Actor Jamie Bell On A Lifetime of Arsenal Fandom: Men In Blazers 09/11/26

0:00You're listening to the Men in Blazers Media Network, Suboptimal Radio. Hi, I'm Jamie Bell and I support Arsenal Football Club.

0:13My guest today is a remarkable actor, James Milner-like in his versatility, delivers in every single role, starting with his award-winning debut in Billy Elliot, film classic, Snowpiercer, Rocketman, the magnificent TV series Half Man, and now this week's historic wonder, The Uprising, which we'll delve into in this show. He's also proper, proper Arsenal Football Club. His heart will leave you never to join. It's a joy to welcome Mr Jamie Bell. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. Great to have you make the mistake of coming back for a second time. But Arsenal Football Club, congratulations, finally.

0:49Like a bass, Sisyphus, rolling the rocks at the top of the hill. Premier League champions. How's it changed your life? in a very distinct way, in a very, you can feel it. You feel a chemical change within your body. You do, I wouldn't know. A thousand percent. Tell me about it. I was shooting something at the time and like there was a lot of, obviously a lot of football fans of other clubs who were just willing it not to happen, willing it that we were going to choke and willing that we were going to bottle it, you know, that whole thing, which is all part of it, I understand. And we had come very close and hadn't gotten over the line so many times.

1:22So I understand why that was there. that was there. But man, when it was done, I was thrilled. And you just feel, I mean, I cried. I called a friend in LA. He's a longtime Arsenal fan. We cried together. We were like, I guess we're crying. But you just walk so much, you walk so much taller, so much lighter. I was over the moon and just so happy because it'd be so easy to just go. It's never going to happen. And to become so close so many times and for it to not to happen, for those guys to go again so many times is a real testament to their credentials. Jimmy Vell, we have got to talk about it.

1:55You've also explained why my posture is so bad. It's just the Everton in me. But we're speaking at this magical time, not just defending Premier League champions, but you've got your new film, The Uprising, opening today in Andrew Garfield, who's magnificent as the plough man. He's speaking about how difficult the filming conditions were when you're on location. He talked about, quote, one field in Munich that looked like a solid stand in for England in the 1300s. Yeah. And I know Andrew is also a massive Arsenal fan. Is he? Did you not know this? No. There you go. He kept that very quiet. There you are.

2:31The plow man was not an Arsenal fan so he was keeping that in the role. I did wonder whether you're in that field in the 1300s. Was he talking to you when he said that? Was he tranting? Well, I don't know. Because let me tell you, the making of the film, there's a lot of football chat going on because Paul, I don't know if you know. palace in it Paul's a massive Crystal Palace fan our first assistant director was he's also an Arsenal fan Cliff and Johnny Lee Miller who's in this movie is a big Chelsea fan so we were in Nuremberg in the hotel watching Arsenal and like a little screen like in the hotel a bit sad but so there's a lot of football chatter and every time Paul would come up he'd just want to talk to me especially about football and oh the Arsenal they're going to bottle it again oh you're going to fall at the last hurdle he's talking to a 13th 14th century heretic and all he wants to do is talking about Arsenal.

3:19But Andrew would always just roll his eyes and be like, oh, this football talk, man. Yeah, he's the ploughman. He's locked. He's locked in. He's in the nose. I didn't know he was an Arsenal fan. That's news to me. The honest truth is, it feels like this Arsenal story did begin in the 14th century. This is how long this epic odyssey has gone on. I've got to say, 2026, a massive year for you, personally, professionally, addition to the uprising, co-starred in the, I mean, this is quite emotionally devastating in the best of ways, half-man. and you also turned 40. You experienced Arsenal's first Premier League winning season in 22 years.

3:53For you, 40, personally, and then this milestone, Arsenal winning. Do they feel utterly connected? Yeah, because, I mean, when we did so well before, it was in my youth, and in my youth, kind of, something big happened to me. Like, I was in this movie that kind of, like, changed my life. So, I mean, a lot of my life has kind of been very closely linked and associated with Arsenal. so there's 22 years in the wilderness for say I mean there's been some success in between Charity Shield yeah it's a trophy a couple of few FA Cups in there a few fourth place finishes but yeah it's the way it has felt long and now having like kids like you're raising kids who now follow Arsenal and they're like have we ever won anything did we ever win the league and you're like I guess they've never seen it I've seen it with my no knowledge yeah exactly I mean it's youth is wasted on the young Arsenal glory of your youth, which you thought would go on forever.

