After a stint in Britain as DS Matt Devlin on Law & Order: UK, Bamber may return to American TV this fall. He has re-teamed with Battlestar exec producer Ron Moore for the NBC pilot 17th Precinct, an innovative cop drama with supernatural elements. Bamber plays a Yankee police officer on the series, trading in Apollo's patrician tones for a working-class Irish accent. "My preparation was pretty minimal," he says, "although I did re-watch The Fighter and The Town to absorb a hint of Bostonian Irish."
Jamie also talks about being an American, the career choices he's made because of his family (even debating signing on to 17th Precinct), and talks at length about the differences between working in UK and US television:
British actors used to be scared of the multi-year options that U.S. TV shows demand. That has changed because the same is now happening in the UK. New series in Britain now insist on getting talent for three years typically. And yet they can't really compensate you for that commitment. At least in the U.S. you can trust that if the show takes six years of your working life, it will have been financially worth it.
As always, I love Jamie's honesty. Go. Read. NOW.
