Luxury fashion house Hermès recently hosted a special dinner in London to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Athenaeum, the production company founded by British multi-hyphenate George Jaques. While a touch pretentious, the name was chosen mostly because it “didn’t sound like a 16-year-old made it,” someone who, at the time, “couldn’t actually spell it,” he explains. A decade on and Jaques — now 26 (and hopefully able to spell the name of his company) — isn’t just enjoying a culinary honor from Hermès.
This week sees the release across U.S. theaters of “Sunny Dancer,” his second feature as director and a film starring the likes of Bella Ramsey, Neil Patrick Harris, James Norton and Jessica Gunning. Amassing that caliber of names, getting a movie made and landing U.S. distribution is no small feat for any indie filmmaker, especially someone still so early on in their career. But “Sunny Dancer” is just the latest and greatest achievement for Jaques, who in practically no time at all has hustled, blagged and charmed his way into the entertainment world, becoming one of of the U.K.’s most exciting and buzzy new creatives — and one with an impressive and growing rolodex of collaborators and admirers drawn in by his infectious enthusiasm.
This status was recently underlined by Hollywood, at a meal at L.A.’s ultra-exclusive San Vicente Bungalows set up by his manager with, of all people, Al Pacino and David O. Meanwhile, across the other side of the table, Pacino was telling him how “excited” he was to see “Sunny Dancer.” “He was such a supporter and seemed so impressed by what I had done — and I just felt that was so utterly kind.” Back on home soil, another supporter is David Parfitt, the veteran producer who won the best picture Oscar for “Shakespeare in Love.” In perhaps more British terms, he once described Jaques as the “kind of guy that’s beating up the industry.” “I was like, ‘Woah, that’s savage,'” says Jaques with a chuckle. I really believe that if you don’t ask, you don’t get and the worst people can say is ‘no.’ You’ll be upset for a bit, and that’s important.
But then you dust yourself off and you go again.” It would seem, at least from the outside, that few have an asking-to-getting hit rate on par with Jaques, as indicated by both his “Sunny Dancer” cast and its U.K. launch, attended by Kylie Minogue. In classic Jaques style, he’d connected with the pop icon after managing to get backstage at a concert of hers shortly after finishing shooting the film. Naturally, for a special screening in London, he invited her along.
It’s a skill he’s been perfecting since he first launched Athenaeum, when he somehow raised £4,000 ($5,300) in his local pub to stage “Dilate,” a play he’d written about teenage drug culture, in an abandoned railway arch at London Bridge. At the time, however, he had bigger — and hilariously naive — plans for the production. So I called the National Theatre and said ‘I’d love to speak to Nicholas Hytner as I’d really like to put my play on here,'” he recalls.
And this was despite the fact Jaques was simultaneously juggling being writer, director and star, his first year of high school exams and working on a market stall in Clapham selling donuts, pizza and sausage rolls. Two weeks after its short run ended, word got around, and Jaques received an out-of-the blue call from Sky’s then managing director of content (and later CEO of Sky Studios) Gary Davey, inviting him in for a chat. Thanks to Bennett, who he credits as a mentor, he also walked away with Sky agreeing to sponsor his already-written second play (this time about mental health and suicide, which he would put on in a “real theater”).
Extract — continue reading at the source.