4:48I mean, I do love your birthday, 40th, same day as Max Dowman scored that incredible breakaway against Everton to win 2-0. 16-year-old, possibly the best gift ever. Certainly one of them. I think Dowman's an unbelievable talent. I mean, I think winning the Premier League was definitely a gift. I mean, you know, if I was greed, I'd be like, could we go one further and do it against PSG? You know, in that game, it was just so close, and they fought so hard. But listen, I'm so thrilled for them. I'm just so thrilled for them and all the hard work that they've put in. And Arteta just completely changed the club, top to bottom.

5:26The Emirates is a different place now. It just is. Well, let's talk about this transformation. By the way, Downman, too young to drive, too young to drink, too young to vote, but not too young to break my heart. So talented, so young. He is like a footballing Billy Bloody Elliot. I want to relive this Arteta experience. I mean, it's 10 years since we last spoke, 2016. You came on the show and you said, my identity is as an actor and an Arsenal fan. Those are the dominant sides of who you are. Just remind us, because it is an incredible story. You grew up in Middlesbrough, far, far away from London.

6:02How did you become an Arsenal fan, this thing that now propels you deep in your identity? Because the chance is a beautiful thing. Some people may not know I was a dancer when I was a child. So in the northeast of England at that time, for boys, just wasn't the done thing. Didn't have a father. So didn't have that hand-me-down kind of club thing. Didn't have cable TV. So couldn't really watch the Premier League anyway. My version of watching a game was CFX. Teletext on the TV. Very early internet. Very early. So I said to my mom one day, I just said, to fit in on this playground, to just kind of be accepted.

6:38I need some kind of team. Your team is your identity. I need something to wear proudly. I need something to talk about. And she went to, you know, one of these sports shops. You know, they might not have them anymore. They certainly don't. But they used to have like these bargain bins, these like£9.99 kind of grab a shirt, any shirt. The old stuff. Exactly. And she dunked their end in there and pulled out a team that was 300 miles away from where I lived. She just put her hand into a huge vat of shirts, pulled out his feet. Correct. No, and it could have been any team. And by rights, I should be, you know, a Middlesbrough fan.

7:12Like that's, you know, geographically speaking, that's who I should support. And by the way, when she gave me that shirt, we weren't, you know, pulling up trees. Like we, this was like 92 and 93. We maybe won like a European cup, I think. A cup winner's cup or something. This is pre-Bruce Rijok. Then Rijok comes in for one year. I think we finished like 13th in the league. Signed Berkamp. Arsene comes in and then that's it. But do you ever think if your mum would put a hand in this big bargain bin and like pull out another shirt, you'd be a different person, different human being completely? Well, yeah, possibly because I think, and I still do this to this day and it's probably a mistake, but I throw on a lot to these paternal figures.

7:51And Arsene Wenger really was that for me. He was like this classy, intelligent, grown-up, you know, who I really admired and really looked up to. You told me last time you came on that he was like, you felt like he was your grandfather. In some ways, yeah. Yeah, definitely. And now with Mikel, like I'm basing characters off of him, like I'm pulling from him, like his focus and his energy and his drive, I just think is kind of unmatched. It's unbelievable to look at. What character have you pulled from Mikel? I won't say, but, you know, like he's a useful vessel for me in that way. I'm going to be going deep this weekend on the whole Jamie Oove and then working out pinpointing.

8:28I'm going to be fine. if your mother pulled out a Spurs shirt do you think you'd just be like a completely different person yeah I often think about if my dad was a Liverpool fan I'd be like different happier yeah do you think it does affect you do you think it does affect your chemistry oh my god yeah it's like my world view it's just dark and like sad Johnny Cash is hurt yeah I mean there was one other Everton fan in my school growing up his name was Keith Robson I'll never forget him because he was the only one where's Keith Robson now I don't know oh no Keith if you're out there please tell us you lived a life of wonder contentment and human purpose I need to know but you did become an Arsenal fan at an incredible time as you say Wenger arrived legendary manager quickly in the peak of his past transformed the league around him take us there who was your childhood hero Bergkamp Anthony Adams weirdly I was drawn to all the addicts in the teams of Paul Merson I don't know why I was as a young boy who wasn't a drinker or whatever I was drawn to those troubled people who would come through something and overcome something and then achieved unbelievable things.

9:35I was just drawn to those kinds of stories. The brokenness that could give you a sense of wholeness. Kind of. Tony Adams again was just this pillar of strength and power and resilience of the things that you'd overcome. And then Bergkamp was just dancer to dancer. He was a ballerina yeah. I was like he's kind of like me. He can do these amazing spins and that Newcastle goal. The Newcastle goal. I still watch it randomly, just sometimes when I Bergkamp v Newcastle, and just watch it. Baryshnikov or Bergkamp? Yeah, same thing. Same. You didn't know at the time, we never know in life, when it can peak, that you wouldn't experience happier moments than the wins, the invincible team, but football change on Arsenal.

