JeremyNortham.net

Source: Premiere, July 1995. Words by Maximillian Potter. Photographed by Randee St. Nicholas.

A BRITISH ACTOR’S AMERICAN DEBUT IS NOTHING BUT ‘NET’

Jeremy Northam couldn’t find his way on the Internet if Bill Gates were holding his mouse. “It’s like magic to me. I don’t understand it at all,” says the highly decorated veteran of the English stage. Tall and tan, the 33-year old star of The Net seems more at home in the outdoors, striding easily up a steep Hollywood Hills canyon (“Just a bit of a poodle to get some wind on my face” ) with the L.A. Times folded under his arm.

“Actually, I think the Internet’s a bit frightening,” he says, articulating the techno-fear The Net preys upon. Northam hints that his character, Jack Devlin, is a spy employed by a computer terrorist organization to “delete” Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock), but stops there. “He’s not entirely credible, let’s leave it at that,” Northam says. “I have to be mysterious, you see.” He devilishly raises an eyebrow behind black-tinted sunglasses. “I’d tell you more, but then I would have to destroy your tape.”