‘There’s a thug in all of us’: James Norton on privacy, playing villains and pushing himself to the limit

He made his name as one of the great British TV baddies in Happy Valley, and bared all in a gruelling production of A Little Life. Despite facing heartbreak and press intrusion, he’s ‘feeling Zen’ as he turns 40 – and about to step it up a gear with two epic new shows

Two days before we& meet, James Norton turned 40. To celebrate, he threw a massive party at his home in north-east London – and he’s still feeling the effects. “I didn’t get any sleep,” he admits, “and yesterday was just a huge clear-up, so if I struggle for a word or an anecdote, please forgive me.”

To be fair, I’ve seen Norton in worse shape. The last time I encountered him in person he was naked, crawling around on all fours while being spat at. “Oh, yeah,” he smiles, realising I’m talking about his performance as Jude in the 2023 stage version of A Little Life. In that play, an adaptation of Hanya Yanagihara’s cult tragic novel, he remained on stage at the Savoy theatre in London for its whopping three-and-a-half-hour length, fully immersed in a character who suffers an immense, seemingly never-ending ordeal of sexual abuse and self-­harm. “That was a proper … ” He trails off and exhales. “That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.”