10:18Money poured in, oligarch money at Chelsea, nation state money, and Wenger fell from demigod to suddenly all too human and flawed. And you then watch, fast forward, two decades of football in which agony set in. You know, you'd begun to watch where trophies were expected. Suddenly you're watching like barren years and the team lost its way. You were suddenly watching Squilacci, Jovino, Schemach. Sure. Yeah, there was definitely a time where it was like, am I going to put on the shirt? I don't know. It was tough. It was rough. You said it was, quote, in green to mess up the team. Messing up was almost the destiny.

10:55Yeah, because there was a lot of those games where we would start getting beat like 8-2. You know what I mean? Or we'd turn up to like Man City games and it was just a given, like we were going to get beat 3-0. It's just inevitable. And there was something about this, the idea that Arsenal are a soft touch. If you just get one goal, they will fall apart. Just completely dissolve in front of your eyes, you know. And they did. And it was true. Yeah, there was no, because there was no belief. and that's so much a part of it, right? It's just that you just have to believe we belong here. This is our time.

11:28And I think that had just eroded. It just disappeared. I think with sales, I think losing Fabregas, losing Van Persie, things like that, losing a bit of the identity of the team and not replacing it in that way and not having homegrown talent. You saw the difference at Saka made immediately. They were like, he's one of us. He's one of us. He's our own. You know, Emile Smith-Rowe. Bless. You know, like, just that Hairland Academy product just brought so much pride. Ainsley May and Niall. Absolutely. Eddie and Keddie, you know, like, you know, it just brought that sense of this is who we are. And we'd lost it.

12:06And it's so important, you know. Do you remember what your reaction was, your feeling, when Mikel Arteta was hired as Arsenal's manager December 2019? Can you resummon the emotion when he walked into the club? I was really excited. I was excited because obviously him as a player is one thing. He was a very, very good player. His time with Pep obviously I think gave you a sense of what he had been around, what he'd been witness to, the kind of ethics that had been instilled in him and the tactical stuff obviously. But I was excited. And then it didn't go so well, right, initially. This is important to remember.

12:42It didn't go well at all. There was quite a few games. I mean it was like in double digits of games, right? 2021, Arsenal lost their first three games by a combined score of 9-0. A lot, a lot of Arteta are out. Did you always believe in that moment? Was it a time when your trust in the process was wavering? Only because of his use of the younger players did it kind of feel like we're growing something. We have to seed it correctly. It's not going to happen overnight. Because I think the Emery, it was only one season, wasn't it? The Emery year. And I was in London. I was actually filming Rocketman that year.

13:14So I went to a lot of those games. And you could just tell there wasn't like, weirdly, we did go on a bit of a run. There was a run where we kind of went unbeaten for quite some time. And it was like, is something happening here? And then it just kind of dissolved. But even in those early stages with Arteta, it just always kind of felt like the demand that he put on, the expectation that he was putting on the players, that spoke like volumes, volumes about like, you could see him on the sidelines, just the pressing, the urgency, the off the ball stuff that he wanted. you could see it and you were like if you give him the time and he gets the right players we could go somewhere you could see it his expectation was that belief and the team had to raise up the last four seasons I've got to say as a neutral it was honestly like an odyssey that Christopher Nolan could make into a movie this club your boys fighting English scorn and derision and incredibly as powerful as any opponent that trying failing being mocked in that repeat always the bridesmaid never the bride bottlers you know that my god that one of the most crushing damning uh words but it was harder to watch at times for me than the hospital fight in halfman

14:29yeah i'm not gonna lie i mean there's a lot of last season which was horrific to experience to go through it was absolutely awful yeah it was awful because i was just because of all those three previous years before that you're like please not again i just don't think I can do it again. The grinding out the 1-0s or the 2-1s. Just every time, just the nerves. My wife was also, not to put any of this on my wife at all, who is an Arsenal fan and has only been supportive and everything else, but she went on to a Chris Evans radio show. Yes! It's an amazing moment. Right as we're kind of closing in on the season.

15:07And Andrew Mangan, I consider a friend of mine, and he runs the Arsblog podcast. And he's brilliant. brilliant he is brilliant and him and james mc nicholas do an unbelievable job if you don't listen to it subscribe even he texted me after my wife did that thing going like uh so your wife was doing the rounds and uh you know it was this whole belief of like that arsenal fans are somehow kind of and she didn't mean it this way but um at all but it was this idea that arsenal fans are just completely wholly irrational that we are where would you get that idea i don't know she What she said was amazing.

