We couldn’t be more excited to get a bit of a sneak peek on the upcoming film A Royal Christmas Engagement from actor James Nitti! He wrapped the film just before all production across the U.S was halted for Covid-19 in March. With just a few months to go till Christmas, we are getting into the spirit with an interview with James. Check it out below!
You will be playing the lead role of Prince Edward in the upcoming film, A Royal Christmas Engagement. How did this role come about for you? What went into the audition process?
“This is actually a funny one, and I’m not sure anyone else knows this yet. So this will be the first time I have told anyone this story. When I received the audition breakdown from my agent in email the Film was going by a different title and the the role was I was auditioning for was titled ‘Prince Edward’. I only received the two audition scenes as they weren’t releasing the entire script yet. In the breakdown it didn’t say specifically if this film was based on truth or was completely fiction. I jumped to the immediate assumption that the film was based on true events, and was about the actual very real Prince Edward in the British Royal Family, (whom I have actually met in person).
Armed with this assumption I delved into research on him, where he grew up, who was important to him in his life, his family, major life moments. I listened to how he spoke , how he moved, how he behaved and reacted. I was adamant I was going to be a brilliant and honest representation of Prince Edward. It wasn’t until I actually booked the role and received the full script where upon reading I very quickly found out on the opening page, that this film was in-fact completely fictional, and not based on anyone or any real life events at all! I guess my thorough princely research still paid off though!”
When you learned you would be playing Prince Edward, what were your initial thoughts? Did you celebrate?
“Absolutely! I remember getting the call, and being over the moon! I called my mum and told her how I had booked this awesome role, playing Prince Edward, and how bizarre and funny it was that I booked the role or Prince Edward 16 years or so after meeting the real prince in real life!
Obviously after reading and finding out how it was a fictional story I had to make another phone call to explain this to my mother. I was so excited to have this opportunity. I loved the script and it was a really great read, I could already see it playing out in my head as I was reading it.
The celebrations soon settled down though, as it dawned on me just HOW MUCH I had to learn. There was so much! I remember looking actually, I think there was something like 110 pages of script, and the role of Prince Edward was on about 80 of the 110. I quickly went in to studying and grind mode to get learning and prepping, as I only had a couple of weeks before we were leaving to start shooting!”
What are three words to describe your character?
“Three words to describe Prince Edward. I’d say; Free-willed (does that count as one?) Mysterious and Head-Strong.”
I hear you have some good friends that were also cast in the film, including your leading lady, Paige Bach! Can you talk about how this crazy coincidence happened?
“Yeah, this was a really crazy one! I received my offer on a Thursday evening, I think. Then on Friday morning, I woke up to several missed calls, and a text from my good buddy Louie Chapman, simply saying. ‘Yo, we’re going to Buffalo together’ (Buffalo was where it was filming). I immediately called him and was like “dude what?” Turns out he had also auditioned for the role of Prince Edward, I had no idea. Louie is an awesome Actor, and the team clearly loved him that they actually re-wrote one of the other characters for Louie specifically. Louie’s Agent called him saying they had offered the role to someone else (me), but they would love him to play the role of the Prince’s body guard. He asked his agent who had booked the role of the Prince. His agent said, ‘some British guy called James Nitti”. Louie was like, “that’s one of my best buddies!” So, me and Louie are chatting for the next couple of days, hyping each other up, getting super excited about not only booking this awesome film but working together on a project.
Then a week or so later, he says. “Have you seen the cast list, do you know who they have cast as Lauren?” I look at the cast list, and it’s ANOTHER close friend of both mine and Louie’s- Paige Bach! We couldn’t believe it. I’m not talking like friendly acquaintances, but the three of us are in the same tight little friendship group, all living within 2 miles from one another. We’ve been on road trips together and even camping out in big bear and Mammoth mountain all together!
Now, suddenly all three of us book the same film, when none of us had any idea that any of the others were even auditioning for it! Such a crazy co-incidence!”
I feel like having a bunch of friends on set, you would get into some shenanigans! Were you all well-behaved or were you trouble-makers?
