitter @nedrick