15:42I mean, it was, by the way, brilliant, brilliant word. Shakespeare, Kate Mora on Arsenal. There. There's levels. There's levels, Shakespeare. I agree. These are words, when we win, threw herself in there, when we win. She said, by the way, that you were the most intense fan. She said it almost matters too much to you, which is why I love you. She said, when we win, it's a problem because it's stressful because we need to keep winning. and when we don't win, it's a problem because we're not winning. Yeah. You know, in those seasons where you're going for the league and it hasn't happened for 22 years and you're so close to it and you feel like, you know, you're there.

16:24You're almost there. Of course, you want to win it more than anything. You want to win it more than anything. Yeah, she's absolutely right. What did you say to her afterwards? You're like, Kate, you've ruined it for all of us. No, not at all. No, not at all. Not at all. No, It was just funny that it was like even reaching back to like the Arsenal sphere, you know, like even like people like Mangan. Because she named that feeling like, do we love again when we've had our heart shattered? So how can you love again? I mean, it is exactly that. So even when you were winning, ultimately, you were miserable.

16:56For 90 minutes, yeah. Yeah. And then when it was done, it was like, oh, thank God. Like, thank God it's over was the sensation. You know, I mean, this season has been a different start to the season, right? Like there's just a different, we know now there's a breath that you can take. There's a assuredness almost, I think. And from what I've seen at least so far, there's a belief. This season is crazy. And this belief word is now the motif of this interview. And I think is actually utterly true. There was this ridiculousness where every Arsenal player we had on the show last season, we'd ask them towards the end, that old motif in English football, you don't know how to win a title until you've won a title, which is a catch-22 ridiculousness.

17:34but it was like a stick that down that stretch you were being beaten. I mean, who were you enjoying watching? Who is your favourite player in this current squad? Yeah. Well, it changes. I mean, like Saka is, I just think Saka is this unbelievable beacon of beauty and greatness and hope and aspiration. You know, I think he's unbelievable. But then, you know, I think people like Gabriel are unbelievable and Martin Odegaard. And to be honest, I will say this. There is a kind of deep sadness about the way Martinelli has left the club. I think it's kind of, I just feel like I didn't really get this, the closure, the send off with him, because I think he is an unbelievable player.

18:12Great ethic, gives everything. I know he was like utterly, it was like an incredible emotional wrench. And I think it's one that will. Yeah. I'll be remiss not to mention Declan, obviously. Declan in last season. And can we go to that moment now? Hero's journey is not easy. You lost to Man City. We know this, 2-1, we can laugh now. But every pundit immediately, you know, it's happening again. But then those cameras found Declan Rice, took a lot of crap for it. In the moment, famously mouthed, it's not done. Unbelievable. What did you feel in your heart and in your head in that moment when you watched that?

18:48In the moment, it was totally different. Because in the moment, I was like, f***. Oh, Declan. No, De - It is, oh, f***. So in the moment, no, I was not as enlightened as Declan Rice is and was at the time. See, this is the difference. This is the difference. John Paul, Declan Rice, he would have made a very good... Yeah, good model, yeah. A very revolutionary cleric. Who can say it when you're on your knees, gassed, when Martin Odegaard, who's like the most calm, seems like, he's your captain, is downhearted. And then you look up and you say, no, no, no, no, no. It's not done. I live for that stuff.

19:27I really do. And it only hit me emotionally when Arsenal or someone put it together in one of those beautiful Instagram kind of videos when we'd kind of done it, when we'd crossed the line. Then it really stood out as this like, wow. He had this unbelievable foresight to say, hang on a sec, don't lose your heads. Don't lose your heads. And Big Deck was right. It was not over. City found out he who bottles last bottles loudest, whoever that phrase is. drama peaked against West Ham, the now iconic Vardoff goal in which Ryer was judged to have been fouled on the corner. When I say these words to you, Jamie Bell, after review, West Ham's number 90 commits a foul on the goalkeeper.

20:08All I hear is after review and then it's, I don't even know what he said. But yeah. Is there a line of cinema that comes close to that emotionally? A line in cinema? Yeah, I mean, cinema, Vardoff. No, they're really close for me. I'm sure there's one. but there's not one as good as it's not done. God. I mean, people are getting that tattooed on their bodies and stuff, you know. And there's this outpouring of just absolute joy and just relief and ecstasy. You know what I mean? I just realised I want that on my grief, Sting. It's not done. It's amazing. It's not done. Not over yet, is it? It worked for you.

