Jersey-born actor and soon-to-be Hollywood star James Wilkinson has taken, by his own admission, a fairly circuitous route to blockbuster fame.
After falling in love with drama as a teenager, the former Les Quennevais pupil moved to London to study musical theatre at the prestigious Bird Conservatoire.
From there, his CV is difficult to distil: the 36-year-old’s diverse credits include cruise ship singer, rock-climbing instructor and Universal Studios stunt performer.
Then, in October 2024, after a smoke-and-mirrors audition process held under the deepest secrecy – everything changed.
James was cast in the role of the heroic warrior Mekanek in the Mattel-owned Masters of the Universe movie franchise.
Set to be released on June 5, the film will see the Jersey born and bred actor star alongside Hollywood A-listers Idris Elba, Alison Brie, Kristen Wiig and Jared Leto.
Speaking via video-call from his temporary base in north London, James said it had been a “proper, winding road to get to where I am now”.
Born-and-raised in Jersey, he attended Mont Nicolle primary school before completing his GCSEs at Les Quennevais.
His childhood was marked by a strong affinity for performance in both sporting and theatrical contexts.
Athletics, rugby and water-sports were interspersed with after-school drama rehearsals and amateur productions at the Arts Centre and Opera House.
“As a kid, going to drama classes was a really great escape,” he said. “Not everyone has the most amazing time at school, but I really found my feet, and my people, when I was going to these after-school drama classes.
“Jersey is so, so great for theatre and amateur dramatics – and they have a really, really strong culture out there, or at least they did when I was growing up – and I’m sure it still is to this day.”
His enthusiasm for acting and performance led to James securing a place at the internationally renowned Bird Performing Arts College in London.
“From the age of 19, when I graduated, I started just travelling the world, doing all sorts of different theatre gigs and singing gigs.
“I went from everything to symphony halls, to arena theatres, to cruise ships, to everything all over the world.”
However, James soon found himself longing to reconnect with the more athletic components of his skill-set.
“There was something that was missing for me,” he admitted. “It wasn’t quite scratching an itch.
“I’d always been really physical – I really enjoyed working out and pushing my limits – so I took a couple of stunt courses in the UK.”
From there, doors began to creak open in increasingly unexpected places.
“I auditioned for this show called Terminator out in Universal Studios in Japan and I booked the gig”, James recalled. “I moved my whole life out to Japan for two years, and I lived in Osaka at Universal Studios and in that time I ended up becoming something called the show captain, which is kind of the manager of the cast.”
After learning the ropes in Japan, he was “poached” to go to a different stunt show in Singapore called Water World – and when Covid came, he worked for the same production in Beijing.
“Basically, it was a paid stunt university,” James reflected. “There was every set of stunts that I could possible want at my fingertips and I studied hard.”
Returning to the UK from his white-knuckle tour of Asia, James found himself once again cut adrift in a famously cut-throat industry.
“I came back to the UK and I started pretty much from scratch,” he said. “I had all this knowledge from all these different facets of this crazy career I’d had, but I had no contacts.
“There was this mad year where I had no money, I was living in this really crappy apartment above this pub, and I was pulling at any loose end I possibly could to get some work in.
“I did all sorts of things on set: I did extra work, I did stand-in work, I did everything you could possibly imagine – which, again, was a great education.”
Struggling to find a consistent stream of work in the UK, James decided to return to China for a “quick-gig” at a water-based stunt show in Tianjin.
Before heading out, though, his agent reached out with information about a “mystery audition” at Sky Studios Elstree, just north of London.
“I had no idea what the role was for, but I knew it was going to be really intense”, he said.
In somewhat of a daze, James entered the studio to find both award-winning stunt co-ordinator Liang Yang and Captain America stunt-double Andy Lister presiding over the audition.
“They were both in the room, and I just thought ‘okay – this is a pretty big deal’,” he laughed. “It was two hours of intense pad work, sword work, parkour, wire work – all sorts of crazy things.
“They had me throwing myself up like 16 metres in the air and having to superhero pose at the bottom of it.
“I did the self-tape there as well – at the time the character I was reading for was Ram Man – and then I heard nothing for six weeks, absolutely nothing.”
Accustomed by this point to the fickle world of showbusiness, James interpreted the studio’s icy silence as an indication that he “obviously wasn’t right” for the role, and swiftly accepted a different job on a show titled House of Dancing Water.
A matter of weeks before filming was due to begin for the production – which was based in Macau – James received a call from his agent in the early hours of the morning.
“It’s really hard to get calls through and my Wi-Fi was terrible, so I had to run a kilometre down the road to hotspot some restaurant that I knew had good Wi-Fi”, he chuckled.
“So I’m standing by this closed restaurant borrowing their Wi-Fi, talking to my agent – ‘you have been cast in Masters of the Universe as Mekanek’.
“I was like, ‘wow, that’s crazy’, but also, ‘oh no’, because I’d already decided I’m doing this show in Macau!”
Fortunately, the creative team for House of Dancing Water “gave their blessing” and allowed him to return home for the movie.
“I came back to the UK, we just started filming – and the rest is history.”
Reflecting on how filming Masters of the Universe was a “step-up” from his stunt-acting roles across Asia, James added: “What was different was just the sense of urgency.
“Everybody on set wants to be there, from the third assistant director up to the producer – everybody is there to do the best possible film they can.
“Obviously, sometimes that doesn’t happen – sometimes a film bombs or sometimes it’s not rated well on Rotten Tomatoes – but from the inside that’s never the intention.
“Everybody wants to be there because they’re at the top of their game, and that’s really an amazing, inspiring place to be around, because then you are at your best.”
Something else that jumped out, he added, was the dialled-back naturalism of the acting, even in a blockbuster context.
He added: “You see these people literally doing the scene right in front of you, and you’re a foot away from them, and you’re think ‘that was kind of underplayed, wasn’t it?’ And then you see it back and it is’okay no, that was absolute perfection’.”
As someone with significant on-set experience across myriad countries and contexts, James believes the film opportunities in Jersey need a “rejig” of the infrastructure with more prioritised funding.
“I completely understand that it’s not top of the list of priorities, but my personal opinion is that I just love Jersey,” he said.
“I think it’s the most beautiful place in the world, especially in the summer, [and] I would love the rest of the world to know exactly how incredible Jersey is.
“Maybe that is to have more film companies out here and really utilise it.”
He added: “I remember when I was a kid and Under the Greenwood Tree, which was an ITV production, was filmed in I think it was in Samares Manor.
“I was just an extra in it, but it the best experience and the most incredible summer – I was only 12 and 13 years old – and I think experiences like that are so invaluable.
“It was definitely impressionable on me, clearly, because I’m still doing it now – but I just really hope that Jersey can catch up with the rest of the UK.”
Looking ahead, James turns to his imminent return to Jersey to watch Masters of the Universe with his friends and family.
“I’m going to be watching the film with my mum and my sister, my dad, and my mum’s wild swimming team – the Beaux and Belles – they normally swim to St Aubin’s, so they’ll be there with other ladies and gents”, he says, smiling.
And he is planning to watch the movie at the very same Jersey Cineworld that played his first “amateur, shoe-string budget indie film” as a teenager.
“Funnily enough, my very first indie film was called The Secret, and it was a feature-length film – I’m sure there’s some kind of archive where you can find it.
“But we actually had a premiere at Cineworld – paid for and booked out – the Jersey Evening Post took photos.
“So it will be a really fun, full circle moment when I go back to Cineworld and watch Masters of the Universe in the same place.”