“You know what, I’m actually a little mischievous by nature as it is, as anyone close to me would tell you, but I’ll be completely honest, we were actually all really well behaved on set believe it or not. We had so much to shoot in only a few weeks, and there was a lot of heavy dialogue driven scenes, so it was pretty exhausting. We would shoot for 10 hours, then we’d get back to the hotel, and Id lock myself in my room for a further 2-3 hours to make sure I was on top of the next days scenes.
One thing I would say though is that having a couple of really close friends on set did make for a super supportive and relaxed working environment. It was a really fun experience filming and playing opposite people I was really close with.
Don’t get me wrong, we certainly still let our hair down a little later on in the evenings for a bit. Especially on the wrap day. We wrapped the film on my 30th birthday. So timing couldn’t have been better for a big final blow out, the work was completed and we had double celebrations. Safe to say we left our little stamp on the poor unsuspecting streets of Buffalo, NY!”
For the role, did you need to prepare or learn anything in particular about royalty and the way the royals present themselves?
“I Learned a lot about Royal life, and specifically growing up as kid in the Royal Family. At the beginning of this film, Prince Edward is tired and totally fed up of the social confides, the restrictions and set procedures and protocols that he has to follow day in day out being a member of the Royal family. This was was one of the main factors that I focused in on, as I saw it as one of his main driving forces, that he was trying to escape from.
I did a lot of research into how the royal children are treated growing up. They don’t really have a single choice that is their own. They don’t get to choose what they wear, how they look or even the friends they keep. Everything is scrutinized and talked about nationally. For me as a teenager, if I got into mischief or trouble or rebelled in anyway, it wasn’t a huge deal, id be told of my parents and that would be the end of it. As a royal child, its plastered all over the tabloids and papers etc. There is no privacy in anything you do.”
Filming this was done in the extremely cold Buffalo, NY weather this past February and March, I must say, you are very brave! How did you keep warm? Was the weather a challenge in itself?
“Being from England, I am somewhat used to cold weather, so going into the project I was fairly confident that I’d be more then fine. However I quickly found out that I was very much mistaken. It was freezing! I was lucky, I didn’t have it too badly, I spent a lot of time filming in a business suit, with a large winter coat as-well. I could layer up base layers underneath everything, I mean I probably looked about 40lbs heavier with the amount layers I was wearing! Ha-ha!
Poor Paige wasn’t so lucky, the poor girl only had a thin coat and a blouse to keep her warm, but she was an absolute soldier every day. We also had amazing production team all around us, who would literally fly in with thick coats, hand warmers and even portable heaters in between takes. They looked after us all really well!”
Thankfully, you were able to finish wrapping a few days before production was halted due to Covid-19. Are things still on track for a winter 2020 release for the film?
“Yes! We got super lucky! During the last weeks of filming we were all glued to the news casts non stop when we weren’t filming, watching as it all unfolded. Like you mentioned, we wrapped the film a day or two before all productions across the country were shut down due to the pandemic, so we got super lucky!
Once back in Los Angeles, I had some ADR work to do for the film, which was completed in total isolation and with strict quarantine guidelines in place. As far as I know production hasn’t been held up at all thankfully, and the film is still set for a Christmas 2020 release!”
As an actor, how have things been for you since the industry shut down because of Covid-19? Do you know what may be next for you? What would you want to do next?
“It’s safe to say that like most industries, the entertainment industry has taken a hard hit during this pandemic. A lot of productions have stopped or been postponed. Castings are all now self tape only, and even those seem somewhat fair and far between right now. Even though things have been tough with work and adapting to a new way of living has been a challenge for everyone, we all have to prioritize our health and the health and safety of everyone else in the country.
Not being able to work for a few months as tough as that is, is sadly a small sacrifice to have to pay to help save lives in my opinion! Industries and economies will re build even if it takes a while and is super tough, but you cant bring back lives.
I am however very fortunate enough to still have a couple of projects lined up ahead of me later this year and next year , which I cant wait to get stuck in to. I’m going to be working on a film called ‘Mountain Love’ later this year, and next year a project, (which I cant talk too much about) called ‘Dry’. So watch this space everyone!”
Thanks so much to James Nitti for chatting with us, we are so excited to watch A Royal Christmas Engagement when it comes out this Christmas 202! In the meantime, learn more about James on his IMDB and Instagram!
