Jason Flemyng

Jason Iain Flemyng (born 25 September 1966) is an English actor. He is known for his work with British filmmakers Guy Ritchie and Matthew Vaughn appearing in the Ritchie films Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Snatch (2000), (both films were also produced by Vaughn) and appearing in Vaughns films Layer Cake (2004), Kick-Ass (2010), X-Men: First Class (2011). He has also appeared in Hollywood productions such as Rob Roy (1995), the Alan Moore comic book adaptations From Hell (2001) and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), Transporter 2 (2005), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). He has also appeared in prominent roles in both theatre and television in the UK. Flemyng speaks French fluently, and has made three films in that language. He won the Best Actor Award at the Geneva Film Festival for his role in 1996's Alive and Kicking. Early life Flemyng was born on 25 September 1966 in Putney, London, the son of Scottish television and film director Gordon Flemyng. He decided he wanted to become an actor after appearing in theatrical productions at his school, Christ's Hospital in Sussex. "I always wanted to be an actor," he later told the BBC. "From the time I fancied a girl who played Dorothy in the school production of The Wizard of Oz. I auditioned for the role of the scarecrow so that I could have the most stage time with her, but she ended up running off with the tin man!" In the 1980s, he was involved with the National Youth Theatre and the political organisation the Young Socialists. He also became involved with Militant, an entryist group active within the Labour Party, and in 1987 was expelled from Labour for selling the Militant newspaper. Flemyng has subsequently claimed that both his theatrical and political activities at this time were simply a way of meeting girls. In 1990 he studied acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), where he was a classmate of Hermione Norris. Following his graduation from LAMDA in the early 1990s he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company.