Theo James wishes Pacquiao ‘good luck’

LOS ANGELES — Did you know that Theo James, the breakout actor of last year’s Divergent, enjoys a Philippine connection of some sort?

When his film career was launched in 2012 as the leading man of Kate Beckinsale in Underworld: Awakening, he was trained on Arnis de Mano by a Filipino martial artist (whose name he couldn’t recall).

“I thanked him for keeping me fit for the action scenes,” recalls James, 30, who lives up to a US fan magazine’s description of him as “a six-foot-one and 179 of pure muscle,” that must have prompted People magazine to include him in its 2013’s roster of “sexiest men alive,” something he didn’t take too seriously.

During Conversations’ second interview with him last week for The Divergent Series: Insurgent, James confirms what he has confessed the year before — that he is a big fan of Manny Pacquiao who is scheduled to finally face off with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in Las Vegas on May 2.

“I love Pacquiao,” he breaks into a wide smile. “Unfortunately, I can’t be in Las Vegas to watch his fight with Mayweather. I will be at a friend’s wedding the day after and the night before we will be watching the bout on TV. I am too disappointed that I couldn’t be in Las Vegas.”

His big dream is to meet Pacquiao in person.

Asked how he would react if offered to play Pacquiao in a movie (although he’s much too tall to be a credible Pacman), James laughs and laughs.

“Hahahahaha! I don’t think that will ever happen,” James says. “He’s a legend and I’m just a huge, huge Pacquiao fan.”

Addressing Pacquiao, James adds, “Manny Pacquiao, an incredible boxer, great personality, good luck…even if you don’t need it!”

Aside from the Filipino martial artist and Pacquiao, James says that he has heard so much about the Philippines.

“Culturally rich, good food and quite humid most of the year. I hope to go there someday.”

In the meantime, James is preoccupied with the promo for Insurgent, based on the best-selling Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth, 27, which is, like Divergent, set in the ruins of a futuristic, walled Chicago where survivors are divided into five factions based on their abilities, temperaments and personal preferences — the Abnegation faction, selfless; Amity, peaceful; Candor, honest; Dauntless, brave; and Erudite, intelligent. Those who belong to no faction are known simply as Factionless.

In Insurgent, released nationwide by Pioneer Films starting on Wednesday, March 18, James reprises his role as Tobias “Four” Eaton, a Dauntless instructor and expert fighter who is also a Divergent. The original cast is all accounted for, including Shailene Woodley as Beatrice “Tris” Prior and Ansel Elgort (Woodley’s lover in The Fault In Our Stars) as her brother Caleb Prior.

In Divergent (which grossed more than $288.7 million worldwide), Tris (who grew up as Abnegation) learns through a government-administered aptitude test that she is Divergent (with attributes of multiple factions), which means she is an independent thinker and cannot be controlled by any faction. Tris finds a much-needed ally in Four and eventually falls in love with him.

In Insurgent (to be followed next year by Allegiant, the third installment in the trilogy), after being exposed as Divergents, Tris and Four find themselves on the run from Jeanine (again played by Kate Winslet), the power-hungry leader of the Erudite faction. As the traitorous Dauntless troops under Jeanine’s command prowl the ruins of dystopian Chicago rounding up Divergents, Tris and Four traverse the city hoping to find allies among the Amity, Candor, Abnegation and Dauntless, as well as the impoverished mass of Factionless.

As it did his co-stars, Divergent made James an overnight star.

Asked how he has adjusted to the changes in his life, James displays his sense of humor by replying deadpan, “I got extra locks on my door,” laughing then turning serious, “you know, it’s kind of a gradual thing. I guess it brought me face to face with so many different people. For me, it changes over the course of a year or more, but I don’t kind of live my life differently from how I lived before. Of course, there are things that I was able to do before, but which I can’t do now. But generally, everything is the same.”

On the other hand, overnight success has opened new opportunities for him.

“Divergent is a franchise and you are part of it as a specific character,” he explains. “In-between, you can make choices outside of the franchise and play different characters.”

In contrast to Four, James describes himself as shy (and it does show in his being gentle and soft-spoken).

“Like Four, I have great biceps and I guess the similarity ends there,” admits James. “Four is a guy who expects the world to treat him the way he likes to be treated and I’m not like that. Sometimes, I can be the quiet person so I have to push myself to come out of my shell. Four is probably more serious than I am.”

Trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theater School in the United Kingdom, London-native James first drew public attention with his performance as Mr. Kemal Pamuk, the dashing Turkish diplomat in the acclaimed US TV series Downton Abbey. Besides Allegiant, he will be seen in other movies: As an Irish priest in The Secret Scripture (with Rooney Mara), London Fields (with Johnny Depp and Billy Bob Thornton) and Franny (with Richard Gere and Dakota Fanning).

Steve McQueen and Paul Newman are among the actors he looks up to.

“That’s why I connected to Four,” he says, “because he feels like an older style of movie character who has that element of McQueen and Newman. They didn’t need to push anything; they were just themselves, with their own sense of masculinity.”

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