20:52What do you want from me? I mean, ultimately, Man City were the one who floundered. Take us at a 1-1 draw against Bournemouth. May 19th, Arsenal were crowned champions for the first time in 22 years. Where were you? Who were you here? Take us to that experience. I was alone. I was in Birmingham filming. God, it's a lonely life, the actor's life. Can be. But, yeah, I was on my own and texting with everyone. Texting, texting, texting, texting. and the guy who drove me on that job was a Scouser. He was a big Liverpool fan. And he was saying, are you gonna do it tonight? Are you gonna, do you think you'll do it tonight?

21:28I was like, I don't think we'll do it tonight. You can do it tonight, Jamie. It's not gonna, it's probably not gonna happen tonight. We're probably gonna need to go to Greengrass' team, to Crystal Palace, right? Cause that's what I was most fearful of, back to just bringing back to the uprising for a sec, was because Crystal Palace could have such a big say on this championship, right? Greengrass. And I was like, I can't handle it if we go to Palace on the last day and it's still not done because he will never let me. It'll just never, I'll never live it down. You turn around to Garfield and you wouldn't know what this feels like if it's an Arsenal fan.

21:58This is big. So I was fingers crossed, really hoping that that wasn't going to be the case, obviously. And then I think Harlan scores, right, in like the 90-somethingth minute. And I'm like, here it is. Here it comes. Of course, it's inevitable. This is just what they do. This is going to be the way it goes. but then jumped on a FaceTime almost immediately with a friend who had just come out of the gym. He's an Arsenal fan. He'd been watching it. You kind of can't believe that it's happened. You just really can't believe it. It's the thing you've been wanted for so long that you've had nothing to do with.

22:30Yes. Zero. I've not impacted this in any way whatsoever. Nor can you control it. No. It just kind of like happened. Yeah. It's just the rollercoaster of it. And just the release was unbelievable. and then seeing the explosion at the stadium and just seeing just the outpouring, just the community of it was really, I don't know, moving. It is moving. Even for me, I'm dead inside, but I watched that stadium, not just the stadium, but it crackling across, you know, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Nairobi, Kenya. Yeah, you know, genuinely, even there, little blip of beacon of joy. What's that beacon of joy?

23:07God's looking down there, oh, it's Jamie Bell. But it was, even in New York, Brooklyn, going crazy. you know, Harlem going crazy, Kampali, Uganda. This Arsenal story means so much more than just a football story. It's really the football part is the little story that's trapped in a big story. What is it that represents so much to so many people in this moment, humanly? I think it's just kind of the ability to kind of experience joy that's been fought for through hard work and discipline and, you know, belief and desire that just feels like it's earned. Granted, there's hundreds of millions of dollars behind the scenes that have, you know, been handed over to get these unbelievable players.

23:55You know, Declan Rice, we got him half price, obviously. But that aside, you know, the Premier League-ness of everything, the global money, billionaire stuff aside, for fans and the players especially, it's just joy because of the hard work and what you've been through and sharing that with another human being. That's what it's all about. What has it been like for you to watch this season, the different vibe with that goal patch on the sleeve and almost a different mentality, freed of the baggage? Yeah, I just feel like you can sense that in the players. The Chelsea game, for example, going behind after whatever, 77 seconds or whatever it was.

24:38You can just kind of sense that there's no real panic. There's just kind of heads down and just kind of get on with doing the thing. Just keep pushing, just keep pushing. Eventually it will come. I feel like that was always missing before. And now that kind of sense of we did it before, we can do it again. Is there. If Kate Morrow went back on English television and said, What would she say now that because we've won, it almost makes it more now? The agony is more because we've won, we've got to win again. Or would she say, Jamie's a different man watching. He's freed from desire. No, I don't think she's because, you know, what are we like now?

25:14Four or five games in the season? I'm still shouting at the TV. I'm still like, Martin, what are you doing? You know, or whatever. So it still means just as much. I'm just really proud of the players. I have a pride for the staff like you know all of them there's this unbelievable sense of pride that you have which was always there before but because they have something to their names now you know forever and grand on that trophy I just feel so happy for them all you know I just hope that they feel lighter in their boots you know that's for me if you could stop being Jamie Bell and do a freaky Friday like a face off buddy oh I still have dreams about this all the time who would it one player who would it be that you wish you could that I could switch out for Jamie Bell could become I mean I'd have to play for Arsenal right yeah I mean Bergkamp it would be of the modern team oh of the modern team Martin because there's so much thinking that goes on and there's so much analysis happening in game he's just a big brain you know what I mean just the passes, the vision the elegance I'd be Ricardo Califuri I'd just spend the whole day staring at myself in the mirror It's amazing Oh you're beautiful What makes this season feel like a success?