As KJ Apa brings the life of James Stewart to the big screen in Jimmy, he’s earned the approval of the late actor and military aviator’s daughter.
Kelly Stewart-Harcourt praised Apa’s portrayal and recalled “it was eerie” seeing him in character while filming the movie in Ireland, where she made a cameo in the Aaron Burns-helmed biopic, which premieres Nov. 6.
“But I was thrilled because the problem with somebody playing Dad… was that you don’t want to sit there and listen to a Jimmy Stewart impersonation for two hours,” she explained to Entertainment Weekly. “And Dad has such a distinctive way of speaking. It’s hard not to do an impersonation, but KJ channels him and brings him to life without doing a Jimmy Stewart impersonation. So I don’t see how they could have found anybody better.”
While discussing his process for getting into character as the It’s a Wonderful Life star, Apa admitted that the 1946 Christmas movie served as a big source of inspiration for his performance.
“I’d never really sat down and focused on it, but right after I read [the script], I had immediately put the movie on and focused on the movie,” he noted. “It’s such a great movie. It was a little ahead of its time, I think.”
Apa added, “The goal is to give an honest performance while not being impressionistic. I think when you’re doing an impression or an impersonation, there isn’t as much happening behind the impression, and I think that’s where, when you interpret something, it’s more of an interpretation.”
Written by Justin Strawhand, Jimmy tells the story of when Stewart, fresh off his Oscar win for The Philadelphia Story, enlisted as a combat pilot in the U.S. Army Air Force at the beginning of World War II. The film traces his experience through the war before returning home and playing George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life.